Hi all:
In an effort to evaluate and prepare to ultimately merge our
GPU-accelerated TI implementation with the master branch, we created the
“gti” branch that is synced to the current master branch, but that enabled
both TI implementations - the pmemdGTI implementation from the Laboratory
for Biomolecular Simulation Research (LBSR) at Rutgers, and the AFE
implementation from Ross' group which is in the current master branch - to
co-exist. This allows head to head tests and comparisons, code evaluation,
consolidation and discussion of how we want to move forward in the next
official release. I am sure we can learn a lot from looking at both code
bases, and adopt best practices from each.
Here is a summary of main changes from current main branch:
*Major program changes—for cuda developers*
*1. **all*
The cSim and gpuContext objects are now wrapped as base classes. All
variable definitions and initializations are done in base_gpuCpntext.{h,
cpp} and base_simulationConst.{h, cpp}.
*2. **Configured with –gti flag:*
a. The current pmemd.cuda is compiled as a combination of several
compiled cuda units. All units need to keep its own copy of cSim and that
means ~10 copies of cSim are in the program at the same time and they need
to share the GPU constant memory (64KB). *As a result, cSim is limited to
size of ~5KB*. Furthermore, any change in cSim on the host needs to be
passed to all copies of cSim’s on GPU.
With –gti configured, the cuda kernels are compiled as portable units and
linked as one cuda unit—hence there is only one copy of cSim at runtime. *The
cSim now has the size limit of ~64KB. *And coping cSim from host to GPU
only needs to be done once. You will be able to start putting much more
things into cSim.
b. The gpu context object is a local variable created in the heap space
(gpu = new _gpuContext;). With –gti configured. It is now handled as a
singleton object and can be accessed from anywhere by
“gpu = theGPUContext::GetPointer(); “.
*Test results*
*1.without -git flag*
Without turning on GTI (i.e., configured without –gti),
test_cuda_serial.sh gave
171 file comparisons passed
0 file comparison failed
0 test experienced an error
*2. with -git flag*
With -gti turned on (i.e., configured with), test_cuda_serial.sh gave
161 file comparisons passed
10 file comparison failed
0 test experienced an error
The “file comparison failed” is small numerical differences in the
cellulose case and all AFE cases (due to different TI implementations).
We will update all GTI functionalities and test cases after this initial
merge.
Please take a look at the “gti” branch and let us any problems: especially
the AFE part: we need to modify some parts so that the “#ifdef GTI” can
effectively distinguish the AFE and the GTI implementations. It seems
there is no problem—all AFE tests are passed when –gti is not configured.
Best,
Taisung and Darrin
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Received on Sat Dec 23 2017 - 10:30:02 PST
