English

A Simple Methodology for Computing Families of Algorithms

Programming Languages 2018-08-24 v1 Logic in Computer Science Mathematical Software

Abstract

Discovering "good" algorithms for an operation is often considered an art best left to experts. What if there is a simple methodology, an algorithm, for systematically deriving a family of algorithms as well as their cost analyses, so that the best algorithm can be chosen? We discuss such an approach for deriving loop-based algorithms. The example used to illustrate this methodology, evaluation of a polynomial, is itself simple yet the best algorithm that results is surprising to a non-expert: Horner's rule. We finish by discussing recent advances that make this approach highly practical for the domain of high-performance linear algebra software libraries.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1808.07832,
  title  = {A Simple Methodology for Computing Families of Algorithms},
  author = {Devangi N. Parikh and Margaret E. Myers and Richard Vuduc and Robert A. van de Geijn},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1808.07832},
  year   = {2018}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T03:42:09.332Z