Re: Fortran compilers for multi-core chips

ejko123_at_yahoo.com
Date: 12/08/04 

Date: 8 Dec 2004 13:27:34 -0800

Steve Lionel wrote:

> Let me also recommend "Programming with Hyper-Threading Technology"
by Richard
> Gerber and Andrew Binstock - Intel Press (www.intel.com/press), ISBN
> 0-9717861-4-3. While not Fortran oriented, it does discuss many
general
> concepts that are useful for writing efficient parallel applications
in a
> tightly-coupled environment.

If I understand correctly (and I might not), "hyper-threaded"
processors have
only one floating-point unit (with a mix of 64- and 80-bit registers).
So
hyperthreading would not run two simultaneous floating-point intensive
codes
much faster than running the two codes sequentially.

But "multicore" presumably means multiple integer and floating-point
arithmetic
units, which potentially would bring significant performance
improvements
to a suitably-coded program. Steve, could you elaborate a bit more on
Intel's plans in this area?

--Eric

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