Intel® Distribution for Python*
2017 Update 2
Release Notes
5 February 2017

Version History/Revision History
Date

Revision

Description

August 2016
November 2016

1.0
1.1

February 2016

1.2

Release Notes for the Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017
Release Notes for the Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017
Update 1
Release Notes for the Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017
Update 2

Intended Audience
The target audience for the release notes are software developers and end users of the Intel
Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2.

Customer Support
For technical support, including answers to questions not addressed in this document, visit thetechnical support forum at https://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/intel-distribution-for-python oremail Intel Corporation at scripting@intel.com.

2
Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2 Release Notes

Contents
1
2
3

Introduction
New in this Release
System Requirements

4
4
5

4
5
6
7
8

Installation
Release Content
Known Issues
Related Documentation
Legal Information

7
9
12
12
17

3
Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2 Release Notes

1 Introduction
The Python* programming language is an open source programming language with increasing
adoption by developers across many application domains and a large ecosystem of available freepackages. In particular, the packages commonly used for numerical and scientific computation, called
the SciPy stack, are very popular and heavily used.
Intel® Distribution for Python* is a binary distribution of Python interpreter and commonly used
packages for computation and data intensive domains, such as scientific and engineering computing,big data, and data science. The product supports Python 2 and 3 for Windows, Linux, and OS X. The
product simplifies Python installation by providing packages in a binary form so that everything ispreconfigured and no compilation tools are needed, as well as contains all the dependences forrunning on popular OS platforms. Python packages have been accelerated with Intel® Performance
Libraries, including Intel® Math Kernel Library (Intel® MKL), Intel® Threading Building Blocks (Intel®
TBB), and Intel® Data Analytics Acceleration Library (Intel® DAAL). The packages have been optimized
to take advantage of parallelism through the use of threading, multiple nodes, and vectorization.
This document provides system requirements and installation instructions and lists issues andlimitations.
To learn more about this product, see:New features in the New in this Release section below, or in the product help.
Reference documentation in the Related Documentation section below
Installation instructions in the Installing this Release section below

2 New in this Release
2.1 Intel Distribution for Python 2017 Update 2Upgraded packages:o conda 4.11.1 4.2.12
o conda-env 2.5.2  2.6.0
o hdf5 1.8.16  1.8.17
o intelpython 2017.0.1  2017.0.2
o ipywidgets 4.2.2  5.2.2
o jupyter_console 4.1.1  5.0.0
o libpng 1.6.22  1.6.28
o libxml2 2.9.3  2.9.4
o llvmlite 0.11.0  0.15.0
o mkl 2017.0.1  2017.0.2
4Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2 Release Noteso numba 0.28.1  0.30.1
o openssl 1.0.2j  1.0.2k
o pandas 0.19.0  0.19.2
o pydaal 2017.0.1.20161006  2017.0.2.20170126
o tbb 2017.2  2017.0.4
o zlib 1.2.8  1.2.11
New packages:o appnope 0.1.0
o boost 1.61.0
o caffe 1.0.0
o gflags 2.1.2
o glog 0.3.4
o h5py 2.6.0
o icu 54.1
o jpeg 8do leveldb 1.18
o libtiff 4.0.7
o lmdb 0.9.18
o networkx 1.11
o pillow 3.4.2
o prompt_toolkit 1.0.3
o python-gflags 3.1.0
o python-leveldb 0.193
o ruamel_yaml 0.11.14
o scikit-image 0.12.3
o snappy 1.1.3
o theano 1.0
o wcwidth 0.1.7

3 System Requirements
The Intel® Distribution for Python* supports the Intel® 64 architecture. For a complete explanation ofthis architecture name please read the following article:
Intel Architecture Platform Terminology for Development Tools.
The lists below pertain only to the system requirements necessary to support application
development with Intel® Distribution for Python*. If you are using Cython*, please review the
documentation for your compiler (GCC*, Microsoft Visual Studio*, or Intel® Compiler) to determine theminimum hardware and software requirements.
5Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2 Release Notes

Minimum System Requirements

A system based on an Intel 64 architecture processor supporting the Intel® Streaming SIMD
Extensions 4.2 (Intel® SSE4.2) instructions (or compatible non-Intel processor).
NOTE:

