Parallel out-of-core computation and updating of the QR factorization

This article discusses the high-performance parallel implementation of the computation and updating of QR factorizations of dense matrices, including problems large enough to require out-of-core computation, where the matrix is stored on disk. The algorithms presented here are scalable both in problem size and as the number of processors increases. Implementation using the Parallel Linear Algebra Package (PLAPACK) and the Parallel Out-of-Core Linear Algebra Package (POOCLAPACK) is discussed. The methods are shown to attain excellent performance, in some cases attaining roughly 80% of the “realizable” peak of the architectures on which the experiments were performed.