A Comparative Evaluation of Matlab, Octave, FreeMat, and Scilab on Tara

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dc.contributor.authorBrewster, Matthew W.
dc.contributor.authorGobbert, Matthias
dc.date.accessioned2018-10-23T14:21:09Z
dc.date.available2018-10-23T14:21:09Z
dc.date.issued2011
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 research and teaching. We compare the results on the cluster tara in the UMBC High Performance Computing Facility with 86 nodes, each with two quadcore Intel Nehalem processors and 24 GB of memory. The tests focused on usability lead us to conclude that the package Octave is the most compatible with Matlab, since it uses the same syntax and has the native capability of running m-files. Both FreeMat and Scilab were hampered by somewhat different syntax or function names and some missing functions. The tests focused on efficiency show that Matlab and Octave are fundamentally able to solve problems of the same size and with equivalent efficiency in absolute times, except in one test dealing with a very large problem. FreeMat and also Scilab exhibit significant limitations on the problem size and the efficiency of the problems they can solve in our tests. In summary, we conclude that Octave is the best viable alternative to Matlab because it was not only fully compatible with Matlab in our tests, but it also performed very well.en
dc.description.sponsorshipThe first author acknowledges financial support from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at UMBC. We are indepted to Neeraj Sharma, whose M.S. thesis first formalized the comparison between the software packages. The hardware used in the computational studies is part of the UMBC High Performance Computing Facility (HPCF). The 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 the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).en
dc.description.urihttps://userpages.umbc.edu/~gobbert/papers/BrewsterGobbertTR2011.pdfen
dc.format.extent32 pagesen
dc.genretechnical reporten
dc.identifierdoi:10.13016/M2R49GD2D
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11603/11650
dc.language.isoenen
dc.relation.isAvailableAtThe University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Mathematics Department Collection
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Faculty Collection
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Faculty Collection
dc.relation.ispartofseriesHPCF Technical Report;HPCF–2011–10
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.subjectComparative Evaluationen
dc.subjectMatlaben
dc.subjectOctaveen
dc.subjectFreeMaten
dc.subjectScilaben
dc.subjectTaraen
dc.subjectUMBC High Performance Computing Facility (HPCF)en
dc.titleA Comparative Evaluation of Matlab, Octave, FreeMat, and Scilab on Taraen
dc.typeTexten

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