Newsgroups: comp.archives
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!ox.com!msen.com!emv
From: jwe@che.utexas.edu (John W. Eaton)
Subject: [num-analysis] Re: LINPACK/EISPACK/BLAS_1_2_3: ???
Message-ID: <1991Jun20.131443.26492@ox.com>
Followup-To: sci.math.num-analysis
Sender: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti, MSEN)
Reply-To: jwe@andy.che.utexas.edu (John W. Eaton)
Organization: University of Texas at Austin
References: <33568@usc.edu> 
X-Original-Date: 16 Jun 91 18:44:05 GMT
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 1991 13:14:43 GMT
Approved: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti, MSEN)
X-Original-Newsgroups: sci.math.num-analysis
Lines: 60

Archive-name: math/num-analysis/utexas-mathlib/1991-06-16
Archive-directory: emx.cc.utexas.edu:/pub/mathlib/ [128.83.1.33]
Original-posting-by: jwe@che.utexas.edu (John W. Eaton)
Original-subject: Re: LINPACK/EISPACK/BLAS_1_2_3: ???
Reposted-by: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti, MSEN)


In article <33568@usc.edu> ajayshah@alhena.usc.edu (Ajay Shah) writes:
>
> Could someone explain the exact meanings of each of these
> libraries?  How are they related?

All are collections of Fortran subroutines for solving linear algebra
problems:

Blas:    vector, matrix-vector, and matrix-matrix operations (levels
         1, 2, and 3 respectively).

Linpack: solution of linear equations, matrix determinants and
         inverses.  Uses blas level 1 for  low level operations.

Eispack: eigenvalue problems, singular value decomposition

> If I want a basic linear algebra library today, what is the
> state-of-the-art I should be using?  My needs are simple --
> bread and butter matrix operations with only one twist: PSD
> matrices.

Linpack and Eispack are the standards now, Lapack will probably become
the standard soon.  To find out more about Lapack, send the one line
message `send index from lapack' to netlib@netlib.ornl.gov.

> (It seems silly getting bulky things like (say) LINPACK via email
> from Netlib.  Is there an ftp site?)

Yes.  I know of two sites that have the Blas, Linpack, Eispack, etc.
available via anonymous ftp:

andy.che.utexas.edu (128.83.162.5) in the directory pub/src/fortran
emx.cc.utexas.edu   (128.83.1.33)  in the directory pub/mathlib

--
John W. Eaton                       |  If the odds are a million to one
jwe@che.utexas.edu                  |  against something occurring, chances
Department of Chemical Engineering  |  are 50-50 it will.
The University of Texas at Austin   |                         -- fortune(1)

-- comp.archives file verification
emx.cc.utexas.edu
total 13
drwxr-xr-x  4 1842         1536 Jan 29 09:41 eispack
drwxr-xr-x  5 1842          512 Jan 25 16:41 minpack
drwxr-xr-x  5 1842          512 Nov 13  1990 itpack
drwxr-xr-x  4 1842          512 Jul 11  1990 odepack
drwxr-xr-x  2 1842          512 May  8  1990 blas3
drwxr-xr-x  2 1842         3584 May  2  1990 linpack
drwxr-xr-x  2 1842         1536 May  1  1990 blas2
drwxr-xr-x  3 1842         1024 May  1  1990 blas
found utexas-mathlib ok
emx.cc.utexas.edu:/pub/mathlib/