Edit: now i found out that intel C++ compiler needs a Visual studio IDE by M$ too bad.
A compiler is usually (not to say always) a command line application that take some files and options as input and produce the binaries as output, so it would never be tied to an IDE, unless a license says so, or is part of the GUI of the IDE code, what I don't think is the case :wink:.
Edit: I read the intel compiler page and indeed, it needs the M$ IDE beacuse it brings some headers and libraries to develop for some of the architectures supported by the compiler (including IA-32).
For IA-32 it says:
Use of command-line tools for building is supported only if one of the above required Microsoft development products is installed. The Microsoft Platform SDK alone is not sufficient.
For other platforms is not needed, only the M$ SDK