Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T18:27:54.577Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Introduction to GPU Kernels and Hardware

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2022

Richard Ansorge
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
HTML view is not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the 'Save PDF' action button.

Summary

The key to parallel programming is sharing a task between many cooperating threads running in parallel. A chart is presented showing how since 2003 the Moore’s law growth in computing performance has depended on parallel computing. This chapter includes a simple introductory CUDA example which performs numerical integration using 1000 000 000 threads. Using CUDA gives a speed-up of about 1000 compared to a single CPU thread. Key CUDA concepts including thread blocks, thread grids and warps are introduced. The hardware differences between conventional CPU architectures and GPUs are then discussed. Optimisations in memory caching on GPUs are also explained as memory access time is often a key performance constraint for many programs. The use of OpenMP to share a single task across all cores of a multicore CPU is also discussed.

Type
Chapter
Information
Programming in Parallel with CUDA
A Practical Guide
, pp. 1 - 21
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×