Foreword

The Direct Solution of Sparse Linear Systems, still holds the reputation of a somewhat "cryptic" (and hard to master) area of knowledge ...

It has been established since the late sixties, with the development of reordering methods, whose main empirical ideas, are still employed with success (and variations) on today problems ...

Clearly a lot has been done and improved over the past three decades, and much more is surely expected for the near future (with the advent of new high performance computer architectures).

Even though, no more than half-a-dozen (didactic) textbooks have been written along this time.

In contrast, the number of published articles and research reports, has long surpassed the one thousand mark.

Methodologies based on the solution of sparse linear systems, are actively employed on almost every branch of engineering, and many branches of scientific computing and industrial research.

What comes to mind, after seeing some of those figures, is that the solution of sparse linear systems, is clearly a dynamic and interdisciplinary area of research, which benefits from advances on related areas, like computational linear algebra, high performance computing, linear and nonlinear optimization, structural engineering, power systems, and graph theory, to name a few.

This homepage is my personal contribution, to all the individuals considering the (irreversible) task of mastering some of the Mysteries of the Solution of Sparse Linear Systems (which once clearly understood, almost probably will continue to pose new challenges, and attract the interest of many, independent of their mathematical or computational inclination).

Its also a tribute to all the researchers, who established and continue to pursue the advancement of such an enchanting area of computing, (still "unnoticed" by many other disciplines, although being at one of the fundamental basements of our modern technological world).

For those who are initiating in the field, the subsequent pages hopes to provide a valuable collection of links, on the Solution of Sparse Linear Systems, and related areas of Scientific Computation.

An initial recommended reading (specially for those pursuing the solution on high performance architectures), can be found at the HPC-NETLIB [Recommended Literature] page.

An introductory [Web-based Monography] on Computer Algorithms in Power System Analysis, (with graphical illustrations and C++ code examples), covering some elementar aspects of the Solution of Sparse Linear Systems can be found at Joesel P. Pante homepage.

I hope the visitors enjoy the navigation, specially to spars-ls.html where [Search Interfaces] and links to [Researchers], [Software], [Matrices], [Technical Reports], [Periodical Publications], [Books], [News] and [Events] pages can be found, and sparsbib.html where links and interfaces to [Bibliographies] on the Solution of Sparse Linear Systems, and Related Areas of Matrix Computation are presented.

The sci-comp.html page (dedicated to general scientific computing resources), is also a master reference for the other pages (and for such, a bit more extensive and clumsy). One may find some valuable links there, specially related to Mathematical and Computing [Societies], [Research Centers], [University Departments], [Periodicals], [Publishers], [Abstracts], [Bibliographies], [Technical Reports], [Events Calendars], [Mathematical Software], [Optimization Software], [News / Lists / Repositories], [Archives / Software Libraries], [Fortran / Compilers] and [Web Search Engines].

As an additional aid in the seek for information, I have provided [Customized Search] forms taylored to the Solution of Sparse Linear Systems and also a [General Web Search] facility at w-search.html (with all interfaces grouped together on a single page).

Finally, for a brief selection of some of the most interesting (and valuable) sites I recommend, consider visiting the selected.html page.

There have been at least visitors since the last update

Dr. Ricardo Duarte Arantes

http://www2.lncc.br/~duarte/main.html
http://home.openlink.com.br/sparse/main.html
http://www.domain.com.br/clientes/sparse/main.html
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/6160/main.html

Bibliographic References on Sparse Linear Systems

http://www2.lncc.br/~duarte/sparsbib.html
http://www.domain.com.br/clientes/sparse/sparsbib.html
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/6160/sparsbib.html
http://liinwww.ira.uka.de/bibliography/Math/sparse.linear.systems.html

NA-Net: na.rarantes