1. CUDA and GPU Training Workshop April 21, 2014
University of Georgia CUDA Teaching Center

2. UGA CUDA Teaching Center
UGA, through the efforts of Professor Thiab Taha, has been selected by NVIDIA as a CUDA Teaching Center, est. 2011
Presenters: Jennifer Rouan and Sayali Kale
Visit us at
We are sponsored in part by a grant from Nvidia, so if we make some claims that are still debatable in the industry at large, bear in mind that our bias is toward Nvidia’s philosophy.

3. Workshop Outline Intruduction to GPUs and CUDA
CUDA Programming Concepts
Current GPU Research at UGA
GPU Computing Resources at UGA
“My First CUDA Program” – hands-on programming project

4. A Little Bit of GPU Background
GPU is a computer chip that performs rapid mathematical calculations in parallel, primarily for the purpose of rendering images. NVIDIA introduced the first GPU, The GeForce256, in 1999 and remains one of the major players in the market. Using CUDA, the GPUs can be used for general purpose processing this approach is known as GPGPU.

5. Question
What are different ways hardware designer make computers run faster?
Higher clock speeds
More work/clock cycle
More processors

6. What is CUDA? Compute Unified Device Architecture
It is a parallel computing platform and programming model created by NVDIA and implemented by the GPUs(Graphics Processing Units) that they produce.
CUDA compiler uses variation of C with future support of C++
CUDA was released on February 15, 2007 for PC and Beta version for Mac OS X on August 19, 2008. 

7. Why CUDA? CUDA provides ability to use high-level languages .
 GPUs allow creation of very large number of concurrently executed threads at very low system resource cost.
CUDA also exposes fast shared memory (16KB) that can be shared between threads. 
such as C to develop application that can take advantage of high level of performance and scalability that GPUs architecture offer. 

8. CPU v/s GPU
Central Processing Units (CPUs) consists of a few cores optimized for sequential serial processing .
Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) consists of thousands of smaller, more efficient cores designed for handling multiple tasks simultaneously.
Video
memory
CPU
GPU

9. CUDA Computing System
GPU-accelerated computing offers great performance by running portions of the application to the GPU, while the remainder of the code still runs on the CPU.

10. CUDA Computing System
A CUDA computing system consists of a host (CPU) and one or more devices (GPUs)
The portions of the program that can be evaluated in parallel are executed on the device. The host handles the serial portions and the transfer of execution and data to and from the device

11. CUDA Program Source Code
A CUDA program is a unified source code encompassing both host and device code. Convention: program_name.cu
NVIDIA’s compiler (nvcc) separates the host and device code at compilation
The host code is compiled by the host’s standard C compilers. The device code is further compiled by nvcc for execution on the GPU

12. CUDA Program Execution steps:
CPU allocated storage on GPU (CUDA Malloc)
CPU copies I/P data from CPU to GPU (CUDA Memcpy)
CPU launches kernel (Invoking program )on GPU to process data (Kernel Launch)
CPU copies results back to CPU from GPU (CUDA Memcpy)

13. Processing Flow Processing Flow of CUDA:
Copy data from main memory to GPU memory.
CPU instructs the process to GPU.
GPU execute parallel in each core.
Copy the result from GPU memory to main memory.

14. CUDA Program Execution
Execution of a CUDA program begins on the host CPU
When a kernel function (or simply “kernel”) is launched, execution is transferred to the device and a massive “grid” of lightweight threads is spawned
When all threads of a kernel have finished executing, the grid terminates and control of the program returns to the host until another kernel is launched

15. Thread Batching: Grids and Blocks
A kernel is executed as a grid of thread blocks
All threads share data memory space
A thread block is a batch of threads that can cooperate with each other.
Threads and blocks have IDs
So each thread can decide what data to work on
Grid Dim: 1D or 2D
Block Dim: 1D, 2D, or 3D
Host
Kernel 1
Kernel 2
Device
Grid 1
Block
(0, 0)
(1, 0)
(2, 0)
(0, 1)
(1, 1)
(2, 1)
Grid 2
Block (1, 1)
Thread
(3, 1)
(4, 1)
(0, 2)
(1, 2)
(2, 2)
(3, 2)
(4, 2)
(3, 0)
(4, 0)
Courtesy: NDVIA

