[ydl-gen] IBM XLC/C++ and XLF for YDL on Cell

[Warren Nagourney]

Hi Derick,

I am well, thank you. My reason for retirement was a loss of grant  
money, despite doing some very successful research (which contributed  
in part to a Nobel Prize 20 years ago). I don't expect to be able to  
get grant money in this economic climate without a university  
affiliation.

In any case, even though I find the PowerStation a very interesting  
platform, I am pretty committed to OS X. As I have said a number of  
times, the free apps for ppc linux just don't compare, in my opinion.  
I have my ps3 with linux and am able to do some Cell development (when  
I get the time) on it using the free compilers, which are not that  
much worse than the commercial ones.

Cheers,

wn

On Mar 6, 2009, at 6:22 PM, Derick Centeno wrote:

> Hi Warren:
>
> I hope that you are well.  I just want to highlight something.  It was
> Apple which walked away from IBM's consortium regarding PowerPC
> development which led up to the Cell, not the other way around.  Apple
> may yet crumble due to the fact it continues to be the least secure
> commercially available operating system in the market place - a fact
> consistently established for past several years, but that is a  
> different
> problem for them and for anyone who doesn't care for their data while
> using OS X.
>
> Regarding the topic in this thread I found that the User License for  
> IBM
> XLC is $1,500: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/awdtools/xlcpp/ 
> multicore/
>
> Academia is not within my experience other than providing computing/IT
> server/database support within the college and large scale university
> environment.  It is my guess that you could attempt to qualify for or
> otherwise attain, a Grant which could allow you to get this compiler  
> or
> other products as you needed or wished to explore as an independent
> researcher.  I imagine if you went this route, you could put  
> together a
> rather nice system comprising of the PowerStation, and a GigaAccel 180
> and do an amazing piece of research work.
>
> Hmmm you may have to come "out" of retirement though, I guess.  You'll
> see your own best path of course.
>
> All the best...
>
>
>
>
> Warren Nagourney wrote:
>> Rob,
>>
>> When IBM supported the Mac, I also did a comparison and found that  
>> xlc
>> and xlf were from 20% to a factor of 2 faster than gcc and g77 (on a
>> G5). More recently, when IBM released free versions of these products
>> for the Cell, I did a comparison and found very little difference for
>> both the ppu and spu versions. Things might have changed a bit since
>> they started charging, but I wouldn't expect big changes. In any  
>> case,
>> I can't afford the commercial products, so it is moot.
>>
>> wn
>>
>> On Mar 6, 2009, at 1:15 PM, rarob at comcast.net wrote:
>>
>>> Warren,
>>> If I remember correctly it is something like $800 for XLC/C++ and
>>> $1200 for XLF , but *please* don't quote me on that.  It has been
>>> quite some time since I checked prices.
>>> The last time I did a bake off of the xlc vs gcc was 5-6 years ago
>>> on a Apple dual G4 box (bought ~2000, don't remember the exact
>>> version), and xlc stomped all over gcc in math ops.  I believe it
>>> has closed the gap since then.
>>> If you need support for some of the Dec extensions to Fortran-77
>>> your choices may be limited.  I only found IBM's compiler and Absoft
>>> that would handle some of the code I was porting.
>>>
>>> -Rob
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Warren Nagourney" <warren at phys.washington.edu>
>>> To: "Discussion List for Yellow Dog Linux User Topics" <yellowdog-general at lists.fixstars.com
>>> Sent: Friday, March 6, 2009 2:58:04 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
>>> Subject: Re: [ydl-gen] IBM XLC/C++ and XLF for YDL on Cell
>>>
>>> Kai,
>>>
>>> These are time-limited trial products. Do you know what the cost  
>>> of a
>>> commercial license is? (Probably more than I can afford).
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>> Warren Nagourney
>>>
>>> On Mar 6, 2009, at 10:30 AM, Kai Staats wrote:
>>>
>>>> Yellow Dog and Cell Enthusiasts,
>>>>
>>>> We have posted a set of instructions for installing IBM XLC/C++ and
>>>> XLF with
>>>> Yellow Dog Linux on Cell:
>>>>
>>>> http://us.fixstars.com/support/solutions/ydl_6.x/ibm_xl.shtml
>>>> http://us.fixstars.com/support/solutions/ydl_6.x/ibm_xl_fortran.shtml
>>>>
>>>> 	--FSS Staff
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>>
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>
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