Apache SystemDS 0.9.0-incubating Release Notes

Apache SystemML 0.9.0-incubating is the first release of SystemML since it joined Apache as an incubator project on November 2nd, 2015.

Extensive updates have been made to the project in several areas. These include APIs, data ingestion, optimizations, language and runtime operators, new algorithms, testing, and online documentation.

APIs

  • Improvements to MLContext and to MLPipeline wrappers

Data Ingestion

  • Data conversion utilities (from RDDs and DataFrames)
  • Data transformations on raw data sets

Optimizations

  • Extensions to compilation chain, including IPA
  • Improvements to parfor
  • Improved execution of concurrent Spark jobs
  • New rewrites, including eager RDD caching and repartitioning
  • Improvements to buffer pool caching
  • Partitioning-preserving operations
  • On-demand creation of SparkContext
  • Efficient use of RDD checkpointing

Language and Runtime Operators

  • New matrix multiplication operators (e.g., ZipMM)
  • New multi-threaded readers and operators
  • Extended aggregation-outer operations for different relational operators
  • Sample capability

New Algorithms

  • Alternating Least Squares (Conjugate Gradient)
  • Cubic Splines (Conjugate Gradient and Direct Solve)

Testing

  • PyDML algorithm tests
  • Test suite refactoring
  • Improvements to performance tests

Online Documentation

  • GitHub README
  • Quick Start Guide
  • DML and PyDML Programming Guide
  • MLContext Programming Guide
  • Algorithms Reference
  • DML Language Reference
  • Debugger Guide