The Portland Group Delivers PGI 6.2 Compilers and Development Tools

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Portland Group(TM) (PGI(R)), a wholly-owned subsidiary of STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) and a leading supplier of compilers and development tools for High-Performance Computing, today announced that version 6.2 of its PGI C/C++ and Fortran compilers and development tools will be generally available on August 24, 2006. The latest release of the PGI Workstation compilers adds native support for 32-bit Windows platforms to an existing tool suite that already supports 64-bit Windows and is the reference standard on both 32-bit and 64-bit Linux systems. PGI compilers and tools are widely used in high-performance technical computing (HPTC) and other application areas that require parallelization and optimization capabilities to extract maximum performance from the latest multi-core processors from AMD and Intel.

"The PGI Workstation 6.2 compilers and tools deliver a complete, uniform, optimizing, parallel C/C++ and Fortran application development environment across 32-bit and 64-bit systems based on either AMD or Intel multi-core processors running either the Linux or Windows operating systems," said Douglas Miles, director, The Portland Group. "With this release, we have reached a point where PGI users can maintain a single source-code base and build environment for their performance-critical applications across a range of platforms that now account for over 65% of the technical computing market."

According to IDC, AMD and Intel x86-32 and x86-64 (x64) processor-based systems accounted for 49% of all HPTC systems sold in 2004, and over 65% of such systems sold in 2005. The x64-processor-based systems, pioneered by AMD with the AMD Opteron processor, have increased HPTC market share dramatically from 0.3% in 2003 to 12.9% in 2004 to 35.6% in 2005. The Portland Group was among the first commercial compiler vendors to support x64 processors, and has aggressively optimized its compilers for successive generations of AMD processors and the recently introduced x64 processors from Intel.(1)

In addition to extending support to native 32-bit Windows, the PGI 6.2 release includes enhancements to the unique PGI Unified Binary(TM) feature that enables a single x64 binary executable containing code sequences optimized for both AMD and Intel x64 processors, ensuring correct function and optimal performance regardless of the type of x64 processor on which applications are deployed. The PGI Unified Binary enables developers to leverage the latest processor innovations from both AMD and Intel while treating x64 as a single platform, maximizing flexibility and eliminating the need to target and optimize for two separate processor platforms. Other new or incremental features in the PGI 6.2 release include:

* SUSE 10.1 and SLES 10 platform support

* RedHat Fedora Core 5 platform support

* Microsoft Compute Cluster Server 2003 interoperability

* Improved interoperability with Microsoft Visual C++

* Support for Intel MMX and SSE1/SSE2/SSE3 intrinsics

* Comprehensive extended asm support on Linux

* Additional hand-tuned math intrinsics

* Incremental SSE vectorization enhancements

* C/C++ integer performance enhancements

* Enhanced auto-parallelization for multi-core processors

* PGI CDK MPICH2 support

As with previous releases of the PGI compilers, PGI 6.2 continues to offer comprehensive support for Linux and is supported on 32-bit and 64-bit Linux distributions back to and including Red Hat 7.3 and equivalents. Complete information on the PGI 6.2 compilers and tools, and free evaluation versions, are available from The Portland Group website at http://www.pgroup.com.

Technical Note: A compiler is a software tool that translates applications from the high-level programming languages used by software developers into a binary form a computer can execute.

About The Portland Group

The Portland Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of STMicroelectronics, is the premier supplier of high-performance Fortran, C, and C++ compilers and tools for high-end computing systems and X86 processor-based workstations, servers, and clusters. Further information on The Portland Group products can be found at http://www.pgroup.com, by calling Sales at (503) 682-2806, or by email to sales@pgroup.com.

About STMicroelectronics

STMicroelectronics is a global leader in developing and delivering semiconductor solutions across the spectrum of microelectronics applications. An unrivalled combination of silicon and system expertise, manufacturing strength, Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio and strategic partners positions the Company at the forefront of System-on-Chip (SoC) technology and its products play a key role in enabling today's convergence markets. The Company's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, on Euronext Paris and on the Milan Stock Exchange. In 2005, the Company's net revenues were $8.88 billion and net earnings were $266 million. Further information on ST can be found at http://www.st.com.

(1) IDC WorldwideTechnical Server QView, February 2006.

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