CUDA streams, texture binding and async memcpy - asynchronous

Writing some signal processing in CUDA I recently made huge progress in optimizing it. By using 1D textures and adjusting my access patterns I managed to get a 10× performance boost. (I previously tried transaction aligned prefetching from global into shared memory, but the nonuniform access patterns happening later messed up the warp→shared cache bank association (I think)).
So now I'm facing the problem, how CUDA textures and bindings interact with asynchronous memcpy.
Consider the following kernel
texture<...> mytexture;
__global__ void mykernel(float *pOut)
{
pOut[threadIdx.x] = tex1Dfetch(texture, threadIdx.x);
}
The kernel is launched in multiple streams
extern void *sourcedata;
#define N_CUDA_STREAMS ...
cudaStream stream[N_CUDA_STREAMS];
void *d_pOut[N_CUDA_STREAMS];
void *d_texData[N_CUDA_STREAMS];
for(int k_stream = 0; k_stream < N_CUDA_STREAMS; k_stream++) {
cudaStreamCreate(stream[k_stream]);
cudaMalloc(&d_pOut[k_stream], ...);
cudaMalloc(&d_texData[k_stream], ...);
}
/* ... */
for(int i_datablock; i_datablock < n_datablocks; i_datablock++) {
int const k_stream = i_datablock % N_CUDA_STREAMS;
cudaMemcpyAsync(d_texData[k_stream], (char*)sourcedata + i_datablock * blocksize, ..., stream[k_stream]);
cudaBindTexture(0, &mytexture, d_texData[k_stream], ...);
mykernel<<<..., stream[k_stream]>>>(d_pOut);
}
Now what I wonder about is, since there is only one texture reference, what happens when I bind a buffer to a texture while other streams' kernels access that texture? cudaBindStream doesn't take a stream parameter, so I'm worried that by binding the texture to another device pointer while running kernels are asynchronously accessing said texture I'll divert their accesses to the other data.
The CUDA documentation doesn't tell anything about this. If have to to disentangle this to allow concurrent access, it seems I'd have to create a number of texture references and use a switch statementto chose between them, based on the stream number passed as a kernel launch parameter.
Unfortunately CUDA doesn't allow to put arrays of textures on the device side, i.e. the following does not work:
texture<...> texarray[N_CUDA_STREAMS];
Layered textures are not an option, because the amount of data I have only fits within a plain 1D texture not bound to a CUDA array (see table F-2 in the CUDA 4.2 C Programming Guide).

Indeed you cannot unbind the texture while still using it in a different stream.
Since the number of streams doesn't need to be large to hide the asynchronous memcpys (2 would already do), you could use C++ templates to give each stream its own texture:
texture<float, 1, cudaReadModeElementType> mytexture1;
texture<float, 1, cudaReadModeElementType> mytexture2;
template<int TexSel> __device__ float myTex1Dfetch(int x);
template<> __device__ float myTex1Dfetch<1>(int x) { return tex1Dfetch(mytexture1, x); }
template<> __device__ float myTex1Dfetch<2>(int x) { return tex1Dfetch(mytexture2, x); }
template<int TexSel> __global__ void mykernel(float *pOut)
{
pOut[threadIdx.x] = myTex1Dfetch<TexSel>(threadIdx.x);
}
int main(void)
{
float *out_d[2];
// ...
mykernel<1><<<blocks, threads, stream[0]>>>(out_d[0]);
mykernel<2><<<blocks, threads, stream[1]>>>(out_d[1]);
// ...
}

Related

Can I have boolean buffer in OpenCL and change its value during kernel execution, example to break while loop

I want to do some experiments in OpenCL and I want to know possibility to change states during kernel execution from host code using buffer.
I attempted to alter the state of a while loop in the kernel code by modifying the buffer value from within the host code, however the execution is hung.
void my_kernel(
__global bool *in,
__global int *out)
{
int i = get_global_id(0);
while(1) {
if(1 == *in) {
printf("while loop is finished");
break;
}
}
printf("out[0] = %d\n", out[0]);
}
I call second time the function clEnqueueWriteBuffer() to change state of input value.
input[0] = 1;
err = clEnqueueWriteBuffer(commands, input_buffer,
CL_TRUE, 0, sizeof(int), (void*)input,
0, NULL,NULL);
At least for OpenCL 1.x, this is not permitted, and any behaviour you may observe in one implementation cannot be relied upon.
See the NOTE in the OpenCL 1.2 specification, section 5.2.2, Reading, Writing and Copying Buffer Objects:
Calling clEnqueueWriteBuffer to update the latest bits in a region of the buffer object with the ptr argument value set to host_ptr + offset, where host_ptr is a pointer to the memory region specified when the buffer object being written is created with CL_MEM_USE_HOST_PTR, must meet the following requirements in order to avoid undefined behavior:
The host memory region given by (host_ptr + offset, cb) contains the latest bits when the enqueued write command begins execution.
The buffer object or memory objects created from this buffer object are not mapped.
The buffer object or memory objects created from this buffer object are not used by any command-queue until the write command has finished execution.
The final condition is not met by your code, therefore its behaviour is undefined.
I am not certain if the situation is different with OpenCL 2.x's Shared Virtual Memory (SVM) feature, as I have no practical experience using it, perhaps someone else can contribute an answer for that.

