The following announcement was made today at the SC2003 Super Computing Conference in Phoenix...

Balance of Power Between AMD and Intel High-Performance 64-Bit Processors to be Impacted by New Compiler Offering from PathScale

Former SGI Chief Scientist Dr. Fred Chow Leads Development of World's Highest-Performance 64-bit Compilers for AMD Opteron Processor-Based Linux Computer Systems

For more details, please look here.

Summary... PathScale, Inc., developer of innovative software and hardware solutions to accelerate the performance and efficiency of Linux clusters, has unveiled a suite of high-performance compilers for the AMD Opteron™ processor. PathScale compilers leverage the AMD Opteron processor's high-performance 64-bit functionality and remarkable industry-leading price/performance benefits, including 32-bit capability. Initial benchmarks on real application code and initial SPEC results show that the PathScale Compiler Suite is the highest performance 64-bit compiler for AMD Opteron-based Linux servers by a margin of up to 40 percent.

"Based on more than 60 interviews with users of high-performance computing systems within large organizations, there is a clear market need for a balanced, 64-bit, fully-supported compiler for the AMD Opteron processor," said Len Rosenthal, VP of marketing at PathScale. "We have witnessed very strong HPC end-user interest in Opteron processor-based servers. The added performance of the PathScale Compiler Suite is expected to increase this interest and make the AMD Opteron the preferred processor choice for Linux clusters, altering the balance of power in the competition between AMD and Intel® in the high-performance 64-bit market."

The PathScale compiler suite is based on stable, mature technology originally developed by SGI. The optimization infrastructure of this compiler technology is generally considered to be one of the most advanced in the industry. The PathScale compiler development team is led by Dr. Fred Chow, formerly chief scientist for compilers at SGI, and recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on compiler technology.