Intel Fortran Compiler 16.0 Beta Update 1 for Linux* Release Notes (for Intel Parallel Studio XE 2016 Beta)

This document provides a summary of new and changed product features and includes notes about features and problems not described in the product documentation. 

This release of the Intel® Fortran Compiler 16.0 product is a Pre-Release, and as such is subject to the terms and conditions defined in the End User License Agreement (“EULA”) accompanying this release, including but not limited to Section 3.C.i of the EULA and the contents of the fredist.txt file.

Please see the licenses included in the distribution as well as the Disclaimer and Legal Information section of these release notes for details. Please see the following links for information on this release of the Intel® Fortran Compiler 16.0 beta.

• System Requirements
• How to Use
• Documentation
• Samples
• Technical Support
• Compatibility
• New and Changed Features
• New and Changed Compiler Options
• Known Issues
• Fortran 2008 and Fortran 2015 Feature Summary
• Disclaimer and Legal Information

Change History

This section highlights important changes from the previous product version and changes in product updates.

Changes in Update 1

• ATTRIBUTES FASTMEM directive
• Corrections to reported problems

Changes since Intel® Fortran Compiler 15.0 (New in Intel® Fortran Compiler 16.0 Beta)

• Support for asynchronous offloading and device specification as described in the OpenMP* TR3 Proposal
• Linux* split DWARF debug info (also known as DWARF fission) now supported
• BLOCK_LOOP and NOBLOCK_LOOP directives and private clause for unroll_and_jam pragma added
• Support for Debian 6.0 dropped.
• Additional OpenMP* 4.1 features  
• New and changed compiler options
• Fortran 2008 features supported
• Fortran 2015 features supported
• Corrections to reported problems

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System Requirements

For an explanation of architecture names, see Intel® Architecture Platform Terminology

• A PC based on an IA-32 or Intel® 64 architecture processor supporting the Intel® Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (Intel® SSE2) instructions (Intel® Pentium® 4 processor or later, or compatible non-Intel processor)
  • Development of 64-bit applications, and those that offload work to Intel® Xeon Phi™ coprocessors, is supported on a 64-bit version of the OS only.  Development of 32-bit applications is supported on either 32-bit or 64-bit versions of the OS.
  • Development for a 32-bit on a 64-bit host may require optional library components (ia32-libs, lib32gcc1, lib32stdc++6, libc6-dev-i386, gcc-multilib, g++-multilib) to be installed from your Linux distribution.
• For the best experience, a multi-core or multi-processor system is recommended
• 2GB of RAM (4GB recommended)
• 4GB free disk space for all features
• For Intel® Xeon Phi™ coprocessor development/testing:
  • Intel® Xeon Phi™ processor
  • Intel® Manycore Platform Software Stack (Intel® MPSS)
• For development of IA-32 or Intel® 64 architecture applications, one of the following Linux distributions (this is the list of distributions tested by Intel; other distributions may or may not work and are not recommended - please refer to Technical Support if you have questions):
  • Debian* 7.0
  • Fedora* 20, 21
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux* 5, 6, 7
  • SuSE LINUX Enterprise Server* 11,12
  • Ubuntu* 12.04 LTS (64-bit only), 13.10, 14.04 LTS
  • Intel® Cluster Ready
• Linux Developer tools component installed, including gcc, g++ and related tools. (this is the list of component versions tested by Intel; other versions may or may not work and are not recommended - please refer to Technical Support if you have questions
  • gcc 4.3-4.9
  • binutils 2.20-2.24
• Library libunwind.so is required in order to use the –traceback option.  Some Linux distributions may require that it be obtained and installed separately.

Notes

• The Intel® compilers are tested with a number of different Linux distributions, with different versions of gcc. Some Linux distributions may contain header files different from those we have tested, which may cause problems. The version of glibc you use must be consistent with the version of gcc in use. For best results, use only the gcc versions as supplied with distributions listed above.
• The default for the Intel® compilers is to build IA-32 architecture applications that require a processor supporting the Intel® SSE2 instructions - for example, the Intel® Pentium® 4 processor. A compiler option is available to generate code that will run on any IA-32 architecture processor.  
• Compiling very large source files (several thousands of lines) using advanced optimizations such as -O3, -ipo and -qopenmp, may require substantially larger amounts of RAM.
• Some optimization options have restrictions regarding the processor type on which the application is run. Please see the documentation of these options for more information.

Intel® Manycore Platform Software Stack (Intel® MPSS)

The Intel® Manycore Platform Software Stack (Intel® MPSS) may be installed before or after installing the Intel® Fortran Compiler, if you will be developing applications that use Intel® Xeon™ Phi coprocessors..

Using the latest version of Intel® MPSS available is recommended. It is available from the Intel® Software Development Products Registration Center at http://registrationcenter.intel.com as part of your Intel® Parallel Studio XE for Linux* registration.

