Math Libraries Updated by IBM for Power6 Features

Published: August 2, 2007

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Having put its Power6-based System p 570 servers into the field, IBM is working hard to get the software stack tuned to take advantage of the features in the Power6 processors.

One of the things that needs to be tweaked is the Engineering and Scientific Subroutine Library (ESSL), a set of math routines for the AIX and Linux operating systems that speed up commonly used algorithms by getting them tuned to specific hardware features. The ESSL software has been tuned for PowerPC 970, Power4, Power5, and now Power6 processors running AIX 5.2 and AIX 5.3 (including the rejiggered version of AIX 5.3 that was created for the Power6 processors because AIX 6.1 is not ready for primetime yet). The math libraries are also available for servers using those Power processors when running Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1 and Red Hat's Enterprise Linux 5 operating systems, which are the most current releases of Linux from those two vendors. AIX support will be available on August 3, followed by Linux support on September 21. The libraries work in conjunction with IBM's own C++ and Fortran compilers as well as with the GNU GCC compiler set.

The math libraries in the ESSL include random number generators, plus support for Fourier transforms, linear algebra, matrix math, eigensystem analysis, and various sorting and searching algorithms. The software has also been updated to take advantage of the SMP capabilities of IBM's Power servers, and significantly, has support for 64-bit pointers and for the AltiVec vector co-processors that are now part of each Power6 core. The Power6 chip has two cores, each with an AltiVec unit. IBM did not announce pricing for the ESSL software.

                     Post this story to del.icio.us
               Post this story to Digg
    Post this story to Slashdot