Towards High-Level Programming of Multi-GPU Systems Using the SkelCL Library

Steuwer, M. , Kegel, P. and Gorlatch, S. (2012) Towards High-Level Programming of Multi-GPU Systems Using the SkelCL Library. In: 2012 IEEE 26th International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium Workshops & PhD Forum (IPDPSW), Shanghai, China, 21-25 May 2012, pp. 1858-1865. ISBN 9781467309745 (doi: 10.1109/IPDPSW.2012.229)

Abstract

Application programming for GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) is complex and error-prone, because the popular approaches — CUDA and OpenCL — are intrinsically low-level and offer no special support for systems consisting of multiple GPUs. The SkelCL library presented in this paper is built on top of the OpenCL standard and offers preimplemented recurring computation and communication patterns (skeletons) which greatly simplify programming for multiGPU systems. The library also provides an abstract vector data type and a high-level data (re)distribution mechanism to shield the programmer from the low-level data transfers between the system’s main memory and multiple GPUs. In this paper, we focus on the specific support in SkelCL for systems with multiple GPUs and use a real-world application study from the area of medical imaging to demonstrate the reduced programming effort and competitive performance of SkelCL as compared to OpenCL and CUDA. Besides, we illustrate how SkelCL adapts to large-scale, distributed heterogeneous systems in order to simplify their programming.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Steuwer, Dr Michel
• Authors: Steuwer, M., Kegel, P., and Gorlatch, S.
• Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• ISBN: 9781467309745
• Published Online: 20 August 2012
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2012 IEEE
• First Published: First published in 2012 IEEE 26th International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium Workshops & PhD Forum (IPDPSW): 1858-1865
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy