[PPL-devel] Intel Compiler Help

[Patel, Jayesh]

Hello Mr. Bagnara,

Sorry about the delay, but I wanted to complete a missing task before getting back to you.

Yes, both GMP and PPL builds I've created using the latest Intel compiler do pass the 'make check'

Initially, I had performed all the steps (configure, make, install) for both GMP and PPL. However, I had done the 'make check' on GMP build only. Your response prompted me to do the same for PPL. It took lo...ng time (>2-3 hours) to perform 'make check' on PPL! It completed successfully though. Let me know if you need specific details on my process/output-logs.

Next, I'll take a look at the performance benchmark you pointed out below. Thanks for the info you provided below. Hopefully, the benchmarking process would be straightforward enough for me to conduct few tests and see if I'm making progress (or not).

Once I get more comfortable with the entire cycle of optimized builds through benchmarking, I'll be able to make recommendation for the suitable flags to be used as defaults.

Hope this helps...
Thanks.

J.D. Patel
Intel Corporation
(C) 973.420.1438

-----Original Message-----
From: Roberto Bagnara [mailto:bagnara at cs.unipr.it] 
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 6:16 AM
To: Patel, Jayesh
Cc: The Parma Polyhedra Library developers' list
Subject: Re: Intel Compiler Help

Patel, Jayesh wrote:
> Hello Mr. Roberto Bagnara,

Dear Patel,

please accept my apologies for the delay in answering your message: your letter
arrived in a very busy moment and I had to postpone replying.

> My name is Jayesh Patel (J.D.). I work for Intel as a Compiler TCE (Technical Consulting Engineer).
 > I recently worked on resolving one of your issues (#523343 - Internal error compiling GMP 4.2.4).
 > I am glad to inform you that I have taken over PPL/GMP related tasks at Intel.

This is very good news indeed.

> I also wanted to inform you that:
> 1.      I will work on Intel compiler related issues reported by you or your team.

Good.  There are several still open.

> 2.      I will reproduce working environment of up-to-date PPL/GMP in Intel lab, and compile
 >         it with major releases of the Intel compiler.
> a.      I have already downloaded PPL-0.10 and GMP-4.2.4.

OK.  We are in the process of releasing PPL 0.10.1.  If you want, you can access our Git
repository: http://www.cs.unipr.it/ppl/Download/Git

> b.      I have managed to compile both PPL and GMP successfully using Intel compiler 11.0.086.

Did your builds pass `make check' both for GMP and PPL?

> c.      However, using GCC-4.3.0 gets me error "configure: error: Cannot find GMP version 4.1.3 or higher."
> 3.      I also intend to benchmark Intel compiler optimized binaries of PPL/GMP against GCC compiled ones.
> a.      What are the performance benchmarks for PPL/GMP that you prefer to focus?

One benchmark that is significant for all the applications that work on polyhedra is described at

     http://www.cs.unipr.it/ppl/performance

When we will be able to build the PPL with the Intel compiler and let it pass `make check',
we can help you to reproduce this kind of experiment.

> b.      What is the typical execution environment (h/w and s/w) for PPL/GMP based applications?

Speaking for the PPL only, I think the majority of users works on Unix-like system, with
a preference for GNU/Linux.  In your shoes, I would test on recent versions of Debian and Fedora.

> c.      I have also recompiled both PPL and GMP with optimization flags for Intel compiler.

The PPL configure script already recognizes the Intel C/C++ compiler.  If you let us know
which flags are suitable, we can use them as defaults.

> Please let me know what you think. Looking forward to working with you.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> J.D. Patel
> Intel Corporation
> (C) 973.420.1438

Sure.  Sorry again for the delay.
All the best,

    Roberto

P.S. Please direct all PPL-related messages to ppl-devel at cs.unipr.it

-- 
Prof. Roberto Bagnara
Computer Science Group
Department of Mathematics, University of Parma, Italy
http://www.cs.unipr.it/~bagnara/
mailto:bagnara at cs.unipr.it