Using OpenMP with GPU

Everyone good time of day!
I would like to ask the advice of the respected community about the use of GPU computing power instead of or together with the CPU.
I have a well-functioning program based on recursive search of all kinds of combinations of some events, paralleled using OpenMP to run on all available processor cores.
The pseudocode C++ is as follows:
// #includes
// function announcements
// declaring a global variable:
QVector<QVector<QVector<float>>> variant; // (or "std::vector")
int main() {
// reads data from file
// data are converted and analyzed
// the variant variable containing the current best result is filled in (here - by pre-analysis)
#pragma omp parallel shared(variant)
#pragma omp master
// occurs call a recursive algorithm of search all variants:
PEREBOR(Tabl_1, a, i_a, ..., reс_depth);
return 0;
}
void PEREBOR(QVector<QVector<uint8_t>> Tabl_1, QVector<A_struct> a, uint8_t i_a, ..., uint8_t reс_depth)
{
// looking for the boundaries of the first cycle for some reasons
for (int i = quantity; i < another_quantity; i++) {
// the Tabl_1 is processed and modified to determine the number of steps in the subsequent for cycle
for (int k = 0; k < the_quantity_just_found; k++) {
if the recursion depth is not 1, we go down further: {
// add descent to the next recursion level to the call stack:
#pragma omp task
PEREBOR(Tabl_1_COPY, a, i_a, ..., reс_depth-1);
}
else (if we went down to the lowest level): {
if (condition fulfilled) // condition check - READ variant variable
variant = it_is_equal_to_that_,_to_that...;
else
continue;
}
}
}
}
Unfortunately, I don't have a CPU with a thousand cores at my disposal, and without this, the algorithm works for a very long time. At the place where I work, I was advised to think about using a GPU to speed up calculations. I learned that OpenMP can work with video cards (and especially with NVidia), but OpenACC also does it well.
In this regard, my main question is whether it is possible to simply and, at the same time, effectively set the execution of a recursive algorithm on a GPU? Can this give a noticeable acceleration relative to the CPU? If so, maybe OpenACC will do better? And is it possible to give instructions to the video card through the "#pragma omp task", or are other instructions REQUIRED? And how would it be possible to combine calculations on the CPU and GPU?
Thank you so much for any help!
P.S. I apologize for my English, which is not my native language :)

When I invoke an asynchronous CUDA kernel, how are its arguments copied?

Say I want to invoke a CUDA kernel, like this:
struct foo { int a; int b; float c; double d; }
foo arg;
// fill in elements of `arg` here
my_kernel<<<grid_size, block_size, 0, stream>>>(arg);
Assume that stream was previously created using a call to cudaStreamCreate(), so the above will execute asynchronously. I'm concerned about the required lifetime of arg.
Are the arguments to the kernel copied synchronously when I invoke it (so it would be safe for arg to go out of scope immediately), or are they copied asynchronously (so I need to ensure that it stays alive until the kernel runs)?
Arguments are copied synchronously at launch. The API exposes a call stack onto which execution parameters and function arguments are pushed in order, then a call finalises those arguments into a CUDA kernel launch on the drivers internal streams/command queues.
This process isn't documented, but as of CUDA 7.5, a runtime API kernel launch like this:
dot_product<<<1,n>>>(n, d_a, d_b);
becomes this:
(cudaConfigureCall(1, n)) ? (void)0 : (dot_product)(n, d_a, d_b);
where the host stub function dot_product is expanded into this:
void __device_stub__Z11dot_productiPfS_(int __par0, float *__par1, float *__par2)
{
if (cudaSetupArgument((void *)(char *)&__par0, sizeof(__par0), (size_t)0UL) != cudaSuccess) return;
if (cudaSetupArgument((void *)(char *)&__par1, sizeof(__par1), (size_t)8UL) != cudaSuccess) return;
if (cudaSetupArgument((void *)(char *)&__par2, sizeof(__par2), (size_t)16UL) != cudaSuccess) return;
{
volatile static char *__f __attribute__((unused)); __f = ((char *)((void ( *)(int, float *, float *))dot_product));
(void)cudaLaunch(((char *)((void ( *)(int, float *, float *))dot_product)));
};
}
void dot_product( int __cuda_0,float *__cuda_1,float *__cuda_2)
{
__device_stub__Z11dot_productiPfS_( __cuda_0,__cuda_1,__cuda_2);
}
cudaSetupArgument is the API call which is pushing arguments onto the call stack. Interestingly, this is actually deprecated in the API documentation for CUDA 7.5, even though the compiler is using it. I would, therefore, expect this to change in the future, but the idea will be the same.
The parameters of the kernel call are copied prior to execution, so the scope schould be of no concern. But please note that the size of all kernel parameters cannot exceed a maximum size in bytes. If you want larger structs or blobs of data you need to allocate the used memory on the device using cudaMalloc, then copy the content of the host struct to the device struct using cudaMemcpy and call the kernel with a pointer to the new device struct.
Your code would look something like this:
struct foo { int a; int b; float c; double d; }
foo arg;
foo *arg_d;
// fill in elements of `arg` here
cudaMalloc(&arg_d, sizeof(foo));
// check the allocation here
cudaMemcpy(arg_d, &arg, sizeof(foo), cudaMemcpyHostToDevice);
my_kernel<<<grid_size, block_size, 0, stream>>>(arg_d);

