Eclipse CDT 4.0, Intel Compiler 10.1 on x86_64
Around a year ago, I tested out Intel Math Kernel Library (MKL). My task was to implement a function that calculate the distance between a point and triangle in 3D. According to Intel Vtune, this function is what our algorithm (which deals substaintly with 3D objects) uses the most. Even when not compiled using Intel Compiler, Intel Math Kernel Library performs extremely well for the task at hand. A minor change to MKL gives a 100% improvement in term of speed. Excited by this possibility, I wanted to rewrite this whole function to use Intel Compiler in conjunction with MKL. However, this task was postponed due to some other deadline at the time.
Yesterday, determined to give these performance libraries from Intel a better look, I downloaded Intel Professional Suite for Linux. Intel is nice enough to offer their full suite of professional development tools on the Linux platform to non-commercial developers for free. To my delight, Intel has worked hard to improve their installation compatibility with Ubuntu. Installation packages which used to give weird errors now blissfully run through. The installation of Eclipse extension is well documented. I simply add the correct path to the list of extension paths and Eclipse picks up the new configuration and plugins from Intel. Things were going well.
I decided to give the beloved "Hello World" program a run. This is where I get stumped. The wizard for creating a new Hello World C++ project does not allow me to specify Intel Toolchain. "Weird!", I told myself. I spent several hours last night trying to figure out what was wrong. This morning, I found out that Intel extension for eclipse is not compatible with Eclipse CDT 4.0 x86_64. I found this out while digging through the confusing naming of different architectures (IA32, IA64, EMT64, Intel 64). So, I am here again, back to square one.
My hopeful wishes of finally be able to show my fellow lab mates how cool Intel toolchain is on my Eclipse x86_64 has come to a halt. Come on Intel, I have been to your campus and met your great minds. You can do better than this. Give us 64-bit compatible toolchain and we will grab it and run like crazy hackers who found zero-day exploits. After all, 64-bit has been around for long enough. It is time that at least academia (aka my work) makes the jump. Please Intel.
I am planning to try using GCC with MKL. If I am lucky, I still might be able to harness its power. For the next post, I will give some details on how it goes. I will probably throw in some CPPUnit testing to make sure that the function still work as it is expected.
Posted by Dat Chu on 04/27 at 02:08 PM
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