Sun Forte Developer 6 update 2 debugs mixed Java and native C++

The new debugging capability is based on an extension to the dbx debugger, an interactive, source-level, graphical and command-line tool, that now accepts the GNU debugger (gdb) commands. The extension employs the JVMDI (Java VM Debugging Interface) to implement a native debugging agent running on a Java Virtual Machine. Developers using Java with C /C++/Fortran to build applications for the Solaris OE now have a single tool to debug their entire application.

The compilers in Forte Developer have also been updated to improve interoperability between GNU and open source applications across the Solaris and Linux platforms, further demonstrating Sun's commitment to open source and Linux developers. The new compiler capability also accepts more GNU C++ syntax and reduces the need to re-write source code.

"Sun's Forte tools are an indispensable part of our programming environment, which involves complex, multi-vendor, multi-platform, multi-language computing and demands cross-platform debugging and porting tools tightly integraed with the Solaris OE," said Prof. Christian Bischof, head of the Computing and Communication Center at the University of Technology Aachen in Germany. "Of particular importance is Sun's Forte for High Performance Computing (HPC) tools and support for the OpenMP standard for parallel computing."

The University of Technology Aachen is home to one of the biggest SMP (symmetic multiprocessing) cluster implementations in the world. With the computing power of 2.3 teraflops to be installed in 2002, the supercomputer at Aachen is Sun's largest technical installation to date in the area of High Performance Computing (HPC).