Using the scalable nonlinear equations solvers package

SNES (Scalable Nonlinear Equations Solvers) is a software package for the numerical solution of large-scale systems of nonlinear equations on both uniprocessors and parallel architectures. SNES also contains a component for the solution of unconstrained minimization problems, called SUMS (Scalable Unconstrained Minimization Solvers). Newton-like methods, which are known for their efficiency and robustness, constitute the core of the package. As part of the multilevel PETSc library, SNES incorporates many features and options from other parts of PETSc. In keeping with the spirit of the PETSc library, the nonlinear solution routines are data-structure-neutral, making them flexible and easily extensible. This users guide contains a detailed description of uniprocessor usage of SNES, with some added comments regarding multiprocessor usage. At this time the parallel version is undergoing refinement and extension, as we work toward a common interface for the uniprocessor and parallel cases. Thus, forthcoming versions of the software will contain additional features, and changes to parallel interface may result at any time. The new parallel version will employ the MPI (Message Passing Interface) standard for interprocessor communication. Since most of these details will be hidden, users will need to perform only minimal message-passing programming.