Today, IBM announced two new C/C++ products designed to exploit the unique performance capabilities offered by the hybrid Cell Broadband Engine processor architecture. They are:

XL C/C++ for Multicore Acceleration for Linux on x86 Systems
XL C/C++ for Multicore Acceleration for Linux® on Power Systems

Both XL C/C++ products are cross compilers. They are hosted on either Linux on x/86 or Linux for IBM POWER systems and cross compile to the target IBM BladeCenter QS21 and BladeCenter QS22 systems.

In this release, advanced compilation technology is applied in an innovative way to significantly improve programmer productivity. The highlight feature is the "single-source compilation technology". It is based on OpenMP API v2.5. Using standard conforming OpenMP directives, programmers can now compile and build executables for the PPE and SPE with a single invocation. They no longer have to go through the hassles of compiling and linking code segments separately for PPE and SPE. Single-source compilation technology makes programming the Cell Broadband Engine architecture significantly simpler. Also, applications developed with this new technology are portable. They can run on all systems which support the OpenMP API v2.5 standard.

Besides single-source compilation technology, we have also made a number of enhancements to the products. More information is available on the product web pages. Just go to C/C++ Café and follow the page links provided in the Products tab.

Today's product announcements can be found by following the links below:

http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/3/649/ENUSA08-1693/index.html
http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/2/649/ENUSA08-1692/index.html

A free trial is also available for these new products. Just go to C/C++ Café and follow the page links provided in the Resource Library tab after clicking on Downloads.