IBM PowerPC 970 Optimized Compilers

Category: 3rd Party Software
Link: Preview Beta of XL C V6.0 and XL C++ V6.0 for Mac OS X. (IBM is preparing its industry-leading C, C++ and Fortran compilers to exploit the Apple PowerMac G5.)

Posted on MacBytes.com

Approved by arn

Does this need the G5, or will it run on older systems? Also, how is this any different from Apple's developer tools with the G5 patch? I don't know that much about programming :)

Kool,

Possibility of a zippy-fast compiler for the G5 to replace the slug called GCC.

Should be interesting to see the comparison of the code generated between XL C6.0 and GCC 3.3 for OS X.

here's a thread from Ars that someone sent me.

Thread's from Ars... they may have some more insight as to how big a deal this is

http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=8300945231&m=4250963285

arn

Very impressive results on the NASA benchmark. +210% scalar performance is nothing to sneeze at.

> up to +210% in Scalar performacne <

I have read that Clearasil will clear up that "performACNE" right up. ;-)

[I am sure the typo will be corrected soon!]

Wow this is MAJOR news!!

im not even kidding.


kicks A$$

I think (after reading the ars thread), that a big benefit will be re-compoling the OS with this. It looked like it wasn't only G5s that benefitted, but G4s and G3s could benefit slightly (e.g. very small %s) too. I am about 99.99999999999999999999% sure that they wouldn't recompile Panther with it now if they are anywhere close to release, but if/when they do, it should give another nice performance boost to the areas not already well-optimized for the G5 and perhaps slight ones for the G3/G4...

I am presuming of course that Apple is still using gcc for 10.3 and not a pre-release version of this. Lots of ifs without more digging...

This is great, the systems are just now shipping and already we have news that these things can become even faster than we first thought by just an update or two. Perhaps it's just all these years of being stuck with Motorola, but I am not used to seeing so much positive news about increased performance like this.

im going to assume that ibm and apple have been working on this and that apple has had their hands on a early version for panther.. there is no reason why apple wouldnt be in the loop..