by: A. Gupta, F. Gustavson, M. Joshi, G. Karypis and Vipin Kumar
Solving large sparse systems of linear equations is at the core of many problems in engineering and scientific computing. It has long been a challenge to develop parallel formulations of sparse direct solvers due to several different complex steps involved in the process. In is paper, we describe one of the first efficient, practical, and robust parallel solvers for sparse symmetric positive definite linear systems that we have developed and discuss the algorithmic and implementation issues involved in its development.