Refer to the Intel® MPSS documentation for the necessary steps to install the user space and kernel drivers.

Debian 6.0* is Not Supported

Support has been removed for installation and use on these operating system versions. Intel recommends migrating to a newer version of these operating systems.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5* is Deprecated

Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5* is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.

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How to use the Intel® Fortran Compiler

The Getting Started Guide at <install-dir>/documentation_2016/ps2016/getstart_comp_lf.htm. contains information on how to use the Intel® Fortran Compiler.

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Documentation

Product documentation is linked from <install-dir>/documentation_2016/en/ps2016/getstart_comp_lf.htm.

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Samples

Product samples can be located in the /opt/intel/samples_2016/en/compiler_f/psxe directory.

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Technical Support

Register your license at the Intel® Software Development Products Registration Center. Registration entitles you to free technical support, product updates and upgrades for the duration of the support term.

For information about how to find Technical Support, Product Updates, User Forums, FAQs, tips and tricks, and other support information, please visit: http://www.intel.com/software/products/support/

Note: If your distributor provides technical support for this product, please contact them for support rather than Intel.

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Compatibility

In general, object code and modules compiled with earlier versions of Intel Fortran Compiler for Linux* (8.0 and later) may be used in a build with version 16. Exceptions include:

• Sources that use the CLASS keyword to declare polymorphic variables and which were built with a compiler version earlier than 12.0 must be recompiled.
• Objects built with the multi-file interprocedural optimization (-ipo) option must be recompiled with the current version.
• Objects that use the REAL(16), REAL*16, COMPLEX(16) or COMPLEX*32 datatypes and which were compiled with versions earlier than 12.0 must be recompiled.
• Objects built for the Intel® 64 architecture with a compiler version earlier than 10.0 and that have module variables must be recompiled.  If non-Fortran sources reference these variables, the external names may need to be changed to remove an incorrect leading underscore.
• Modules that specified an ATTRIBUTES ALIGN directive outside of a derived type and were compiled with versions earlier than 11.0 must be recompiled.  The compiler will notify you if this issue is encountered.
• Modules that specified an ATTRIBUTES ALIGN directive inside a derived type declaration cannot be used by compilers older than 13.0.1.
• The implementation of the Fortran 2015 submodules feature required extensive changes to the internal format of binary .mod files. Therefore module files created by the version 16.0 Fortran compiler cannot be used with version 15.0 or older Fortran compilers.

Stack Alignment Change for REAL(16) and COMPLEX(16) Datatypes

In versions prior to 12.0, when a REAL(16) or COMPLEX(16) (REAL*16 or COMPLEX*32) item was passed by value, the stack address was aligned at 4 bytes.  For improved performance, the version 12 and later compilers align such items at 16 bytes and expects received arguments to be aligned on 16-byte boundaries. This change is also compatible with gcc.

This change primarily affects compiler-generated calls to library routines that do computations on REAL(16) values, including intrinsics. If you have code compiled with earlier versions and link it with the version 12 libraries, or have an application linked to the shared version of the Intel run-time libraries, it may give incorrect results.

In order to avoid errors, you must recompile all Fortran sources that use the REAL(16) and COMPLEX(16) datatypes if they were compiled by compiler versions earlier than 12.0.

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New and Changed Features

Some language features may not yet be described in the compiler documentation. Please refer to the Fortran 2008 Standard (PDF) and the proposed draft Fortran 2015 Standard (PDF) if necessary.

Features from Fortran 2008

• Submodules
• IMPURE

Features from the proposed draft Fortran 2015

• Support for all features from “Technical Specification 29113 Further Interoperability with C”, planned for inclusion in Fortran 2015. These include:
  • Assumed type (TYPE(*))
  • Assumed rank (DIMENSION(..))
  • relaxed restrictions on interoperable dummy arguments
  • ISO_Fortran_binding.H C include file for use by C code manipulating “C descriptors” used by Fortran

Features from OpenMP*

The following directives, clauses and procedures, from OpenMP 4.0 and OpenMP 4.1, are supported by the compiler. Some of these features were supported in Intel® Fortran Composer XE 2013 Update 2 based on a preliminary specification, some syntax supported earlier (DECLARE TARGET MIRROR, DECLARE TARGET LINKABLE, MAPTO, MAPFROM, SCRATCH) is no longer supported, and some syntax has changed its meaning since the earlier specification.

For more information, see the compiler documentation or the link to the OpenMP Specification above.

Clauses:

• DEPEND on OMP TARGET and OMP TARGET UPDATE directives
• NOWAIT on OMP TARGET and OMP TARGET UPDATE directives

Support for asynchronous offloading and device specification as described in the OpenMP* TR3 Proposal

The Intel® Fortran Compiler 16.0 introduces new offload clauses and directives for performing asynchronous offloading and device specification as defined in the OpenMP* TR3 Technical Report available from http://openmp.org. See the Intel® Fortran Compiler User’s Guide for more details.

