Installation

SLATE can be built from source using Makefile, CMake, or installed via Spack. This guide covers all three methods.

Prerequisites

SLATE requires:

C++ Compiler: C++17 support (GCC 7+, Clang 5+, Intel 19+)
MPI: MPI-3.0+ with MPI_THREAD_MULTIPLE support
OpenMP: OpenMP 4.5+
BLAS/LAPACK: Optimized implementation (MKL, OpenBLAS, ESSL, LibSci, etc.)

Optional for GPU acceleration:

NVIDIA GPUs: CUDA toolkit
AMD GPUs: ROCm
Intel GPUs: oneAPI with SYCL/DPC++

Downloading Source

Clone the repository with submodules:

# HTTPS
git clone --recursive https://github.com/icl-utk-edu/slate.git

# SSH
git clone --recursive git@github.com:icl-utk-edu/slate.git

cd slate

Makefile Build

The Makefile build auto-detects compilers and dependencies from your environment.

Basic Configuration

Create a make.inc file with your configuration:

# make.inc
CXX = mpicxx
FC  = mpif90
blas = openblas

Build and Install

make lib           # Build libraries
make tester        # Build tester
make check         # Run sanity tests
make install prefix=/usr/local  # Install

Configuration Options

Common make.inc options:

# Compiler settings
CXX = mpicxx
FC  = mpif90

# BLAS library: openblas, mkl, essl, accelerate
blas = mkl

# GPU support: cuda, hip, sycl, or leave empty
gpu_backend = cuda

# Build type
# Use 'make static' for static libraries

# Additional flags
CXXFLAGS += -O3
LDFLAGS  += -L/path/to/lib

CMake Build

CMake provides more control over configuration.

Basic Build

mkdir build && cd build

export CXX=g++
export FC=gfortran

cmake -D blas=openblas \
      -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local \
      ..

make lib           # Build libraries
make tester        # Build tester
make check         # Run sanity tests
make install       # Install

CMake Options

Option	Description	Default
`blas`	BLAS library (openblas, mkl, essl, etc.)	auto-detect
`gpu_backend`	GPU backend (cuda, hip, sycl, none)	auto-detect
`BUILD_SHARED_LIBS`	Build shared libraries	ON
`CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX`	Installation directory	/usr/local
`CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE`	Build type (Release, Debug)	Release

Example with MKL and CUDA

cmake -D blas=mkl \
      -D gpu_backend=cuda \
      -D CMAKE_CUDA_ARCHITECTURES=70 \
      -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$HOME/local \
      ..

Spack Installation

Spack is the recommended method for HPC systems.

Install Spack

If you don’t have Spack:

git clone https://github.com/spack/spack.git
source spack/share/spack/setup-env.sh
spack compiler find

Install SLATE

# View available options
spack info slate

# Install with defaults
spack install slate

# With specific compiler
spack install slate %gcc@11.3.1

# With OpenBLAS, without CUDA
spack install slate %gcc@11.3.1 ^openblas ~cuda

# With CUDA support
spack install slate %gcc@11.3.1 +cuda cuda_arch=70

Loading SLATE

spack load slate
# or
module load slate  # if configured

GPU-Aware MPI

For optimal GPU performance, enable GPU-aware MPI:

# Enable SLATE's GPU-aware MPI
export SLATE_GPU_AWARE_MPI=1

# For Cray MPI (Frontier, Perlmutter)
export MPICH_GPU_SUPPORT_ENABLED=1

Check your HPC center’s documentation for additional flags.

Verifying Installation

Run the basic test suite:

export OMP_NUM_THREADS=8

# Single process test
./test/tester gemm

# Multi-process test (4 MPI ranks)
mpirun -n 4 ./test/tester gemm

# With Slurm
srun --nodes=4 --ntasks=16 --cpus-per-task=${OMP_NUM_THREADS} \
     ./test/tester gemm

Successful output:

gemm dtype=d, origin=h, target=t, transA=n, transB=n, m=100, n=100, k=100, ...
time=0.00123, gflop/s=1.63, ref_time=..., ref_gflop/s=..., error=1.2e-15, okay

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

MPI_THREAD_MULTIPLE not supported

Some MPI implementations require configuration. For OpenMPI:

mpirun --mca mpi_thread_multiple 1 -n 4 ./program

BLAS library not found

Set library paths:

export LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/blas/lib:$LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/blas/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

CUDA not detected

Ensure nvcc is in your PATH:

export PATH=/usr/local/cuda/bin:$PATH

Getting Help

Issues: https://github.com/icl-utk-edu/slate/issues/
User Forum: https://groups.google.com/a/icl.utk.edu/g/slate-user
BLAS++ Issues: https://github.com/icl-utk-edu/blaspp/issues/
LAPACK++ Issues: https://github.com/icl-utk-edu/lapackpp/issues/

Module Environment (HPC Systems)

Many HPC systems provide SLATE as a module:

module avail slate
module load slate

Check with your HPC support desk for available versions and configurations.