dOpenCL: Towards a Uniform Programming Approach for Distributed Heterogeneous Multi-/Many-Core Systems

Kegel, P., Steuwer, M. and Gorlatch, S. (2012) dOpenCL: Towards a Uniform Programming Approach for Distributed Heterogeneous Multi-/Many-Core Systems. In: 2012 IEEE 26th International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium Workshops & PhD Forum (IPDPSW), Shanghai, China, 21-25 May 2012, pp. 174-186. ISBN 9781467309745 (doi: 10.1109/IPDPSW.2012.16)

Abstract

Modern computer systems are becoming increasingly heterogeneous by comprising multi-core CPUs, GPUs, and other accelerators. Current programming approaches for such systems usually require the application developer to use a combination of several programming models (e. g., MPI with OpenCL or CUDA) in order to exploit the full compute capability of a system. In this paper, we present dOpenCL (Distributed OpenCL) – a uniform approach to programming distributed heterogeneous systems with accelerators. dOpenCL extends the OpenCL standard, such that arbitrary computing devices installed on any node of a distributed system can be used together within a single application. dOpenCL allows moving data and program code to these devices in a transparent, portable manner. Since dOpenCL is designed as a fully-fledged implementation of the OpenCL API, it allows running existing OpenCL applications in a heterogeneous distributed environment without any modifications. We describe in detail the mechanisms that are required to implement OpenCL for distributed systems, including a device management mechanism for running multiple applications concurrently. Using three application studies, we compare the performance of dOpenCL with MPI+OpenCL and a standard OpenCL implementation.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Steuwer, Dr Michel
• Authors: Kegel, P., Steuwer, M., 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): 174-186
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy