The Vector API and GPUs

[Kartik Ohri]

Hi Paul,
That makes sense. Thank you for the helpful and detailed response.
Regards.

On Mon, Aug 16, 2021 at 9:53 PM Paul Sandoz <paul.sandoz at oracle.com> wrote:

> Hi Kartik,
>
> Currently our focus is design of the API and implementation for CPUs.
> There are no future plans in motion to explore its use on GPUs.
>
> We have had some thoughts on the matter. In principle the API could be
> implemented to support a GPU but I think that is insufficient. In my
> experience we need to think more broadly about loops, device/memory
> management, async execution etc. These need to be visible in some form to
> the developer so there is a clear demarcation of what runs where, and what
> resides where.
>
> Thinking more broadly, I like where Tornado VM is going. If we could
> somehow introspect on the Java code symbolically Tornado VM could apply its
> approach in a more standard and supported way. Including support of the
> Vector API, translating to GPU vector hardware instructions within a kernel.
>
> More generally, I view this problem as a graph extraction problem,
> splitting a program into the host program and the GPU program, with async
> communication between the two. The challenge is to devise a clear
> programming model so the developer can understand the runtime effects of
> the code they have written.
>
> Paul.
>
>
> > On Aug 15, 2021, at 5:06 AM, Kartik Ohri <kartikohri13 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi all!
> >
> > I understand that Java on GPU was being explored in the Project Sumatra
> but
> > the sumatra-dev mailing list looks inactive and also my question is
> related
> > to the Vector API so I am asking here. If I understand correctly, the
> > Vector API currently only deals with CPU SIMD. Based on this, I have the
> > following few questions:
> >
> > 1) Is the implementation of the Vector API strictly tied to CPU SIMD and
> > hence making it not possible to support GPUs?
> >
> > 2) If not, have there been any explorations in the past related to GPU
> > support in the Vector API ?
> >
> > 3) If not, are there any future plans to do so?
> >
> > Regards,
> > Kartik
>
>