Mathematical tools

IDL

The Interactive Data Language is a complete package for the interactive analysis and visualization of scientific and engineering data, developed by ITT, Visual Information Solutions.

Availability

IDL is available on the compute platforms at the MPCDF. A pool of 131 floating development licenses and 60 floating run-time licenses sponsored by the institutes of the Campus Garching is available. Users are asked to use the much cheaper run-time licenses whenever possible.

On MPCDF Linux systems IDL is made available via the environment modules system. The output of the command module avail idl provides an up-to-date list of available versions. Use module help idl for documentation and detailed usage instructions.

For use on LinuxX86_64, WindowsX86_64 and MacOSX desktop systems of institutes of the Campus Garching install images for version 8.9 and successors together with the appropriate license file can be found via the software download page.

Maple

Maple is an analytic computation system. It performs mathematical computations and manipulations for solving problems from various technical disciplines. Most significantly, Maple can compute both numerical as well as symbolic solutions to mathematical expressions.

Availability and usage

On MPCDF systems Maple can be accessed by invoking module load maple. Then the commands maple (command line version) and xmaple (graphical user interface) are available.

Documentation

Detailed information about Maple can be found on the Maplesoft Website.

Mathematica

Mathematica is an integrated software system and language intended for numeric, symbolic and graphical computation, developed by Wolfram Research Inc. (WRI), Champaign, Illinois 61280-7237, USA ,

Availability

At the MPCDF a shared pool of 40 floating licenses for Mathematica sponsored by the institutes of the Campus Garching is available for use on arbitrary platforms. All licenses have Premier Service, i.e. faculty home-use (needs approval by MPCDF administrator) and the rights to use webMathematica Amateur, Wolfram Workbench and Wolfram Lightweight Grid Manager.

Usage

Mathematica is invoked by using the command math, the notebook is started via the command mathematica.

On MPCDF Linux systems Mathematica is made available for all users via the environment modules system. The output of the command module avail provides an up-to-date list of available versions. Use module help mathematica for documentation and detailed usage instructions.

For use on Linux, Windows and MacOSX desktop systems of institutes of the Campus Garching (e.g. PCs without the environment module system) images and license files can be found via the software download page.

Further Information

In WRI’s Mathematica Information Center a large collection of literature concerning Mathematica can be found.

Additional information on Mathematica may be obtained from the company’s WRI web-pages directly. Also extensive information and a mailing list are available from the DMUG (Deutschsprachige Mathematica User Group) home page.

MATLAB

Availability

The MPCDF presently provides MATLAB from a shared pool with base licenses plus various additional toolboxes (e.g. Simulink).

Usage

MATLAB on MPCDF Linux systems is available in multiple versions as loadable modules in all Linux systems at the MPCDF. See the output of module avail matlab for the default and a list of other available versions. After having loaded the MATLAB module the MATLAB graphical user interface providing a fully integrated development and run-time environment can be started from the command line just typing matlab. Using MATLAB with SLURM and running parallel matlab code is documented as part of the FAQ.

For use on Linux, Windows and MacOSX desktop systems of institutes of the Campus Garching (e.g. PCs without the environment module system) Matlab images and license files can be found via the software download page.

Documentation

Documentation on MATLAB can be found here.

Documentation on Simulink can be found here.

Further information on MATLAB and Simulink can be obtained from the web-pages of the companies MathWorks Inc. and scientific COMPUTERS GmbH.