Absoft Pro Fortran Compiler Suite for Windows

Key Benefits

Compiled applications run fast Compatible with existing Windows development tools including .NET Source compatible with Fortran on other platforms Extensive legacy support (old programs just work) Preserves existing investment Support for parallel / multi-processing available Premier support and product maintenance included (along with free service packs and quick fixes) Compare versus similar products... Easy to install and start using right away! Back to top

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Key Features

• Highly optimized ANSI/ISO F95 and F77 compilers for 32-bit x86-compatible processors with specific optimizations for Intel/P4 and AMD/Athlon processors yielding competitive performance
• C/C++ compiler is included for mixed language development
• Compilers support all popular extensions and are link/debug compatible with Microsoft C
• Complete Integrated Development Environment (IDE) with color programmer's editor, debugger, and ability to execute select third party programs as plug-ins. All Pro Fortran compilers can be executed equally well from the IDE or command line
• Pre-configured libraries for linear algebra (BLAS, LAPACK95, ATLAS, HDF), VAX/Unix-compatibility and 2D/3D graphics are all included on the distribution CD at no additional charge
• Optional tools are available for automatically converting serial code to code designed for dual processors
• Numerical libraries with special functions for mathematics and statistics; and Vizualization libraries with special numerical and visualization functions are available
• Source compatible versions available for Macintosh, Windows, Linux and AMD64. Multi-platform discounts available

• The ability to use a BLAS tuned to the machine for better matrix multiplication (matmul) intrinsic performance
• Improved cache usage when sparse arrays are passed to functions or subroutines
• Other improvements to several existing optimizations

• Linking with Cygwin g77 compiled code
• The inclusion of IEEE_ARITHMETIC, IEEE_EXCEPTIONS, and IEEE_FEATURES modules

• Allocatable components
• IEEE floating point exception handling
• Pointers with INTENT attributes
• PROTECTED attributes
• VALUE attributes
• VOLATILE attributes
  

• Native QUAD REAL*16 support
  

The Absoft Editor includes automatic bracket matching, dynamic bookmarks, unlimited file widths, and color syntax support

The Integrated Development Environment links to Portable Document Format (PDF) files and web pages and has the ability to set an executable working directory and arguments

The Fx2™ Debugger now includes:

• Dockable views (like MS DevStudio 6.0); when docked local, static, symbol views automatically reflect current program scope
• Mixed source /assembly listing now available
• File status for Fortran I/O
• Unload command allows Edit, Build, and Restart without closing down Fx2.
• Supports Users Application Data folder instead of registry for most data
  
  

