Research

On this page you will find published technical reports and papers I wrote or participated in.

Technical Reports

• Abstract: In this paper we report on recent advances made in the development of the first Fortran compiler that provides intrinsic support for computing derivatives. We focus on the automatic generation of intraprocedural adjoint code. Technical details of the modifications made to the internal representation as well as case studies are presented. For example, the new feature allows for the computation of large gradients at a computational cost that is independent of their sizes. Numerous numerical algorithms – derivative-based optimization algorithms in particular – will benefit both from the convenience of the approach and from the efficiency of the intrinsic derivative code.

  Michael Maier, Uwe Naumann. Intraprocedural Adjoint Code Generated by the Differentiation-Enabled NAGWare Fortran Compiler. AIB-2006-03. RWTH Aachen, Apr. 2006.

  

Speech Slides

• Abstract: The first part of the Differentiation-enabled Compiler Technology project (CompAD-I) resulted in forward mode and simple tape-based reverse mode capabilities inside a research prototype of the NAGWare Fortran 95 compiler. For CompAD-II we plan full support for adjoints by source transformation based on the compiler’s internal representation. First steps have been made as part of a collaboration between the University of Hertfordshire and RWTH Aachen University. We have implemented a C++ interface to the compiler’s native C API. The debug engine for the internal representation has been enhanced. The new interface has been used to implement the control-flow reversal for well-structured programs. In addition to the description of the new functionalities we will give a summary of the CompAD-II proposal that has been submitted to EPSRC. Ultimately we intend to generate second-order adjoint code by generating a tangent-linear model of the adjoint assembler code that is produced by the compiler.

  Michael Maier, B. Christianson and U. Naumann. Toward CompAD-II. 2nd European Workshop on Automatic Differentiation, November 2005.

  

Elaboration

• Michael Maier. Die statische Struktur der Klasse. Version 1.7. RWTH Aachen, Seminararbeit, Juni 2005.