PathScale
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software, Compilers |
| Founded | 2001 |
| Founder | Tom McWilliams, Jeff Rubin, Jeff Broughton, Fred Chow |
| Products | EKOPath compiler suite (C, C++, Fortran compilers), AMD Core Math Library, PathDB debugger |
PathScale Inc. created an advanced optimizing compiler suite for C, C++, and Fortran languages, specifically designed for x86-64 platforms, with its origins linked to the SGI MIPSPro compiler technology.
History
Established in 2001 under the name Key Research, PathScale initially concentrated on clustered Linux server solutions utilizing affordable 64-bit hardware architectures. After the AMD Opteron's market success by late 2003, the company redirected its efforts toward developing high-performance 64-bit compilers.
The company's foundation dates back to the early 1980s at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where its four founders collaborated on the S1 supercomputer project. PathScale's CTO, Tom McWilliams—who previously held roles at Valid Logic Systems, Key Computer, SGI, Sun Microsystems, and Amdahl—formed the company in July 2001, bringing on board former colleagues Jeff Rubin, Jeff Broughton, and Fred Chow, all of whom had experience at SGI and MIPS as chief compiler scientists.
PathScale underwent several ownership transitions: it was acquired by QLogic in 2006 for approximately $109 million; QLogic later sold its InfiniPath network technology to Intel, which developed it into Omni-Path. The compiler assets were transferred to SiCortex in 2007 and subsequently to Cray in 2009 following SiCortex’s closure. Cray maintained the intellectual property until March 2012 when a newly formed PathScale Inc. reacquired all related assets.
In 2011, the FreeBSD and NetBSD Foundations secured rights to the libcxxrt C++ runtime under a permissive BSD license, moving away from GPL licensing constraints. In June of the same year, PathScale announced that the EKOPath 4 compiler suite would be released as open source under the GPL.
The EKOPath suite features:
- Compilers supporting C, C++, and Fortran 77/90/95/2003 (partial implementation)
- Comprehensive OpenMP 2.5 support, including WORKSHARE constructs
- Compilation for both 32- and 64-bit x86 architectures targeting AMD64 ABI, AMD Opteron, and Intel EM64T
- An optimized AMD Core Math Library
- The multi-threaded debugging tool PathDB
- Compatibility with GNU toolchains and widely used debuggers
- Support across SUSE, Red Hat, and Ubuntu Linux distributions