16. CUDA Program Structure example
int main(void) {
float *a_h, *a_d; // pointers to host and device arrays
const int N = 10; // number of elements in array
size_t size = N * sizeof(float); // size of array in memory
// allocate memory on host and device for the array
// initialize array on host (a_h)
// copy array a_h to allocated device memory location (a_d)
// kernel invocation code – to have the device perform
// the parallel operations
// copy a_d from the device memory back to a_h
// free allocated memory on device and host }
In this case, since it’s such a simple program, we are going to write over our input data with our results on both the host and device. For a more complicated program, you would probably use more arrays to store the results on the device and host.

17. Data Movement example int main(void) {
float *a_h, *a_d; const int N = 10;
size_t size = N * sizeof(float); // size of array in memory
a_h = (float *)malloc(size); // allocate array on host
cudaMalloc((void **) &a_d, size); // allocate array on device
for (i=0; i<N; i++) a_h[i] = (float)i; // initialize array
cudaMemcpy(a_d, a_h, size, cudaMemcpyHostToDevice);
// kernel invocation code
cudaMemcpy(a_h, a_d, sizeof(float)*N, cudaMemcpyDeviceToHost);
cudaFree(a_d); free(a_h); // free allocated memory }
Be aware, a pointer to an address looks like a pointer to an address, there is no way for the computing system to tell whether it refers to an address on the host or the device. Use useful variable names with “h” or “d” in them, and pay attention when dereferencing.
cudaMemcopy( dest_add, source_add, size, direction )

18. Kernel Invocation example
int main(void) {
float *a_h, *a_d; const int N = 10;
size_t size = N * sizeof(float); // size of array in memory
a_h = (float *)malloc(size); // allocate array on host
cudaMalloc((void **) &a_d, size); // allocate array on device
for (i=0; i<N; i++) a_h[i] = (float)i; // initialize array
cudaMemcpy(a_d, a_h, size, cudaMemcpyHostToDevice);
int block_size = 4; // set up execution parameters
int n_blocks = N/block_size + (N%block_size == 0 ? 0:1);
square_array <<< n_blocks, block_size >>> (a_d, N);
cudaMemcpy(a_h, a_d, sizeof(float)*N, cudaMemcpyDeviceToHost);
cudaFree(a_d); free(a_h); // free allocated memory }

19. Kernel Function Call
#include <stdio.h> #include <cuda.h> // kernel function that executes on the CUDA device __global__ void square_array(float *a, int N) { int idx = blockIdx.x * blockDim.x + threadIdx.x; if (idx<N) a[idx] = a[idx] * a[idx]; } // main routine that executes on the host Compare with serial C version: void square_array(float *a, int N) { int i; for (i = 0; i < N; i++) a[i] = a[i] * a[i]; }

20. CUDA Thread Organization
Since all threads of a grid execute the same code, they rely on a two-level hierarchy of coordinates to distinguish themselves: blockIdx and threadIdx
The example code fragment: ID = blockIdx.x * blockDim.x + threadIdx.x; will yield a unique ID for every thread across all blocks of a grid
Every thread executes the exact same code. They calculate their individual ID, then use it as the index to an input array and an output array. Rather than iterate through an array, each thread operates on a single element at the same time.

21. Execution Parameters and Kernel Launch
A kernel is invoked by the host program with execution parameters surrounded by ‘<<<’ and ‘>>>’ as in:
function_name <<< grid_dim, block_dim >>> (arg1, arg2);
At kernel launch, a “grid” is spawned on the device. A grid consists of a one- or two-dimensional array of “blocks”. In turn, a block consists of a one-, two-, or three-dimensional array of “threads”.
Grid and block dimensions are passed to the kernel function at invocation as execution parameters.

