Sun Studio Compilers and Tools

Sun Studio 12 Update 1 - Now Available!

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:00:00 PST

This latest production release includes improved binary application performance, full OpenMP 3.0 support, profiling of distributed MPI applications, unified application and system profiling using Solaris DTrace technology (DLight), a new standalone graphical debugger (dbxTool) and much more! Download your free, unrestricted copy today.

Get Sun Studio 12 Update 1 and Blog for a Chance to Win Big

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:00:00 PST

Download Sun Studio 12 Update 1 and check out the new features. Post a blog describing your experience and you could win up to $500. Download now.

Sun Studio 12 Update 1 Launching at ISC Next Week!

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:00:00 PST

Meet the Sun Studio product team at the International Supercomputing Conference in Hamburg, Germany, June 23-26. Join Ikroop Dhillon at the Sun's Developer Tools for the HPC Stack session and Liang Chen for his session, MCFX: A New Parallel Programming Framework. See the ISC'09 Agenda.

Free Compiler Wins Nehalem Race by 2x

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:00:00 PST

How does the GNU C Compiler, GCC, perform on Intel's Nehalem processor compared to the Sun Studio compiler? Learn the results in this blog.

Sun Studio Fortran Futures Survey

Mon, 12 Jun 2009 09:00:00 PST

The Sun Studio Fortran team would love your input and suggestions about Sun Studio Fortran use and future development. Please help!

Join us at CommunityOne Today!

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:00:00 PST

Meet key engineers in our booth in the expo area and attend these Sun Studio sessions: Measuring Performance with Sun Studio Tools and Building C/C++ Fortran Applications on the OpenSolaris Operating System and Linux. Also, check out this panel discussion: Moving Forward: High-Performance Application Development in a Multicore World.

OpenSolaris 2009.06 Launches

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:00:00 PST

Download OpenSolaris 2009.06, the latest release of the OpenSolaris operating system, a powerful and complete operating environment for users, developers and deployers.

OpenMP Source Code Examples Now Available

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:00:00 PST

41 source code examples from the book, Using OpenMP, are now available as one free download. Each source file constitutes a full working program. Try them out and then discuss in the forum.

Memory Profiling With MPI Analyzer

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:00:00 PST

This note shows an example of how to distinguish between heavy-user program memory allocation versus memory allocations within the MPI implementation due to resource congestion.

Now Available: The Developer's Edge

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:00:00 PST

This book of selected blog posts and articles focuses on native language issues, improving performance, Solaris OS tools, and more. It is also available online.

Sun Studio 12 Named Best Open-Source Development Tool

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:00:00 PST

Russian PC World magazine, Mir PC, has published its list of the Best Products of 2008 and awarded Sun Studio 12 as the top open-source development tool.

Sun Studio Express 3/09 Released

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:00:00 PST

Sun Studio Express 3/09, the official build used for the Sun Studio 12 Update 1 Early Access Program, is now available. Listen to the podcast to learn more about this release.

DLight Tutorial

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:00:00 PST

DLight offers a variety of instrumentation that takes advantage of the Dynamic Tracing (DTrace) debugging and performance analysis functionality in the Solaris operating system. It is available in the Sun Studio IDE in Sun Studio Express 3/09.

Automatic DTrace Probe Insertion in Fortran

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:00:00 PST

DTrace is a powerful, dynamic tracing facility that was introduced in the Solaris 10 operating environment. This article describes a new feature of the Sun Studio 12 Fortran compiler--automatic insertion of DTrace static probes in optimized code. Get the details and try out the Fortran -dtrace option.

Video: Introduction to Sun Studio

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:00:00 PST

Sun Studio software provides a set of C, C++, and Fortran compilers and tools for Solaris, OpenSolaris, and Linux and includes code and memory debuggers and performance and thread analysis tools. The entire toolchain is fully integrated into a NetBeans-based IDE. Download Sun Studio.

Profiling MPI Applications

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:00:00 PST

This article details the profiling of Message Passing Interface (MPI) applications with the Sun Studio Performance Tools. Get an overview of MPI performance data and learn how to compile and launch your application for performance profiling.

