From HP-SEE Wiki

Contents 1 Information 1.1 Authors/Maintainers 1.2 Summary 1.3 Features 1.4 Architectural/Functional Overview 1.5 Usage Overview 1.6 Dependencies 1.7 HP-SEE Applications 1.8 Resource Centers 1.9 Usage by other projects and communities 1.10 Recommendations for Configuration and Usage

Information

• Web site: http://www.netlib.org/blas/
• Described version: Tuesday Apr 19th 2011 (not versioned in the usual way)
• Licensing: Free, http://www.netlib.org/blas/faq.html#2
• User documentation: http://www.netlib.org/blas/blast-forum/
• Download: http://www.netlib.org/blas/archives/
• Source code: Fortran 77, C

Authors/Maintainers

• Jack Dongarra and collaborators at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, supported by the US National Science Foundation under Grant No. ASC-9313958 and US Department of Energy Grant No. DE-FG03-94ER25219.

Summary

The BLAS (Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms) are routines that provide standard building blocks for performing basic vector and matrix operations. The Level 1 BLAS routines perform scalar, vector and vector-vector operations, the Level 2 BLAS perform matrix- vector operations, and the Level 3 BLAS perform matrix-matrix operations. Because the BLAS are efficient, portable, and widely available, they are commonly used in the development of high quality linear algebra software, LAPACK for example. Machine-specific optimized BLAS libraries are available for a variety of computer architectures. These optimized BLAS libraries are provided by the computer vendor or by an independent software vendor. There is a Fortran77 reference implementation too which is not optimized. The BLAS source code was contributed by many before FOSS licenses were established; there are both free and commercial versions/implementations available.

Features

• Level 1 BLAS performs scalar, vector and vector-vector operations
• Level 2 BLAS performs matrix-vector operations
• Level 3 BLAS performs matrix-matrix operations
• Supports both Fortran and C interface

Architectural/Functional Overview

• BLAS quick reference guide
• Details on the level 2 BLAS
• Details on the level 3 BLAS

Usage Overview

• C interface

Dependencies

• None.

HP-SEE Applications

• HMLQCD (Hadron Masses from Lattice QCD)
• NUQG (Numerical study of ultra-cold quantum gases)
• GENETATOMIC (Genetic algorithms in atomic collisions)
• PCACIC (Principal component analysis of the conformational interconversions in large-ring cyclodextrins)

Resource Centers

• BG, BG
• HPCG, BG
• IFIN_BC, RO
• IFIN_Bio, RO
• InfraGRID, RO
• NCIT-Cluster, RO
• NIIFI SC, HU
• PARADOX, RS

Usage by other projects and communities

• This library is by far the most basic and most used numerical library, and is used extensively by many communities.

Recommendations for Configuration and Usage

• BLAS does not have many configurable options, and is basically used as an input to produce optimized and more specialized numerical libraries, such as LAPACK, ScaLAPACK, ATLAS.