New and Changed Directives

The following compiler directives are new or changed in Intel® Parallel Studio XE 2015 Composer Edition for Fortran Linux*– please see the documentation for details:

• BLOCK_LOOP [ clause [[,] clause...] ]
• NOBLOCK_LOOP
• unroll_and_jam (n) [private (var1,[var2]…)]

ATTRIBUTES STDCALL now allowed with BIND(C)

As of compiler version 15.0, the ATTRIBUTES STDCALL directive may be specified for an interoperable procedure (a procedure whose declaration includes the BIND(C) language binding attribute.)

No other effects from STDCALL, such as pass-by-value, are provided. The Fortran standard VALUE attribute (not ATTRIBUTES VALUE) may be used if desired. For all other platforms, specifying STDCALL with BIND(C) has no effect.

ATTRIBUTES FASTMEM directive

Enables High Band Width (HBW) memory allocation for an allocated object. This directive option only applies to Intel® MIC Architecture and it is only available for Linux*.

Extend uninitialized variable checking using –init=snan to local and heap variables

-init=snan already initializes static variables of intrinsic numeric type. This is now extended to include local, automatic and allocated variables of intrinsic numeric type.

Other Features

For information on these features, please see the compiler documentation.

• New environment variable INTEL_PROF_DYN_PREFIX. Allows the user to have some control over the naming PGO generated “.dyn” files to make it easy to distinguish files from different runs.  By setting this environment variable to the desired character string prior to starting the instrumented application, the string will be included as prefix to the .dyn file names.
• New intrinsic __intel_simd_lane() that represents the ‘lane id’ within a SIMD vector.  This feature supports writing short-vector hyperobject reducer implementation.  It also enables the performing of reduction operations inside SIMD-enabled functions.

Static Analysis is not supported

Static analysis is no longer supported.  If you have concerns or feedback, please comment.

New run-time routines to get Fortran library version numbers

• FOR_IFCORE_VERSION returns the version of the Fortran run-time library (ifcore).
• FOR_IFPORT_VERSION returns the version of the Fortran portability library (ifport).

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New and Changed Compiler Options

Please refer to the compiler documentation for details

• -xCOMMON-AVX512
• -axCOMMON-AVX512
• -fpp-name=<name of executable with optional path>
• -gen-depshow=[no]intr_mod
• -gsplit-dwarf
• -qopt-prefetch-issue-excl-hint

For a list of deprecated compiler options, see the Compiler Options section of the documentation.

New –xCOMMON-AVX512, -axCOMMON-AVX512 Compiler Option

The COMMON-AVX512 selection has been added for the -x and -ax compiler options. This allows generation of the subset of Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions 512 (Intel® AVX-512) that are supported on both Intel® Many Integrated Core Architecture and on Intel® Core™ Microarchitecture. This includes Intel AVX-512 Foundation instructions and Intel AVX-512 Conflict Detection instructions.

New –fpp-name=<name of executable with optional path> Compiler Option

This new option provides a way for the user to specify a different preprocessor to use with Fortran.

New –gsplit-dwarf Compiler Option

The Intel® Fortran Compiler 16.0 has added the -gsplit-dwarf compiler option which will generate an additional object file with the .dwo extension which will contain the majority of debug information. Currently this is only supported for 32-bit and 64-bit targets. Compiling with this option will require binutils 2.23 or later and debugging will require gdb* 7.5 or later.

New -gen-depshow=[no]intr_mod Compiler Option

This new option provides a way for the user to exclude intrinsic modules from dependency analysis. It controls whether the intrinsic module dependencies are shown or not. -gen-depshow=nointr_mod is the default.

New -qopt-prefetch-issue-excl-hint Compiler Option

This new option generates PrefetchW instruction for Intel® microarchitecture code name Broadwell processors and beyond, when -qopt-prefetched is also used.

