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What is the Intel Xeon Phi starter kit? … well, if you get a new system with a Xeon Phi installed from an Intel platinum partner (like us) you have an option to get some really nice software development tools for a significant discount. If you are in a situation where you would need a commercial license for Intel's developer tools for your Phi development work, then the discount is REALLY significant! — greater than 85% discount!*.
*I really don't want to commit to pricing too much since it is somewhat in flux. Just figure between $300-$400 extra on a system price for some really good developer tools. It's a bargain even for those who can get academic pricing and people who have compiler only licenses already. If you are getting a system for Phi development work and you don't already have a license for the full Parallel or Cluster Studio XE then, yes, you really should get the kit!
Here's what you get
For a kit with a Xeon Phi 3120 …
Intel® Parallel Studio XE
- Intel® Advisor XE
- – This is a code analysis tool for finding and testing different threading opportunities and potential problems.
- Intel® VTune™ Amplifier XE
- – A really impressive and comprehensive performance profiler.
- Intel® Inspector XE
- – Helps find memory leaks, race conditions and deadlocks in programs.
- Static Analysis
- – Does the above with the code itself.
- Intel® Threading Building Blocks
- – C++ template library for task parallelism.
- Intel® Integrated Performance Primitives
- – Optimized multi-threaded and vectorized C/C++ library for multi-media and data analysis outside of the scope of MKL.
- Intel® Math Kernel Library
- – (MKL) Very nicely vectorized and threaded library for Linear Algebra, Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT), Vector Math and Statistics functions.
- Intel® C++ Compiler XE
- – Nice optimizing C/C++ compiler.
- Intel® Fortran Compiler XE
- – Really good modern Fortran compiler! Mostly up to date with 2008 standards spec.
Extra Documentation
- Intel® Xeon Phi™ Coprocessor High Performance Programming
- – James Jeffers and James Reinders – good reference written by a couple of really talented and knowledgeable Intel guys with deep understanding of MIC aka Phi.
- Parallel Programming and Optimization with Intel® Xeon Phi™ Coprocessors
- – Andrey Vladimirov and Vadim Karpusenko Stanford University and Colfax International – good reference for C/C++ programmers written by a couple of skilled Physicists, programmers and great guys.
- Quick start guide
- – "TOP 10 useful developer resources".
With a system including a Xeon Phi 5110P you get Intel® Cluster Studio which adds …
- Intel® MPI Library
- – Yes, Intel's own tweaked MPI library based on MPICH. Co-array Fortran uses the run-time libs from this.
- Intel® Trace Analyzer and Collector
- – MPI parallel analyzer and profiler.
What you "really" get …
Maybe a nifty little, relatively inexpensive, Phi developer system like the Peak mini with a Phi 3120A;
… and a piece of paper with a serial number for Parallel Studio and some download links!
Happy computing! –dbk