Allinea

Allinea Software emerged in 2002, founded by David Lecomber, to create advanced tools for the high-performance computing (HPC) market. Lecomber, who holds a DPhil from Oxford University where he researched programming models for concurrency, identified a growing need for sophisticated debugging and performance analysis software in the parallel computing era. The company established itself as a key player in the HPC space, providing tools that maximize the efficiency of software on complex systems. Its client base included prestigious organizations such as the US Department of Energy, NASA, and numerous supercomputing labs and universities globally.

The core of Allinea's offering was the Allinea Forge tool suite, which comprised Allinea DDT, an application debugger, and Allinea MAP, a performance analyzer. These tools were designed for developers working with parallel applications written in languages like C, C++, and Fortran. A key selling point was the software's ability to debug and analyze systems with a vast number of nodes, a unique capability in the market. For system administrators and users, the company provided Allinea Performance Reports, an analysis tool for monitoring application performance. By 2016, Allinea's tools were utilized by 80 percent of the world's top 25 supercomputers, demonstrating significant market penetration.

In a strategic move to bolster its position in the HPC market, ARM Holdings acquired Allinea Software in December 2016 for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition integrated Allinea's team and product portfolio into ARM's Development Solutions Group, with CEO David Lecomber joining the management team. ARM committed to continuing the development and support for Allinea's products across multiple CPU architectures, not just ARM-based systems. Subsequently, in January 2023, Linaro, an open-source collaborative engineering organization, acquired the Arm Forge business from Arm, rebranding the tool suite as Linaro Forge. Linaro continues to develop and support the software, which remains a crucial tool for developers in HPC, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

Keywords: Allinea Software, high-performance computing, HPC tools, software development tools, parallel computing, debugging software, performance analysis, Allinea Forge, Allinea DDT, Allinea MAP, David Lecomber, ARM acquisition, Linaro Forge, supercomputing, code profiler, parallel programming, data analytics, machine learning, many-node systems, scientific computation