On Feb 1, 2008 2:31 AM, Enrico Sirola <enrico.sirola@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
> I'd like to perform linear algebra operations on float4/8 arrays.
> These tasks are tipically carried on using ad hoc optimized libraries
> (e.g. BLAS).
If there were a coherently designed, simple, and fast LAPACK/ MATLAB
style library and set of datatypes for matrices and vectors in
Postgres, I think that would be a HUGE plus for the project!
I would have used it on a project I am working on in mortality
forecasting (I would have been able to put all of my mathematics in
the database instead of using scipy), it would tie in beautifully with
the GIS and imagery efforts, it would ease fancy statistics
calculation on database infrastructure, it would provide useful
libraries for the datamining/ knowledge discovery types, etc, etc. If
we just had fast matrix arithmetic, eigen-stuff (including singular
value decomposition), convolution, random matrix generation, and
table <-> matrix functions, that would be amazing and would provide
the material for further library development since a lot of complex
algorithms just fall out when you can do advanced linear algebra.
We need to be able to convert transparently between matrices/ vectors
(which I think should be simple N by 1 matrices by default) and
arrays, but we would probably want to go for a separate datatype in
order to get speed since scientifically important matrices can be
HUGE.
Just my fairly worthless $0.02, as I all I would provide would be to
be a tester and member of the peanut-gallery, but there you go.
Seems like a perfect Summer Of Code project for someone better at
C-level programming than me.
-W
