Intel ISPC 1.17 Compiler Released With Xe HPG, PS5 & AMD Zen Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel ISPC 1.17 Compiler Released With Xe HPG, PS5 & AMD Zen Support

Intel ended out the week with a huge update to ISPC, the Intel Implicit SPMD Program Compiler. ISPC is Intel's LLVM-based compiler focused on its C variant with extensions for single program, multiple data (SPMD) programming. Interestingly with this release is the introduction of AMD Zen 1/2/3 targeting and even the PlayStation 5 while also adding support for forthcoming Intel Arc "Alchemist" (Xe HPG) hardware...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Intel-ISPC-1.17

[brucethemoose]

So... does this mean ISPC is on the Phoronix benching todo list?

[Michael]

So... does this mean ISPC is on the Phoronix benching todo list?

When looking last into it, couldn't find any public robust set of codes useful for benchmarking ISPC for performance comparisons.

[brucethemoose]

Ah I misinterpreted. I see this isn't really a generic C/C++ compiler, but one for an Intel extension.


It would be neat if Intel somehow upstreamed these C extensions and compiler optimizations.

[coder]

It would be neat if Intel somehow upstreamed these C extensions and compiler optimizations.

The article says it's LLVM-based, right in the second sentence. I'd assume they already have upstreamed their changes, since IIRC they typically do so with other LLVM-based compiler tools.

As for LLVM's C extensions, I think that's not for Intel to decide. If they upstreamed the optimizations and backend support, then the groundwork is there, at least.

[soulsource]

Ah I misinterpreted. I see this isn't really a generic C/C++ compiler, but one for an Intel extension.


It would be neat if Intel somehow upstreamed these C extensions and compiler optimizations.

It's a different language, not an extension. It's "C-like", but much closer to GLSL or HLSL than to C.

That said, I would be really happy if it were upstreamed and maintained as part of LLVM, so that platform specific SDKs that use LLVM could automatically offer support for it.