Compaq Computer Corporation Announces Compaq Visual Fortran (CVF) Version 6.5

30 March, 2002

Compaq Computer Corporation Announces Compaq Visual Fortran (CVF) Version 6.5

Compaq® Computer Corporation announces the release of Version 6.5 of its Fortran 95 compiler system for Windows® systems. Compaq Visual Fortran for Windows 2000, NT™, 98 and 95 systems is a complete development system that includes Compaq's industry-leading native Fortran 95 compiler, the latest visual development environment from Microsoft™, full access to the Win32 Application Programmer Interfaces (APIs), Microsoft Fortran PowerStation compatibility, and support for numerous de facto industry-standard Fortran language extensions.

Fortran continues to be the development language of choice for high- performance scientific, engineering and technical applications. Compaq Visual Fortran shares a common code base with Compaq's Fortran 95 compilers for Tru64™ UNIX®, Linux Alpha and OpenVMS Alpha systems, giving broad source compatibility and rapid advancement in features and performance. The use of other languages in technical development such as C++ demands that Fortran supports mixed-language application development. Because Compaq Visual Fortran includes Microsoft's Visual C++ 6.0 development environment and "Studio" tool set, Compaq has the unique advantage among PC Fortran vendors that it supports mixed-language development with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 within a common development environment.

The release of version 6.5 underlines Compaq's continued commitment to the high-performance programmer community and its intent to further push the limits in Fortran compiler technology. Some of the new features in 6.5 include:

  • Optimizations for the Intel™ Pentium™ III, AMD™ K6, and AMD Athlon™ architectures for faster executables.
  • The Fortran COM Server Wizard (in Professional and Enterprise Editions only) makes Fortran code available as a component to Microsoft Visual Basic, Microsoft Visual C++ and other languages that support COM.
  • Concurrent Licensing provides the economical choice for a broad pool of occasional users.
  • In addition to the current Standard and Professional Editions, the new Enterprise Edition includes everything in the Professional Edition plus the Enterprise Toolkit allowing UNIX program development from a Windows desktop.

"The addition of the possibility of creating COM servers and the new optimizations for the latest Intel and AMD processors are contributing in keeping CVF a state of the art Fortran 95 implementation," said Jean Vezina of TD Quantitative Capital.

Mike Johnson, Vice President of AMD, adds: "We at AMD are obsessed with performance. The AMD Athlon processor was designed for ultimate performance. A designer may spend countless hours optimizing the circuits and be elated to achieve a 2% improvement. A 15% gain would be extraordinary. When we tried the beta Compaq Visual Fortran 6.5 compiler, it built all SPECfp95 and SPECfp2000 benchmarks without a hitch. We achieved double digit performance improvements over other Fortran compilers. Compaq Visual Fortran 6.5 is, in our view, the best performing x86 compiler on the market. Congratulations Compaq on a job well done."

Compaq Visual Fortran 6.5 will start shipping to distribution on September 8t

Contact Hearne Scientific Software for more information

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