Incompatible or proprietary instructions in non-Intel processors may cause the analysis
capabilities of this product to function incorrectly. Any attempt to analyze code notsupported by Intel® processors may lead to failures in this product.
o For the best experience, a multi-core or multiprocessor system is recommended.
 2GB free disk space for all product features and all architectures Supported operating systems:o Windows 10*o Windows 8*
o Windows 8.1*
o Windows 7*
Note: SP1 is required for use of Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions (Intel® AVX)o Windows Server* 2008 R2 SP1 and SP2o Windows HPC Server 2008 R2
o Windows Server* 2012o Red Hat* Enterprise Linux* 6
o Red Hat* Enterprise Linux* 7
o Red Hat Fedora* core 22
o Red Hat Fedora* core 23
o SUSE Linux Enterprise Server* 11
o SUSE Linux Enterprise Server* 12
o Debian* GNU/Linux 7
o Ubuntu* 14.04 LTS
o Ubuntu* 16.04 LTS
o OS X* 10.10
o OS X* 10.11 (Xcode 7.0 and higher)o MacOS* 10.12
Note: Intel® Distribution for Python* is expected to work on many more Linux distributions as well.
Let us know if you have trouble with the distribution you use.
oExternal Dependencies
For Windows*: None
For Linux*: glibc 2.12 or higher.
For OS X*: None.
6Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2 Release Notes

4 Installation
To download the Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 as a standalone product, visit
https://software.intel.com/en-us/python-distribution.
NOTE for Intel® Parallel Studio XE customers: Installation of the Intel® Distribution for Python* is aseparate process. During installation of the Intel® Parallel Studio XE 2017, you are prompted todownload the Intel Distribution for Python*. If you choose to download the Intel Distribution for
Python* at a later time, visit the Intel® Registration Center and log in using the credentials you enteredduring registration. The Intel Distribution for Python* is available as a direct download from thehome page after login.

Installing this Release
The Intel Distribution for Python* is compatible with the Conda* package management tool. All
modules included in the distribution are initially installed into the root Conda* environment.
On Windows*:
1. Download the executable file for Intel Distribution for Python* and double-click it to begin the
installation.
2. When the installation completes, activate your root Intel® python conda environment:
 To modify only your current command shell, use the following command:o <install>\Scripts\activate
On Linux*:
1. Choose the installation path.
NOTE: If you do not have root access, you must install the Intel Distribution for Python*somewhere within your home directory.
2. Extract the contents using the following command:tar -xvzf <filename>
3. Run the install.sh script and follow the installer prompts.
4. When the installation completes, activate your root Intel® python conda environment:To modify only your current shell, use the following commands:o source bin/activate root
To modify all future logins, do one of the following:o Add “source bin/activate root” to your .bashrc (bash) or other logon script.
o Manually add the <install>/bin directory to your PATH.
Use the following command to ensure your environment points to the Intel® Distribution for
Python*:run “which python”
7Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2 Release Notes

On OS X:
1. Download the Intel Distribution for Python* and extract the intelpython<27|35>-<version>.tgz file
to your desktop.
2. Double-click the intelpython icon to begin installation and follow the installer prompts.
5. When the installation completes, activate your root Intel® python conda environment:To modify only your current shell, use the following commands:o source bin/activate root
To modify all future logins, do one of the following:o Add “source bin/activate root” to your .bashrc (bash) or other logon script.
o Manually add the <install>/bin directory to your PATH.
Use the following command to ensure your environment points to the Intel® Distribution for
Python*:run “which python”

Default Installation Folders
On Windows*:
C:\IntelPython<27|35>
On Linux* or OS X*:/opt/intel/intelpython<27|35>

Changing, Updating, or Removing the Product
On Windows*: Open Programs and Features, right-click Intel Distribution for Python* 2.7/3.5, andclick uninstall.
On Linux* or OS X*: Delete the installation directory and remove additions to your PATH.
You can also use the Conda* package management tool to update individual modules. You can findthe Conda* tool in the bin directory on Linux*/ OS X* or in the Scripts directory on Windows*. Usethese commands to do the following with the Conda* tool:To install a new module:
conda install <module name>To update an existing module:
conda update <module name>To remove an existing module:
conda remove <module name>8Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2 Release Notes

5 Release Content
Intel Distribution for Python* complies with the SciPy Stack 1.0 specification
http://www.scipy.org/stackspec.html.

