[Numpy-discussion] Use OpenBLAS for the binary releases?

[Sturla Molden]

I think NumPy and SciPy should consider to use OpenBLAS (a fork of 
GotoBLAS2) instead of ATLAS or f2c'd Netlib BLAS for the binary releases.

Here are its virtues:

* Very easy to build: Just a makefile, no configuration script or 
special build tools.

* Building ATLAS can be a PITA. So why bother?

* Faster than ATLAS, sometimes faster than MKL.

* Multithreaded BLAS kernels: OpenMP on Unix, Windows threads on Windows.

* The quality of its ancestor GotoBLAS is undisputed. I was the BLAS 
implementation of choice for major HPC projects around the World.

* Free as in BSD licensed.

* Funded and developed for use in major Chinese HPC projects. Actively 
maintained. (GotoBLAS2 is abandonware.)

* Open source. The C sources are a pleasure to read, and very easy to 
verify.

* No OpenMP on Windows means no dependency on pthreads-win32 (an LGPL 
library) when building with MinGW.

* Builds on Windows with MinGW and MSYS, and perhaps even without MSYS.

* Cygwin is not needed on Windows (this is just BS from the GotoBLAS 
documentation). Thus, 64-buit builds are possible (I've built it using 
TDM-GCC for Win64 and 32-bit MSYS).


Sturla