Reliable and Scalable Software for Linear Algebra Computations on High End Computers

用于在高端计算机上进行线性代数计算的可靠且可扩展的软件

• 批准号: 0444486
• 负责人: James Demmel
• 金额: $ 85万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-01-01 至 2008-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0444486&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Reliable; Scalable; Software; Linear; Algebra

This project aims to address the issue of inadequate software support for High Performance Computing by improving two widely used standard libraries, LAPACK and ScaLAPCK, both of which provide numerical linear algebra kernels. By a combination of algorithmic research, an on-going user and vendor survey (at icl.cs.utk.edu/lapack-survey.html), and anticipation of the demands and opportunities of new architectures and modern programming languages, the following key improvements to the current versions have been identified. The use of novel, improved algorithms. Improved ease of use. Performance Tuning. Improved reliability and support. First, new state-of-the-art algorithms will improve speed, accuracy, and memory efficiency. Second, improved user interfaces that exploit features of modern programming languages are important for better ease of use and also hide some of the underlying complex, possibly distributed, data structures. Third, the performance of both libraries crucially depends on a number of machine-dependent parameters whose setting can benefit from automatic tuning techniques developed very successfully in the ATLAS project. Last, there is a huge demand for ongoing support and maintenance of both LAPACK and ScaLAPACK, and there is a need for installing a formal mechanism for user feedback, for tracking bugs, for version management, and facilitated installation. Broader Impacts: LAPACK and ScaLAPACK have been adopted by many vendors as the basis of their own libraries: SGI/Cray, IBM, HP-Convex, Fujitsu, NEC, NAG and IMSL, and the Mathworks (producers of Matlab). For this reason, the proposed changes will have a large impact. Furthermore, recent origin of most of the algorithms described in this proposal means that there are not yet any easily accessible descriptions suitable for education. As part of the project documentation, tutorial material will be developed that is suitable for classroom instruction and wide educational outreach. The development of LAPACK and ScaLAPACK is part of a long and successful history of collaboration between the PIs. In addition, for the current improvements, numerous outside collaborators have offered support ranging from software and ideas to help in programming and development.

该项目旨在通过改进两个广泛使用的标准库LAPACK和ScaLAPCK来解决高性能计算软件支持不足的问题，这两个标准库都提供数值线性代数内核。通过结合算法研究、正在进行的用户和供应商调查（icl.cs.utk.edu/lapack-survey.html）以及对新架构和现代编程语言的需求和机遇的预期，确定了对当前版本的以下关键改进。 使用新的、改进的算法。提高易用性。性能调整。提高可靠性和支持。 首先，新的最先进的算法将提高速度，准确性和内存效率。 其次，改进的用户界面利用现代编程语言的功能，对于更好地易用性非常重要，并且还隐藏了一些潜在的复杂的，可能是分布式的数据结构。 第三，这两个库的性能关键取决于一些机器相关的参数，其设置可以受益于自动调优技术开发非常成功的ATLAS项目。 最后，对LAPACK和ScaLAPACK的持续支持和维护有巨大的需求，并且需要安装用于用户反馈、跟踪错误、版本管理和简化安装的正式机制。 更广泛的影响：LAPACK和ScaLAPACK已经被许多供应商采用作为他们自己的库的基础：SGI/Cray，IBM，HP-Convex，Fujitsu，NEC，NAG和IMSL，以及Mathworks（Matlab的生产商）。 因此，拟议的改革将产生很大影响。 此外，本提案中描述的大多数算法都是最近才出现的，这意味着还没有任何适合教育的易于访问的描述。 作为项目文件的一部分，将编写适合课堂教学和广泛教育推广的辅导材料。LAPACK和ScaLAPACK的开发是PI之间长期成功合作历史的一部分。 此外，对于目前的改进，许多外部合作者提供了从软件和想法到帮助编程和开发的支持。