Copyright (C) 1998 Timothy C. Prince

Freely distributable with acknowledgment

Revised Aug. 11, 1998 for ftp://vms.huji.ac.il/fortran/unct.html
 
 
 

Contents 
• Preface
• 1. Algorithm Selection not Substitute for Tuning
• 2. Profiling
• 3. Optimizing Source Expressions
• 4. Loop Optimizations
• 5. Compiler/Linker Options
• 6. Intrinsic Functions
• 7. Current Architectures
• References
• Glossary

 User Notes on Fortran Programming (UNFP), is a cooperative effort to maintain on-line documentation of previously unwritten, or scattered information on using FORTRAN. It was started in 1996 by Abraham Agay and Arne Vajhoej, and many people contributed to it over the years.

 It was clear from the start that some subjects deserved a deeper and fuller treatment, a good example is the "arcane" art of code tuning. It had to wait until a practitioner of code tuning wrote an essay on this subject, unveiling some of its mysteries.

Tim Prince works in the field of computational fluid mechanics, and its application to turbo machinery aerodynamic design. Having long experience with diverse computer systems, and the methods used to "squeeze" maximal performance and precision from the hardware and software, he has undertaken to write a coGuide on code tuning, with emphasis on FORTRAN programming.

Tim is not trying to meet academic standards in this document, as many of the topics are freely researchable on Internet, and he is available for comments at: tprince@computer.org