[daip] AIPS on dual-core processors?

[Eric Greisen]

Stefanie Muehle writes:

 > I am planning to purchase a new laptop, which is foreseen to be my main 
 > work horse in the coming year(s). Do you know whether AIPS works with the 
 > latest dual-core processors like Intel Core Duo and Core 2 Duo? And which 
 > version do you recommend to install? (note: frequent updates/patches are 
 > not an option due to probably infrequent/slow internet access.)

I do not know whether AIPS has been tested on dual core machines but I
assume it will work without any problem.  I doubt that any current
compiler will allow our code to take significant advantage of the new
architecture however.  We do use Intel compilers so it is possible
that they will help with the new architecture in time.

You pose two conflicting desires - no updates but the latest in
compiler technology.  31DEC06 is now entering the "slushy" state and
will be frozen (except for patches) at the end of the year.  Past
examples suggests that we will do 2 or 3 rounds of patches, several at
each time.  Thus it would not be necessary to update often with
31DEC06. 

31DEC07 uses a new dynamic memory pseudo-AP which should offer
simplified programming of new algorithms should any be developed and
should take advantage of the larger memories available in modern
machines.  But it will change on a relatively frequent basis.  One
hopes that one of those changes would be to use a new Intel compiler
when it becomes available.  Note that both versions offer binary forms
which saves compiling but poses greater bandwidth requirements.

Eric Greisen