SPARCompilers press release

[David Hough]

The following was sent out some time ago but only reached Sun engineering
yesterday.  I'm sending it because I may be responsible for an inaccurate
statement:

> In fact, SPARCompilers were the only language products
> to correctly compile the SPEC benchmarks the first time, unlike
> compilers from MIPS, Hewlett-Packard and IBM.

I had heard (I wasn't there) that at the FIRST specathon only Sun compilers
managed to get through all the candidates for SPEC 1.0 and produce correct
results, although as anybody who has run SPEC on a Sun is aware, at
least fpppp won't compile optimized in a reasonable amount of time even
with Fortran 1.3 (but 1.4 looks much better).  I repeated it, believing
it true, and it was what people at Sun wanted to hear, so it lived on to
become a press release "fact".  But evidently nobody who was actually
there remembers it that way.  Needless to say by the second specathon,
almost all the member companies could compile all the accepted SPEC 1.0 
programs with some combination of compiler options.

> Sun's compilers already are among the most
> robust in the industry, meaning they generate correct code.

I'll still stand by that.  Among other evidence,
Keith Bierman has been studying the PERFECT benchmarks,
and we do pretty well on those, at least on systems with adequate memory.
Remember PERFECT is for supercomputers; Keith compiled and executed
them with Fortran 1.3 on a 4/490 with 160 MB ram.

The name SPARCompilers reflects that most of the development effort is applied
to the Sun-4 versions, where it pays off the most, although as it happened
the Sun-386 versions would have to be considered the most improved in robustness
relative to the previous Sun-386 versions.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Date: Fri, 20 Apr 90 18:21:26 PDT
> From: pressarelations
> Subject: SUN FLASH! (SPARCompliers)
> 
> The following announcement was made Wednesday, April 18, 1990.
> Due to a problem with the alias, it was not distributed until now.
>  
> SUN ENHANCES COMPILERS 
>  
> New SPARCompiler Optimization Technology Boosts Hardware Performance 
>  
> MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --April 18, 1989-- Sun Microsystems has enhanced
> its family of programming language compilers, significantly improving
> the run-time performance of Sun's SPARC(TM)-based family of
> workstations and servers.  Sun's compilers already are among the most
> robust in the industry, meaning they generate correct code.  There are
> more than 1,850 SPARCware applications available from Sun Catalyst
> vendors developed using Sun compilers.
> 
> Now called SPARCompilers(TM), Sun's language products are available for
> all Sun platforms.  They utilize new optimization technology that
> improves the performance of SPARC systems -- without changes to
> hardware -- by up to five percent according to the most recent industry
> benchmarks published by the Systems Performance Evaluation Cooperative
> (SPEC).  In the case of many FORTRAN applications, performance can be
> boosted 15 percent or more.  Besides improved performance,
> SPARCompilers have been enhanced by new language features, ease-of-use
> improvements and expanded user documentation.  SPARCompiler products
> are available today for the most recent versions of Sun FORTRAN,
> Pascal, Modula-2 and C++.
> 
> 
> 
> Sun Offers New Unbundled C Compiler
> 
> In addition, Sun introduced a new product, Sun C 1.0 -- its first C
> compiler sold separately from SunOS(TM), Sun's UNIX(R) operating
> system. By unbundling the compiler, Sun can provide more frequent
> updates and enhancements independent of operating system releases.  A
> version of the C compiler will continue to be bundled and supported
> with SunOS, but feature enhancements will be made to the unbundled
> version only.
> 
> 
> Improved Tools
> 
> Sun C and Sun FORTRAN now include the Sun SourceBrowser, a new
> window-based search tool.  It allows a developer to globally search and
> locate all occurrences of specific program components through a query
> or a mouse interface.  All SPARCompilers will benefit from an improved
> version of the dbx debugger, greatly enhanced by the window-based
> debugging tool, dbxtool. New documentation will also improve the
> SPARCompiler products.  A Numerical Computations Guide and updated
> dbx/dbxtool manual are now included.
> 
> 
> SPARCompilers Superior For SPARC Architecture
> 
> SPARCompilers offer several benefits over other language products.
> They conform to most of the commonly accepted domestic and
> international standards.  They are proven products, with a long track
> record of successfully compiling thousands of sophisticated user
> applications.  In fact, SPARCompilers were the only language products
> to correctly compile the SPEC benchmarks the first time, unlike
> compilers from MIPS, Hewlett-Packard and IBM.  And although they run on
> all Sun systems, SPARCompilers were designed in concert with the SPARC
> architecture and hardware implementations, to take full advantage of
> SPARC.
> 
> SPARCompilers share many common characteristics and components, such as
> code generation, SPARC optimization and libraries, that enable them to
> work well together and give developers a common toolset and development
> environment.  In addition, all Sun languages interact efficiently
> through common object formats and interlanguage calling capability.
> Thus programs written in one language can access the libraries of other
> languages as well as the libraries of Sun system components such as
> SunOS, OpenWindows(TM) and graphics.  SPARCompilers are all fully
> integrated with the Network Software Environment (NSE(TM)), Sun's
> distributed software development environment supporting version
> control, configuration management and parallel development.
> 
> 
> Compiler Support
> 
> Sun offers full customer support, training programs and extensive user
> documentation for its SPARCompilers.  The company plans new releases of
> its SPARCompilers approximately every nine months to provide increased
> performance and new features.  Each SPARCompiler is sold separately and
> all are available immediately for both SunOS 4.0 and 4.1.
> 
> Sun C, C++, FORTRAN and Pascal are priced at U.S. $2,000 quantity one
> and Modula-2 at U.S. $2,200 quantity one.  All prices include media and
> documentation.  Volume and academic discounts are available.
> 
> Sun Microsystems, Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., is a
> leading worldwide supplier of network-based distributed computing
> systems, including professional workstations, servers and UNIX
> operating system and productivity software.
> 
> ###
> 
> SPARCompilers, SunOS, OpenWindows, SPARC and NSE are trademarks of Sun
> Microsystems, Inc.  UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T.  All other
> products or services mentioned in this document are identified by the
> trademarks or service marks of their respective companies or
> organizations.
> 
> For reader inquiries, telephone 1-800-821-4643 outside California.
> Inside California, call 1-800-821-4642.
> 
> Press Contact:  Erica Vener (415) 336-3566