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Selecting one of the following will take you directly to that section:
Enables optimizations for speed and disables some optimizations that
increase code size and affect speed.
To limit code size, this option:
- Enables global optimization; this includes data-flow analysis,
code motion, strength reduction and test replacement, split-lifetime
analysis, and instruction scheduling.
- Disables intrinsic recognition and intrinsics inlining.
The O1 option may improve performance for applications with very large
code size, many branches, and execution time not dominated by code within loops.
On IA-32 Windows platforms, -O1 sets the following:
/Qunroll0, /Oi-, /Op-, /Oy, /Gy, /Os, /GF (/Qvc7 and above), /Gf (/Qvc6 and below), /Ob2, and /Og
Enables optimizations for speed. This is the generally recommended
optimization level. This option also enables:
- Inlining of intrinsics
- Intra-file interprocedural optimizations, which include:
- inlining
- constant propagation
- forward substitution
- routine attribute propagation
- variable address-taken analysis
- dead static function elimination
- removal of unreferenced variables
- The following capabilities for performance gain:
- constant propagation
- copy propagation
- dead-code elimination
- global register allocation
- global instruction scheduling and control speculation
- loop unrolling
- optimized code selection
- partial redundancy elimination
- strength reduction/induction variable simplification
- variable renaming
- exception handling optimizations
- tail recursions
- peephole optimizations
- structure assignment lowering and optimizations
- dead store elimination
On IA-32 Windows platforms, -O2 sets the following:
/Og, /Oi-, /Os, /Oy, /Ob2, /GF (/Qvc7 and above), /Gf (/Qvc6 and below), /Gs, and /Gy.
Enables O2 optimizations plus more aggressive optimizations,
such as prefetching, scalar replacement, and loop and memory
access transformations. Enables optimizations for maximum speed,
such as:
- Loop unrolling, including instruction scheduling
- Code replication to eliminate branches
- Padding the size of certain power-of-two arrays to allow
more efficient cache use.
On IA-32 and Intel EM64T processors, when O3 is used with options
-ax or -x (Linux) or with options /Qax or /Qx (Windows), the compiler
performs more aggressive data dependency analysis than for O2, which
may result in longer compilation times.
The O3 optimizations may not cause higher performance unless loop and
memory access transformations take place. The optimizations may slow
down code in some cases compared to O2 optimizations.
The O3 option is recommended for applications that have loops that heavily
use floating-point calculations and process large data sets. On IA-32
Windows platforms, -O3 sets the following:
/GF (/Qvc7 and above), /Gf (/Qvc6 and below), and /Ob2
Tells the compiler the maximum number of times to unroll loops.
This option enables additional interprocedural optimizations for single file compilation. These optimizations are a subset of full intra-file interprocedural optimizations. One of these optimizations enables the compiler to perform inline function expansion for calls to functions defined within the current source file.
Multi-file ip optimizations that includes:
- inline function expansion
- interprocedural constant propogation
- dead code elimination
- propagation of function characteristics
- passing arguments in registers
- loop-invariant code motion
This option instructs the compiler to analyze and transform the program so that 64-bit pointers are shrunk to 32-bit pointers, and 64-bit longs (on Linux) are shrunk into 32-bit longs wherever it is legal and safe to do so. In order for this option to be effective the compiler must be able to optimize using the -ipo/-Qipo option and must be able to analyze all library/external calls the program makes.
This option requires that the size of the program executable never exceeds 2^32 bytes and all data values can be represented within 32 bits. If the program can run correctly in a 32-bit system, these requirements are implicitly satisfied. If the program violates these size restrictions, unpredictable behavior might occur.
-scalar-rep enables scalar replacement performed during loop transformation. To use this option, you must also specify O3. -scalar-rep- disables this optimization.
This options tells the compiler to assume no aliasing in the program.
The -fast option enhances execution speed across the entire program by including the following options that can improve run-time performance:
-O3 (maximum speed and high-level optimizations)
-ipo (enables interprocedural optimizations across files)
-xT (generate code specialized for Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo processors, Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad processors and Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors with SSSE3)
-static (disable -prec-div) Statically link in libraries at link time
-no-prec-div (disable -prec-div) where -prec-div improves precision of FP divides (some speed impact)
To override one of the options set by /fast, specify that option after the -fast option on the command line. The exception is the xT or QxT option which can't be overridden. The options set by /fast may change from release to release.
Compiler option to statically link in libraries at link time
Code is optimized for Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo processors, Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad processors and Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors with SSSE3. The resulting code may contain unconditional use of features that are not supported on other processors. This option also enables new optimizations in addition to Intel processor-specific optimizations including advanced data layout and code restructuring optimizations to improve memory accesses for Intel processors.
Do not use this option if you are executing a program on a processor that is not an Intel processor. If you use this option on a non-compatible processor to compile the main program (in Fortran) or the function main() in C/C++, the program will display a fatal run-time error if they are executed on unsupported processors.