Sun Studio Webinar: Mastering Your Multicore System Using Sun Studio

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:00:00 PST

Multi-threaded development, debugging, and profiling provide challenges in software quality and developer productivity. Learn how Sun Studio compilers and tools can simplify these challenges and allow you to fully unlock the potential in multicore architecture.

Sun Studio Webinar: Maximizing Application Performance

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:00:00 PST

To increase performance and assure scalability in your applications you need compilers that optimize your code and profiling tools that identify bottlenecks, hot spots, and memory access issues. Learn how the Sun Studio Thread Analyzer, Performance Analyzer, and D-Light can help you tune your application for maximum performance.

OpenMP Overview

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:00:00 PST

Sun Microsystems' Ruud van der Pas recently gave an overview of OpenMP at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Check out the video and slides.

Webcast: Sun Studio and Sun HPC ClusterTools

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:00:00 PST

Sun Studio compilers and tools and Sun HPC ClusterTools allow you to create high-performance parallel applications for OpenSolaris, Solaris, and Linux. Sun Studio Express 11/08 includes MPI performance analysis capabilities and full OpenMP 3.0 compiler support. Learn about all this and the latest in Sun HPC ClusterTools 8.1.

2009 Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE)

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:00:00 PST

Join Sun's Kuldip Oberoi at the Metrics for Success: Performance Analysis 101 session as he discusses methodologies for improving application performance. SCALE 7x will be held in Los Angeles, CA, February 20-22. See the conference schedule.

Video: Sun Studio and Parallel Computing

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 09:00:00 PST

Yuan Lin, Compiler Tools Engineer with the Sun Developer Tools Group, tells how Sun Studio makes parallel programming easier, and works especially well on AMD platforms.

Video: Profiling and Optimizing Your Application

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:00:00 PST

Darryl Gove, Performance Analyst for the Sun Studio Compiler Group, offers basic tips for profiling and optimizing your application, including using compiler optimization flags for best performance on AMD systems.

Translating gcc/g++/gfortran Options to Sun Studio Compiler Options

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 09:00:00 PST

In this article, learn how to translate frequently used gnu compiler options to Sun Studio compiler options.

Video: Compiler Optimization

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 09:00:00 PST

Fu-Hwa Wang, Performance Engineering Project Manager with the Sun Studio Compiler Group, discusses the charter of his team, why compiler optimization is important, and how his team works with AMD to build optimizations into its compiler.

RTC Screencast

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:00:00 PST

The Runtime Checking Tool (RTC) helps you understand how memory is being used in your application and identifies memory leaks and access errors. View the RTC screencast to learn more.

Dbx Debugger Screencast

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:00:00 PST

A new standalone lightweight GUI debugging solution, dbxtool, is part of the Sun Studio Express 11/08 release. The dbx debugger is also available as a command-line utility and is fully integrated into the Sun Studio NetBeans-based IDE. View the screencast to learn about dbxtool and the features of the dbx debugger.

Deep Dive Video: Sun Studio

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:00:00 PST

SDN Deep Dive host Ed Ort is joined by Ikroop Dhillon, product marketing manager for Sun Studio, to discuss what's new with the latest version of this popular C/C++/Fortran development environment.

Three New Sun Studio World Records With AMD Quad-Core Sun x64 Servers

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:00:00 PST

The new world records are in the area of SPECint_rate, SPECompL2001, and SPECompM2001, and the benchmarks are with the OpenSolaris 2008.05 OS and Sun Studio Express 11/08 compilers. Read more about the Sun x64 servers too.

Working With Multiple Boot Environments on the OpenSolaris OS

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 09:00:00 PST

With the OpenSolaris beadm utility, you can efficiently create, modify, or delete multiple boot environments with different system configurations and switch back and forth among them with ease.

Participate in CommunityOne

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 09:00:00 PST

There will be two 2009 conferences: CommunityOne East (New York), March 18-19, 2009, and CommunityOne West (San Francisco), June 1-2, 2009. See the conference Web site for complete details. The deadline to submit a proposal for a technical session, community panel, or a five-minute lightening talk is Monday, December 15. Submit your paper today!

Sun Studio Software Registration Sweepstakes

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:00:00 PST

Register your Sun Studio Express 07/08 or Sun Studio Express 11/08 product for a chance to win Bose QuietComfort headphones, a Wii game system, or a Guitar Hero World Tour Band Kit!

