Automated Empirical Optimization of Software and the
ATLAS Project
∗
R. Clint Whaley
†
Antoine Petitet
‡
Jack J. Dongarra,
§
January 22, 2007
Abstract
This paper describes the ATLAS (Automatically Tuned Linear Algebra Software)
project, as well as the fundamental principles that underly it. ATLAS is an instantiation
of a new paradigm in high performance library production and maintenance, which
we term AEOS (Automated Empirical Optimization of Software); this style of library
management has been created in order to allow software to keep pace with the incredible
rate of hardware advancement inherent in Moore’s Law. ATLAS is the application of
this new paradigm to linear algebra software, with the present emphasis on the Basic
Linear Algebra Subprograms (BLAS), a widely used, performance-critical, linear algebra
kernel library.
∗
This work was supported in part by: U.S. Department of Energy under contract number DE-AC05-
96OR22464; National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center Cooperative Agreement No.
CCR-8809615; University of California, Los Alamos National Laboratory, subcontract # B76680017-3Z;
Department of Defense Raytheon E-Systems, subcontract# AA23, prime contract# DAHC94-96-C-0010;
Department of Defense Nichols Research Corporation, subcontract#s NRC CR-96-0011 (ASC) and prime
contract # DAHC-94-96-C-0005; Department of Defense Nichols Research Corporation, subcontract#s NRC
CR-96-0011 (CEWES); prime contract # DAHC-94-96-C-0002
†
Dept. of Computer Sciences, Univ. of TN, Knoxville, TN 37996, rwhaley@cs.utk.edu
‡
Dept. of Computer Sciences, Univ. of TN, Knoxville, TN 37996, petitet@cs.utk.edu
§
Dept. of Computer Sciences, Univ. of TN, Knoxville, TN 37996, and Mathematical Sciences Section,
ORNL, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, dongarra@cs.utk.edu
1