Sparse Matrix-Vector Multiplication (SpMV) is an essential sparse kernel. Numerous methods have been developed to accelerate SpMV. However, no single method consistently gives the highest performance across a wide range of matrices. For this reason, a performance prediction model is needed to predict the best SpMV method for a given sparse matrix. Unfortunately, predicting SpMV’s performance is challenging due to the diversity of factors that impact it.

In this work, we develop a machine learning framework called WISE that accurately predicts the magnitude of the speedups of different SpMV methods over a baseline method for a given sparse matrix. WISE relies on a novel feature set that summarizes a matrix’s size, skew, and locality traits. WISE can then select the best SpMV method for each specific matrix. With a set of nearly 1,500 matrices, we show that using WISE delivers an average speedup of 2.4× over using Intel’s MKL in a 24-core server.