From ab92b34b802f0d17554b06745aed68ab73fb63a8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christoph Groth <christoph.groth@cea.fr> Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2012 17:16:45 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] update what's new --- doc/source/whatsnew/0.2.rst | 33 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----- 1 file changed, 28 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/0.2.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/0.2.rst index 4682b061..1344b7af 100644 --- a/doc/source/whatsnew/0.2.rst +++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/0.2.rst @@ -3,6 +3,28 @@ What's New in kwant 0.2 This article explains the user-visible changes in kwant 0.2. +Improved performance +-------------------- +This has been the main focus of this release. Through optimization a level of +performance has been reached that we consider satisfactory: runs of kwant for +mid-sized (100x100 say) systems now typically spend most time in higly +optimized libraries and not anymore in Python-implemented code. For large, +truly performance-critical systems almost all time is now spent in optimized +libraries. + +An important optimization has been replacing NumPy for most uses within kwant +by tinyarray. tinyarray provides a subset of NumPy's functionality in a way +that is highly optimized for small arrays such as the tags of sites in kwant. + +New MUMPS-based solver +---------------------- +The code for sparse matrix solvers has been reorganized and a new solver has +been added next to `kwant.solvers.sparse`: `kwant.solvers.mumps`. The new +solver uses the `MUMPS <http://graal.ens-lyon.fr/MUMPS/>`_ software package and +is much (often 2-3 times and more) faster than the UMFPACK-based old solver. +In addition, MUMPS uses considerably less memory for a given system while at +the same time it is able to take advantage of more than 2 GiB of RAM. + New tutorial dealing with superconductivity ------------------------------------------- :doc:`../tutorial/tutorial5` @@ -26,8 +48,8 @@ no difference between plotting a low-level system and a builder. Calculation of the local density of states ------------------------------------------ -The new function `kwant.solvers.sparse.ldos` allows the calculation of the -local density of states. +The new function of sparse solvers `~kwant.solvers.common.SparseSolver.ldos` +allows the calculation of the local density of states. Plotting of functions of system sites ------------------------------------- @@ -36,9 +58,10 @@ potential or the LDOS. Return value of sparse solver ----------------------------- -`kwant.solvers.sparse.solve` now always returns a single instance of -`~kwant.solvers.sparse.BlockResult`. The latter has been generalized to -include more information for leads defined as infinite systems. +The function `~kwant.solvers.common.SparseSolver.solve` of sparse solvers now +always returns a single instance of `~kwant.solvers.common.BlockResult`. The +latter has been generalized to include more information for leads defined as +infinite systems. Return value of `~kwant.solvers.sparse.make_linear_sys` has changed ------------------------------------------------------------------- -- GitLab