Preliminaries: Computer Strategies
Ian M. Smith, D. V. Griffiths, Lee Margetts · 2015
The aim of the present book is to teach the reader to write intelligible programs and to use them. Both serial and parallel computing environments are addressed and the building block routines and all test programs have been verified on a wide range of computers. The special features of vector, multi-core, graphics and parallel processors are explained in this chapter. It also describes the features of FORTRAN which influence the programming of the finite element method. FORTRAN is the most widely used language for programming engineering and scientific calculations. It allows ‘dynamic' declaration of arrays which do not have to be specified at program compilation time but can be ALLOCATEd after some data has been read into the program, or some intermediate results computed. Some examples of third-party libraries are also discussed which is used either to extend the capabilities of the software provided or to improve its execution speed.