libRoadRunner: A High Performance SBML Simulation and Analysis Library

TL;DR

libRoadRunner is a high-performance, open-source library for SBML model simulation and analysis, utilizing JIT compilation for fast execution across platforms and supporting various analysis tools.

Contribution

It introduces a fast, extensible SBML simulation library with JIT compilation, cross-platform support, and a user-friendly Python API, improving performance and usability.

Findings

Supports large models and multiple replicas efficiently.

Uses LLVM-based JIT compilation for speed.

Offers comprehensive analysis tools.

Abstract

This paper presents libRoadRunner, an extensible, high-performance, cross-platform, open-source software library for the simulation and analysis of models \ expressed using Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML). SBML is the most widely used standard for representing dynamic networks, especially biochemical networks. libRoadRunner supports solution of both large models and multiple replicas of a single model on desktop, mobile and cluster computers. libRoadRunner is a self-contained library, able to run both as a component inside other tools via its C++ and C bindings andnteractively through its Python interface. The Python Application Programming Interface (API) is similar to the APIs of Matlab and SciPy, making it fast and easy to learn, even for new users. libRoadRunner uses a custom Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler built on the widely-used LLVM JIT compiler framework to compile SBML-specified models directly into very fast native machine code for a variety of processors, making it appropriate for solving very large models or multiple replicas of smaller models. libRoadRunner is flexible, supporting the bulk of the SBML specification (except for delay and nonlinear algebraic equations) and several of its extensions. It offers multiple deterministic and stochastic integrators, as well as tools for steady-state, stability analyses and flux balance analysis. We regularly update libRoadRunner binary distributions for Mac OS X, Linux and Windows and license them under Apache License Version 2.0. http://www.libroadrunner.org provides online documentation, full build instructions, binaries and a git source repository.