Intel Compiler for Mac

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Andreas Guettinger
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Intel Compiler for Mac

Post by Andreas Guettinger »

I wonder if the Hiarcs team already tried out the Intel C/C++ Compiler for Mac and whether there is a speed increase for Hiarcs on Core2Duo using the Intel Compiler? As far as I read in the descriptions, it should even be possible to generate Universal binaries PowerPC (gcc) / Intel (IntelC++). There is a free evaluation version to try things out.

Unfortunately I don't own a Intel-based Mac yet, so I can't try out the compiler suite yet.
regards,
Andy
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Harvey Williamson
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Re: Intel Compiler for Mac

Post by Harvey Williamson »

Andreas Guettinger wrote:I wonder if the Hiarcs team already tried out the Intel C/C++ Compiler for Mac and whether there is a speed increase for Hiarcs on Core2Duo using the Intel Compiler? As far as I read in the descriptions, it should even be possible to generate Universal binaries PowerPC (gcc) / Intel (IntelC++). There is a free evaluation version to try things out.

Unfortunately I don't own a Intel-based Mac yet, so I can't try out the compiler suite yet.
Hi Andy,

Mark is away for a few days. I am fairly sure that he has tried this compiler but I will point out this question to him when he returns.

Best Wishes,

Harvey
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Tord Romstad
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Re: Intel Compiler for Mac

Post by Tord Romstad »

Andreas Guettinger wrote:I wonder if the Hiarcs team already tried out the Intel C/C++ Compiler for Mac and whether there is a speed increase for Hiarcs on Core2Duo using the Intel Compiler?
There almost certainly is a big speed increase: The speed of my engine improved by almost 50% when I switched from the compiler shipped with Mac OS X (the name of which I am apparently not allowed to write on this forum) to the Intel compiler.

I've seen people claim that the advantage of the Intel compiler over the compiler I am not allowed to mention by name is even bigger on 64-bit systems, but I won't be able to verify this before I receive my 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo iMac early next week. :)
As far as I read in the descriptions, it should even be possible to generate Universal binaries PowerPC (gcc) / Intel (IntelC++). There is a free evaluation version to try things out.
Yes, there is. The evaluation version has very severe restrictions for what you can do with it (you are not allowed to distribute binaries created with it, or even run binaries on your own computer after the evaluation period is over), but apart from that it is a complete product, and good enough for trying things out.

Tord
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Mark Uniacke
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Post by Mark Uniacke »

Tord, I assume you mean - g see see 4 which comes with Xcode. Wow strange the forum does not accept it!

Last time I checked (early this year) I found the Mac Intel compiler was not much faster for Hiarcs over g see see. The last time I checked the Mac Intel compiler did not support profile optimisations which would help a lot if they supported them like on PC.

Mileage will vary depending on implementation of course. I guess my implementation is either simple enough for g see see to handle or too messy to be optimised properly :shock:

On PC the Intel Compiler is pretty good so when I have more time I will revist this.
Best wishes,
Mark

https://www.hiarcs.com
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