Nameappnopebackports
backports_abc
boost
bzip2
caffe
cairo
conda
conda-env
configparser
cyclercythondb
decorator
distarrayentrypoints
enum34
fontconfig
freetype
funcsigs
functools32
futures
get_terminal_size
gflags
glog
h5py
hdf5
icc_rticu
impi_rtintelpython
ipykernel
ipyparallel
ipythonipython_genutils
ipywidgets
jinja2

Version
0.1.0
1.0
0.4
1.61.01.0.6
1.0.0
1.12.18
4.2.122.6.0
3.5.0
0.10.00.24
4.7.254.0.10
0.6.0
0.2.2
1.1.6
2.11.12.5.5
1.0.2
3.2.3.2
3.0.5
1.0.0
2.1.2
0.3.4
2.6.0
1.8.1716.0.3
54.1
2017.0.1
2017.0.2
4.5.0
5.2.0
4.2.0
0.1.0
5.2.2
2.8
9

Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2 Release Notes

jpeg
jsonschema
jupyter
jupyter_client
jupyter_console
jupyter_coreleveldb
libpnglibsodium
libtiff
libxml2
llvmlite
lmdb
markupsafe
matplotlib
menuinst
mistunemkl
mpi4pympmathnbconvert
nbformat
networkx
nose
notebooknumba
numexprnumpy
opensslpandaspath.py
pathlib2
pexpect
pickleshare
pillowpip
pixmanprompt_toolkit
protobuf
ptyprocess
pycairopycosatpydaalpygments
pyparsing

8d
2.5.1
1.0.0
4.4.0
5.0.0
4.2.0
1.18
1.6.281.0.104.0.7
2.9.4
0.15.00.9.18
0.23
1.5.3
1.4.1
0.7.3
2017.0.2
2.0.0
0.19
4.2.0
4.1.0
1.11
1.3.7
4.2.3
0.30.1
2.6.1
1.11.2
1.0.2k
0.19.2
8.2.1
2.1.0
4.0.1
0.7.4
3.4.2
8.1.2
0.32.6
1.0.3
3.0.0
0.5.1
1.10.0
0.6.1
2017.0.2.20170126
2.1.3
2.1.4
10

Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2 Release Notes

pytables
python-2.7
python-dateutil
python-gflags
python-leveldb
pytz
pyyamlpyzmq
requests
ruamel_yaml
scikit-image
scikit-learn
scipy
setuptools
simplegeneric
singledispatchsix
snappysqlitessl_match_hostname
sympy
tbb
tcl
terminado
theanotk
tornadotraitletsvc (Windows only)vs2008_runtime
vs2015_runtime
wcwidthwheel
widgetsnbextension
xz
yaml
zeromqzlib

3.2.3.1
2.7.12, 3.5.2
2.5.3
3.1.0
0.193
2016.6.1
3.12
15.4.02.11.1
0.11.140.12.30.18.1
0.18.123.0.00.8.1
3.4.0.3
1.10.01.1.3
3.13.0
3.5.0.1
1.0
2017.0.4
8.6.4
0.6
1.0
8.6.4
4.4.1
4.2.2
9.0 (2.7), 14.0 (3.5)
9.00.30729.1
14.0.25123
0.1.7
0.29.0
1.2.6
5.2.2
0.1.6
4.1.4
1.2.11

The installation package contains all the necessary native libraries required by the packages.

11Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2 Release Notes

6 Known Issues
Please refer to the Known Issues in the Resources section of the document that is available online:
https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-distribution-for-python-support-and-documentation

