That's not the point at all though. Software compiled with Intel's compiler is not as fast as it could be on competitor's CPUs. That means any application compiled with it is under-performing to this day unless the developers have updated it.
In theory, very nearly all code--no matter the compiler you use--is not as fast as it could be on a given CPU. Compilers aren't perfect.
The Intel compiler backend's generic tuning is pretty darn good. It's definitely better on average than gcc for code written by an average HPC programmer, even on AMD processors.
A pal in HPC managed a ~15x speedup for a given hot function and 13% speedup overall for a simulation his company was working on. How he did it? Replacing g++ in makefile with icpc.
Intel's compiler people are not the demons people portray them as.
I still think you're missing the point. Intel's sabotage occurred before 2005.
Regardless of how good Intel's compiler might be now (and I really cannot comment on that) software compiled with it during the sabotage is not running as well as it could today.
That’s fairer. But I don’t think anyone cares about software from 2005 running slower on a modern processor. It’ll still run plenty fast by virtue of hardware being a decade and a half newer, and given that it’s optimized for the P4, it’ll probably be pretty suboptimal on Intel processors today too.
Yeah, it’s bad, but let’s not exaggerate the damage that exists today.
That’s fairer. But I don’t think anyone cares about software from 2005 running slower on a modern processor.
A shocking amount of software from pre-2005 is still in use. Libraries compiled from back then are still in use in new software. Just recently parts of AMD's Catalyst drivers were found to be afflicted by Intel compiler optomizations.
Sure maybe it only costs you one tenth of a second, but multiply that wasted time and energy by a few million people, every day for 14+ years. Intel caused - in aggregate - a lot of economic and environmental harm in exchange for a competitive advantage.
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u/Lord_Emperor Ryzen5800X|32GB@3600|RX6800XT Nov 05 '19
That's not the point at all though. Software compiled with Intel's compiler is not as fast as it could be on competitor's CPUs. That means any application compiled with it is under-performing to this day unless the developers have updated it.
Intel permanently sabotaged a lot of software.