OpenMP Run-time Libraries Changed since Intel IPP 6.0 and Intel MKL 10.1

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July 21, 2009 9:00 AM PDT


Since the Intel IPP® 6.0 and Intel® MKL 10.1, the OpenMP libraries ( also called Threading Runtime Libraries) are switching from the legacy OpenMP* run-time library (libguide*) to the compatibility library (libiomp*).

The dynamic library, libguide40.dll, is included in the later releases for backwards compatibility and have been removed in intel®  IPP 7.0 and Intel® MKL 10.3.

You are strongly encouraged to dynamically link in the compatibility OpenMP* run-time library libiomp (i.e libiomp5md.lib and libiomp5md.dll , located in the [Compiler Dir]\lib directory), even if other libraries are linked statically.
Linking to static OpenMP* run-time library (i.e libiomp5mt.lib)is not recommended. Because multiple OpenMP libraries in one application causes performance problems (too many threads) and may cause correctness problems if more than one copy is initialized. See  OMP Abort: Initializing libiomp5mt.dll but found libiomp5md.dll already initialized

For who are using intel® IPP or intel® MKL from or Intel® Parallel Composer and Intel® Parallel Composer XE (formerly Intel® Compilers Professional version), please note that all OpenMP libraries are under [Composer InstallDir]\lib.  For example,
Intel Compiler Professional for Mac OS: it includes IPP as part of product, the libiomp5.dylib, libiomp5.a are in directory /opt/intel/Compiler/xx.x/0xx/lib by default.
In Intel® Parallel Composer: they are in C:\Program Files\Intel\Parallel Studio\Composer\lib\ia32
In Intel® Parallel Composer XE 2011 for Windows* : libiomp*.lib are in C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ComposerXE-2011\compiler\lib\ia32  and  libiomp*.dll in C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ComposerXE-2011\redist\ia32\compiler\"

See one related known issue: libiomp5md.dll not found when running ippiDemo or ippsDemo in 7.0 update 2

Operating System

Dynamic Link

Static Link

Linux

libiomp5.so

libiomp5.a

Mac OS X

libiomp5.dylib

libiomp5.a

Windows

libiomp5md.lib(dynamic import library)
libiomp5md.dll

libiomp5mt.lib

* libiomp5md.lib is a stub library (also called "import library") that is paired with the DLL libiomp5md.dll

For more information, please refer to the Intel® Compilers document Intel® C++ Compiler User and Reference Guide (section Optimizing Applications > Using Parallelism: OpenMP* Support > Libraries, Directives, Clauses, and  Environment Variables and OpenMP* Support Libraries)



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This article applies to: Intel® Integrated Performance Primitives Knowledge Base,   Intel® Math Kernel Library Knowledge Base