Optimization of Generalized Jacobian Chain Products without Memory Constraints

Abstract: The efficient computation of Jacobians represents a fundamental challenge in computational science and engineering. Large-scale modular numerical simulation programs can be regarded as sequences of evaluations of in our case differentiable modules with corresponding local Jacobians. The latter are typically not available. Tangent and adjoint versions of the individual modules are assumed to be given as results of algorithmic differentiation instead. The classical (Jacobian) matrix chain product formulation is extended with the optional evaluation of matrix-free Jacobian-matrix and matrix-Jacobian products as tangents and adjoints. We propose a dynamic programming algorithm for the minimization of the computational cost of such generalized Jacobian chain products without considering constraints on the available persistent system memory. In other words, the naive evaluation of an adjoint of the entire simulation program is assumed to be a feasible option. No checkpointing is required. Under the given assumptions we obtain optimal solutions which improve the best state of the art methods by factors of up to seven on a set of randomly generated problem instances of growing size.