This website is available online for testing and feedback. It is a preview of how we intend to organize the results of our work. The website is currently under construction.

Optimized Binary Depot for Linux on Itanium

By design, the Itanium processor depends on the compiler to create highly-optimized code. Of course, GCC is the standard choice for a compiler on the Linux platform. Unfortunately, while thorough in its scope, the optimizations available through GCC do not compare with compilers like Intel's icc, particularly on the Itanium.

This site exists to make available highly-optimized binaries for critical Linux utilities on the Linux Itanium platform and to give developers tips to create efficient binaries. This project is partially funded by the Intel Compiler Lab.

Open-Source/Free Software

Unless otherwise stated, the Vanilla project distributes only open-source or free software. open-source and free software is critical as this allows Gelato to compile the original source using different compilers and compiler options. In addition, open-source and free software allows the Vanilla project team the flexibility to modify the code as necessary for the purpose of creating LSB-compliant packages (see Distribution Agnostic section).

Documentation

Documentation is a critical part of this project. The intent is to give insight into the different compiler options and when best to apply them. Documentation will include speed-up results, details of compiler options used, and option definitions. Sharing the compiler options will allow the user to compile the source themselves (assuming they have access to the same compiler used by the Vanilla project team).

Distribution Agnostic

Another important aspect of this project is to create binaries which will run on any distribution. To this end, the Vanilla project provides LSB-compliant binaries. The user will need an LSB-compliant or certified Linux distribution. RedHat, Debian, SUSE, and RedHat rebuilds are all valid distributions.