gcc-4.4.6.20101012 marked broken?

[Troy]

I was trying to upgrade the gcc port and received the following:

portupgrade gcc-4.4.6.20101012
** Port marked as IGNORE: lang/gcc44:
         is marked as broken: does not build
** Listing the failed packages (-:ignored / *:skipped / !:failed)
         - lang/gcc44 (marked as IGNORE)

Is it safe to remove this port? isn't gcc part of the core operating 
system?  I'm not sure which port went to install this but I'm hesitant 
to remove it and break my ability to compile.