A survey of parallel direct methods for block bidiagonal linear systems on distributed memory computers

Four parallel algorithms for the solution of block bidiagonal linear systems on distributed memory computers are presented. All the algorithms belong to the class of direct methods. The first is a variant of the sequential algorithm and is suitable for a small number of processors. The remaining three algorithms are based on the parallel methods for banded systems and are much better suited for parallel computations on multiple processors. The arithmetical complexity functions of the proposed algorithms are derived. The results of experiments with the four algorithms implemented in Parallel Fortran on a linear array of 32 Transputers are presented and discussed.