lots of copy pasting here, so why not replace the whole block with this (keeping in mind the previous remark):

```python
deps = ['GCC', 'MATLAB']
for dep in deps:
    if not get_software_root(dep):
        self.log.error("%s module not loaded" % dep)
```

Also: why are you hard checking for GCC? Is it a hard requirement for SPM, or do you just want to make sure there's *a* compiler available (if so, don't bother)?
Would an SPM build also work with the Intel compiler?