Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
SLATEC
open-in-new
<h2 id="project-history-and-current-status">Project history and current status</h2> <p>In 1977, the SLATEC Common Mathematical Library (CML) Subcommittee decided to construct a library of FORTRAN subprograms to provide portable, non-proprietary, mathematical software that could be used on a variety of computers, including <a href="/facts/Supercomputer/HT9NwGAN">supercomputers</a>, at the three sites. The computers centers of the <a href="/facts/Lawrence_Livermore_National_Laboratory/WuXIbIKz">Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory</a>, the <a href="/facts/National_Bureau_of_Standards/gr9Fnh85">National Bureau of Standards</a> and the <a href="/facts/Oak_Ridge_National_Laboratory/Elq84HKF">Oak Ridge National Laboratory</a> also participated from 1980–81 onwards.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a> </p><p>The main repository for SLATEC is <a href="/facts/Netlib/4QQJ2DKk">Netlib</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> The current version is 4.1 (July 1993). Since then, a very small number of minor corrections has been made without incrementing the version number.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> </p><p>The <a href="/facts/GNU_Scientific_Library/WKX9L554">GNU Scientific Library</a> (GSL), initiated in 1996 and stable since 2001, was started with the explicit aim to provide a more modern replacement for SLATEC.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="contents">Contents</h2> <p>Each subroutine in SLATEC is tagged as belonging to one of 13 subpackages. Some of these subpackages are also well known as free-standing FORTRAN subprogram libraries, including <a href="/facts/BLAS/T8Jq1Jpq">BLAS</a>, <a href="/facts/EISPACK/qASUMUFW">EISPACK</a>, <a href="/facts/FFTPACK/3SCd2qT0">FFTPACK</a>, <a href="/facts/LINPACK/2VtBJ2va">LINPACK</a> and <a href="/facts/QUADPACK/yqYHHRV4">QUADPACK</a>. The following table shows all subpackages and the number of subroutines they contain: </p> <table><tbody><tr><th>subpackage</th><th>number of routines</th><th>separately available in <a href="/facts/Netlib/4QQJ2DKk">Netlib</a></th><th>purpose</th></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/BLAS/T8Jq1Jpq">BLAS</a></td><td>114</td><td>yes</td><td>basic <a href="/facts/Linear_algebra/8VaB4VWk">linear algebra</a></td></tr><tr><td>DASSL</td><td>16</td><td>no</td><td>solve differential/algebraic equation systems</td></tr><tr><td>DEPAC</td><td>10</td><td>no</td><td>solve <a href="/facts/Ordinary_differential_equation/ygKGQ8kD">ordinary differential equations</a> (<a href="/facts/Runge%25E2%2580%2593Kutta_methods/YRjbyHpY">Runge–Kutta methods</a> and similar)</td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/EISPACK/qASUMUFW">EISPACK</a></td><td>71</td><td>yes</td><td><a href="/facts/Eigenvalue/8TjEoT8u">eigenvalues</a> and <a href="/facts/Eigenvector/8TjEoT8u">eigenvectors</a></td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/FFTPACK/3SCd2qT0">FFTPACK</a></td><td>48</td><td>yes</td><td><a href="/facts/Fast_Fourier_transform/caT7UUCh">fast Fourier transform</a></td></tr><tr><td>FISHPACK</td><td>19</td><td>yes</td><td>use <a href="/facts/Cyclic_reduction/79MF9DAq">cyclic reduction</a> to directly solve second- and fourth-order finite difference approximations to separable elliptic Partial Differential Equations in various coordinate systems<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a></td></tr><tr><td>FNLIB</td><td>161</td><td>yes, as 'FN'</td><td><a href="/facts/Special_function/JETSeucA">special functions</a></td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/LINPACK/2VtBJ2va">LINPACK</a></td><td>128</td><td>yes</td><td><a href="/facts/Linear_algebra/8VaB4VWk">linear algebra</a>, outdated<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a></td></tr><tr><td>PCHIP</td><td>41</td><td>no</td><td>piecewise cubic Hermite interpolation</td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/QUADPACK/yqYHHRV4">QUADPACK</a></td><td>59</td><td>yes</td><td>numerical integration of one-dimensional functions</td></tr><tr><td>SDRIVE</td><td>36</td><td>no</td><td>solve <a href="/facts/Ordinary_differential_equation/ygKGQ8kD">ordinary differential equations</a></td></tr><tr><td>SLAP</td><td>124</td><td>yes</td><td><a href="/facts/Sparse_matrix/FFtN0XjR">sparse</a> <a href="/facts/Linear_algebra/8VaB4VWk">linear algebra</a> package</td></tr><tr><td>XERROR</td><td>17</td><td>no</td><td>error handling</td></tr></tbody></table> <h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2> <ul><li>Walter H. Vandevender, Karen H. Haskell, <i>The SLATEC mathematical subroutine library</i>, <a href="/facts/Association_for_Computing_Machinery/abI2atlP">ACM</a> SIGNUM Newsletter, Volume 17 Issue 3, September 1982 <a href="/facts/Doi_(identifier)/muM9Etpq">doi</a>:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1145%2F1057594.1057595">10.1145/1057594.1057595</a></li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="http://www.netlib.org/slatec/">SLATEC source code</a> at <a href="/facts/Netlib/4QQJ2DKk">Netlib</a></li> <li><a href="http://gams.nist.gov/serve.cgi/Package/SLATEC/">SLATEC information</a> at <a href="/facts/Guide_to_Available_Mathematical_Software/cfmVCXvn">GAMS</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Fong, Kirby W.; Jefferson, Thomas H.; Suyehiro, Tokihiko; Walton, Lee (July 1993). "Guide to the SLATEC Common Mathematical Library". netlib.org. Retrieved 13 November 2010. <a href="http://www.netlib.org/slatec/guide" target="_blank">http://www.netlib.org/slatec/guide</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>"Slatec". <a href="http://www.netlib.org/slatec" target="_blank">http://www.netlib.org/slatec</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>The file src/changes in the official distribution lists two such corrections, made in 1994 and 1999. <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>GSL design document https://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/design/gsl-design.html#SEC1 as of October 2012. <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/design/gsl-design.html#SEC1" target="_blank">https://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/design/gsl-design.html#SEC1</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>http://www.cisl.ucar.edu/css/software/fishpack/, "FISHPACK - A Poisson Equation Solver". Archived from the original on 2011-10-10. Retrieved 2011-10-11. <a href="http://www.cisl.ucar.edu/css/software/fishpack/" target="_blank">http://www.cisl.ucar.edu/css/software/fishpack/</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>As http://www.netlib.org/linpack says, LINPACK is largely superseded by LAPACK. <a href="http://www.netlib.org/linpack" target="_blank">http://www.netlib.org/linpack</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>