Code is optimized for Intel Pentium M and compatible Intel processors. The resulting code may contain unconditional use of features that are not supported on other processors. This option also enables new optimizations in addition to Intel processor-specific optimizations including advanced data layout and code restructuring optimizations to improve memory accesses for Intel processors.
Do not use this option if you are executing a program on a processor that is not an Intel processor. If you use this option on a non-compatible processor to compile the main program (in Fortran) or the function main() in C/C++, the program will display a fatal run-time error if they are executed on unsupported processors.
Code is optimized for Intel Pentium 4 and compatible Intel processors; this is the default for Intel?EM64T systems. The resulting code may contain unconditional use of features that are not supported on other processors.
Tells the auto-parallelizer to generate multithreaded code for loops that can be safely executed in parallel. To use this option, you must also specify option O2 or O3. The default numbers of threads spawned is equal to the number of processors detected in the system where the binary is compiled. Can be changed by setting the environment variable OMP_NUM_THREADS
The use of -Qparallel to generate auto-parallelized code requires spport libraries that are dynamically linked by default. Specifying libguide.lib on the link line, statically links in libguide.lib to allow auto-parallelized binaries to work on systems which do not have the dynamic version of this library installed.
The use of -Qparallel to generate auto-parallelized code requires spport libraries that are dynamically linked by default. Specifying libguide40.lib on the link line, statically links in libguide40.lib to allow auto-parallelized binaries to work on systems which do not have the dynamic version of this library installed.
Optimizes for Intel Pentium 4 and compatible processors with Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (SSE2).
-Qprec-div improves precision of floating-point divides. It has a slight impact on speed. -Qprec-div- disables this option and enables optimizations that give slightly less precise results than full IEEE division.
When you specify -Qprec-div- along with some optimizations, such as -xN and -xB (Linux) or /QxN and /QxB (Windows), the compiler may change floating-point division computations into multiplication by the reciprocal of the denominator. For example, A/B is computed as A * (1/B) to improve the speed of the computation.
However, sometimes the value produced by this transformation is not as accurate as full IEEE division. When it is important to have fully precise IEEE division, do not use -Qprec-div- which will enable the default -Qprec-div and the result is more accurate, with some loss of performance.
Instrument program for profiling for the first phase of two-phase profile guided otimization. This instrumentation gathers information about a program's execution paths and data values but does not gather information from hardware performance counters. The profile instrumentation also gathers data for optimizations which are unique to profile-feedback optimization.
Instructs the compiler to produce a profile-optimized
executable and merges available dynamic information (.dyn)
files into a pgopti.dpi file. If you perform multiple
executions of the instrumented program, -prof-use merges
the dynamic information files again and overwrites the
previous pgopti.dpi file.
Without any other options, the current directory is
searched for .dyn files
Enable SmartHeap and/or other library usage by forcing the linker to ignore multiple definitions if present
Enable SmartHeap library usage by forcing the linker to ignore multiple definitions
MicroQuill SmartHeap Library V8.1 available from http://www.microquill.com/
Enable the use of the 64-bit compiler by passing the directory names for the library and include files
set the stack reserve amount specified to the linker
Enable/disable(DEFAULT) use of ANSI aliasing rules in optimizations; user asserts that the program adheres to these rules.
Enable/disable(DEFAULT) the compiler to generate prefetch instructions to prefetch data.
Directs the compiler to inline calloc() calls as malloc()/memset()
Specify malloc configuration parameters. Specifying a non-zero value will cause alternate configuration parameters to be set for how malloc allocates and frees memory
Enables cache/bandwidth optimization for stores under conditionals (within vector loops)
Enable compiler to generate runtime control code for effective automatic parallelization
Select the method that the register allocator uses to partition each routine into regions routine - one region per routine block - one region per block trace - one region per trace loop - one region per loop default - compiler selects best option
Select the method that the register allocator uses to partition each routine into regions routine - one region per routine block - one region per block trace - one region per trace loop - one region per loop default - compiler selects best option
Enables more aggressive multi-versioning
Make all local variables AUTOMATIC. Same as -automatic
Enables more aggressive unrolling heuristics
Specifies whether streaming stores are generated:
always - enables generation of streaming stores under the assumption that the application is memory bound
auto - compiler decides when streaming stores are used (DEFAULT)
never - disables generation of streaming stores
Disables inline expansion of all intrinsic functions.
Disables conformance to the ANSI C and IEEE 754 standards for floating-point arithmetic.
Allows use of EBP as a general-purpose register in optimizations.
This option enables most speed optimizations, but disables some that increase code size for a small speed benefit.
This option enables global optimizations.
Specifies the level of inline function expansion.
Ob0 - Disables inlining of user-defined functions. Note that statement functions are always inlined.
Ob1 - Enables inlining when an inline keyword or an inline attribute is specified. Also enables inlining according to the C++ language.
