A survey of packages for large linear systems
A survey of packages for large linear systems
复制标题
大型线性系统封装的调查
DOI：
10.2172/775109
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发表时间：
2000
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
B. Milne
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Kesheng Wu;B. Milne
本文评估了非常大的稀疏线性系统的并行架构的迭代解的便携式软件包。虽然我们不能希望告诉个别用户哪个软件包最适合他们的需求，但我们确实希望我们的系统评估提供有关软件包的基本公正信息，评估过程可以作为如何评估这些软件包的例子。这里包含的信息包括功能比较，可用性评估和性能表征。这篇评论主要集中在独立的软件包，可以很容易地集成到现有的程序，并能够计算非常大的稀疏线性方程组的解决方案。更具体地说，它集中在便携式并行线性系统解决方案包，提供迭代解决方案和相关的预处理方案，因为迭代方法比直接方法等竞争方案更频繁地使用。评价的8个软件包为：阿兹特克、BlockSolve、ISIS++、LINSOL、P-SPARSLIB、PARASOL、PETSc和PINEAPL。在八个便携式并行迭代线性系统求解器的审查，我们建议PETSc和阿兹特克的大多数应用程序员，因为他们有良好的用户界面设计，广泛的文档和非常响应用户支持。PETSc和阿兹特克都是用C语言编写的，可以从Fortran调用。对于那些对使用Fortran 90感兴趣的用户来说，PARASOL是一个很好的选择。ISIS++对于那些喜欢C++语言的人来说是一个很好的选择。PARASOL和ISIS++都是相对较新的，并在不断发展。因此，用户界面可能会发生变化。一般来说，用Fortran 77编写的程序包使用起来比较麻烦，因为用户可能需要直接处理许多不同大小的数组。像C++和Fortran 90这样的语言提供了更方便的数据封装机制，这使得实现一个干净直观的用户界面变得更加容易。除了回顾这些便携式并行迭代求解器包，我们还提供了一个更粗略的评估范围内的相关软件包，从专门的并行预处理器直接方法稀疏线性系统。
This paper evaluates portable software packages for the iterative solution of very large sparse linear systems on parallel architectures. While we cannot hope to tell individual users which package will best suit their needs, we do hope that our systematic evaluation provides essential unbiased information about the packages and the evaluation process may serve as an example on how to evaluate these packages. The information contained here include feature comparisons, usability evaluations and performance characterizations. This review is primarily focused on self-contained packages that can be easily integrated into an existing program and are capable of computing solutions to very large sparse linear systems of equations. More specifically, it concentrates on portable parallel linear system solution packages that provide iterative solution schemes and related preconditioning schemes because iterative methods are more frequently used than competing schemes such as direct methods. The eight packages evaluated are: Aztec, BlockSolve,ISIS++, LINSOL, P-SPARSLIB, PARASOL, PETSc, and PINEAPL. Among the eight portable parallel iterative linear system solvers reviewed, we recommend PETSc and Aztec for most application programmers because they have well designed user interface, extensive documentation and very responsive user support. Both PETSc and Aztec are written in the C language and are callable from Fortran. For those users interested in using Fortran 90, PARASOL is a good alternative. ISIS++is a good alternative for those who prefer the C++ language. Both PARASOL and ISIS++ are relatively new and are continuously evolving. Thus their user interface may change. In general, those packages written in Fortran 77 are more cumbersome to use because the user may need to directly deal with a number of arrays of varying sizes. Languages like C++ and Fortran 90 offer more convenient data encapsulation mechanisms which make it easier to implement a clean and intuitive user interface. In addition to reviewing these portable parallel iterative solver packages, we also provide a more cursory assessment of a range of related packages, from specialized parallel preconditioners to direct methods for sparse linear systems.