The MLIR-Targeting "FC" LLVM Fortran Compiler Is Now Open-Source

Last week we reported on "FC" as a new LLVM Fortran compiler targeting the new MLIR intermediate representation. That new Fortran compiler is now public and open-source.

While the Flang compiler is being upstreamed at the moment, "FC" is being worked on by consulting firm start-up CompilerTree as an LLVM Fortran compiler that has shifted focus from using the conventional LLVM IR to MLIR as LLVM's new IR developed by Google with a focus on machine learning.

The performance is comparable of FC to existing Fortran compilers, the current language support is targeting Fortran 95, and other basics among Fortran compilers, but the MLIR usage appears to be one of the primary "selling points" of this new compiler.

FC is licensed under the BSD 2-Clause "Simplified" License, which is nice to see from this California-based compiler consulting firm that counts AMD as one of their clients.

It does look like the company may try to upstream their FC front-end and other LLVM changes. But for now the FC front-end work can be found via this newly-opened GitHub repository. More details on their opening of the FC code-base via this mailing list post.