PASTIX:: a high-performance parallel direct solver for sparse symmetric positive definite systems

Solving large sparse symmetric positive definite systems of linear equations is a crucial and time-consuming step, arising in many scientific and engineering applications. The block partitioning and scheduling problem for sparse parallel factorization without pivoting is considered. There are two major aims to this study: the scalability of the parallel solver, and the compromise between memory overhead and efficiency. Parallel experiments on a large collection of irregular industrial problems validate our approach. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. Ail rights reserved.