Ob2 - Enables inlining of any function at the compiler's discretion.
This option tells the compiler to separate functions into COMDATs for the linker.
This option enables read only string-pooling optimization.
This option enables read/write string-pooling optimization.
This option disables stack-checking for routines with 4096 bytes of local variables and compiler temporaries.
Define the MPICH_IGNORE_CXX_SEEK macro at compilation stage to catastrophic error: "SEEK_SET is #defined but must not be for the C++ binding of MPI" when compiling C++ MPI application.
For mixed-language benchmarks, tell the compiler to convert routine names to lowercase for compatibility
For mixed-language benchmarks, tell the compiler to assume that routine names end with an underscore
Tell the compiler to treat source files as C++ regardless of the file extension
This option specifies that the main program is not written in Fortran. It is a link-time option that prevents the compiler from linking for_main.o into applications.
For example, if the main program is written in C and calls a Fortran subprogram, specify -nofor-main when compiling the program with the ifort command. If you omit this option, the main program must be a Fortran program.
This option is used to indicate that the host system's longs are 8-bytes wide.
Select the particular network fabric to be used.
sock - Sockets
shm - Shared-memory only (no sockets)
ssm - Combined sockets + shared memory (for clusters with SMP nodes)
rdma - RDMA-capable network fabrics including InfiniBand*, Myrinet* (via DAPL*)
rdssm - Combined sockets + shared memory + DAPL* (for clusters with SMP nodes and RDMA-capable network fabrics)
Set this environment variable to enable fallback to the available fabric. It is valid only for rdssm and rdma modes.
Fall back to the shared memory and/or socket fabrics if initialization of the DAPL* fabric fails. This is the default value.
Terminate the job if the fabric selected by the I_MPI_DEVICE environment variable cannot be initialized.
Set the I_MPI_PIN_MODE variable to choose the algorithm used for pinning process.
mpd - Pin processes inside MPD. Default on SGI* Altix* platform.
lib - Pin processes inside MPI library. Default on other platforms.
Identify a subset of processors to be used for process pinning and define ranks placement on this subset. <proclist> specifies a mapping of logical to physical processors as follows:
all - Use all logical processors.
allsocks - Use only one processor core per a physical package (socket).
allcores - Use all processor cores. This is the default value.
<k>,<l>-<m>,<n> - Use logical processors <k>, <l> through <m>, and <n>.
Use this option to place the indicated number of consecutive MPI processes on every host in group round robin fashion. The number of processes to start is controlled by the option -n as usual.
Use this option to set the number of MPI processes to run the current arg-set.
Platform settings
One or more of the following settings may have been set. If so, the "General Notes" section of the report will say so; and you can read below to find out more about what these settings mean.
Hardware Prefetch:
This BIOS option allows the enabling/disabling of a processor mechanism to prefetch data into the cache according to a pattern-recognition algorithm.
In some cases, setting this option to Disabled may improve performance. Users should only disable this option after performing application benchmarking to verify improved performance in their environment.
Adjacent Sector Prefetch:
This BIOS option allows the enabling/disabling of a processor mechanism to fetch the adjacent cache line within an 128-byte sector that contains the data needed due to a cache line miss.
In some cases, setting this option to Disabled may improve performance. Users should only disable this option after performing application benchmarking to verify improved performance in their environment.
ulimit -s
Sets the stack size to n kbytes, or unlimited to allow the stack size to grow without limit.
submit= MYMASK=`printf '0x%x' \$((1<<\$SPECCOPYNUM))`; /usr/bin/taskset \$MYMASK $command
When running multiple copies of benchmarks, the SPEC config file feature submit is sometimes used to cause individual jobs to be bound to specific processors. This specific submit command is used for Linux. The description of the elements of the command are:
Use this option to place the indicated number of consecutive MPI processes on every host in group round robin fashion. The number of processes to start is controlled by the option -n as usual.
-n <# of processes> or -np <# of processes>
Use this option to set the number of MPI processes to run the current arg-set.
-genv <ENVVAR> <value>
Use this option to set the <ENVVAR> environment variable to the specified <value> for all MPI processes.
I_MPI_DEVICE=<device>[:<provider>]
Select the particular network fabric to be used.
sock - Sockets
shm - Shared-memory only (no sockets)
ssm - Combined sockets + shared memory (for clusters with SMP nodes)
rdma - RDMA-capable network fabrics including InfiniBand*, Myrinet* (via DAPL*)
rdssm - Combined sockets + shared memory + DAPL* (for clusters with SMP nodes and RDMA-capable network fabrics)
I_MPI_FALLBACK_DEVICE=(enable|disable)
Set this environment variable to enable fallback to the available fabric. It is valid only for rdssm and rdma modes.
Fall back to the shared memory and/or socket fabrics if initialization of the DAPL* fabric fails. This is the default value.
Terminate the job if the fabric selected by the I_MPI_DEVICE environment variable cannot be initialized.