Performance of the Prototype Fortran D Compiler

• Published in: Software, practice & experience Vol. 27; no. 7; pp. 763 - 796
• Main Author: TSENG, CHAU-WEN
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.07.1997
• Subjects: compilers; distributed-memory machines; optimizations; parallel languages; parallelism
• ISSN: 0038-0644; 1097-024X
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-024X(199707)27:7<763::AID-SPE101>3.0.CO;2-U

Fortran D is a version of Fortran enhanced with data decomposition specifications. Case studies illustrate strengths and weaknesses of the prototype Fortran D compiler when compiling linear algebra codes and whole programs. Statement groups, execution conditions, inter‐loop communication optimizations, multi‐reductions, and array kills for replicated arrays are identified as new compilation issues. On the Intel iPSC/860, the output of the prototype Fortran D compiler approaches the performance of hand‐optimized code for parallel computations, but needs improvement for linear algebra and pipelined codes. The Fortran D compiler outperforms the CM Fortran compiler (2.1 beta) by a factor of four or more on the TMC CM‐5 when not using vector units. Its performance is comparable to the DEC and IBM HPF compilers on a Alpha cluster and SP‐2. Better analysis, run‐time support, and flexibility are required for the prototype compiler to be useful for a wider range of programs. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.