Hardware acceleration for computing eigenpairs of a matrix

A computer program product, comprising:

• one or more computer readable storage media, and program instructions collectively stored on the one or more computer readable storage media, the program instructions comprising:
• program instructions to receive a matrix from an application;
• program instructions to store the matrix in an array of cells of a resistive processing unit, the cells comprising respective resistive devices, the resistive devices comprising resistances that are tunable to store the matrix in the resistive processing unit by tuning resistances of respective resistive devices of at least a portion of the array of cells to encode values of the matrix in the resistive processing unit;
• and
• program instructions to utilize the resistive processing unit to perform a process to determine an eigenvector of the matrix, wherein the program instructions to execute the process comprise program instructions to perform analog matrix-vector multiplication operations on the stored matrix to converge an initial vector to an estimate of the eigenvector of the stored matrix.

A method comprising:

• receiving a matrix from an application;
• storing the matrix in an array of cells of a resistive processing unit, the cells comprising respective resistive devices, the resistive devices comprising resistances that are tunable to store the matrix in the resistive processing unit by tuning resistances of respective resistive devices of at least a portion of the array of cells to encode values of the matrix in the resistive processing unit;
• and
• utilizing the resistive processing unit to perform a process to determine an eigenvector of the matrix, wherein performing the process comprises performing analog matrix-vector multiplication operations on the stored matrix to converge an initial vector to an estimate of the eigenvector of the stored matrix.