Machines Presently Supported by PETSc 2.0
This file lists the machines and compilers that we currently support for PETSc 2.0. Our main limitation is easy access to the architecture. Since PETSc relies on some system details, porting to a new machine is not always trivial. This is basically for three reasons:
We will try to maintain PETSc 2.0 support for any major machine class, but only if we have easy access to the machine. In addition, most machines and some implementations of MPI have bugs; since PETSc is a sophisticated system it finds bugs in features that many other users do not employ. We cannot write PETSc to work around bugs in system software. Thus, true system bugs, MPI implementation bugs, etc. must be reported to the appropriate vendors for fixing; we will help you in determining whether a particular problem is a true bug and make suggestions for work-arounds.
Details about machines currently supported by PETSc 2.0
Machine: Sun Sparc Workstations running 4.1.3/4 (PETSC_ARCH=sun4)
This system is rather old now, must users have since upgraded to Sun Solaris. Since the old bundled Sun compiler was not ANSI-C, we develop using the GNU compilers. The Sun ANSI-C compilers require several modifications to the base makefiles; these are indicated in the file bmake/sun4/base.
Machine: IBM RS6000 running AIX 4.2, including IBM SP (PETSC_ARCH=rs6000 and PETSC_ARCH=rs6000_sp also PETSC_ARCH=rs6000_gnu)
Known Problems: Cannot use gdb debugger if using IBM's compiler.
Machine: SGI running IRIX 5.3 and 6.x (PETSC_ARCH=IRIX) See below for 64 bit IRIX
Known Problems: Automated debugger attachment (such as with the option -start_in_debugger) may not work for SGI machines with gdb debugger. Does work with dbx.
Machine: 64 bit SGI including Origin and PowerChallenge running IRIX 6.3+ (PETSC_ARCH=IRIX64)
Known Problems:
0) Trouble compiling the Fortran interface on some version of the Origin 2000; see the file troubleshooting.html for a work-around.
1) We do not know how to trap floating point exceptions, does not seem to be supported by the OS yet. 2) See known problems for PETSC_ARCH=IRIX above.
2) The optimizing compiler on the Power Challenge has been known to generate incorrect code, so always develop with BOPT=g and switch to BOPT=O when you are sure the code is running correctly
Significant performance degradation seems to result when using all processors of a Power Challenge system to run MPI programs. You should only use p-1 processors in a p processor system; this has nothing to do with PETSc .
Machine: Convex Exemplar running HPUX version 10.01 and others(PETSC_ARCH=hpux)
To compile PETSc on Convex, use PETSC_ARCH=hpux and use only HP-compilers. Assuming that the HP compilers are in /bin and Convex compilers are in /usr/convex/bin, edit bmake/hpux/base* files and replace the occurence of each of the following: cc -> /bin/cc CC -> /bin/CC f77 -> /bin/f77 ld -> /bin/ld Also, add the following line to bmake/hpux/base: LD = /bin/ld
You cannot build PETSc as root on this machine. We don't know why but it appears the compiler flags that appear when compiling as root are incompatible with PETSc. Recommend compile as a user and then change file permissions as needed.
Machine: HP running UX version 10.10 (PETSC_ARCH=hpux) or
You may need to use Gnu make rather than the native make on this machine. On some versions of the OS we have been unable to generate clean installs using the native make. To switch to using gnumake, edit the file ${PETSC_DIR}/bmake/hpux/base and define OMAKE to be the path and name of gnumake. Our machine is a 9000/770.
Known Problems:
Profiling version (BOPT=Opg) doesn't work. The HPUX libraries required for profiling are buggy.
Machine: Sun Sparcstations running Solaris 5.5 or 5.6 (PETSC_ARCH=solaris or PETSC_ARCH=solaris_gnu)
The software builds fine and passes our tests.
Machine: Cray T3E (PETSC_ARCH=t3e) also T3D (PETSC_ARCH=t3d)
Known Problems:
Cannot use automated debugger attachment via -attach_debugger_on_error or -start_in_debugger. With a little juggling you can run MPI programs in the TotalView debugger. To use Totalview, link with the option -Xn where x is the number of processors to use while debugging.
Machine: DEC alpha running OSF of unknown version (PETSC_ARCH=alpha)
Fine
Machine: PCs running Linux, Version 2.1.130 and others (PETSC_ARCH=linux)
Most common problem is actually not PETSc but problems with MPI
Machine: PCs running freebsd, Version 2.2.7 and others (PETSC_ARCH=freebsd)
Fine
Machine: PC running Windows NT 4.0/95/98, (PETSC_ARCH=win32)
MS Visual C++ 5.0 used for C and C++ compiler. Digital Visual Fortran (with 5.0C update) used for FORTRAN
Known Problems:
Currently only console applications are supported since PETSc makes extensive use of STDOUT/STDERR.
Some of the SYS functions may not work. This could be due to the absence of corresponding UNIX functionality on NT.
Machine: PC running Windows NT 4.0/95/98, (PETSC_ARCH=win32_gnu)
gcc/g++ version egcs-1.1.1 for cygwin-b20 and g77 for FORTRAN
Known Problems:
Bash form gnu-win32 b-19, messes up the machine when you type C-c. hence this mode of development is unstable.
We will never port to some older machines including::
Intel Paragon
BBN
Alliant
Titan
Sequent
Intel i860
Intel DELTA
Thinking Machines CM-2, CM-5
Sun3
NeXT
DEC3000, DEC5000