SAN FRANCISCO, June 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Absoft Corporation, a leading provider of software development solutions for Apple computers for over two decades, today at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference, announced a technology preview of the first low-cost parallel debugging solution designed to help programmers locate bugs in MPI-based code used in most cluster environments. FxP builds on existing Absoft technology and is the only low- cost parallel debugging solution which provides all the features necessary for Fortran and C/C++ programmers to quickly locate bugs in their parallel code on clusters using Apple hardware and running OS X "Tiger" and "Panther" operating systems.

Clusters are groups of computers inter-connected in such a manner that they all work in concert to solve a single problem. The individual computers in a cluster communicated with each other using a process called Message Passing Interface (MPI). But parallel code using MPI can be very difficult to debug without additional tools.

FxP is the first parallel debugger to offer basic MPI debugging functionality at an entry-level price. The FxP technology is based on Absoft's proven and popular Fx2 serial debugger, the top commercial Fortran debugger on the market. FxP includes support for Fortran and C/C++ compilers from gnu, Intel, IBM, PathScale, and Absoft.

As a basic entry level graphical MPI debugger, FxP supports debugging 64- bit and 32-bit code, both MPI and serial Fortran, C/C++, and Assembler programs. FxP is available for all major vendor compilers and all major MPI implementations. The easy-to-use graphical interface is simple to learn and highly intuitive for immediate productivity and reduced training costs.

FxP allows MPI programmers to automatically attach to MPI processes, connect to remote batch jobs for debugging production jobs, view local and global variables, stack trace, registers, and message queues across all MPI processes, and visually see the state of all running processes. "FxP is a very affordable entry-level MPI debugger that enables developers who are just beginning their MPI programming projects for clusters," said Jeff Livesay, Absoft executive vice president. "FxP allows programmers new to MPI to get their applications working on clusters, and will help grow the market for clusters running MPI codes. Developers may eventually graduate from FxP to more fully-featured parallel debuggers such as the leading TotalView debugger from Etnus as their MPI applications and debugging needs become more sophisticated," continued Livesay.

FxP is written using platform-independent tools and will be made available for Apple hardware based on Intel processors in 2006. General availability for the new FxP Debugger for OS X 10.4 is planned in the second half of 2005. The FxP Debugger will be included in the Absoft HPC SDK for Apple clusters, also announced today by Absoft. Limited copies of the FxP Debugger Technology Preview may be obtained directly from Absoft by contacting beta@absoft.com .

"Absoft has been a leader in the debugging market for many years and during that time we have received continual requests for a low cost, flexible debugging solution for MPI developers," said Wood Lotz, president of Absoft. "FxP is especially well suited for small to medium sized clusters and provide solid functionality which allows programmers to quickly locate and repair bugs in their code. We are quite excited to introduce FxP as a parallel debugging solution compatible with Absoft, Apple and IBM compilers on OS X based clusters."

For additional information on the new FxP parallel debugger from Absoft please visit: http://absoft.com/Products/Debuggers/fxp/fxp_debugger.html

About Absoft Corporation

Celebrating 25 years of leadership in software solutions, Absoft Corporation (Rochester Hills, Michigan) is the exclusive provider of software development tools used by scientists and engineers worldwide to develop and deploy software applications that are source-compatible and can freely migrate across multiple computer platforms with superior performance and highly reliable results. For two and a half decades Absoft has profitably manufactured and sold software compilers, debuggers, libraries, and other tools, as standalone products and in bundled solutions. In 2004, Absoft expanded its market with significant new product announcements for high performance computing, clusters, and software license management, along with new strategic partnerships with leading technology companies. Absoft operates a distribution network of over 200 resellers worldwide. Customers and partners include Apple, Etnus, Crescent Bay, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Visual Numerics, PathScale, and others.

For more information, visit http://www.absoft.com .

Trademarks

Absoft(R) is a trademark of Absoft, Corporation. All rights reserved. All other company/product names and service marks may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT: Jeff Livesay of Absoft Corporation, +1-248-853-0050, or email jal@absoft.com

Web site: http://www.absoft.com/