Lahey Fortran 90 Under Development

Santa Clara, California, February 22, 1993-Lahey Computer Systems
officially announced they have been developing a 32-bit PC Fortran 90
language system. The Fortran 90 project is the number one priority for the
Lahey development team.

President Quote "We have always taken pride in being at the forefront of
Fortran compiler technology," said Tom Lahey, President/CEO of Lahey
Computer Systems. "The production of a Fortran 90 retail product is the
natural evolution of this company. Our Fortran 90 will distinguish us from
our competitors with Fortran 77 compilers and it will provide the science
and engineering community with the software to meet the most demanding of
applications."

User Market With the 386, 486, and soon to be released Intel Pentium
microprocessors, the Fortran market is seeing more and more companies
moving Fortran programs from mainframe systems to the PC platform. Lahey
Fortran 90 can be used by every Fortran 77 user because it is a superset
of Fortran 77. Fortran 90 provides users with features that can be used to
optimize these older 77 programs. In developing new programs, Fortran 90
users will find their code will be more portable and the source code will
be smaller than using corresponding 77 code.

Fortran 90 Highlights 

Just a few of the key features of Fortran 90: 

* Arrays - powerful new ways of handling arrays
* Structures - enable a user to combine intrinsic types 
* Modules - using this new program unit, users can package code
  and data in reusable units 
* Pointers - create modern data structures such as trees and link
  lists 
* ALLOCATE - size your program based on user's resources. 
* Modern control constructs - CASE, DO / END DO, DO WHILE, 
  CYCLE, EXIT
* Kind - Choose data type based on required precision without
  knowing precision of processor

Compiler Front End 

Lahey is using their new and innovative compiler front end technology to
develop their Fortran 90. This Fortran 90 compiler front end is a highly
portable component designed for integration with code generators for
personal computers to super computers. The unique design of the Front End
allows Lahey to market it to compiler vendors as a separate product under
the Lahey Fortran 90 Partnership Project. Lahey's Fortran 90 language
system is a combination of their Front End and the code generator from an
unnamed vendor. Using the strategy of merging their technology with
another vendor benefits Lahey and users in many ways: (1) Lahey focuses
their efforts on the compiler front end because the code generator is
supplied by another vendor, (2) Lahey introduces their product with a
highly optimized code generator, (3) The product is brought to market
earlier because of the joint development effort, (4) Compiler vendors
interested in Lahey's Partnership Project can see that Lahey is using the
technology they are selling.

Due to the competitive advantage that Lahey will have with their Fortran
90, Lahey is not currently releasing information on the compiler back-end
technology, target operating system, or ship date. Future press releases
will focus on the above mentioned issues.

Corporate Profile Founded in 1967, Lahey Computer Systems specializes in
the design and production of Fortran language systems and development
tools for professional programmers. Their award-winning PC Fortran
language systems include Lahey Personal Fortran, F77L, and F77L-EM/32.

Lahey Computer Systems
P.O. Box 6091, 865 Tahoe Blvd, Incline Village, NV 89450
(702) 831-2500  *  Fax: (702) 831-8123

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