ILNumerics.Net
Encyclopedia
ILNumerics is an mathematical class library for .NET software developers. It simplifies the implementation
of all kinds of numerical
algorithm
s. ILNumerics was designed for helping developers to create distribution-ready applications
. Interface
s of existing algebra systems
were often found to be less effective, when it comes to distribution/integration into existing projects. Therefore, ILNumerics does not come with an interpreter
but directly utilizes features of modern development environments
and programming language
s like C#.
, Switzerland
and Austria
. After 6 years of open source development, the project changed its licensing model in 2011 to a closed source, proprietary license, aiming business and academic developers.
s, linear algebra
, FFT and plotting
controls (2D and 3D
) help developing algorithms on every platform .NET
runs on. Developers formulate computational algorithms directly in their favorite .NET language - avoiding the need for interfacing 3rd party mathematical frameworks. The syntax is vastly compatible to well known and established mathematical programs like MATLAB
and GNU Octave
. Due to its strong type safety
algorithms developed that way are more stable and robust at run time. The library is the only math library so far, which takes the characteristics of the .NET framework into account and therefore archieves better execution performance than its competitors.
, it targets .NET applications. Just like Java
- those frameworks are often criticized for not being suitable for numerical computations. Reasons are the memory management by a garbage collector
and the intermediate language
execution. Nevertheless, due to efficient memory management (pooling), the performance of ILNumerics algorithms beat the speed of many competing frameworks
by factors. Linear algebra routines rely on processor specific optimized versions of LAPACK
and BLAS
, which further increases performance and reliability of computational results. All internal functions are parallelized. The efficiency does even allow the use for 'numbercrunching
' applications, which would otherwise only be suitable for Fortran
- yet providing much higher implementational convenience.
extensions for native code
/C code
generation. The most famous example here is Matlab's .NET Builder. Some other libraries aim the .NET platform only, namely: dnanalytics
, CenterSpace Software
's NMath
numerical libraries, Visual Numerics' IMSL
.
Implementation
Implementation is the realization of an application, or execution of a plan, idea, model, design, specification, standard, algorithm, or policy.-Computer Science:...
of all kinds of numerical
Numerical analysis
Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation for the problems of mathematical analysis ....
algorithm
Algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...
s. ILNumerics was designed for helping developers to create distribution-ready applications
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
. Interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
s of existing algebra systems
Computer algebra system
A computer algebra system is a software program that facilitates symbolic mathematics. The core functionality of a CAS is manipulation of mathematical expressions in symbolic form.-Symbolic manipulations:...
were often found to be less effective, when it comes to distribution/integration into existing projects. Therefore, ILNumerics does not come with an interpreter
Interpreter (computing)
In computer science, an interpreter normally means a computer program that executes, i.e. performs, instructions written in a programming language...
but directly utilizes features of modern development environments
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
and programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
s like C#.
History
ILNumerics started in 2006 and serves its community with high performance fundamental math classes since. In 2007 ILNumerics won the BASTA! Innovation Awards 2007 as most innovative .NET project in GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. After 6 years of open source development, the project changed its licensing model in 2011 to a closed source, proprietary license, aiming business and academic developers.
Features
N-dimensional arrays, complex numberComplex number
A complex number is a number consisting of a real part and an imaginary part. Complex numbers extend the idea of the one-dimensional number line to the two-dimensional complex plane by using the number line for the real part and adding a vertical axis to plot the imaginary part...
s, linear algebra
Linear algebra
Linear algebra is a branch of mathematics that studies vector spaces, also called linear spaces, along with linear functions that input one vector and output another. Such functions are called linear maps and can be represented by matrices if a basis is given. Thus matrix theory is often...
