hipSOLVER precision support

This section provides an overview of the numerical precision types supported by the hipSOLVER library. hipSOLVER provides a consistent interface to linear algebra solvers that can run on both AMD and NVIDIA hardware.

Supported precision types

hipSOLVER supports four primary precision types across its functions:

Type prefix	C++ type	Description
s	float	Single-precision real (32-bit)
d	double	Double-precision real (64-bit)
c	hipFloatComplex	Single-precision complex (32-bit real, 32-bit imaginary)
z	hipDoubleComplex	Double-precision complex (64-bit real, 64-bit imaginary)

Function naming convention

hipSOLVER follows the LAPACK naming convention where the first letter of the function name indicates the precision type:

• Functions beginning with hipsolverS operate on single-precision real data.

• Functions beginning with hipsolverD operate on double-precision real data.

• Functions beginning with hipsolverC operate on single-precision complex data.

• Functions beginning with hipsolverZ operate on double-precision complex data.

For example, the Cholesky factorization function potrf is implemented as:

• hipsolverSpotrf - For single-precision real matrices

• hipsolverDpotrf - For double-precision real matrices

• hipsolverCpotrf - For single-precision complex matrices

• hipsolverZpotrf - For double-precision complex matrices

In the documentation, these are sometimes represented generically as hipsolver<T>potrf(), where <T> is a placeholder for the precision type prefix.

Understanding precision in function signatures

In the function signatures throughout the documentation, precision information is indicated directly in the parameter types. For example:

hipsolver_status hipsolverSpotrf(hipsolverHandle_t handle,
                                 hipsolverFillMode_t uplo,
                                 int n,
                                 float *A,
                                 int lda,
                                 float *work,
                                 int lwork,
                                 int *devInfo)

The parameter types (float, double, hipFloatComplex, or hipDoubleComplex) correspond to the function prefix and indicate the precision used by that specific function variant.

Real versus complex precision

Some LAPACK-based functions in hipSOLVER have different behaviors or names when operating on real versus complex data:

• Functions for symmetric matrices (prefix sy) use the same name for both real precision types.

• Functions for Hermitian matrices (prefix he) are used for complex precision types.

• Some auxiliary routines might be specific to real or complex precision types.

For example, hipsolverSsyevj and hipsolverDsyevj handle real symmetric matrices, while hipsolverCheevj and hipsolverZheevj handle complex Hermitian matrices.