Compaq Fortran
Release Notes for Compaq Tru64 UNIX Systems
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1.11.3 Preliminary Information on Support for Big Objects

Big objects are data items whose size cannot be represented by a signed 32 bit integer. Compaq Fortran supports larger objects than Compaq Fortran 77.

Big objects are good for massive machines and clusters used for numerical analysis, such as weather forecasting and high energy physics problems. Both special knowledge and very large hardware configurations are needed to use this feature.

Your system and its operating system must be configured to:

For more information, see the Compaq Tru64 UNIX system management documentation. For Compaq Tru64 UNIX Version 4.0, you can use the following check list:

  1. Either have a large swap space or use deferred swap allocation. This involves either:
  2. Reconfigure the UNIX kernel (for Version 4.0 or later) to change the following parameters as desired. For example, on one system, all values were set to 16 GB:
    Parameter Explanation
    max-per-proc-address-space Largest address space
    max-per-proc-data-size Largest data size
    max-per-proc-stack-size Largest stack size
    vm-maxvas Largest virtual-memory

    Also set the following per-process values:
    Parameter Explanation
    per-proc-address-space Default address space
    per-proc-data-size Default data size
    per-proc-stack-size Default stack size

    The per-process limits can be checked and increased with the limit or ulimit commands.

You can create big objects as static data, automatic data (stack), or dynamically allocated data (ALLOCATE statement or other means).

The address space limitations depends on the Alpha processor generation in use:

Although the compiler produces code that computes 63-bit signed addresses, objects and addresses larger than the hardware limitations will not work.

Limitations of using big objects include:

The following small example program allocates a big character object: 


    character xx(2_8**31+100_8) 
    integer*8 i 
    i = 10 
    xx(i) = 'A' 
    i = 2_8**31 + 100_8 
    xx(i) = 'B' 
    print *,xx(10_8) 
    print *,xx(i) 
    end

1.11.4 New Random Number Algorithm

A new random_number intrinsic (Version 4.0 or later) uses a different algorithm than the one previously used.

The test program below shows the use of the random_seed and random_number intrinsics. 


     program testrand 
        intrinsic random_seed, random_number 
        integer size, seed(2), gseed(2), hiseed(2), zseed(2) 
        real harvest(10) 
        data seed /123456789, 987654321/ 
        data hiseed /-1, -1/ 
        data zseed /0, 0/ 
        call random_seed(SIZE=size) 
        print *,"size ",size 
        call random_seed(PUT=hiseed(1:size)) 
        call random_seed(GET=gseed(1:size)) 
        print *,"hiseed gseed", hiseed, gseed 
        call random_seed(PUT=zseed(1:size)) 
        call random_seed(GET=gseed(1:size)) 
        print *,"zseed gseed ", zseed, gseed 
        call random_seed(PUT=seed(1:size)) 
        call random_seed(GET=gseed(1:size)) 
        call random_number(HARVEST=harvest) 
        print *, "seed gseed ", seed, gseed 
        print *, "harvest" 
        print *, harvest 
        call random_seed(GET=gseed(1:size)) 
        print *,"gseed after harvest ", gseed 
     end program testrand

When executed, the program produces the following output: 


%  testrand
 size            2 
 hiseed gseed          -1          -1         171         499 
 zseed gseed            0           0  2147483562  2147483398 
 seed gseed    123456789   987654321   123456789   987654321 
 harvest 
  0.6099895      0.9807594      0.2936640      0.9100146      0.8464803 
  0.4358687      2.5444610E-02  0.5457680      0.6483381      0.3045360 
 gseed after harvest    375533067  1869030476

1.11.5 Compaq Fortran 77 Pointers

Compaq Fortran 77 pointers are CRAY® style pointers, an extension to the Fortran 90 standard. The POINTER statement establishes pairs of variables and pointers, as described in the Compaq Fortran Language Reference Manual.

1.11.6 Extended Precision REAL (KIND=16) Floating-Point Data

The X_float data type is a little endian IEEE-based format that provides extended precision. It supports the REAL*16 Compaq Fortran Q intrinsic procedures. For example, the QCOS intrinsic procedure for the generic COS intrinsic procedure.

The value of REAL (KIND=16) data is in the approximate range: 6.475175119438025110924438958227647Q-4966 to 1.189731495357231765085759326628007Q4932.

Unlike other floating-point formats, there is little if any performance penalty from using denormalized extended-precision numbers, since accessing denormalized numbers do not result in an arithmetic trap (extended-precision is emulated in software). (The smallest normalized number is 3.362103143112093506262677817321753Q-4932.)

The precision is approximately one part in 2**112 or typically 33 decimal digits.

The X_float format is emulated in software. Although there is no standard IEEE little endian 16-byte REAL data type, the X_float format supports IEEE exceptional values.

