PSARC/2008/438 libfftw - Fastest Fourier Transform in the West

[Garrett D'Amore]

Daniel Templeton wrote:
> There are several other open source packages which still depend on 
> FFTW 2.x.  Most Linux distributions include both versions, including 
> Ubuntu.

Ok, thanks.

I still think it makes sense to make the 2.x API Obsolete though.... its 
one of the few ways we have to express to developers that they should 
avoid making new use of the 2.x API.

    -- Garrett
>
> Daniel
>
> Garrett D'Amore wrote:
>> Shouldn't the 2.x commitment levels be marked Obsolete, instead of 
>> Committed?
>>
>> The other general question is, are there known consumers for the 2.x 
>> API?  (If so, then no further concerns from me.  If however, there 
>> are none known, then why integrate the 2.x API?)
>>
>>    -- Garrett
>>
>> Gary Winiger wrote:
>>> I'm sponsoring this case for Dan Templeton.
>>> It introduces a two incompatible versions of a popular Fourier 
>>> Transform
>>> library into OpenSolaris.
>>> It requests a Minor release binding.
>>> The proposed man pages are in the case materials directory.
>>> The project team also intends to deliver the online html documentation
>>> with this project.
>>>
>>> The timer is set for 24 July 2008.
>>>
>>> Gary..
>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
>>>
>>> Summary
>>> =======
>>>
>>>    FFTW is a comprehensive collection of fast C routines for computing
>>>    the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) in one or more dimensions, of
>>>    both real and complex data, and of arbitrary input size. FFTW also
>>>    includes parallel transforms for both shared- and distributed-memory
>>>    systems.
>>>
>>>    FFTW is usually faster (and sometimes much faster) than all other
>>>    freely-available Fourier transform programs found on the Net. For
>>>    transforms whose size is a power of two, it compares favorably with
>>>    the FFT codes in Sun's Performance Library and IBM's ESSL library,
>>>    which are targeted at specific machines. Moreover, FFTW's 
>>> performance
>>>    is portable. Indeed, FFTW is unique in that it automatically adapts
>>>    itself to your machine, your cache, the size of your memory, the
>>>    number of registers, and all the other factors that normally make it
>>>    impossible to optimize a program for more than one machine. An
>>>    extensive comparison of FFTW's performance with that of other 
>>> Fourier
>>>    transform codes has been made.
>>>
>>>    o FFTW computes the DFT of complex data, real data, even- or
>>>      odd-symmetric real data (these symmetric transforms are usually
>>>      known as the discrete cosine or sine transform, respectively), and
>>>      the discrete Hartley transform (DHT) of real data.
>>>    o The input data can have arbitrary length. FFTW employs O(n log n)
>>>      algorithms for all lengths, including prime numbers.
>>>    o FFTW supports arbitrary multi-dimensional data.
>>>    o FFTW includes parallel (multi-threaded) transforms for
>>>      shared-memory systems.
>>>
>>>    The FFTW source base has two active branches, 2.x and 3.x.  3.x is
>>>    where all new development will happen, but as 3.x breaks
>>>    compatibility with 2.x, 2.x continues to be maintained, although it
>>>    hasn't needed an update in several years.  The current
>>>    version is 3.1.5, but 3.2 is already available in alpha.
>>>
>>>    FFTW does not include API documentation in man page format.  
>>> Instead,
>>>    API documentation is made available in info format.  A PDF 
>>> version of
>>>    that document is attached, and an HTML version can be found 
>>> online at
>>>    [1].  The man page created for the port is also attached.
>>>
>>>    FFTW will be integrated in the SFW consolidation as part of this
>>>    proposal, and will be installed as SUNWfftw (2.x) and SUNWfftw3 
>>> (3.x).
>>>
>>>    This project requests a minor release binding.
>>>
>>> Dependencies
>>> ============
>>>
>>>    None
>>>
>>> Interfaces
>>> ==========
>>>
>>>         Exported Interfaces (libraries as 32 & 64 Bit)
>>>         -------------------
>>>     /usr/lib/libfftw3.so ->            Symlink
>>>     /usr/lib/libfftw3.so.3 ->        Symlink
>>>     SONAME libfftw3.so.3            Uncommitted
>>>         /usr/lib/libfftw3.so.3.1.2          Uncommitted
>>>
>>>     /usr/lib/libfftw.so ->            Symlink
>>>     /usr/lib/libfftw.so.2 ->        Symlink
>>>     SONAME libfftw.so.2            Committed
>>>         /usr/lib/libfftw.so.2.0.7           Committed
>>>
>>>     /usr/lib/librfftw.so ->            Symlink
>>>     /usr/lib/librfftw.so.2 ->        Symlink
>>>     SONAME librfftw.so.2            Committed
>>>         /usr/lib/librfftw.so.2.0.7          Committed
>>>
>>>     /usr/lib/libfftw_threads.so ->        Symlink
>>>     /usr/lib/libfftw_threads.so.2 ->    Symlink
>>>     SONAME libfftw_threads.so.2        Committed
>>>         /usr/lib/libfftw_threads.so.2.0.7   Committed
>>>
>>>     /usr/lib/librfftw_threads.so ->        Symlink
>>>     /usr/lib/librfftw_threads.so.2 ->   Symlink
>>>     SONAME librfftw_threads.so.2        Committed
>>>         /usr/lib/librfftw_threads.so.2.0.7  Committed
>>>
>>>         /usr/share/man/man3/libfftw3.3      Uncommitted
>>>         /usr/share/man/man3/libfftw.3       Committed
>>>         /usr/share/info/fftw3.info          Uncommitted
>>>         /usr/share/info/fftw.info           Committed
>>>
>>>         Imported Interfaces
>>>         -------------------
>>>         None
>>>
>>>   The following additional installed files are not interfaces:
>>>
>>>         Additional Documents
>>>         --------------------
>>>         /usr/share/doc/fftw3/html/*
>>>         /usr/share/doc/fftw/html/*
>>>
>>> Reference Documents
>>> ===================
>>>    [1] http://www.fftw.org/fftw3_doc/
>>>    [2] http://www.fftw.org/fftw2_doc/
>>>    [3] http://www.fftw.org/fftw-paper-ieee.pdf
>>>    [4] http://www.fftw.org/faq/
>>>   
>>