Microsoft Visual Studio is the most widely used integrated development environment in the world. Visual Studio 2005 tools and technologies, including a parallel debugger, allow developers to leverage their existing Windows-based skills and experience to develop HPC (High-Performance Computing) applications for Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003.

“With the release of PVF, The Portland Group can offer, as an option, its suite of parallel Fortran compilers and tools for multi-core processors to the large base of scientists and engineers developing for the Windows platform with Visual Studio,” said Douglas Miles, director, The Portland Group. “PVF’s world class performance and state-of-the art compiler technologies give Windows developers a comprehensive solution for leveraging the wide array of new microprocessor innovations from both AMD and Intel, and the ability to take advantage of new HPC technologies from Microsoft, such as Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003.”

PGI Visual Fortran includes the latest version of PGI’s native OpenMP and auto-parallelizing compilers for the FORTRAN 77 and Fortran 95 programming languages.  Key features of PVF include a complete:

• Visual Studio Fortran project system comprised of a Fortran-aware text editor with Fortran intrinsic function tips and keyword completion,
• Custom build engine for Fortran applications;
• Custom debug engine that provides the language-specific debugging capability required for Fortran;
• Support for debugging single-thread, multi-thread, and OpenMP parallel applications;
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 interoperability; and
• Support for debugging of mixed PGI Fortran and Visual C++ 2005 applications.

All PGI compilers and tools feature full native support for OpenMP parallel programming extensions, auto-parallelization for multi-core processors, full support for 64-bit addressing, native integrated scalar, and vector SSE/SSE2/SSE3 code generation and PGI’s world-class optimization infrastructure.

PGI Visual Fortran is highly optimized for 64-bit AMD64 and Intel’s EM64T and 32-bit x86 processors and is unique in its ability to build the PGI Unified Binary™ – a single executable file containing code sequences optimized for both AMD64 and EM64T processors.  The PGI Unified Binary enables Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and custom applications developers to realize all the benefits of single x64 platform while leveraging the latest innovations from both Intel and AMD.

Price and Availability
PGI Visual Fortran is available in two configurations.  PVF Workstation Complete has everything needed to start developing Fortran applications in minutes, including a bundled copy of the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 IDE, the current MSDN documentation library, assembly-optimized BLAS/LAPACK/FFT math library routines, PGI’s PGPROF® parallel performance profiler, and a full boxed media kit with CD-ROMs and printed documentation.  The suggested list price for PVF Workstation Complete is $689 US.

PGI Visual Fortran Standard Edition is a complete production-quality parallel Fortran 95 project system module that developers who already use Visual Studio 2005 can simply plug into their existing IDE.  The suggested list price for PGI Visual Fortran Standard Edition is $399 US.  

All PGI products include a 30-day money-back guarantee.  Complete product and pricing information on PGI Visual Fortran is available from The Portland Group web site at www.pgroup.com.

About The Portland Group
The Portland Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of STMicroelectronics, is the premier supplier of high-performance Fortran, C, and C++ compilers and tools for high-end computing systems and for workstations, servers, and clusters based on 64-bit x64 and 32-bit x86 processors.  Further information on The Portland Group products can be found at www.pgroup.com, by callingSales at (503) 682-2806, or by email to sales@pgroup.com.