7 Related DocumentationNameappnopebackports_abc

VersionDocumentation

0.1.0 https://pypi.python.org/pypi/appnope/0.1.0
0.4 https://pypi.python.org/pypi/backports_abc

boost1.61.1 http://www.boost.org/

bzip2

1.0.6 http://www.bzip.org/docs.html

caffe

1.0.0 http://caffe.berkeleyvision.org/

cairo

1.12.18 http://cairographics.org/documentation/

conda

4.2.12 http://conda.pydata.org/

conda-env

2.6.0 http://conda.pydata.org/docs/

configparser

3.5.0 http://docs.python.org/3/library/configparser.html

cycler

0.10.0 http://matplotlib.org/cycler/

cython0.24 http://cython.org/#documentationdb

4.7.25 http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/databasetechnologies/berkeleydb/documentation/index.htmlx

decorator

4.0.10 http://pythonhosted.org/decorator/

distarray

0.6.0 http://docs.enthought.com/distarrayentrypoints

0.2.2 https://github.com/takluyver/entrypoints

enum34

1.1.6 https://pypi.python.org/pypi/enum34

fontconfig

2.11.1 https://www.freedesktop.org/software/fontconfig/fontconfig-user.html
12Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2 Release Notes

freetype2.5.5 http://freetype.sourceforge.net/freetype2/documentation.html

funcsigs

1.0.2 http://funcsigs.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

functools32

3.2.3.2 http://docs.python.org/3.2/library/functools.html

futures3.0.5 https://docs.python.org/dev/library/concurrent.futures.html

get_terminal_size

1.0.0 https://github.com/chrippa/backports.shutil_get_terminal_size

gflags

2.1.2 https://gflags.github.io/gflags/

glog

0.3.4 https://github.com/google/glog

h5py

2.6.0 http://docs.h5py.org

hdf5

1.8.17 https://www.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/doc/

icu

54.1 http://site.icu-project.org/design

ipykernel

4.5.0 http://ipython.readthedocs.org/

ipyparallel

5.2.0 http://ipyparallel.readthedocs.org/

ipython

4.2.0 http://ipython.org/documentation.html

ipython_genutils

0.1.0 http://jupyter.org

ipywidgets

5.2.2 http://github.com/jakevdp/ipywidgets

jinja22.8 http://jinja.pocoo.org/docs/dev/

jpeg

8d http://www.ijg.org/files

jsonschema

2.5.1 https://python-jsonschema.readthedocs.org

jupyter

1.0.0 http://jupyter.readthedocs.org/

jupyter_client

4.4.0 http://jupyter-client.readthedocs.org/

jupyter_console

5.0.0 http://jupyter-console.readthedocs.org/

jupyter_core

4.2.0 http://jupyter-core.readthedocs.org/

leveldb

1.18 https://rawgit.com/google/leveldb/master/doc/index.html

libpng1.6.28 http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html
13Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2 Release Notes

libsodium

1.0.10 http://libsodium.org

libtiff

4.0.7 http://www.libtiff.org/

libxml2

2.9.4 http://xmlsoft.org/

llvmlite

0.15.0 https://github.com/numba/llvmlite

lmdb

0.9.18 http://symas.com/mdb/

markupsafe

0.23 https://pypi.python.org/pypi/MarkupSafe

matplotlib

1.5.3 http://matplotlib.org/contents.html#

menuinst

1.4.1 https://pypi.python.org/pypi/menuinst/

mistune0.7.3 http://mistune.readthedocs.org/

mkl

2017.0.2 http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-mkl/

mpi4py2.0.0 http://mpi4py.readthedocs.org/

mpmath0.19 http://mpmath.org/doc/current/

nbconvert

4.2.0 http://nbconvert.readthedocs.org/

nbformat4.1.0 http://nbformat.readthedocs.org

networkx

1.11 http://networkx.github.io/documentation.html

nose

1.3.7 https://nose.readthedocs.org

notebook

4.2.3 https://jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

numba

0.30.1 http://numba.pydata.org/

numexpr2.6.1 https://github.com/pydata/numexpr/wiki/Numexpr-Users-Guide

numpy

1.11.2 http://numpy.scipy.org/

openssl

1.0.2k http://www.openssl.org/

pandas

0.19.2 http://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/

path.py

8.2.1 https://pythonhosted.org/path.py/pathlib2

2.1.0 https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pathlib2/
14Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2 Release Notes

pexpect

4.0.1 http://pexpect.readthedocs.org/

pickleshare

0.7.4 https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pickleshare

pillow

3.4.2 http://pillow.readthedocs.org/en/3.2.x/

pip

8.1.2 https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/

pixman0.32.6 http://www.pixman.org/

prompt_toolkit

1.0.3 http://python-prompt-toolkit.readthedocs.io/en/stable/

protobuf

3.0.0 https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/

ptyprocess

0.5.1 https://github.com/pexpect/ptyprocess

pycairo1.10.0 http://cairographics.org/pycairo/

pycosat

0.6.1 https://github.com/ContinuumIO/pycosat

pygments

2.1.3 http://pygments.org/docs/

pyparsing

2.1.4 http://pyparsing.wikispaces.com/Documentation

pytablespython3.2.3.1 http://www.pytables.org/
2.7.12, 3.5.2 https://www.python.org/doc/versions/python-dateutil

