Absoft


Absoft Corporation was an American software company active from 1980 to 2022. They were best known for their set of Fortran compilers for Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, and Linux operating systems. The compilers are source code compatible across platforms.
  • Absoft Pro Fortran on 64-bit platforms supports both 32-bit and 64-bit executables; the user selects which format that the compiler will produce.
  • Linux compilers are available in either 32-bit or 64-bit versions. The 32-bit version produces only 32-bit executables.
All are bundled with a graphical debugger and an integrated development environment. Single thread and parallel multithread support is controlled by the user and includes five optimization levels, OpenMP, Speed Math levels 0 through 9, and other advanced capabilities.
On September 30, 2022, Absoft ceased operations.

History

Origins: Absoft FORTRAN 77 for MC68000 Systems

The principals of Absoft, Peter Jacobson and Wood Lotz, met at the University of Michigan. Together they started an audio store, Absolute Sound, in 1975. In 1979, they noted the emergence of 16-bit microcomputers and saw a market for high-quality Fortran compilers and built a compiler for the Western Digital WD16 microprocessor, which they released commercially in 1980. The name Absolute Software was used at first, but the shortened name Absoft was adopted as a more practical trademark.

Absoft FORTRAN 77 for Macintosh

Absoft's first major sales success was a $500K contract with Alpha Microsystems for worldwide redistribution rights of a Fortran 77 compiler compatible with their AMOS operating system using a Motorola 68000 series processor. At this point Absoft still consisted of only the two founders, so this success allowed the company to remain independent, add staff, and move to a larger office facility. Additional OEM contracts for Fortran compilers for various Unix variants followed. The founders hired a manager for Absolute Sound which continued its success and expanded to three stores; the chain was sold to a larger Hi-Fi chain in 1988.

MIL-STD-1753 Supplement for FORTRAN 77

MIL-STD-1753 was released by the DoD in 1978 to standardize some features of Industrial Real-Time Fortran as extensions of Fortran 77. This extension added IMPLICIT NONE, DO WHILE, END DO to replace CONTINUE as the statement to end DO loops, and intrinsic functions for testing and setting bits. MIL-STD-1753 was absorbed into the ISO/IEC 1539:1991 standard and later ISO/IEC standards are MIL-STD-1753 compliant, and MIL-STD-1753 was dropped as superfluous in 1995.

Absoft FORTRAN 77 for Apple Macintosh and Windows

When Alpha Micro released their MC68000 based microcomputer, Absoft expanded their offerings to Motorola and the Macintosh. The availability of MD68000-based machines made 32-bit Unix viable on small machines, and Absoft offered Fortran compilers for Unix machines by Data General, HP, Sun Microsystems, Tektronix, and others.
In 1985 Microsoft licensed MacFortran, which consisted of a native ANSI FORTRAN 77 compiler and graphical debugger. Shortly thereafter, Microsoft contracted with Absoft to develop Microsoft Fortran for Macintosh, and a Microsoft BASIC compiler that was 100% syntax compatible with the existing Microsoft BASIC interpreter on the Macintosh. Apple was one of the first Mac Fortran customers, with a large order for Drexel University. Variations of the Fortran and BASIC compilers for Macintosh were marketed under the name A/C Fortran and A/C Basic for Amiga. Fortran compilers for Linux/Unix and Microsoft Windows followed.
The Mac and Amiga Fortran compilers included an Integrated development environment and profiler. The IDE was added to the Windows compilers and is included in all succeeding Absoft Fortran compilers.

Fortran 90 and the Internet

During the 1990s the broadened product lines and internet enabled Absoft to build a base of resellers worldwide. For a period of time in the mid-1990s Absoft had a full-time representative in California but expanded internet usage eliminated that position and allowed everything to be run out of a single location.

