Proposal to Extend the Linear Algebra Library LAPACK for High-Performance Computers

LAPACK是一个用于高性能计算机的线性代数库。第一个版本是针对共享内存机的，将于1990年底上市，已经吸引了潜在用户群体和制造商的极大兴趣。这项研究致力于通过增加线性代数功能来增加LAPACK的功能，并通过瞄准更广泛的高性能体系结构、提供额外的语言版本和利用干净的计算机算法来增加用户社区，从而进一步扩展LAPACK的有用性。这些扩展包括在系统和控制理论中有用的新子例程，如求解西尔维斯特方程和广义奇异值分解，某些特征问题的新算法，这些算法比EISPACK中的任何算法都要精确得多，适应分布式内存体系结构，几个子例程的版本以利用一些计算机算术(特别是IEEE算法)的特殊性质，以及一些最重要的子例程的Fortran 8X和C语言版本。LAPACK包括一套全面的测试和计时例程。这些将被用作设计和开发线性代数常用算法的系统性能分析程序包的基础。这个库将简化代码开发，使代码在不同体系结构的机器之间更容易移植，提高效率，提供评估计算机性能的工具。

LAPACK is a linear algebra library for high-performance computers. The first release, targeted at shared memory machines, will be available at the end of 1990, and is already attracting significant interest both from the potential user community and from manufacturers. This research is concerned with extending still further the usefulness of LAPACK by increasing the functionality through additional linear algebra capability, and by increasing the user community through targeting a wider range of high-performance architectures, providing additional language versions, and exploiting clean computer arithmetic. The extensions include new subroutines useful in systems and control theory such as solving Sylvester equations and generalized singular value decomposition, new algorithms for certain eigenproblems which are much more accurate than any algorithms in EISPACK, accommodating distributed-memory architectures, versions of several subroutines to exploit special properties of some computer arithmetics (especially IEEE arithmetic), and Fortran 8X and C language versions of some of the most important subroutines. LAPACK includes a comprehensive set of testing and timing routines. These will be used as a basis for the design and development of a systematic performance analysis package for the common algorithms of linear algebra. This library will ease code development, make codes more portable among machines of different architectures, increase efficiency, provide tools for evaluating computer performance.