For more information, see the revised Compaq Fortran User Manual for Tru64 UNIX and Linux Alpha Systems and the Compaq Fortran Language Reference Manual.

1.11.7 Variable Format Expressions (VFEs)

By enclosing an arithmetic expression in angle brackets, you can use it in a FORMAT statement wherever you can use an integer (except as the specification of the number of characters in the H field). For example: 


 J = 5 
 FORMAT (I<J+1>)

For more information, see the Compaq Fortran Language Reference Manual.

1.11.8 Notes on Debugger Support

Compaq Tru64 UNIX provides both the dbx and the Compaq Ladebug (formerly DECladebug) debuggers in the programming environment subsets.

These debuggers are very similar and use almost identical set of commands and command syntax. Both have a command-line interface as well as a Motif® windowing interface.

A character-cell Ladebug (ladebug) interface is provided with Ladebug in the Compaq Tru64 UNIX operating system Programmer's Development Toolkit. To use the character-cell interface, use the ladebug command.

When using Ladebug with certain versions of the UNIX operating system, be aware that a trailing underscore may be needed to display module variables. For example, to display variable X in module MOD, type: 


print $MOD$X$_

The Parallel Software Environment supports debugging parallel HPF programs (see the DIGITAL High Performance Fortran 90 HPF and PSE Manual). This section addresses scalar (nonparallel) debugging.

When using the f90 command to create a program to be debugged using dbx or ladebug , consider using the following options:

For example, the following command creates the executable program proj_dbg.out for debugging with Ladebug: 


% f90 -g -ladebug -o proj_dbg.out file.f90

You invoke the character-cell Ladebug debugger by using the ladebug command.

For more information, see the debugger chapter in the revised Compaq Fortran User Manual for Tru64 UNIX and Linux Alpha Systems (Chapter 4).

1.11.8.1 Ladebug Debugger Support Notes

The following improvements in Ladebug support for the Compaq Fortran language were added for DIGITAL UNIX Version 4.0:

The following improvements in Ladebug support for the Fortran 90 language were added for DEC OSF/1 Version 3.2 (DECladebug V3.0-16):

For more information on using Ladebug, see the debugger chapter in the revised Compaq Fortran User Manual for Tru64 UNIX and Linux Alpha Systems (Chapter 4).

1.11.8.2 dbx Debugger Support Notes

When using dbx with Compaq Fortran programs, certain differences exist. For example, in dbx , assumed-shape arguments, allocatable arrays, and pointers to arrays are printed as a derived type. Consider the following program: 


    module foo 
          real x 
    contains 
          subroutine bar(a) 
          integer a(:) 
          a(1) = 1 
          end subroutine bar 
    end module foo 
 
    use foo 
    integer b(100) 
    call bar(b) 
    end

If the above program were stopped inside BAR, the following would occur: 


    (dbx) print a 
       common / 
         dim = 1 
         element_length = 4 
         ptr = 0x140000244 
         ies1 = 4 
         ub1 = 10 
         lb1 = 1 
       /

The meaning of the fields are:

dim - dimension of the object
element_length - the length of each element in bytes
ptr - the address of the object
iesn - distance (in bytes) between elements in the nth dimension
ubn - upper bound in the nth dimension
lbn - lower bound in the nth dimension

1.11.9 Notes on Fast Math Library Routines

The f90 option -math_library fast provides alternate math routine entry points to the following:

1.11.10 The Compaq Fortran Array Descriptor Format

In the Compaq Fortran User Manual for Tru64 UNIX and Linux Alpha Systems, Chapter 10, Section 10.1.7 describes the Compaq Fortran array descriptor format.

These notes are an initial attempt to provide a template for those C programmers creating an a .h file that lays out the Fortran array descriptor format.

There are two varying parameters for this descriptor format:

Common information for all descriptors is the general layout of the header and the information for each dimension.

One possible C @codefont(struct) definition for the per-dimension information is: 


 struct _f90_array_dim_info { 
   int inter_element_spacing; 
   int pad1; 
   int upper_bound; 
   int pad2; 
   int lower_bound; 
   int pad3; 
 };

The inter-element spacing is measured in 8-bit bytes, not in array elements. This presents a challenge in designing array descriptor definitions in C, since there is no completely clean way to interact with C's pointer arithmetic.

One way to design the struct definition for an array descriptor is to use the template: 


 
 struct _f90_array_desc_rank<RANK>_<NAME_TOKEN> { 
   unsigned   char   dim; 
   unsigned   char   flags; 
   unsigned   char   dtype; 
   unsigned   char   class; 
   int               pad; 
   long              length; 
   <ELEMENT_TYPE> *  pointer; 
   long              arrsize; 
   void *            addr_a0; 
   struct _f90_array_dim_info dim_info[<RANK>]; 
 };

Where <RANK>, <NAME_TOKEN> and <ELEMENT_TYPE> are the template parameters. Often <NAME_TOKEN> and <ELEMENT_TYPE> can be the same, but in cases where <ELEMENT_TYPE> has non-identifier characters in it (for example, space or star) then a suitable <NAME_TOKEN> should be devised.

