Dune (software)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DUNE
Latest release	1.1 / 9 April 2008
OS	Linux, Unix, Mac OS X
License	GPL (version 2) with "runtime exception"
Website	http://www.dune-project.org

DUNE (for "Distributed and Unified Numerics Environment") is a modular C++ library for the solution of Partial Differential Equations using grid-based methods.

DUNE consists of modules. In version 1.0 the following modules are available.

dune-common (general classes and infrastructure),
dune-grid (grid interface),
dune-istl (linear algebra classes),
dune-grid-howto (tutorial).

In addition there are several experimental modules, and some which have been developed by third parties.

1 History
2 Goals
3 Implementation
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

The development of DUNE started in 2002 on the initiative of Prof. Bastian (then Universität Heidelberg), Dr. Ohlberger (during his habilitation at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), and Prof. Rumpf (then Universität Duisburg). The aim was a development model which was not attached to a single university, in order to make the project attractive for a wide audience. For the same reason a license was chosen which allows DUNE together with proprietary libraries. All main developers still have a university background.^[1]

[edit] Goals

Right from the start the main design goal of DUNE was to allow the coupling of new and legacy codes efficiently. This is what sets DUNE apart from other finite element programs.

DUNE is primarily a set of abstract interfaces, which embody concepts from scientific computing. These are mainly intended to be used in finite element and finite volume applications, but also finite difference methods are possible. The central interface is the grid interface. It describes structured and unstructured grids of arbitrary dimension, both with manifold and non-manifold structure. Also, functionality for parallel programming is described. Seven different implementations of the grid interface exist. Four of these are encapsulations of existing grid managers. It is hence possible to directly compare different grid implementations.

[edit] Implementation

Various C++ techniques such as template programming, generic programming, C++-Metaprogramming, and static polymorphism are used. These are well-known in other areas of software development and are slowly making their way into scientific computing. They allow the compiler to eliminate most of the overhead introduced by the extra layer of abstraction. A high level of standard conformance is required for this from the compiler.