Green light for Red Flag's Intel-optimised Linux

Software developer Red Flag has unveiled the first commercial version of its Linux operating system produced using Intel's C++ Compiler 8.0 for Linux.

Red Flag said that it used Intel's tools to optimise its Red Flag Server 4.1 series products, and will include 60-day evaluation copies of the Intel Compiler in its Linux distribution.

"Customers can experience a performance boost as a result of optimising our Linux kernel using Intel's software development tools," said Red Flag chairman Sun Yufang in a statement.

"As the first Linux operating system vendor to optimise our kernel to run on Intel architecture, we expect to achieve a competitive advantage and provide our customers with significantly improved capabilities."

Jonathan Khazam, general manager of Intel's Software Products Division, added: "Intel collaborated with Red Flag to optimise its kernel and provide customers with a foundation for high-performance applications that take full advantage of Intel's latest processor features.

"Software developers who want to realise their own performance gains can use Intel Compilers and other Intel software development tools to get similar results."

Intel explained that its compilers, which translate a programming language into the machine language understood by processors, are designed to help software developers deliver improved performance for their applications running on Intel architectures.

Intel's Compiler includes Intel C++ and Fortran Compilers for Windows and Linux as well as Intel C++ Compilers for Windows CE .Net.