Basic OpenCL Mutex Implementation (Currently Hanging)

I am trying to write a mutex for OpenCL. The idea is for every single individual work item to be able to proceed atomically. Currently, I believe the problem may be that thread warps are unable to proceed when one thread in a warp gets the lock.
My current simple kernel below, for summing numbers. "numbers" is an array of floats as input. "sum" is a one element array for the result, and "semaphore" is a one element array for holding the semaphore. I based it heavily off the example here.
void acquire(__global int* semaphore) {
int occupied;
do {
occupied = atom_xchg(semaphore, 1);
} while (occupied>0);
}
void release(__global int* semaphore) {
atom_xchg(semaphore, 0); //the previous value, which is returned, is ignored
}
__kernel void test_kernel(__global float* numbers, __global float* sum, __global int* semaphore) {
int i = get_global_id(0);
acquire(semaphore);
*sum += numbers[i];
release(semaphore);
}
I am calling the kernel effectively like:
int numof_dimensions = 1;
size_t offset_global[1] = {0};
size_t size_global[1] = {4000}; //the length of the numbers array
size_t* size_local = NULL;
clEnqueueNDRangeKernel(command_queue, kernel, numof_dimensions,offset_global,size_global,size_local, 0,NULL, NULL);
As above, when running, the graphics card hangs, and the driver restarts itself. How can I fix it so that it doesn't?
What you are trying to do is not possible because of the GPU execution model, where all threads on a "processor" share the instruction pointer, even in branches. Here is a post that explains the problem in detail: http://vansa.ic.cz/author/admin/.
BTW, the example code that you found has the exact same problem and would never work.
The answer to this might seem obvious in retrospect, but it's not unless you thought of it.
Basically, the GPU's prediction of the ideal local group size (size of a thread warp) is greater than 1, and so thread warps lock up. To fix it, you just need to specify it to be 1 (i.e. "size_t size_local[1] = {1};"). Doing this produces a correct result.

Calling OpenCL kernel from another OpenCL kernel

I have seen in one post here that we can call a function from an OpenCL kernel. But in my situation, I need that complex function to be parallelized (run by all available threads) as well, so do I have to make that function a kernel too and call it straight away like function from the main kernel ? or whats possible solution for this situation? Thanks in advance
You can call helper functions from your kernel and they will be parallelized in the same manner as the kernel, imagine them as inlined inside your kernel code. So, each work item will invoke the helper function for the working set it handles.
float4 helper_function(float4 input)
{
return input.x + input.y + input.z + input.w;
}
__kernel kernel_function(const float4* arr, float4* out)
{
id = get_global_id(0);
out[id] = helper_function(arr[id]);
}
OpenCL 2.0 spec added a new feature for dynamic paralelism.
6.13.17 Enqueuing Kernels
OpenCL 2.0 allows a kernel to independently enqueue to the same device, without host
interaction. ...
In the example below my_func_B enqueus my_func_A on the device:
kernel void
my_func_A(global int *a, global int *b, global int *c)
{
...
}
kernel void
my_func_B(global int *a, global int *b, global int *c)
{
ndrange_t ndrange;
// build ndrange information
...
// example – enqueue a kernel as a block
enqueue_kernel(get_default_queue(), ndrange, ^{my_func_A(a, b, c);});
...
}
If I understand your question correctly, you want to do a separate full pass over a buffer from inside the kernel. I don't think that is possible from within the kernel, so you'd have to create the code for the "inner" pass as a separate kernel and also call that kernel separately from your host code. The output from that kernel doesn't have to be read back to the host memory, but can stay in device memory between your kernel calls.

Resources