Absoft Announces General Availability of the High Performance Computing Software Developers Kit for IBM Linux On POWER Clusters and Servers

Business Wire, Dec 9, 2004

ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. -- Fourth graph, second sentence of release dated Dec. 8, 2004 should read: "The spreading of Linux on POWER to high-performance computing gives both our partners and our customers a highly-efficient, cost-effective platform for the development and deployment of the highest-performing, most reliable applications available anywhere." (sted "The spreading of Linux on POWER to high-performance computing gives both our partners and our customers a highly-efficient, cost-effect platform for the development and deployment of the highest-performing, most reliable applications available anywhere.")

The corrected release reads:

ABSOFT ANNOUNCES GENERAL AVAILABILITY OF THE HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS KIT FOR IBM LINUX ON POWER CLUSTERS AND SERVERS

High Performance Computing hardware and software from Absoft designed to maximize performance for software developers on IBM HPC servers and clusters

Absoft Corporation today announced general availability of its new High Performance Computing (HPC) Software Developers' Kit (SDK) for IBM Linux on POWER(TM) clusters and servers. The new HPC SDK includes compilers, debugging solutions, message passing libraries, numerical and mathematical libraries, and other software tools used by developers in the "Build-Debug-Run-Optimize" development cycle for high-performance computing applications. Tools included in the HPC SDK are from Absoft, IBM and other manufacturers, and open source providers. The new Absoft HPC SDK is expected to become the standard HPC Development Kit offered to developers for IBM Linux on POWER servers and clusters.

Easy to install, simple-to-use and incorporating the most powerful best-of-breed high performance computing development tools available, the new Absoft HPC SDK has been developed for all configurations of IBM Linux on POWER(TM) clusters and servers running RedHat's RHEL 3 or SuSE SLES9 and is LSB 2.0 compliant. The new HPC SDK overcomes barriers of HPC software development, making it possible to extend the benefits of clustered computing from large organizations to individuals and small departments. The HPC SDK is offered with IBM's packaged rack-optimized servers and blades in a variety of packaged, pre-tested clustered configurations.

Included with the software developer's tool kit are the high performance IBM XL Fortran and XL C/C Advanced Edition compilers for IBM Linux on POWER(TM), Absoft's Fortran 95 cross-platform compiler for IBM Linux on POWER(TM) for unsurpassed legacy support, the industry leading Fx2(TM) Debugging Solution, IBM's highly optimized Engineering and Scientific Subroutine Library (ESSL), IBM's MASS library of tuned mathematical intrinsic functions, the Absoft Modules Environment, the Absoft Common Installer, VAX/Unix libraries, graphics and free technical support. Absoft provides a single solution that runs different Linux on POWER(TM) distributions, ideal for those who maintain code in multiple environments. The HPC SDK includes a common installer, a common license manager and other tools available exclusively from Absoft. The Absoft Common Installer lets customers easily and quickly install and configure all these tools on HPC servers and clusters to start developing and running applications within minutes. The Common License Manager allows Absoft to provide all of the included commercial applications with new Floating Network Licensing available exclusively from Absoft, greatly simplifying license procurement and management for the tools in environments where computing resources are shared.

"IBM continues to work with business partners like Absoft to provide customers the tools they need to help them build and manage high-performance IT infrastructures capable of handling the demands of fast-paced, high-intensity business environments," said Herbert Schultz, IBM eServer Deep Computing. "The spreading of Linux on POWER to high-performance computing gives both our partners and our customers a highly-efficient, cost-effective platform for the development and deployment of the highest-performing, most reliable applications available anywhere."

The HPC SDK includes the new Absoft Fortran 95 compiler v9.0 for Linux on POWER(TM), a native LSB compliant 64-bit compiler which generates both 32-bit and 64-bit applications. The Fortran95 compiler includes unmatched support code legacy and is source compatible with Absoft's Windows, Mac OS X and Linux compilers, simplifying cross-platform development. Also included is a comprehensive suite of pre-built libraries and options for automatic parallelization, automatic VMX vectorization, and OpenMP are available. Other enhanced SDK options will soon include parallel debugging, performance analysis tools, memory tuning software and more. Leading software tools from other vendors and open sources will be made available in Enhanced Editions. The HPC SDK is available directly from Absoft for IBM Linux on POWER configurations running SUSE SLES 9 or Red Hat's RHEL 3 or later Linux distributions.