Optimized Code Debugging With Sun Studio dbx

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:00:00 PST

Learn how to debug the optimized code with Sun Studio dbx. Use dbx to display the value of local variables and function parameters when applications are compiled with high level compiler optimization options such as -O2, -O3, -O4, and -O5.

Sun Studio Express 11/08 Now Available

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:00:00 PST

This express release includes full compiler support for OpenMP 3.0 APIs, enhanced support for performance analysis of MPI applications, a new lightweight, standalone GUI debugger (dbxtool), remote development and debugging capabilities, and is based on NetBeans IDE 6.5. Download and start developing for the multi-core era today! Also listen to the podcast and remember to register your Sun Studio product and receive access to exclusive technical content.

Introducing pfexec, a Convenient Utility in the OpenSolaris OS

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:00:00 PST

Passwordless pfexec is the OpenSolaris version of Linux's sudo. Learn how to assign the appropriate rights profile to users so that they can execute commands with root privileges by prepending pfexec to the commands without becoming root.

Webinar: Building C/C++/Fortran Applications on OpenSolaris and Linux Using Sun Studio

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:00:00 PST

Interested in building high-performance, parallel applications for OpenSolaris and Linux? Certain challenges exist in the software industry for native language developers including multi-core development, heterogeneous OpenSolaris and Linux development, and Linux compatibility issues. Join Sun's Ikroop Dhillon and find out how Sun Studio software delivers the solution.

Installing Sun Web Stack on OpenSolaris OS

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:00:00 PST

Sun Web Stack contains numerous preconfigured tools (Apache, MySQL, PHP, NetBeans IDE, and others) for developing and deploying applications. This article describes how to install and initialize the stack on the OpenSolaris OS.

New Solaris 10 Applications Library Is Live on BigAdmin

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:00:00 PST

Search for and download Solaris 10 applications by vendor or application name/description (for SPARC or x86/x64 platforms).

Debugging Multithreaded Programs

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 09:00:00 PST

This article suggests ways of avoiding bugs in your code as well as strategies for finding these bugs using the dbx command-line debugger.

Using DTrace to Demystify Watchpoints in the Sun Studio dbx Debugger

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:00:00 PST

This article educates users on how to use the watchpoint facility in the Sun Studio dbx debugger for both source-level and instruction-level debugging.

Updated: Getting The Best AMD64 Performance With Sun Studio Compilers

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:00:00 PST

This article has been updated with essential information for Sun Studio 12. Read the note at the top of the article.

Sun HPC ClusterTools 8.0 Now Available for Solaris and Linux

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:00:00 PST

Sun HPC ClusterTools 8.0 software is an optimized and scalable MPI library and parallel job launcher, which is based on the open-source Open MPI project. It supports Sun Studio compilers and tools and GNU/gcc toolchains on both Solaris and Linux. Learn more details and download it today.

Why Use Sun Studio 12 Compilers and Tools?

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:00:00 PST

This article provides a features overview of Sun Studio 12 software and addresses how it allows developers to capitalize on multicore hardware, multithreaded software, and diverse open-source technology offerings.

Podcast: Introducing Sun Studio Express 07/08

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:00:00 PST

Sun's Ikroop Dhillon and Ruud Van Der Pas discuss support for OpenMP 3.0 APIs, the integration of ClusterTools (based on Open MPI), and support for performance analysis of MPI applications in this newest release of Sun Studio Express, which is based on NetBeans IDE 6.1.

AMD64 Instruction-Level Debugging With dbx

Mon, 22 Aug 2008 12:00:00 PST

This article details how to use the dbx debugger efficiently to display the contents of memory at specified addresses, and how to display machine instructions.

Using DTrace with Sun Studio Tools to Understand, Analyze, Debug, and Enhance Complex Applications

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 09:00:00 PST

This article describes the DTrace utility and its architecture and shows how different tools can be used to fix software deficiencies and performance problems.

DTrace Output Visualization With NetBeans DTrace GUI Plugin

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:00:00 PST

This new release includes Chime, a graphical tool for visualizing DTrace aggregations. Utilize the included DTrace scripts to optimize Web Stack and native applications.

Sun Studio Express 07.08 - Now Available!

