Swan: A tool for porting CUDA programs to OpenCL
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| Title: | Swan: A tool for porting CUDA programs to OpenCL |
|---|---|
| Authors: | Harvey, M.J.1 m.j.harvey@imperial.ac.uk, De Fabritiis, G.2 gianni.defabritiis@upf.edu |
| Source: | Computer Physics Communications. Apr2011, Vol. 182 Issue 4, p1093-1099. 7p. |
| Subjects: | Application software porting, Graphics processing units, Standardization, Programming languages, Compilers (Computer programs), Computer operating systems, NVIDIA Corp., Computer architecture |
| Abstract: | Abstract: The use of modern, high-performance graphical processing units (GPUs) for acceleration of scientific computation has been widely reported. The majority of this work has used the CUDA programming model supported exclusively by GPUs manufactured by NVIDIA. An industry standardisation effort has recently produced the OpenCL specification for GPU programming. This offers the benefits of hardware-independence and reduced dependence on proprietary tool-chains. Here we describe a source-to-source translation tool, “Swan” for facilitating the conversion of an existing CUDA code to use the OpenCL model, as a means to aid programmers experienced with CUDA in evaluating OpenCL and alternative hardware. While the performance of equivalent OpenCL and CUDA code on fixed hardware should be comparable, we find that a real-world CUDA application ported to OpenCL exhibits an overall 50% increase in runtime, a reduction in performance attributable to the immaturity of contemporary compilers. The ported application is shown to have platform independence, running on both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs without modification. We conclude that OpenCL is a viable platform for developing portable GPU applications but that the more mature CUDA tools continue to provide best performance. Program summary: Program title: Swan Catalogue identifier: AEIH_v1_0 Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEIH_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen''s University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: GNU Public License version 2 No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 17 736 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 131 177 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: C Computer: PC Operating system: Linux RAM: 256 Mbytes Classification: 6.5 External routines: NVIDIA CUDA, OpenCL Nature of problem: Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) from NVIDIA are preferentially programed with the proprietary CUDA programming toolkit. An alternative programming model promoted as an industry standard, OpenCL, provides similar capabilities to CUDA and is also supported on non-NVIDIA hardware (including multicore ×86 CPUs, AMD GPUs and IBM Cell processors). The adaptation of a program from CUDA to OpenCL is relatively straightforward but laborious. The Swan tool facilitates this conversion. Solution method: Swan performs a translation of CUDA kernel source code into an OpenCL equivalent. It also generates the C source code for entry point functions, simplifying kernel invocation from the host program. A concise host-side API abstracts the CUDA and OpenCL APIs. A program adapted to use Swan has no dependency on the CUDA compiler for the host-side program. The converted program may be built for either CUDA or OpenCL, with the selection made at compile time. Restrictions: No support for CUDA C++ features Running time: Nominal [Copyright &y& Elsevier] |
| Copyright of Computer Physics Communications is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Engineering Source |
| FullText | Text: Availability: 0 |
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| Header | DbId: egs DbLabel: Engineering Source An: 57685266 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: Periodical PubTypeId: serialPeriodical PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Swan: A tool for porting CUDA programs to OpenCL – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Harvey%2C+M%2EJ%2E%22">Harvey, M.J.</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><i> m.j.harvey@imperial.ac.uk</i><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22De+Fabritiis%2C+G%2E%22">De Fabritiis, G.</searchLink><relatesTo>2</relatesTo><i> gianni.defabritiis@upf.edu</i> – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Computer+Physics+Communications%22">Computer Physics Communications</searchLink>. Apr2011, Vol. 182 Issue 4, p1093-1099. 7p. – Name: Subject Label: Subjects Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Application+software+porting%22">Application software porting</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Graphics+processing+units%22">Graphics processing units</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Standardization%22">Standardization</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Programming+languages%22">Programming languages</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Compilers+%28Computer+programs%29%22">Compilers (Computer programs)</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Computer+operating+systems%22">Computer operating systems</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22NVIDIA+Corp%2E%22">NVIDIA Corp.</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Computer+architecture%22">Computer architecture</searchLink> – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: Abstract: The use of modern, high-performance graphical processing units (GPUs) for acceleration of scientific computation has been widely reported. The majority of this work has used the CUDA programming model supported exclusively by GPUs manufactured by NVIDIA. An industry standardisation effort has recently produced the OpenCL specification for GPU programming. This offers the benefits of hardware-independence and reduced dependence on proprietary tool-chains. Here we describe a source-to-source translation tool, “Swan” for facilitating the conversion of an existing CUDA code to use the OpenCL model, as a means to aid programmers experienced with CUDA in evaluating OpenCL and alternative hardware. While the performance of equivalent OpenCL and CUDA code on fixed hardware should be comparable, we find that a real-world CUDA application ported to OpenCL exhibits an overall 50% increase in runtime, a reduction in performance attributable to the immaturity of contemporary compilers. The ported application is shown to have platform independence, running on both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs without modification. We conclude that OpenCL is a viable platform for developing portable GPU applications but that the more mature CUDA tools continue to provide best performance. Program summary: Program title: Swan Catalogue identifier: AEIH_v1_0 Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEIH_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen''s University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: GNU Public License version 2 No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 17 736 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 131 177 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: C Computer: PC Operating system: Linux RAM: 256 Mbytes Classification: 6.5 External routines: NVIDIA CUDA, OpenCL Nature of problem: Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) from NVIDIA are preferentially programed with the proprietary CUDA programming toolkit. An alternative programming model promoted as an industry standard, OpenCL, provides similar capabilities to CUDA and is also supported on non-NVIDIA hardware (including multicore ×86 CPUs, AMD GPUs and IBM Cell processors). The adaptation of a program from CUDA to OpenCL is relatively straightforward but laborious. The Swan tool facilitates this conversion. Solution method: Swan performs a translation of CUDA kernel source code into an OpenCL equivalent. It also generates the C source code for entry point functions, simplifying kernel invocation from the host program. A concise host-side API abstracts the CUDA and OpenCL APIs. A program adapted to use Swan has no dependency on the CUDA compiler for the host-side program. The converted program may be built for either CUDA or OpenCL, with the selection made at compile time. Restrictions: No support for CUDA C++ features Running time: Nominal [Copyright &y& Elsevier] – Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright Label: Group: Ab Data: <i>Copyright of Computer Physics Communications is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1016/j.cpc.2010.12.052 Languages: – Code: eng Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 7 StartPage: 1093 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Application software porting Type: general – SubjectFull: Graphics processing units Type: general – SubjectFull: Standardization Type: general – SubjectFull: Programming languages Type: general – SubjectFull: Compilers (Computer programs) Type: general – SubjectFull: Computer operating systems Type: general – SubjectFull: NVIDIA Corp. Type: general – SubjectFull: Computer architecture Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Swan: A tool for porting CUDA programs to OpenCL Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Harvey, M.J. – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: De Fabritiis, G. IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 04 Text: Apr2011 Type: published Y: 2011 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 00104655 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 182 – Type: issue Value: 4 Titles: – TitleFull: Computer Physics Communications Type: main |
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