Study of Free Alternative Numerical Computation Packages

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dc.contributor.authorBrewster, Matthew W.
dc.date.accessioned2018-10-26T13:16:17Z
dc.date.available2018-10-26T13:16:17Z
dc.date.issued2011
dc.descriptionCopyright © 2011, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematicsen_US
dc.description.abstractMatlab is the most popular commercial package for numerical computations in mathematics, statistics, the sciences, engineering, and other fields. Octave, FreeMat, and Scilab are free numerical computational packages that have many of the same features as Matlab. They are available to download on the Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X operating systems. We investigate whether these packages are viable alternatives to Matlab for uses in teaching and research. We compare the packages under Linux on one compute node with two quad-core Intel Nehalem processors (2.66 GHz, 8 MB cache) and 24 GB of memory that is part of an 86-node distributed-memory cluster. After performing both usability and performance tests on Matlab, Octave, FreeMat, and Scilab, we conclude that Octave is the most usable and most powerful freely available numerical computation package. Both FreeMat and Scilab exhibited some incompatibility with Matlab and some performance problems in our tests. Therefore, we conclude that Octave is the best viable alternative to Matlab because not only was it fully compatible with Matlab, but it also exhibited the best performance. This paper reports on work done while working for the REU Site: Interdisciplinary Program in High Performance Computing at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThe facility is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation through the MRI program (grant no. CNS–0821258) and the SCREMS program (grant no. DMS–0821311), with additional substantial support from UMBC. See www.umbc.edu/hpcf for more information on HPCF and the projects using its resources.
dc.description.urihttps://archive.siam.org/students/siuro/vol5/S01178.pdfen_US
dc.format.extent23 pagesen_US
dc.genreundergaduate journal articleen_US
dc.identifierdoi:10.13016/M2SF2MG2Q
dc.identifier.citationMatthew W. Brewster, Study of Free Alternative Numerical Computation Packages, SIAM Undergraduate Research Online (SIURO), 5, 2012. https://archive.siam.org/students/siuro/vol5/S01178.pdfen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11603/11739
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherSociety for Industrial and Applied Mathematicsen_US
dc.relation.isAvailableAtThe University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Mathematics Department Collection
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Faculty Collection
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Student Collection
dc.rightsThis item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
dc.rightsCopyright © 2012, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
dc.subjectNumerical Computationen_US
dc.subjectMatlaben_US
dc.subjectFreeMaten_US
dc.subjectScilaben_US
dc.subjectUMBC High Performance Computing Facility (HPCF)en_US
dc.titleStudy of Free Alternative Numerical Computation Packagesen_US
dc.typeTexten_US

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