The problem with this approach is that the element addressing, which uses the inter-element spacing, generates an offset in bytes. In order to use C's native pointer arithmetic, either casts need to be done or a division. For example:

Another way to design the struct definition for an array descriptor is to use the template: 


 
struct _f90_array_desc_rank<RANK>_general { 
  unsigned char  dim; 
  unsigned char  flags; 
  unsigned char  dtype; 
  unsigned char  class; 
  int            pad; 
  long           length; 
  char *         pointer; 
  long           arrsize; 
  void *         addr_a0; 
  struct _f90_array_dim_info dim_info[<RANK>]; 
};

An advantage to this approach is that the same definition can be used for all arrays of the same rank. The problem with this approach is that it forces the programmer to cast: 


 
*((<ELEMENT_TYPE> *) (desc->pointer + byte_offset))

Another approach is to remove <RANK> from the template as well, yielding: 


 
struct _f90_array_desc_general { 
   unsigned char  dim; 
   unsigned char  flags; 
   unsigned char  dtype; 
   unsigned char  class; 
   int            pad; 
   long           length; 
   char *         pointer; 
   long           arrsize; 
   void *         addr_a0; 
   struct _f90_array_dim_info dim_info[7]; 
};

On the last line, 7 is used since that is the maximum rank allowed by Fortran. Since the dim field should be checked, this definition can be used in many (perhaps most) of the places a rank-specific definition would be used, provided the programmer is aware that the dim_info fields beyond the actual rank are undefined.

One place such a definition should NOT be used is when an object of this definition is used as part of an assignment. This usage is considered rare. For example: 


 
  void 
  ptr_assign_buggy(struct _f90_array_desc_general * ptr, 
  struct _f90_array_desc_general * tgt) 
  { 
  *ptr = *tgt; 
  }

Example of Array Descriptor Format Use

In this example, we have a 'struct tree' and a procedure prune_some_trees_() that takes a descriptor of a rank=3 array of such structs and calls prune_one_tree_() on each individual tree (by reference): 


 
void 
prune_some_trees(struct _f90_array_desc_general * trees) 
{ 
  if (trees->dim != 3) { 
      raise_an_error(); 
      return; 
    } else { 
      int x,y,z; 
      int xmin = trees->dim_info[0].lower_bound; 
      int xmax = trees->dim_info[0].upper_bound; 
      int xstp = trees->dim_info[0].inter_element_spacing; 
      int ymin = trees->dim_info[1].lower_bound; 
      int ymax = trees->dim_info[1].upper_bound; 
      int ystp = trees->dim_info[1].inter_element_spacing; 
      int zmin = trees->dim_info[2].lower_bound; 
      int zmax = trees->dim_info[2].upper_bound; 
      int zstp = trees->dim_info[2].inter_element_spacing; 
      int xoffset,yoffset,zoffset; 
    for (z = zmin, zoffset = 0; z <= zmax; z+= 1, zoffset += zstp) { 
      for (y = ymin, yoffset = 0; y <= ymax; y+= 1, yoffset += ystp) { 
       for (x = xmin, xoffset = 0; x <= xmax; x+= 1, xoffset += xstp) { 
           struct tree * this_tree = 
            (struct tree *) (trees->pointer + xoffset+yoffset+zoffset); 
         prune_one_tree_(this_tree); 
        } 
      } 
    } 
  } 
}

Compaq would appreciate feedback on which definitions of array descriptors users have found most useful.

Note that the format for array descriptors used by HPF is more complicated and is not described at this time.

Chapter 2
New Features for Compaq Fortran Versions 4.n, 2.0, and 1.n Releases

This chapter summarizes the new features for Compaq Fortran Versions prior to Version 5.0:

2.1 New Features and Corrections in Version 4.1

Version 4.1 is a maintenance release that contains a limited number of new features and corrections to problems discovered since Version 4.0 was released.

For additional information added to these release notes for Version 4.1, see Section 1.11.3.

The following new features have been added for DIGITAL Fortran 90 Version 4.1:

The following new High Performance Fortran features have been added for DIGITAL Fortran 90 Version 4.1:

These new features are described in the DIGITAL High Performance Fortran 90 HPF and PSE Manual.

The corrections made for DIGITAL Fortran 90 Version 4.1 include the following:

The following are corrections for HPF users in this version:

These new corrections are described in more detail in the Parallel Software Environment (PSE) release notes.

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