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What's New

Performance

industry standard benchmarks such as Polyhedron F90 benchmark suite. Back to top Special Features Windows Programming Vast Mixed Language Programming DLL Building Graphic Libraries Multi-processing Capabilities Multi-Platform Included on Distribution CD Windows Programming Pro Fortran provides full support of the Win32 API directly from Fortran. A detailed chapter on Windows programming is included in the documentation. MRWE, the Absoft application framework, is a native Win32 Multiple Document Interface (MDI) Windows program written completely in Fortran. Complete documented source is provided as a tutorial on Windows programming in Fortran. The source may be easily modified and recompiled if additional features or modifications are desired. Back to Special Features Mixed Language Programming The process of combining Fortran and C routines into a single application has been a major frustration to many Windows programmers. Microsoft requires use of non-standard Fortran syntax to accomplish this feat. Absoft Pro Fortrans provide a better solution: Absoft Fortran and C/C++ compilers are link-compatible and use standard Microsoft C calling conventions. Mixed Fortran/C applications are easily generated entirely from within the Pro Fortran development environment or can be easily linked with code created in Microsoft C. Example code is provided in the documentation. Pro Fortran compilers are also debug-compatible with MS VC++ 6.0. Back to Special Features DLL building capabilities Pro Fortran can automatically build Fortran-based DLLs compatible with Microsoft Visual C++, Microsoft Visual BASIC, Microsoft Excel, Delphi, and Borland C++. Example code is contained in the documentation. Absoft's alias feature allows you to create DLLs compatible with any other configuration. Back to Special Features Graphics Libraries Pro Fortran includes a new, flexible graphics library called PLplot. PLplot can be called from Fortran as well as C, and C++ and can create standard x-y plots, semilog plots, log-log plots, contour plots, 3D plots, mesh plots, bar charts and pie charts. Multiple graphs (of the same or different sizes) may be placed on a single page with multiple lines in each graph. Output can be to your monitor, a file, a printer or in postscript format. There are almost 2000 characters in the extended character set including four different fonts, the Greek alphabet and a host of mathematical, musical and other symbols. PLplot is included on all versions of Pro Fortran and is source compatible across Linux, Windows and Mac platforms (additional details available at: http://plplot.sourceforge.net/). HDF precompiled libraries are included with every copy of Pro Fortran. Back to Special Features Multi-platform Absoft manufactures high performance Fortran compiler suites for Windows, Macintosh(OS9 and OS X), Intel/Linux and PPC/Linux based systems. Absoft compiler suites are source compatible across the different platforms which means in most cases, only a recompile is needed to port code from one environment to another. Additionally, Absoft's volume pricing policies allow mixing Fortrans from different platforms for best price. Back to Special Features VAST "lite" for Windows MP Edition A "lite" Version of VAST-F/Parallel, an auto-parallelizing preprocessor capable of automatically restructuring application code for execution on dual processor systems. A full version of VAST Parallel is available as an option to Absoft Pro FortranMP users. The full VAST version includes everything in the lite version plus OpenMP support and additional optimizations. Back to Special Features Included on Distribution CD The distribution CD contains the Pro Fortran language compiler suite which includes: F77, F90/95, C/C++ compilers Absoft Editor, Full Integrated Development Environment (IDE) with F90 modules, Fx2 Debugger, Linker, Profiler and Application Framework(MRWE) PLplot Graphics Numerous programming examples VAX/Unix compatibility libraries User Guide, F90/95 & F77 Reference Manuals in indexed PDF format Additional libraries, tools and resources: HDF (Hierarchical Data Format) release 4.2r0 precompiled libraries for earth sciences with Fortran entry points. BLAS - pre-compiled linear algebra routines LAPACK95 - release 3.0 pre-compiled linear algebra library ATLAS release 3.6.0 pre-built math libraries for Pentium P4 and AMD Athlon IMSL Fortran 5.0 Numerical Libraries are available as an option ftnchek · release 3.2 pre-compiled static analyzer for Fortran 77+ programs PLplot · release 5.3.1 library of functions that are useful for making scientific plots F90SQL · structured query language (SQL) wrapper for Fortran 90 OpenGL · open graphics library originally from SGI Back to Special Features Multi-processing Capabilities Multi-processor Shared Memory Parallel (SMP) Support Absoft Pro Fortran offers support for Shared-Memory Parallel (SMP) multi-processor systems. The VAST pre-processor provides advanced optimization capabilities for single processor machines and automatic parallelization of existing source code to take advantage of multi-processors on machines with multiple CPUs. Back to Special Features Back to top Ease of Use To ensure maximum performance, suggested options for compatibility and optimizations are clearly defined. Pre-built mathematical libraries