Company milestones

Details on milestones since 2006 are available on the Press Releases page of the Absoft web site.
  • 1980 Absoft founded in Birmingham, Michigan.
  • 1981 Initial compilers for UNIX platforms included a graphical debugger.
  • 1981 Major contract with Alpha Microsystems.
  • 1983 Release of Absoft's first graphical debugger, for Motorola VersaDOS.
  • 1984 Absoft adds support for the Sky Computers floating point accelerator, SKYFFP-V, on VME and S-100 systems.
  • 1985 Release of Absoft Mac Fortran compiler with graphical debugger and IDE.
  • 1986 Release of Absoft Mac BASIC compiler with graphical debugger and IDE.
  • 1986 Release of Amiga Fortran
  • 1988 Absoft built a new development facility in Rochester Hills, Michigan.
  • 1994 Release of Absoft Fortran for Mac PPC.
  • 1994 Release of Fortran for Microsoft Windows.
  • 1997 Release of Linux Fortran as produced for CERN to port ESPACE code to Linux.
  • 2000 All releases include Fortran 90
  • 2003 First compiler that produces 64-bit executables.
  • 2004 Release of IBM XL Fortran and XL C/C++ for Mac OS.
  • 2004 IBM contract to develop the HPC SDK for POWER, POWER4 and POWER5 architectures.
  • 2005 64-bit executables on the Macintosh
  • 2005 All releases include Fortran 95.
  • 2005 With version 10.0, the previously bundled Absoft C/C++ compiler was dropped in favor of using universally available C/C++ compilers on each platform directly from the IDE. The profiler and bundled C/C++ compiler was dropped to allow compatibility with system C compilers and linkers.
  • 2006 Max OS/X Intel Pro Fortran released.
  • 2006 IMSL 5.0 for 64-bit Intel/AMD Linux released.
  • 2006 AnCAD MATFOR libraries for Linux and Windows released.
  • 2007 64-bit executables on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS/X. IMSL available for Mac OS/X.
  • 2007 Absoft releases Pro Fortran 10.1 with tuning for multi-core AMD and Xeon processors for both 32-bit and 64-bit executables.
  • 2008 Releases a "Roll" for Clustercorp's Rocks Cluster Distribution that includes Absoft Pro Fortran 10.1 and is compatible with Rocks+ 4.3 and its open-source software stack.
  • 2008 Absoft and Visual Numerics' release IMSL library qualified for Microsoft's HPC platform.
  • 2009 IMSL 6.0 released as part of Pro Fortran 11.
  • 2010 Absoft Pro Fortran 11.1 for HPC Code Development, compatible with Snow Leopard an Xcode 3.2 released.
  • 2010 NVIDIA CUDA support via CAPS's HMPP 2.4 preprocessor released.
  • 2011 Absoft and Bradly Associates announce a bundle of Absoft Pro Fortran and GINO GUI builder. GINO GUI Lite is included with Absoft Pro Fortran purchases or upgrades after April 20, 2011.
  • 2011 IMSL 7.0 released and bundled with all Absoft Pro Fortran releases.
  • 2012 Sold the Rochester Hills building and moved into an office building in Troy, Michigan.

    Absoft Pro Fortran Compilers

Absoft Pro Fortran is available in five versions:
  • Microsoft Windows
  • Mac Intel x86_64
  • Mac PPC
  • Linux 32-bit Intel x86
  • Linux 64-bit Intel x86_64
The Windows, Mac and 64-bit Linux versions produce either 32-bit or 64-bit executables according to user option. The Linux 32-bit version produces 32-bit executables.
All versions offer the IMSL libraries as an extra-cost option.
GINO GUI Lite is available as an optional component without added cost. GINO GUI and graphics, and Winteracter GUI Toolset are available also are available at extra cost.

Parallel processing and optimization

Absoft Pro Fortan parallelization and optimization options are illustrated by the screen shot of the relevant options page to the right. Absoft Pro Fortran provides five levels of classical optimization and Speed Math options 0 through 9.
Parallelization options include auto parallelization as a check box with graphical indications of degrees of success on the source code in the editor pane as highlighting colors. OpenMP 3.0 is also available as a check box. Speed OpenMP is available as none or levels 0 through 5.
Absoft offers support for MPI. ScaLAPACK and BLACS is shipped with all platforms. IMSL 7.0, integrated but available as a separate license since the v. 7.0 release in 2011, supplies MPICH2.
Executing programs that use parallelization on machines that do not have Absoft Fortran installed requires inclusion of pthreadVC2.dll for 32-bit executables or, for 64-bit executables, pthreadVC2_64.dll. This library is distributed under the LGPL 2.1.

Fortran 2003 and Fortran 2008 extensions

Some Fortran 2003 and Fortran 2008 extensions have been implemented as of April 2014 with version 14.0.3.

Fortran 2003

Some Fortran 2003 extensions are available in current versions of Absoft Pro Fortran. Among these are:
  • ISO_C_BINDING and ISO_FORTRAN_ENV
  • ACOS, ASIN, and ATAN generics accept complex arguments
  • COSH, SINH, and TANH generics accept complex arguments
  • MOVE_ALLOC statement
  • GET_COMMAND, GET_COMMAND_ARGUMENT and COMMAND_ARGUMENT_COUNT
  • GET_ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE
  • FLUSH statement
  • IS_IOSTAT_END and IS_IOSTAT_EOR
  • ENUMERATOR and ENUM
  • NEW_LINE
  • ABSTRACT INTERFACE
  • PROCEDURE pointers
  • enhanced TYPE initialization
  • POINTER bounds remapping
  • recognizes ASYNCHRONOUS I/O specifiers
  • IOMSG=string_variable_for_error_text_string I/O statement specifier
  • IEEE exceptions
  • VALUE statement and declaration attribute