Building Python with icc on 64-bit Linux

[Konrad Hinsen]

I am trying to install Python 2.6.2 on a 64-bit Linux machine (RedHat  
Enterprise) using the Intel compiler (version 11). Even without  
optimizations (-O0), I get a compilation error in the ctypes module

icc -pthread -fPIC -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -O0 -I. -I/home/shr/ 
khinsen/tm\
p/Python-2.6.2/./Include -Ibuild/temp.linux-x86_64-2.6/libffi/include  
-Ibuild/t\
emp.linux-x86_64-2.6/libffi -I/home/shr/khinsen/tmp/Python-2.6.2/ 
Modules/_ctype\
s/libffi/src -I. -IInclude -I./Include -I/usr/local/include -I/home/ 
shr/khinsen\
/tmp/Python-2.6.2/Include -I/home/shr/khinsen/tmp/Python-2.6.2 -c / 
home/shr/khi\
nsen/tmp/Python-2.6.2/Modules/_ctypes/libffi/src/x86/ffi64.c -o build/ 
temp.linu\
x-x86_64-2.6/home/shr/khinsen/tmp/Python-2.6.2/Modules/_ctypes/libffi/ 
src/x86/f\
fi64.o
/home/shr/khinsen/tmp/Python-2.6.2/Modules/_ctypes/libffi/src/x86/ 
ffi64.c(43): \
error: identifier "__int128_t" is undefined
     __int128_t sse[MAX_SSE_REGS];
     ^
compilation aborted for /home/shr/khinsen/tmp/Python-2.6.2/Modules/ 
_ctypes/libf\
fi/src/x86/ffi64.c (code 2)


and failed test:

test test_cmath failed -- Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "/home/shr/khinsen/tmp/Python-2.6.2/Lib/test/test_cmath.py",  
line 366, i\
n test_specific_values
     self.fail(error_message)
AssertionError: acos0000: acos(complex(0.0, 0.0))
Expected: complex(1.5707963267948966, -0.0)
Received: complex(1.5707963267948966, 0.0)
Received value insufficiently close to expected value.


Adding optimization yields even more failed tests. My configuration  
options are:

	configure --prefix=$HOME CC=icc CXX=icc OPT=-O0

Did anyone encounter these problems before? Any solutions?

Thanks,
   Konrad.