2.5.3 https://dateutil.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

python-gflags

3.1.0 https://github.com/google/python-gflags

python-leveldb

0.193 https://code.google.com/archive/p/py-leveldb/

pytzpyyaml2016.6.1 http://pytz.sourceforge.net/
3.12 http://pyyaml.org/

pyzmq

15.4.0 https://pyzmq.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

requests

2.11.0 http://docs.python-requests.org/

ruamel_yaml

0.11.14 https://bitbucket.org/ruamel/yaml

scikit-image

0.12.3 http://scikit-image.org/docs/dev

scikit-learn

0.18.1 http://scikit-learn.org/stable/
15Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2 Release Notesscipy0.18.1 http://www.scipy.org/docs.html

setuptools

23.0.0 http://pythonhosted.org/setuptools/

simplegeneric0.8.1 https://pypi.python.org/pypi/simplegeneric

singledispatch

3.4.0.3 http://docs.python.org/3/library/functools.html#functools.singledispatchsix

1.10.0 http://pythonhosted.org/six/

sqlite3.13.0 http://www.sqlite.org/docs.html

ssl_match_hostname

3.5.0.1 https://pypi.python.org/pypi/backports.ssl_match_hostname

sympy
tcl

1.0 http://docs.sympy.org/latest/index.html
8.6.4 http://www.tcl.tk/doc/

terminado

0.6 http://terminado.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

theano1.0 http://deeplearning.net/software/theano/tk

8.6.4 http://www.tcl.tk/doc/

tornado

4.4.1 http://www.tornadoweb.org/en/stable/

traitlets

4.2.2 http://traitlets.readthedocs.org/en/stable/

vs2008_runtime

9.00.30729.1 http://www.microsoft.com

vs2015_runtime

14.0.25123 http://www.microsoft.com

wcwidthhttps://github.com/jquast/wcwidth

wheel

0.29.0 http://wheel.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

widgetsnbextension

1.2.6 http://ipython.org

xz

5.2.2 http://tukaani.org/xz/

yaml

0.1.6 http://yaml.org/

zeromq4.1.4 http://zeromq.org/intro:read-the-manualzlib

1.2.11 http://zlib.net/manual.html

16Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2 Release Notes

8 Legal Information
No license (express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise) to any intellectual property rights is grantedby this document.
Intel disclaims all express and implied warranties, including without limitation, the implied warranties ofmerchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, as well as any warranty arisingfrom course of performance, course of dealing, or usage in trade.
This document contains information on products, services and/or processes in development. All
information provided here is subject to change without notice. Contact your Intel representative toobtain the latest forecast, schedule, specifications and roadmaps.
The products and services described may contain defects or errors known as errata which may cause
deviations from published specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request.
Copies of documents which have an order number and are referenced in this document may beobtained by calling 1-800-548-4725 or by visiting www.intel.com/design/literature.htm.
Intel, the Intel logo, and Intel Core are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or othercountries.
* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Microsoft, Windows, Visual Studio, Visual C++, and the Windows logo are trademarks, or registeredtrademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
© 2016 Intel Corporation.
Optimization NoticeIntel's compilers may or may not optimize to the same degree for non-Intel microprocessors for
optimizations that are not unique to Intel microprocessors. These optimizations include SSE2, SSE3, and
SSSE3 instruction sets and other optimizations. Intel does not guarantee the availability, functionality, or
effectiveness of any optimization on microprocessors not manufactured by Intel. Microprocessordependent optimizations in this product are intended for use with Intel microprocessors. Certain
optimizations not specific to Intel microarchitecture are reserved for Intel microprocessors. Please refer tothe applicable product User and Reference Guides for more information regarding the specific instruction
sets covered by this notice.
Notice Revision #20110804

17Intel® Distribution for Python* 2017 Update 2 Release Notes