22. Execution Parameters and Kernel Launch
gridDim and blockDim are CUDA built-in variables of type dim3, essentially a C struct with three unsigned integer fields, x, y, and z
Since a grid is generally two-dimensional, gridDim.z is ignored but should be set to 1 for clarity
dim3 grid_d = (n_blocks, 1, 1); // this is still
dim3 block_d = (block_size, 1, 1); // host code
function_name <<< grid_d, block_d >>> (arg1, arg2);
For one-dimensional grids and blocks, scalar values can be used instead of dim3 type

23. Execution Parameters and Kernel Launch
dim3 grid_dim = (2, 2, 1)
dim3 block_dim = (4, 2, 2)
The programmer chooses the dimensions based on what works for the data and what they want to do with it. For example, when using two-dimensional arrays, you would probably choose two-dimensional blocks.

24. Kernel Functions
A kernel function specifies the code to be executed by all threads in parallel – an instance of single-program, multiple-data (SPMD) parallel programming.
A kernel function declaration is a C function extended with one of three keywords: “__device__”, “__global__”, or “__host__”.
Executed on the:
Only callable from the:
__device__ float DeviceFunc()
device
__global__ void KernelFunc()
host
__host__ float HostFunc()

25. CUDA Device Memory Types
Global Memory and Constant Memory can be accessed by the host and device. Constant Memory serves read-only data to the device at high bandwidth. Global Memory is read-write and has a longer latency
Registers, Local Memory, and Shared Memory are accessible only to the device. Registers and Local Memory are available only to their own thread. Shared Memory is accessible to all threads within the same block.
No communication between blocks due to synchronization constraint
More on “latency hiding” later

26. CUDA Device Memory Model
Each thread can:
R/W per-thread registers
R/W per-thread local memory
R/W per-block shared memory
R/W per-grid global memory
Read only per-grid constant memory
(Device) Grid
Constant
Memory
Global
Block (0, 0)
Shared Memory
Local
Thread (0, 0)
Registers
Thread (1, 0)
Block (1, 0)
Host
Global, constant, and texture memory spaces are persistent across kernels called by the same application.

27. CUDA- Advantages
Huge increase in processing power over conventional CPU processing. Early reports suggest speed increases of 10x to 200x over CPU processing speed.
Researchers can use several GPU's to preform the same amount of operations as many servers in less time, thus saving money, time, and space.
C language is widely used, so it is easy for developers to learn how to program for CUDA.
All graphics cards in the G80 series and beyond support CUDA.
Harnesses the power of the GPU by using parallel processing; running thousands of simultaneous reads.

28. Disadvantages
Limited user base- Only NVIDIA G80 and onward video cards can use CUDA, thus isolating all ATI users.
Speeds may be bottlenecked at the bus between CPU and GPU.
Mainly developed for researchers- not many uses for average users.
System is still in development.

29. Current GPU Research at UGA
Institute of Bioinformatics
“Solving Nonlinear Systems of First Order Ordinary Differential Equations Using a Galerkin Finite Element Method”, Al-Omari, A., Schuttler, H.-B., Arnold, J., and Taha, T. R. IEEE Access, 1, (2013).
“Solving Large Nonlinear Systems of First-Order Ordinary Differential Equations With Hierarchical Structure Using Multi-GPGPUs and an Adaptive Runge Kutta ODE Solver”, Al- Omari, A., Arnold, J., Taha, T. R., Schuttler, H.-B. IEEE Access, 1, (2013).

30. Current GPU Research at UGA
Institute of Bioinformatics
GTC Poster:

31. Current GPU Research at UGA
Department of Physics and Astronomy
“A generic, hierarchical framework for massively parallel Wang-Landau sampling”, T. Vogel, Y. W. Li, T. Wüst, and D. P. Landau, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, (2013).
“Massively parallel Wang-Landau Sampling on Multiple GPUs”, J. Yin and D. P. Landau, Comput. Phys. Commun. 183, (2012).

