AOCL 4.1.1 vs AOCL 3.2.1

Problem Description

Version 4.1.1 of AMD® Optimizing CPU Libraries (AOCL) is a custom AOCL build optimized for COMSOL that is included in COMSOL Multiphysics version 6.2 as alternative BLAS and LAPACK libraries. COMSOL Multiphysics 6.1 included AOCL version 3.2.1. What performance improvements can be expected from this different version of AOCL?

Solution

To get the best performance out of computers equipped with AMD Zen-based processors, COMSOL Multiphysics version 6.2 ships with AOCL 4.1.1 as an available BLAS and LAPACK library. Previously, COMSOL Multiphysics version 6.1 shipped with version 3.2.1 of AOCL. Why did we make this switch?

Performance improvements on computers equipped with AMD processors achieved between COMSOL Multiphysics version 6.1 and 6.2 can be traced to multiple sources, not only to the upgrade in AOCL libraries. To isolate and illustrate the effect of upgrading from AOCL 3.2.1 to AOCL 4.1.1, we ran a variety of models on COMSOL Multiphysics 6.2 using AOCL 4.1.1 and compared performance to what would have been obtained with AOCL 3.2.1, all things otherwise the same. To be clear, AOCL 3.2.1 is not shipped with the commercially-available COMSOL Multiphysics version 6.2. Test results are shown below.

The testing was done on an AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 7995WX machine running Linux. The table shows total run time (in seconds) for solving the models in batch mode. Note that these models use MUMPS, where the greatest performance improvements are expected.

These results show significant improvements resulting from the adoption of AOCL 4.1.1.

To use AOCL, please refer to this page.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

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