Collaborative Research: SDCI HPC Improvement: Improvement and Support of Community Based Dense Linear Algebra Software for Extreme Scale Computational Science

最近的许多联邦和学术报告评论了对高性能计算的软件支持的不足。在其他缺陷中，许多为HPC设计的软件，如封装复杂和广泛使用的算法的数值库，被认为太难使用或效率太低(太低的峰值和/或不可伸缩)，或者两者兼而有之。然而，线性代数库LAPACK和ScaLAPACK经常被认为是积极的例子，其在这一领域的成功值得效仿。这项工作涉及在处理器体系结构和系统设计正在进行的革命的背景下，维护、增强、强化和现代化LAPACK和ScaLAPACK库。这些库被广泛使用：从2004到2009年，有超过1.6亿次网络点击(不包括僵尸程序)，它们已经被许多供应商用作他们自己的库的基础：Intel、Cray、IBM、HP、Fujitsu、NEC、NAG、IMSL和Mathworks(Matlab的生产商)。因此，我们完全有理由相信，改进HPC软件堆栈的这些坚固组件将产生非常大的影响。

Numerous recent federal and academic reports comment on the inadequacy of software support for High Performance Computing. Among other deficiencies, much of the software designed for HPC, such as numerical libraries that encapsulate complicated and widely used algorithms, is considered too hard to use, too inefficient (too low a fraction of peak and/or not scalable), or both. However, the linear algebra libraries LAPACK and ScaLAPACK are frequently mentioned as positive examples whose success in this area should be emulated.This work involves the maintenance, enhancement, hardening, and modernizing of the LAPACK and ScaLAPACK libraries in the context of the ongoing revolution in processor architecture and system design. These libraries are widely used: there were over 160 million web hits (excluding bots) from 2004-2009, and they have been adopted by many vendors as the basis of their own libraries: Intel, Cray, IBM, HP, Fujitsu, NEC, NAG, IMSL, and the Mathworks (producers of Matlab). There is every reason to believe, therefore, that improving these stalwart components of the HPC software stack will have a very large impact.