The default solver is now an algebraic multifrontal (AMF) direct solver (rather than mesh-based) where the critical variable ordering is based on the assembled equations, having the advantage of taking into account more sparsity in many systems of equations (for example, in multimode viscoelastic flows where stress modes are uncoupled).

Factors are, by default, stored in memory. It is also possible to force the storage of those factors onto disk by entering IPONDISK in the .p3rc file. In such a case, the location on disk is dictated by the TMP (Linux) or TEMP (Windows) environment variable.