We’re thrilled to share that Chapel 2.7 is now live! This release marks an important milestone for the project, as 2.7 is the first version released since Chapel joined the HPSF as an established project in November.
Highlights of Chapel 2.7
Chapel version 2.7 introduces enhancements across performance optimization, debugging, packaging, and system integration including:
- Vector Library support for modern CPUs
A new –vector-library compiler flag simplifies the use of optimized vectorization libraries during backend specialization for target CPUs. These libraries enable better use of modern CPU vector instruction sets and can significantly improve application performance. - Improved debugging capabilities
Debugging support has been strengthened with the introduction of a new –debug compiler flag. This flag simplifies debugging with tools such as LLDB and GDB, as well as Chapel’s prototype chpl-parallel-dbg tool. The parallel debugger has been enhanced to better support debugging of remote variables through Chapel’s global namespace. - Automatic stack trace generation
In most builds and configurations, Chapel now generates stack traces by default when execution-time errors occur. This change helps users more quickly identify the source of unexpected failures. - Enhancements to Mason
Mason, the Chapel package manager, has seen improvements in build behavior, performance, support for multi-language packages, and integration with the Chapel language server. These updates improve reliability and usability for developers managing dependencies. - More flexible Linux packages
Prebuilt Linux packages now support CPU code specialization, execution in SMP mode on a single compute node, and the use of system installations of GMP and hwloc. These changes provide greater flexibility when deploying Chapel across different environments.
Learn More
Additional details about this release are available in the official Chapel 2.7 announcement on the Chapel project blog.
Chapel 2.7 continues the project’s focus on making parallel programming more accessible, scalable, and maintainable. HPSF looks forward to supporting the growing Chapel community as the project continues to evolve!