XL C/C++ Advanced Edition for Linux

XL C/C++ Advanced Edition for Linux V9.0, includes all of the common XL C/C++ compiler features described on the XL C/C++ Features and benefits page, plus the following.

At a glance - What's new for V9.0
XL C/C++ Advanced Edition for Linux V9.0 offers the following new enhancements over its V8.0 predecessor:

• Supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 5 (RHEL5) for IBM POWER and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 1 (SLES10 SP1) for IBM POWER

• Default language level for C compilations is now extc99 to support C99 language features

• Support for the latest POWER6 processors, including new built-in functions and object code tuning options

• New -qtune=balanced default setting instructs the compiler to tune generated code for optimal performance across a range of current IBM processor architectures

• Many new optimization options and sub options to help you improve the performance of your applications

• New compiler options and suboptions, pragma directives, and built-in functions

For more information on these and other new enhancements to XL C/C++, see "What´s new for IBM XL C/C++ Advanced Edition for Linux V9.0".

Optimization and performance
XL C/C++ offers a number of new optimization and performance-tuning features that exploit all PowerPC systems, including the latest POWER6 hardware architectures. The -qarch and -qtune compiler options include new suboptions to provide code tuning for the new POWER6 processors. In addition, new built-in functions are introduced in XL C/C++ Advanced Edition for Linux V9.0, to add functionality and to exploit the capabilities of POWER6 processors.

Mathematical Acceleration Subsystem (MASS)
XL C/C++ Advanced Edition for Linux includes the Mathematical Acceleration Subsystem (MASS). MASS consists of libraries of tuned mathematical intrinsic functions that offer improved performance over the standard mathematical library routines, are thread-safe and support both 32-bit and 64-bit compilations in C, C++, and Fortran applications.

Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms (BLAS)
XL C/C++ Advanced Edition for Linux also includes the Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms (BLAS) set of high-performance algebraic functions. You can use these functions to perform combined matrix multiplication and addition on general matrices or their transposes.

OpenMP API Version 2.5
The OpenMP Application Programming Interface (API) is a portable, scalable programming model that provides a standard interface for developing multiplatform, shared-memory parallel applications in C, C++, and Fortran. The specification is defined by the OpenMP organization, a group of major computer hardware and software vendors, which includes IBM. XL C/C++ Advanced Edition for Linux supports the latest OpenMP API Version 2.5 specification.