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Known Issues

Certain uses of length type parameters in parameterized derived types are not yet fully implemented

The following uses of length type parameters in parameterized derived types (PDTs) are not yet fully implemented:

• PDT parameter constants with length type parameters
• %RE and %IM are not yet implemented

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Fortran 2008 and Fortran 2015 Feature Summary

The Intel® Fortran Compiler also supports many features from the Fortran 2008 standard as well as Features from the proposed draft Fortran 2015 standard.  Additional features will be supported in future releases. Fortran 2008 features supported by the current version include:

• Maximum array rank has been raised to 31 dimensions (Fortran 2008 specifies 15)
• Coarrays
• CODIMENSION attribute
• SYNC ALL statement
• SYNC IMAGES statement
• SYNC MEMORY statement
• CRITICAL and END CRITICAL statements
• LOCK and UNLOCK statements
• ERROR STOP statement
• ALLOCATE and DEALLOCATE may specify coarrays
• Intrinsic procedures ATOMIC_DEFINE, ATOMIC_REF, IMAGE_INDEX, LCOBOUND, NUM_IMAGES, THIS_IMAGE, UCOBOUND
• CONTIGUOUS attribute
• MOLD keyword in ALLOCATE
• DO CONCURRENT
• NEWUNIT keyword in OPEN
• G0 and G0.d format edit descriptor
• Unlimited format item repeat count specifier
• A CONTAINS section may be empty
• Intrinsic procedures BESSEL_J0, BESSEL_J1, BESSEL_JN, BESSEL_YN, BGE, BGT, BLE, BLT, DSHIFTL, DSHIFTR, ERF, ERFC, ERFC_SCALED, GAMMA, HYPOT, IALL, IANY, IPARITY, IS_CONTIGUOUS, LEADZ, LOG_GAMMA, MASKL, MASKR, MERGE_BITS, NORM2, PARITY, POPCNT, POPPAR, SHIFTA, SHIFTL, SHIFTR, STORAGE_SIZE, TRAILZ,
• Additions to intrinsic module ISO_FORTRAN_ENV: ATOMIC_INT_KIND, ATOMIC_LOGICAL_KIND, CHARACTER_KINDS, INTEGER_KINDS, INT8, INT16, INT32, INT64, LOCK_TYPE, LOGICAL_KINDS, REAL_KINDS, REAL32, REAL64, REAL128, STAT_LOCKED, STAT_LOCKED_OTHER_IMAGE, STAT_UNLOCKED
• An OPTIONAL dummy argument that does not have the ALLOCATABLE or POINTER attribute, and which corresponds to an actual argument that: has the ALLOCATABLE attribute and is not allocated, or has the POINTER attribute and is disassociated, or is a reference to the NULL() intrinsic function, is considered not present
• A dummy argument that is a procedure pointer may be associated with an actual argument that is a valid target for the dummy pointer, or is a reference to the intrinsic function NULL.  If the actual argument is not a pointer, the dummy argument shall have the INTENT(IN) attribute.
• BLOCK construct
• intrinsic subroutine EXECUTE_COMMAND_LINE
• Submodules
• IMPURE

Proposed draft Fortran 2015 features supported by the current version include:

• Support for all features from “Technical Specification 29113 Further Interoperability with C”, planned for inclusion in Fortran 2015. These include:
  • Assumed type (TYPE(*))
  • Assumed rank (DIMENSION(..))
  • relaxed restrictions on interoperable dummy arguments
  • ISO_Fortran_binding.H C include file for use by C code manipulating “C descriptors” used by Fortran

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Disclaimer and Legal Information

INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH INTEL(R) PRODUCTS. NO LICENSE, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, BY ESTOPPEL OR OTHERWISE, TO ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IS GRANTED BY THIS DOCUMENT. EXCEPT AS PROVIDED IN INTEL'S TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SALE FOR SUCH PRODUCTS, INTEL ASSUMES NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER, AND INTEL DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY, RELATING TO SALE AND/OR USE OF INTEL PRODUCTS INCLUDING LIABILITY OR WARRANTIES RELATING TO FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR INFRINGEMENT OF ANY PATENT, COPYRIGHT OR OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT. UNLESS OTHERWISE AGREED IN WRITING BY INTEL, THE INTEL PRODUCTS ARE NOT DESIGNED NOR INTENDED FOR ANY APPLICATION IN WHICH THE FAILURE OF THE INTEL PRODUCT COULD CREATE A SITUATION WHERE PERSONAL INJURY OR DEATH MAY OCCUR.

Intel may make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time, without notice. Designers must not rely on the absence or characteristics of any features or instructions marked "reserved" or "undefined." Intel reserves these for future definition and shall have no responsibility whatsoever for conflicts or incompatibilities arising from future changes to them. The information here is subject to change without notice. Do not finalize a design with this information.

The products described in this document may contain design defects or errors known as errata which may cause the product to deviate from published specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request.

Contact your local Intel sales office or your distributor to obtain the latest specifications and before placing your product order.

Copies of documents which have an order number and are referenced in this document, or other Intel literature, may be obtained by calling 1-800-548-4725, or go to:  http://www.intel.com/design/literature.htm 

Intel processor numbers are not a measure of performance. Processor numbers differentiate features within each processor family, not across different processor families. Go to: 

http://www.intel.com/products/processor%5Fnumber/

The Intel® Fortran Compiler is provided under Intel’s End User License Agreement (EULA). 

Please consult the licenses included in the distribution for details.

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