, FFT and plotting
Chart
A chart is a graphical representation of data, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart"...
controls (2D and 3D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
) help developing algorithms on every platform .NET
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...
runs on. Developers formulate computational algorithms directly in their favorite .NET language - avoiding the need for interfacing 3rd party mathematical frameworks. The syntax is vastly compatible to well known and established mathematical programs like MATLAB
MATLAB
MATLAB is a numerical computing environment and fourth-generation programming language. Developed by MathWorks, MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs written in other languages,...
and GNU Octave
GNU Octave
GNU Octave is a high-level language, primarily intended for numerical computations. It provides a convenient command-line interface for solving linear and nonlinear problems numerically, and for performing other numerical experiments using a language that is mostly compatible with MATLAB...
. Due to its strong type safety
Type safety
In computer science, type safety is the extent to which a programming language discourages or prevents type errors. A type error is erroneous or undesirable program behaviour caused by a discrepancy between differing data types...
algorithms developed that way are more stable and robust at run time. The library is the only math library so far, which takes the characteristics of the .NET framework into account and therefore archieves better execution performance than its competitors.
Performance
Since ILNumerics comes as a .NET assembly.NET assembly
In the .NET framework, an assembly is a compiled code library used for deployment, versioning, and security. There are two types: process assemblies and library assemblies . A process assembly represents a process that will use classes defined in library assemblies...
, it targets .NET applications. Just like Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
- those frameworks are often criticized for not being suitable for numerical computations. Reasons are the memory management by a garbage collector
Garbage collection (computer science)
In computer science, garbage collection is a form of automatic memory management. The garbage collector, or just collector, attempts to reclaim garbage, or memory occupied by objects that are no longer in use by the program...
and the intermediate language
Common Intermediate Language
Common Intermediate Language is the lowest-level human-readable programming language defined by the Common Language Infrastructure specification and is used by the .NET Framework and Mono...
execution. Nevertheless, due to efficient memory management (pooling), the performance of ILNumerics algorithms beat the speed of many competing frameworks
MATLAB
MATLAB is a numerical computing environment and fourth-generation programming language. Developed by MathWorks, MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs written in other languages,...
by factors. Linear algebra routines rely on processor specific optimized versions of LAPACK
LAPACK
-External links:* : a modern replacement for PLAPACK and ScaLAPACK* on Netlib.org* * * : a modern replacement for LAPACK that is MultiGPU ready* on Sourceforge.net* * optimized LAPACK for Solaris OS on SPARC/x86/x64 and Linux* * *...
and BLAS
Blas
Blas is mainly a Spanish given name and surname, related to Blaise. It may refer to-Places:*Piz Blas, mountain in Switzerland*San Blas , many places - see separate article, also**Cape San Blas Light, lighthouse...
, which further increases performance and reliability of computational results. All internal functions are parallelized. The efficiency does even allow the use for 'numbercrunching
High-performance computing
High-performance computing uses supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems. Today, computer systems approaching the teraflops-region are counted as HPC-computers.-Overview:...
' applications, which would otherwise only be suitable for Fortran
Fortran
Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
- yet providing much higher implementational convenience.
Alternatives
Some algebraic systems come with compilerCompiler
A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
extensions for native code
Machine code
Machine code or machine language is a system of impartible instructions executed directly by a computer's central processing unit. Each instruction performs a very specific task, typically either an operation on a unit of data Machine code or machine language is a system of impartible instructions...
/C code
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
generation. The most famous example here is Matlab's .NET Builder. Some other libraries aim the .NET platform only, namely: dnanalytics
DnAnalytics
dnAnalytics is an open-source numerical library for .NET written in C# and F#. It features functionality similar to BLAS and LAPACK.- Features :The software library provides facilities for:...
, CenterSpace Software
CenterSpace Software
CenterSpace Software, LLC. is a commercial software development company with headquarters in Corvallis, Oregon, USA, that produces numerical and statistical class libraries for the .NET Framework...
's NMath
NMath
NMath is a numerical package for the Microsoft .NET Framework. It is developed by CenterSpace Software. Version 1.0 was released in March, 2003 as NMath Core...
numerical libraries, Visual Numerics' IMSL
IMSL Numerical Libraries
IMSL is a commercial collection of software libraries of numerical analysis functionality that are implemented in the computer programming languages of C, Java, C#.NET, and Fortran...
.