and graphics are also included further performance and development efficiencies. Back to top Availability Date Electronic Delivery full Media Documentation September 31 2004 Mail orders shipped Back to top Terms and Conditions Absoft Software License Agreement. See Also: Absoft IMSL Software License Agreement. Limited warranty applies: Yes Warranty: Absoft and its Licensors warrant that the media on which the software is supplied shall be free of defects in materials and workmanship under normal use for a period of 90 days from the date of purchase. Introductory Software Maintenance applies: From date of purchase until version is no longer current; charges may apply afterwards. Absoft branded products include Premier Technical Support and Initial Software Maintenance at no additional charge from the time of purchase for as long as the purchased version remains the current release version. Initial Software Maintenance (ISM) Initial Software Maintenance includes free electronic downloads of all interim Service Packs and Quick Fixes from Absoft. Version upgrades require separate purchase but at discounted prices. Continuing Software Maintenance (CSM) At the conclusion of the Initial Software Maintenance term (i.e. when a new version of the purchased product is released) customers may either purchase a Product Upgrade or within 30 days of the new product release, purchase Continuing Software Maintenance (CSM) for an additional 12 month maintenance term. Continuing Software Maintenance includes all elements of Premier Technical support plus all Product Upgrades issued during the 12 month Continuing Software Maintenance term. Annual renewals of Software Maintenance will be made available at low-cost to customers who renew within their unexpired Maintenance term. For users electing not to renew Continuing Software Maintenance and having expired maintenance terms but later wishing to rejoin CSM, Reinstatement Software Maintenance (RSM) terms may be purchased. Third party products distributed by Absoft are subject to license terms and policies of their respective manufacturers. Disclaimer: Premier Technical Support cannot be used as a tutorial to assist in the design and development of applications, use of programs in other than their specified operating environment, provide instructions on general system operation or explore failures caused by products for which Absoft is not responsible under this agreement. MaxFlex· Flexible Licensing available: No Floating Network Licenses available: Yes Copy and use on home/portable computer: Yes. Absoft's no charge companion home license policy allows registered users to install Fortran 95 on their home system at no additional charge.  Volume orders: Yes. Back to top System Requirements Recommended Minimum Pentium III 256MB RAM 128MB free HD space Windows 98/ME or Windows NT4/2000/XP/2003 Back to top Compatibility & Companion Products latest ISO and ANSI Fortran 95 standards. Extensions from all major workstations have been added to make sure your code ports from any environment with minimal effort. Absoft Fortran compilers conform to all DoD MIL-STD 1753, FIPS 69-1, and POSIX standards, support most popular VAX/VMS extensions including RECORD, STRUCTURE, POINTER, and UNION, (per V5.4 of VMS FORTRAN), QUAD (REAL*16) data types as well as others from IBM/VS, Cray, Sun FORTRAN as well as FORTRAN 66 conventions. Automatic byte-swapping and full integration with many third party tools means porting code from virtually any environment requires little more than a recompilation without rewriting code. The F95 compiler can operate in F95, F90 or F77 modes. IMSL Fortran Numerical Library MATFOR 3 Numerical and Visualization Libraries VAST-F/Parallel - Pre-processor that automatically parallelizes source code Back to top Comparison vs. Competing Products Absoft Pro Fortran Intel Visual Fortran Programming Environment     Includes Integrated Development Environment (IDE) YES NO - Extra $ IDE designed for Fortran developers YES NO - Extra $ Source navigation for Fortran (Goto toolbar) YES NO Generates modifiable makefiles YES NO Tools     F95 compiler YES YES F77 compiler YES NO C/C++ compiler YES NO - Extra $ .NET Callable/Linkable (via DLL) YES YES Fortran Debugger (also supports C, assembly) YES NO - Extra $ Full Win API Support YES YES 3rd Party Plugins supported through IDE YES NO Miscellaneous     Macintosh Versions Available YES NO Source-compatible Linux compiler available separately YES YES Win98-Win2K Compatible YES NO Free additional 'Home' License YES YES Free live tech support YES NO - Extra $ Compile time byte order conversion (big to/from little endian) YES NO Includes ATLAS, LAPACK, HDF libraries YES NO MIL-STD-1753 compliance (widely used) YES NO Macintosh-formatted source and input files optional YES NO 2D/3D graphics library YES NO Source code for Microsoft Runtime Window Environment (MRWE) YES NO Loop transformation optimizations YES YES REAL*16 support YES YES INTEGER*8 support YES YES Runtime stack trace YES YES Porting library of common UNIX/VMS routines YES YES Linux/Unix-formatted source and input files optional YES YES       Back to top Documentation Product Literature Presentations White Papers Back to top Debugger Options ™ Workstation Debugger - now included with Pro Fortran Compiler Suite Back to top Cluster Options Back to top Additional Information / Notices Back to top