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carlosn · Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:48 am Post subject: OpenCL for Cell

This is great news! Cell now supports opencl. I installed the OpenCL Development Kit in my ps3. The Julia set sample outputs to the ps3 framebuffer with minor modifications to the Makefile.

Here is a link to the IBM website.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=281018&tstart=0

rapso · Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 148

thx for sharing that, that's frickin cool. now all major platforms are supported by opencl, easy to write code once and get all the power from all kind of hardware.
I wonder if that will be also part of the cell sdk for ps3, just seen IBM server support so far.
_________________
Sony stole my linux|amazon stole my PS3 :(

carlosn · Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 10:03 pm Post subject:

kengreen · Joined: 31 Jul 2008 Posts: 13

I had some problems running the julia example, whether I use the --ps3 switch or not. I have IBM SDK 3.1 installed on YDL 6.2 with IBM XLC-SSC 0.9 from SDK 3.0. The julia example compiles without error but running it, it complains about an incompatible kernel in the src directory.

carlosn · Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:23 am Post subject:

I am also running YDL 6.2 and cell sdk 3.1. The compiler I am using is good old reliable gcc/g++.

Besides installing the OpenCL Development Kit, did you also install the IBM XL Compiler for OpenCL, V0.1? Both downloads are provided by IBM.

KaL · Joined: 03 Apr 2005 Posts: 41

Well...
I installed the OpenCL rpms succesfully on my system...
But when I try executing the samples I get the following errors :

carlosn · Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 2:26 am Post subject:

I had similar issues at the beginning. I believe the IBM XL Compiler for OpenCL is not installed properly. Installing the rpms located in the iso is not enough. You have to run the xlc_install (bash script) for proper installation. The only problem is the script checks for Fedora 7 or Red Hat Enterprise 5 installations before running.

My work around was to copy all the files from the iso to the local hard drive. Edit xlc_install and change lines number 56 and 82 to the following:

56. local ($cmpFixVer) = "0.1.0-0";
82. local (%cmp_pkgs) = &get_package_names ($prod, "$cmpVer$cmpFixVer");

Run the local copy of xlc_install and you should get this output on the screen.

KaL · Joined: 03 Apr 2005 Posts: 41

Thanks a lot for the wrokaround !
It works now :)

kengreen · Joined: 31 Jul 2008 Posts: 13

Applied edits to xlc_install file, which must be named xlc_install, and all the OpenCL examples worked. The julia_ocl --ps3 must have more than 4M of frame buffer memory.
BlackScholes and Perin-noise also worked using the default settings.

rapso · Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 148

allow me one stupid fanboy question, how is the performance?
anyone compared to pc builds?
_________________
Sony stole my linux|amazon stole my PS3 :(

carlosn · Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 2:25 am Post subject:

Well, the Julia set example provided in the samples is a good reference. It generates 50 frames in 1.92 sec. The frames are 512x512 in size. So we’re talking roughly at about 26 frames per seconds. I consider this real time.

I believe one of the samples in Mac OS produces Julia sets as well. I don’t have a Mac. Someone with a Mac OS could post the performance under that platform.

Couple of tips under the PS3:
julia_ocl –-ps3 --accel -i 500 // will give you about 25 secs of animation
Julia_ocl –b –-ps3 accel –i 500 // loads from binary source (faster)

carlosn · Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 3:12 pm Post subject:

I wrote my first program in OpenCL. The program queries the OpenCL environment.

Here is a link to my website where you can download the program
http://home.earthlink.net/~carlos_neto/

Enjoy!

Carlos

rapso · Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 148

can you mail me the julia code ( I guess it's part of the opencl sdk from ibm?) I will try to get it running on the gtx260 here.

--removed email--

thx in advance
_________________
Sony stole my linux|amazon stole my PS3 :(

rapso · Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 148

ok, i got the apple juliaset demo source and ported it to win32, i had to outcomment most of the opengl part, so i've no prove yet that everything works fine, but it was just a 20min lunch-time hack-port (and stepping through the loading, init and compute part does not show any obvious errors).

gfx card is gtx260:
framerate is between 250 and 280fps, most time around 260fps

edit:
could you tweak the kernel size and check if that affects the performance, please? from cuda I know this has usually quite a big impact. I've tested various "WorkGroupItems" and setting it to 64 gave ~330fps.
thx in advance!
_________________
Sony stole my linux|amazon stole my PS3 :(

vandungto · Joined: 17 Nov 2009 Posts: 1

If you have questions about the IBM OpenCL Development Kit, you can post your questions to the IBM OpenCL forum

http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/opencl/forum

You should get your questions answered quicker.

carlosn · Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 12:50 pm Post subject:

I noticed the IBM website has updated the OpenCL developoment kit for the cell processor. The newer version installs just fine in my PS3.
For those of you who followed this tread from the beginning, there is a minor change to the above instructions. When you edit the xlc_install script, use the following parameters for lines 56 and 82:

56.local ($cmpFixVer) = "0.1.1-0";
82. local (%cmp_pkgs) = &get_package_names ($prod, "$cmpVer$cmpFixVer");

The rest of the instructions are identical.

I run my opencl_info program on this version and I can see IBM is starting to implement device extensions.

I posted a copy of the generated output in my website.