Control of step size and order in extrapolation codes (Q1089751)

As it has been proved by \textit{G. Bader} and \textit{P. Deuflhard} [Numer. Math. 41, 373-398 (1983; Zbl 0522.65050)] extrapolation of the semi- implicit midpoint rule is an effective way to solve stiff initial value problems in ordinary differential equations. Furthermore these results were numerically confirmed by experiments with the code METAN1 which has been widely tested with fairly good results. Here, on the basis of this extrapolation method, the author shows that some modifications of stepsize control and order may improve significantly the corresponding software. In fact, these modifications have been included by the author in a new code called SIMP and numerical experiments of the author confirm that SIMP performs better than METANI for the collection of stiff problems of \textit{W. H. Enright} and \textit{T. E. Hull} [Comparing numerical methods for the solution of stiff systems of ODE's, in: L. Lapidus and W. E. Schiesser, Eds., Numerical methods for Differential Systems 1976, p. 45-66].