| Date | Mar. 2, 2012 |
| Speaker | Robert van de Geijn (University of Texas) |
| Topic | Design by Transformation - Application to Dense Linear Algebra Libraries |
| Abstract: | The FLAME project has yielded modern alternatives to LAPACK and
related effort. An attractive feature of this work is the complete
vertical integration of the entire software stack, starting with low
level kernels that support the BLAS and finishing with a new
distributed memory library, Elemental. In between are layers that
target a single core, multicore, and multiGPU architectures. What
this now enables is a new approach where libraries are viewed not as
instantiations in code but instead as a repository of algorithms,
knowledge about those algorithm, and knowledge about target
architectures. Representations in code are then mechanically
generated by a tool that performs optimizations for a given
architecture by applying high-level transformations much like a human
expert would. We discuss how this has been used to mechanically
generate tens of thousands of different distributed memory
implementations given a single sequential algorithm. By attaching
cost functions to the component operations, a highly optimized
implementation is chosen by the tool. The chosen optimization
invariably matches or exceeds the performance of implementations by
human experts. We call the underlying approach Design by
Transformation (DxT).
BIOGRAPHY Robert van de Geijn is a Professor of Computer Science and member of the Institute for Computating Engineering and Sciences at UT-Austin. He received his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Maryland. His interests are in linear algebra libraries, scientific computing, parallel computing, and formal derivation of programs. His FLAME project pursues how fundamental techniques from computer science support high-performance linear algebra libraries. He has written more than a hundred refereed articles and several books on this subject. This work is in collaboration with Bryan Marker, Don Batory, Jack Poulson, and Andy Terrell.
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