| Developer(s) | PathScale Inc. |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 2003 |
| Stable release | 4.0.11 / September 15, 2011 |
| Written in | C and C++ |
| Operating system | Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris |
| Platform | x86-64 |
| Type | Compiler |
| Website | www.pathscale.com |
PathScale Inc. is a company that develops a highly optimizing compiler for the x86-64 microprocessor architectures. It derives from the SGI compilers for the MIPS R10000 processor, called MIPSPro. PathScale was originally founded in 2001 as Key Research and its original mission was to develop clustered Linux server solutions based on a low-cost 64-bit design. In late 2003 the company came out of stealth mode and was called PathScale. The word PathScale is descriptive of the company's original design goals for clusters. In early 2003 with the success of the AMD Opteron efforts at the company switched to other products like high-performance 64-bit compilers.
One might say the seeds of the company were sown over 20 years ago at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Four of the company's seven founders all worked together building the S1 supercomputer back in the early 1980s. The first Chief technical officer at PathScale, Dr. Tom McWilliams, had the initial idea for the company and incorporated in July 2001. He added three of his LLNL colleagues (Jeff Rubin, Jeff Broughton, Dr. Fred Chow) to the company shortly thereafter. Tom McWilliams had been a company founder at Valid Logic and Key Computer and has worked at SGI, Sun and Amdahl. Dr. Chow was formerly chief scientist for compilers at SGI and MIPS.
PathScale Inc. has been acquired and re-sold several times: by QLogic in February 2006, by SiCortex in August 2007, and by Cray in August 2009, when SiCortex was liquidated. Cray owns the intellectual property, but the former open-source company NetSyncro has renamed itself to PathScale Inc., and has an exclusive right to develop the PathScale EKOPath compiler. [1]
On the 13th of June 2011, PathScale announced that the EKOPath 4 Compiler Suite will become open source software and licensed under the GPL.[2][3][4]
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