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:00:00 PST

This express release includes support for OpenMP 3.0 APIs, integration of ClusterTools (based on Open MPI), and support for performance analysis of MPI applications. Download and start developing for the multi-core era today.

Sun Studio dbx Debugger

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:00:00 PST

Easily debug multithreaded applications with complete control of the dynamic execution in any program. Check out the advanced debugging features in dbx that set it apart from the rest.

Accelerate Application Builds With Dmake

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:00:00 PST

Sun Studio's dmake utility can accelerate complex application builds by building components in parallel. Learn how to configure a distributed build environment and get guidelines on makefile customization.

Twitter: Sun Studio

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:00:00 PST

Already using Twitter? Follow Sun Studio to get updates and insights from the product team.

Beyond LAMP: SAMP... LGPJ... LAMJ...

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:00:00 PST

LAMP: It's not just for Linux any more! Develop using your OS, language, app server, database, and IDE of choice.

OSDevCon 2008: OpenSolaris and Sun Studio

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:00:00 PST

At the recent OpenSolaris Developer Conference, Sun Studio Linux Architect Roman Shaposhnik highlighted OpenSolaris with Sun Studio as the ultimate development platform. Watch this video and read a blog from Intel's David Stewart for his take on the session.

IDE Survey: Sun Studio Gets High Marks

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:00:00 PST

In Evans Data Corp.'s survey of more than 1,200 developers to rate various IDE features and attributes, Sun Studio ranked number one in "performance of resulting applications" and number four overall in user satisfaction (registration required).

Using and Redistributing Sun Studio Libraries in an Application

Mon, 19 May 2008 12:00:00 PST

Sun Studio software provides redistributable libraries that can be incorporated into an application to provide functionality and reduce development time. This article contains best practices for redistributing these libraries and for maintaining applications that depend on them.

Using Intel's Threading Building Blocks (TBB) with Sun Studio 12

Thu, 08 May 2008 09:00:00 PST

Discover how to use Sun Studio to build Intel's Threading Building Blocks (TBB), an open-source runtime library that reduces the effort required to express parallelism in C++ programs.

OpenSolaris 2008.05 is Now Available

Mon, 05 May 2008 09:00:00 PST

Take your idea from experiment to global deployment on a single platform in a familiar environment. Complete with free, built-in features, OpenSolaris can be deployed on nearly 1000 systems.

Using Sun Studio with the GCC Tool Chain

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:00:00 PST

Sun Studio can interoperate with the GCC tool chain in different ways. This page discusses the different kinds of interoperability and what the caveats are.

Debugging the JVM Using dbx

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:00:00 PST

See how to use the Sun Studio tool dbx to debug a particularly thorny JVM crash on a Solaris x86 system.

Sun Studio Express - February 2008 Build

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:00:00 PST

Sun Studio Express 2/08 sports an updated IDE (based on NetBeans IDE 6.0), Project D-Light, updated compilers and optimized code generation (e.g. SSSE3) as well as improved RTC support on x86-based platforms.

New Solaris Application Programming Book!

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:00:00 PST

This brand new tome is a comprehensive guide to optimizing the performance of applications running on the Solaris operating system. It covers the fundamentals of system performance, using analysis and optimization tools to their fullest, and shows you how to get the most from Solaris systems and applications. It's available on Safari Online and Sun Books.

Tocarema Powers Up

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:00:00 PST

For its automated trading platform, startup TBricks (formerly Tocarema) had an impressive list of requirements for its C/C++ toolchain. They turned to Sun Microsystems and its Sun Studio 12 software. See how they did it!

Project D-Light Tutorial

The Project D-Light plug-in for the Sun Studio 12 IDE helps you use the DTrace debugging and performance analysis functionality in the Solaris OS.

High Performance Computing (HPC) Overview

Sun's solutions are designed to simplify the complex world of HPC. Join the Sun HPC Community Portal.

Multicore Development: Untangle your Threads using Sun Studio

Exploit the multiple cores in your machine using the Sun Studio software. Find out how Sun Studio compilers allow you to parallelize your application, detect data races and potential deadlocks, and analyze the performance of your application.

NetBeans DTrace GUI Plugin Now Available!