32. Current GPU Research at UGA
Department of Physics and Astronomy

33. Current GPU Research at UGA
Department of Computer Science
“Analysis of Surface Folding Patterns of DICCCOLS Using the GPU-Optimized Geodesic Field Estimate”, Mukhopadhyay, A., Lim, C.-W., Bhandarkar, S. M., Chen, H., New, A., Liu, T., Rasheed, K. M., Taha, T. R. Nagoyaa: Proceedings of MICCAI Workshop on Mesh Processing in Medical Image Analysis (2013).

34. Current GPU Research at UGA
Department of Computer Science

35. Current GPU Research at UGA
Department of Computer Science
“Using Massively Parallel Evolutionary Computation on GPUs for Biological Circuit Reconstruction”, Cholwoo Lim, master's thesis under the direction of Dr. Khaled Rasheed (2013).

36. Current GPU Research at UGA

37. Current GPU Research at UGA
Department of Computer Science
“GPU Acceleration of High-Dimensional k-Nearest Neighbor Search for Face Recognition using EigenFaces”, Jennifer Rouan, master's thesis under the direction of Dr. Thiab Taha (2014)
“Using CUDA for GPUs over MPI to solve Nonlinear Evolution Equations”, Jennifer Rouan and Thiab Taha, presented at: The Eighth IMACS International Conference on Nonlinear Evolution Equations and Wave Phenomena: Computation and Theory (2013)

38. Current GPU Research at UGA
Department of Computer Science
Research Day 2014 Poster:
Waves 2013 Poster:

39. More CUDA Training Resources
University of Georgia CUDA Teaching Center:
Nvidia training and education site:
Stanford University course on iTunes U: u/programming-massively-parallel/id
University of Illinois:
University of California, Davis: d91-a80e-271bde5c8fac/page/de40f2cc-40d9-4b0f-a2d3-e8518bd0266a
University of Wisconsin:
University of North Carolina at Charlotte:

40. GPUs Available at UGA CUDA Teaching Center lab in 207A
Twelve NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 GPUs
Six Linux hosts on cs.uga.edu domain:
cuda01, cuda02, cuda03, cuda04, cuda05 & cuda06
SSH from nike.cs.uga.edu with your CS login and password
More GPUs available on the Z-cluster
visit for an account and more information
Do they need to get on an access list?

41. References
Kirk, D., & Hwu, W. (2010). Programming Massively Parallel Processors: A Hands-on Approach, 1 – 75
Tarjan, D. (2010). Introduction to CUDA, Stanford University on iTunes U
Atallah, M. J. (Ed.), (1998). Algorithms and theory of computation handbook. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press
von Neumann, J. (1945). First draft of a report on the EDVAC. Contract No. W-670-ORD- 4926, U.S. Army Ordnance Department and University of Pennsylvania
Sutter, H., & Larus, J. (2005). Software and the concurrency revolution. ACM Queue, 3(7), 54 – 62
Stratton, J. A., Stone, S. S., & Hwu, W. W. (2008). MCUDA: And efficient implementation of CUDA kernels for multi-core CPUs. Canada: Edmonton
Vandenbout, Dave (2008). My First Cuda Program,

42. References
“Using Massively Parallel Evolutionary Computation on GPUs for Biological Circuit Reconstruction”, Cholwoo Lim, master's thesis under the direction of Dr. Khaled Rasheed (2013) and Prof. Taha is one of the Advisory Committee members
“Solving large Nonlinear Systems of ODE with Hierarchical Structure Using Multi- GPGPUs and an Adaptive Runge Kutte”, Ahmad Al-Omari, Thiab Taha, B. Schuttler, Jonathan Arnold, presented at: GPU Technology Conference, March 2014
“Using CUDA for GPUs over MPI to solve Nonlinear Evolution Equations”, Jennifer Rouan and Thiab Taha, presented at: The Eighth IMACS International Conference on Nonlinear Evolution Equations and Wave Phenomena: Computation and Theory, March 2013
“GPU Acceleration of High-Dimensional k-Nearest Neighbor Search for Face Recognition using EigenFaces”, Jennifer Rouan, and Thiab Taha, presented at: UGA Department of Computer Science Research Day, April 2014