Compilers existed just fine to do the porting, and solved that problem.

Intel's failure is that they were unable to solve a different problem because that compiler didn't exist, one that went well beyond merely porting.

In other words, "That's what compilers are for." is a perfectly fine attitude when those compilers exist, and a bad attitude when they don't exist. Porting is the former, making VLIW efficient is the latter.