The NetBeans DTrace GUI plugin runs DTrace scripts from the GUI, even those that are embedded in shell scripts. It can be easily extended and customized and installs into the Sun Studio 12 IDE, NetBeans IDE 5.5, NetBeans IDE 5.5.1, and NetBeans IDE 6.0.

Using Sun Studio 12 on UltraSPARC T1- and T2-based Systems

The latest T2 Sun Fire Servers with CoolThreads Technology have up to 8 cores and 64 threads. With immense throughput performance, they not only run more separate applications simultaneously, they provide increased scalability for multi-threaded applications.

Develop and Accelerate Your Solaris and Linux Applications with Sun Studio Software

How can you reduce your project schedule, create higher quality applications, and accelerate your applications up to 80%? Join Vijay Tatkar as he discusses how the Sun Studio 12 software can simplify your development.

Calculating Processor Utilisation From the UltraSPARC T1 and UltraSPARC T2 Performance Counters

Use the performance counters for the UltraSPARC T1 and UltraSPARC T2 processors to estimate core load and find potential areas for performance improvement.

Locating Memory Access Errors With Sun Memory Error Discovery Tool

The Sun Memory Error Discovery Tool detects and reports common memory access errors such as accessing uninitialized memory, writing past the end of an array, or accessing memory after it has been freed.

Using DTrace to Demystify Watchpoints in the Sun Studio dbx Debugger

The DTrace facility enables you to monitor the internal states of the Solaris kernel in ways you could not have before. A simple D script, as shown in this article, can reveal how the Solaris kernel interacts with applications during execution.

12 on 12 Questions Submitted by Developers

Read the top twelve questions on Sun Studio 12 that developers asked and how Sun's experts answered them in this Q and A.

New Language Extensions in the Sun Studio 12 C Compiler

This article gives an overview of the C-language extensions (part of the GNU C-implementation) introduced in the Sun Studio 12 C compiler. Although these extensions are not part of the latest ISO C99 standard, they are supported by the popular gcc compilers.

New - Sun Studio 12 Released!

The time has arrived for today's developers! Parallel Application Development, Performance, Platforms, Productivity, it's all here. Download Sun Studio 12 now.

New! Sun Studio Express - June 2007

Get an early look at next Sun Studio software technologies. Using an intuitive drag and drop interface, Project D-Light makes sophisticated application and system profiling accessible. It provides an extensible library of instruments that represent the latest advances of profiling technology, including dynamic tracing (DTrace).

Performance Tuning With Sun Studio Compilers and Inline Assembly Language

Here are examples of using a compiler flag or inline assembly language with Sun Studio compilers to increase the performance of C, C++, and Fortran programs.

Using F95 Interfaces to Customize Access to the Sun Performance Library

When porting Fortran source, the Fortran 95 generic interface can be used to allow the source code to remain virtually unchanged and yet facilitate the use of the ILP-32, LP-64, and ILP-64 programming models.

Sun Studio Express 4 - February 2007 Build

Download a preview of the next Sun Studio software release and try it out. The Express program now offers builds of Sun Studio software releases under development for download. Get an early look at new Sun Studio software technologies. New in the February 2007 build are a brand new installer with server/client capability, enhancements to the Integrated Development Environment (IDE), and updated Sun Studio compilers that now generate DWARF symbolic information.

An OpenMP Runtime API for Profiling

This paper describes a runtime API for use in profiling OpenMP applications. The API is designed to provide data that enables performance tools to present measurements in the user-model of OpenMP programming. The API was primarily designed to support statistical sampling of callstacks, but it also contains extensions to support tracing.

Profiling WebSphere Application Servers with Sun Studio Performance Tools

This article describes how to profile an IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS) runtime environment with the Sun Studio Performance Analysis Tools, Collector and Analyzer.

Introducing OpenMP: A Portable, Parallel Programming API for Shared Memory Multiprocessors

Sun Studio compilers (C/C++/Fortran 95) support OpenMP parallelization natively. OpenMP is an emerging standard model for parallel programming in a shared memory environment that provides pragmas (directives), runtime routines, and environment variables for programmers to easily parallelize their code. This article provides a brief introduction to OpenMP and is of particular interest to programmers new to parallel programming methods in Fortran, C, or C++.