The folks at Phoronix are all excited the the EKOPath 4 Compiler Suite from PathScale. Their article is here: [Phoronix] PathScale Open-Sources The EKOPath 4 Compiler Suite](http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=pathscale_ekopath4_open&num=1)
To quote from Phoronix:
EKOPath is a high-performance Intel 64 / AMD64 compiler for C99, C++ 2003, and partial support for Fortran 2003. Up to this point in development, PathScale’s compiler has been proprietary and has carried a rather high price-tag with the licensing starting out at $1795 USD and going up from there. … This code compiler is especially popular in super-computing environments. The open-source EKOPath 4 will be available to Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris users free of charge. PathScale will also continue to offer commercial support for this compiler suite.
Phoronix have compiled some Ubuntu kernels/applications (?) with this compiler and note performance improvements (over the stock GNU/Linux compiler) here: [Phoronix] The “Dirndl” On AMD Opterons Are Impressive](http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTU1MQ) with number intensive processing results as much as 100% superior over the slower ‘stock’ GNU/Linux compiler used in compiling the kernel for practically all GNU/Linux distributions.
While open source, and provided free like in beer free (for regular users) I do not believe it to be “free” as per the Free Software Foundation definition of “Free” (but I am not sure on that).
I don’t know if there will be any issues with our openSUSE forum users using this compiler to compile their kernel, but it will be interesting to find out. The purported speed improvements are impressive.