Parallelism

Intel® MKL offers performance gains through parallelism provided by the symmetric multiprocessing performance (SMP) feature. You can obtain improvements from SMP in the following ways:

One way is based on user-managed threads in the program and further distribution of the operations over the threads based on data decomposition, domain decomposition, control decomposition, or some other parallelizing technique. Each thread can use any of the Intel MKL functions (except for the deprecated ?lacon LAPACK routine) because the library has been designed to be thread-safe.
Another method is to use the FFT and BLAS level 3 routines. They have been parallelized and require no alterations of your application to gain the performance enhancements of multiprocessing. Performance using multiple processors on the level 3 BLAS shows excellent scaling. Since the threads are called and managed within the library, the application does not need to be recompiled thread-safe (see also Fortran 95 Interface Conventions in BLAS and Sparse BLAS Routines ).
Yet another method is to use tuned LAPACK routines. Currently these include the single- and double precision flavors of routines for QR factorization of general matrices, triangular factorization of general and symmetric positive-definite matrices, solving systems of equations with such matrices, as well as solving symmetric eigenvalue problems.

For instructions on setting the number of available processors for the BLAS level 3 and LAPACK routines, see Intel® MKL User's Guide.

Optimization Notice
Intel compilers, associated libraries and associated development tools may include or utilize options that optimize for instruction sets that are available in both Intel and non-Intel microprocessors (for example SIMD instruction sets), but do not optimize equally for non-Intel microprocessors. In addition, certain compiler options for Intel compilers, including some that are not specific to Intel micro-architecture, are reserved for Intel microprocessors. For a detailed description of Intel compiler options, including the instruction sets and specific microprocessors they implicate, please refer to the "Intel Compiler User and Reference Guides" under "Compiler Options." Many library routines that are part of Intel compiler products are more highly optimized for Intel microprocessors than for other microprocessors. While the compilers and libraries in Intel compiler products offer optimizations for both Intel and Intel-compatible microprocessors, depending on the options you select, your code and other factors, you likely will get extra performance on Intel microprocessors. Intel compilers, associated libraries and associated development tools may or may not optimize to the same degree for non-Intel microprocessors for optimizations that are not unique to Intel microprocessors. These optimizations include Intel® Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (Intel® SSE2), Intel® Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (Intel® SSE3), and Supplemental Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (Intel SSSE3) instruction sets and other optimizations. Intel does not guarantee the availability, functionality, or effectiveness of any optimization on microprocessors not manufactured by Intel. Microprocessor-dependent optimizations in this product are intended for use with Intel microprocessors. While Intel believes our compilers and libraries are excellent choices to assist in obtaining the best performance on Intel and non-Intel microprocessors, Intel recommends that you evaluate other compilers and libraries to determine which best meet your requirements. We hope to win your business by striving to offer the best performance of any compiler or library; please let us know if you find we do not. Notice revision #20110307

Optimization Notice

Intel compilers, associated libraries and associated development tools may include or utilize options that optimize for instruction sets that are available in both Intel and non-Intel microprocessors (for example SIMD instruction sets), but do not optimize equally for non-Intel microprocessors. In addition, certain compiler options for Intel compilers, including some that are not specific to Intel micro-architecture, are reserved for Intel microprocessors. For a detailed description of Intel compiler options, including the instruction sets and specific microprocessors they implicate, please refer to the "Intel Compiler User and Reference Guides" under "Compiler Options." Many library routines that are part of Intel compiler products are more highly optimized for Intel microprocessors than for other microprocessors. While the compilers and libraries in Intel compiler products offer optimizations for both Intel and Intel-compatible microprocessors, depending on the options you select, your code and other factors, you likely will get extra performance on Intel microprocessors.

Intel compilers, associated libraries and associated development tools may or may not optimize to the same degree for non-Intel microprocessors for optimizations that are not unique to Intel microprocessors. These optimizations include Intel® Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (Intel® SSE2), Intel® Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (Intel® SSE3), and Supplemental Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (Intel SSSE3) instruction sets and other optimizations. Intel does not guarantee the availability, functionality, or effectiveness of any optimization on microprocessors not manufactured by Intel. Microprocessor-dependent optimizations in this product are intended for use with Intel microprocessors.

While Intel believes our compilers and libraries are excellent choices to assist in obtaining the best performance on Intel and non-Intel microprocessors, Intel recommends that you evaluate other compilers and libraries to determine which best meet your requirements. We hope to win your business by striving to offer the best performance of any compiler or library; please let us know if you find we do not.

Notice revision #20110307