Chapter 10. Compiler and Tools

As a Technology Preview, The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) implements support for on-line patching of multi-threaded code for Linux on System z binaries. Selecting specific functions for hot-patching is enabled by using a "function attribute" and hot-patching for all functions can be enabled using the -mhotpatch command-line option.

Enabling hot-patching has a negative impact on software size and performance. It is therefore recommended to use hot-patching for specific functions instead of enabling hot patch support for all functions.

Experimental support for building applications compliant with C++11 (including full C++11 language support) and some experimental support for C11 features;

Improved support for programming parallel applications, including OpenMP v3.1, C++11 Types and GCC Built-ins for Atomic Memory Access and experimental support for transactional memory (including Intel RTM/HLE intrinsics, built-ins, and code generation);

A new local register allocator (LRA), improving code performance;

DWARF4 is now used as the default debug format;

A variety of new architecture-specific options;

Support for AMD family 15h and 16h processors;

Link-time optimization support;

Enhanced warnings and diagnostics;

A variety of new Fortran features.