Re: [Boost-users] [Review] ODEInt review starts today, September 19, ends September 28

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] [Review] ODEInt review starts today, September 19, ends September 28
From: Karsten Ahnert (karsten.ahnert_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-09-27 18:21:00

Hi Peter,

thank your for your review.

On 09/26/2012 01:11 PM, BildPeter wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> First of all, I suggest that ODEint should be accepted into the Boost
> library.
> 
> *1.) What is your evaluation of the design? *
> I am impressed of the design.
> To say the big things first, I am impressed by the possibility to use CUDA
> and OpenCL for parallel computation of various ODE types in a simple manner.
> The simple and straight forward interface allowed an immediate usage of the
> library. 
> This library is also made for a versatile usage due to the many algorithms
> (steppers) implemented. I can e.g. try different numerical approaches und
> compare the outcome or the performance.
> The performance during simulation is optimal, and outperforms most standard
> libraries (e.g. GSL). 
> I also appreciate the modern C++ style (STL), in comparison to GSL which is
> more C oriented.
> 
> *2.) What is your evaluation of the implementation? *
> ODEint uses Meta Template Programming to ensure the the highest optimization
> in numerical speed due to the compiler optimization during runtime. This is
> a advanced and modern approach. Although the backbone is advanced, the
> interface hides the complexity and ensures an easy usage. 
> 
> *3.) What is your evaluation of the documentation? *
> Good tutorial-like documentation which is end user oriented. Includes is
> quick intro and each level of usage.
> Didn't look at the developer documentation.
> 
> *4.) What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the library? *
> I state this library to be very useful.
> ODEs have wide usage in physics, chemistry, engineering, economy etc. to
> model real world problems. Most of them don't have simple (analytic)
> solutions, that's where the computer has to crunch the numbers. These
> simulations are performed by ODE integration. 
> 
> Different real world problems need different numerical approaches (e.g.
> symplectic routines), which are also covered in ODEint.
> 
> My special interest lies in GPGPU. And as far as I know, this is the first
> library which includes all those numerical algorithms to be send via
> CUDA/OpenCL onto GPUs. It allows parallel computing on devices which do this
> kind of work much better than CPUs (e.g. GPUs). Having the right problem and
> the right hardware, you can speed up computation to the factor of 100!
> This is unique and of high relevance!
> 
> *5.) Did you try to use the library?  With what compiler?  Did you have any 
> problems? *
> Yes, extensively. The following compilers were used: LLVM 4.0 and GCC 4.2.
> No problems occurred.
> 
> *6.) How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A quick 
> reading? In-depth study? 
> *I used the library a lot.
> Thomas Gorochowski used ODEint in combination with the LEMON graph library
> to develop a library called NetEvo (netevo.org). This combines network
> algorithms and handling with solving ODEs in each node/arc of the network.
> Due to the modern design of ODEint, the outcome is a modern and fast
> library. I also was involved it minor improvements.
> 
> I used the modern C++ visualization library "Cinder" to perform real time
> visualization of ODE integration.
> 
> *7.) Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain? *
> Yes. I am theoretical physicist. My research is based on numerical
> integration of ODEs which model the real world.
> 
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Peter
> 
> 
> 
> --
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