Before revision: For a given linear algebra problem, we consider those solution algorithms that are mathematically equivalent to one another, and that mostly consist of a sequence of callsto kernels from optimized libraries such as BLAS and LAPACK. Although equivalent (at least in exact precision) , those algorithms typically exhibit significant differences in terms of performance , and naturally, we are interested in finding the fastest one(s) . In practice, we often observe that multiple algorithms yield comparable performance characteristics.
After revision: In scientific computing, it is common that one target computation can be translated into many different sequences of library calls, each identifying an algorithm. Although mathematically equivalent , those algorithms typically exhibit significant differences in terms of performance , and naturally, we are interested in finding the fastest one(s) . In practice, we often observe that multiple algorithms yield comparable performance characteristics.