NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/lou/sun/327

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Subject: 48.06 SunFlash: SunPro, FORTRAN 90 and NAG
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                                                        The Florida SunFlash

         SUNPRO ANNOUNCES FORTRAN 90 TECHNOLOGY AGREEMENT WITH
                  THE NUMERICAL ALGORITHMS GROUP, LTD.

SunFLASH Vol 48 #6                           December 1992
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

             Next Generation Scientific Computing Tools to
                 Offer Increased Power and Flexibility

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif - December 15, 1992 - SunPro(tm), the software
development business of Sun Microsystems, Inc., today announced that it
has entered into a technology development and licensing agreement with
The Numerical Algorithms Group, Ltd (NAG(TM)). The agreement centers on
NAG's Fortran 90 technology. Fortran 90 is the new international
standard for the Fortran programming language that adds important
numerical processing and software engineering capabilities to the
existing Fortran 77 standard. Fortran is used extensively to develop
scientific and engineering software, a market that SunPro currently
dominates with its SPARCompiler(tm) Fortran 77 product. SunPro will use
NAG'stechnology to develop and market a high performance Fortran 90
development system based on SunPro's proven SPARCompiler and
SPARCworks(tm) development environment technologies.

SunPro will enhance NAG's technology and combine it with their own high
performace compiler technology to create an integrated Fortran 90
language system that produces the fast, tight code for which SunPro's
compilers are universally recognized.  "Integrating proven technologies
from two industry leaders means that the first release of SunPro's
Fortran 90 compiler will deliver the performance that customers need to
make the move to Fortran 90," said Dr. Brian Ford, O.B.E., Director of
NAG.

SunPro will integrate the new Fortran 90 compiler with the SPARCworks
development environment, which delivers a comprehensive set of tools
focused on programmer productivity, including a debugger, static and
dynamic code analyzers, and tools to help optimize application
performance.

Available for more than a year, NAGware(TM) f90 is the de facto
standard language system used by scientists and engineers as they
embrace Fortran 90.  NAGware f90 was recently honored by the British
Computer Society as a 1992 Award Medalist for technical excellence and
innovation. This prestigious award underscores NAG's pioneering efforts
in Fortran 90, and their productization of a high quality, full
implementation of the Fortran 90 language. A forthcoming release of
NAGWare f90, which includes many efficiency and operational
improvements, is the basis for SunPro's Fortran 90 compiler.

"With this announcement, SunPro is removing the uncertainty for users
who are considering Fortran 90 as their development language.  Early
adopters can use NAGware f90 today with the confidence that the
software they develop will easily migrate to SunPro's Fortran 90
compiler," said Paul Henderson, SunPro's Director of Marketing.  "As a
leading Fortran supplier, SunPro will of course be continually
enhancing our Fortran 90 solution to enable applications to achieve
maximum performance."

About Fortran 90

Fortran was the first computer language with an international standard,
and it remains one of today's most popular programming languages. The
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved
international standard for more than a year, Fortran 90 was approved as
a US standard by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in
August, 1992.  NAGware f90 and SunPro's Fortran 90 compiler are fully
standard conforming.

Fortran 90 adds new features that significantly improve Fortran's
numerical computing capability and enhance the programmer's ability to
produce easily maintained, reuseable software. Fortran 90 includes
array operations that reduce the number of loops required for martix
calculations, making code more efficient and easier to read. Fortran 90
also includes user defined data types, structures of basic types, and
overloading to define  operators that work on the user defined types.
This capability allows programmers to extend the language as needed for
different applications. Other new capabilities include dynamic
allocation of variables and a new pointer data type. This frees Fortran
90 applications from the restrictions of statically defined storage.
Finally, Fortran 90 includes software modules that provide a well
defined, easy to maintain way of grouping types, global variables, and
procedures into 'packages' of reuseable software.

In addition to these new capabilities that are part of the current
Fortran 90 standard, the High Performance Fortran (HPF) Forum is
working to produce a proposed set of standard extensions to Fortran 90
designed for high performance, parallel computing environments.
SunPro, an active participant in the High Performance Fortran Forum,
plans to offer support for HPF in their Fortran 90 compiler.

About SunPro

SunPro, established in July 1991 as a business of Sun Microsystems,
Inc., is dedicated to serving the needs of professional software
developers. With headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., SunPro is the
worldwide volume leader in professional software development products
based on the SPARC(r) architecture and Solaris(r) distributed operating
environment. SunPro products are available worldwide through a network
of master distributors, resellers, and computer system manufacturers.

About NAG

The Numerical Algorithms Group, Ltd., produces and distributes
numerical, symbolic, statistical and graphical software for the
solution of problems in a wide range of applications in science,
engineering, financial analysis and research. NAG is based in Oxford,
England with offices in Chicago and Munich.

                  # # # #

Sun Microsystems, Sun, the Sun logo, SunPro, the SunPro logo, and
Solaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems,
Inc. All SPARC trademarks, including the SCD Compliant Logo, are
trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc.
SPARCworks and SPARCompiler are licensed exclusively to Sun
Microsystems, Inc. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an
architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered
trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc. NAG and NAGware are
trademarks of The Numerical Algorithms Group, Ltd. All other products
or services mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
For information send mail to [e-mail].
Subscription requests should be sent to [e-mail].
Archives are on solar.nova.edu, uunet.uu.net, sunsite.unc.edu,
src.doc.ic.ac.uk and ftp.adelaide.edu.au

All prices, availability, and other statements relating to Sun or third
party products are valid in the U.S. only. Please contact your local
Sales Representative for details of pricing and product availability in
your region. Descriptions of, or references to products or publications
within SunFlash does not imply an endorsement of that product or
publication by Sun Microsystems.

John McLaughlin, SunFlash editor, [e-mail]. [phone].

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