GPULib 1.8 released

GPULib 1.8 has been released with updates to the underlying libraries as well as many other features in many areas of the library. It has been updated to use the most recent versions of IDL and CUDA, IDL 8.4 and CUDA 6.5. The new features are:

• Support for integer data types. I have been wanting to support integer types in GPULib for awhile and now GPULib supports all the numeric types provided by IDL! We can finally do:

  dx = gpuIndgen(10)
  

• Added GPUREPMAT routine. This is a handy routine to create a new array by repeating a 2-dimensional array in a grid.

• Added GPUCREATEKERNEL routine to create the source code of a simple kernel. This is a code generation routine that can be loaded with GPULOADMODULE/GPULOADFUNCTION and executed with GPUEXECUTEFUNCTION.

• Added GPUFINITE routine similar to IDL's library routine.

• Added linear algebra routines GPULUDC, GPULUSOL, and GPULEAST_SQUARES. This fills out more of the GPU equivalent of the convenience routines provided by IDL so that the LAPACK interface of MAGMA is not required to perform linear algebra computations.

• Added support for RHO and THETA keywords in GPURADON.

• Added GPUMEAN routine. This routine has DIMENSION and NAN keywords with the same functionality as IDL's library routine.

GPULib 1.6 released

Now available for download from the Tech-X website, GPULib 1.6 offers some exciting new features and a lot more stability. Here’s the brief rundown of what's new:

• All platforms, Windows, Linux, and OS X, are now distributed as binaries. No building from source required!
• Added wrappers for MAGMA, a GPU accelerated LAPACK library. This makes over 100 low-level linear algebra routines available. In addition to these low-level routines, we have one high-level routine, GPUINVERT, that is similar to the IDL routine LA_INVERT. We intend to write analogs to the rest of the LA_ IDL routines as well. This feature requires the Basic membership plan.
• GPULib can now load and execute custom CUDA kernels without having to link to GPULib; you just compile your kernel to a .ptx file. GPULib provides routines to load and execute that kernel at runtime. This feature requires the Basic membership plan.
• Support for CUDA 5.0.
• Added support for up to 8-dimensional arrays. This is basic support for higher-dimensional arrays in GPULib, not every routine understands them yet.
• Added optimized scalar/array operations. No more tricks just to add a scalar to an array!
• Fixed bugs in GPUHISTOGRAM and GPUHIST_2D.
• Fixed bugs in GPUATAN2 for complex and double complex.
• Fixed bugs in GPUREAL.

I have planned a few more posts with details and examples about some of the big features above, like the MAGMA wrappers and the custom kernels.

A lot of work was done on infrastructure to make releasing an easier process, hopefully resulting in more frequent updates in the future. We have plans for some very exciting features in the coming year!

GPULib 1.0.0 is available!

Tech-X Corporation is pleased to announce that GPULib 1.0.0 has been released. This first major release contains full bindings for IDL and MATLAB, as well as header files for C. Python bindings are also included. GPULib is available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows -- the release includes pre-built DLLs for Windows users, as well as build files for all platforms. Full details are at

http://gpulib.txcorp.com/

GPULib is available for non-commercial use under AGPL, as well as commercial licensing from Tech-X.

We'd like to thank all of the beta testers who asked questions, provided suggestions, and pointed out bugs in the code. :-) We'll keep working on improving the software, so please continue to tell us how we can best make the code suit your needs. The GPULib User's List is a good place to contact us, as well as your fellow GPULib users. You can also email us at support@txcorp.com if you run into technical issues.

GPULib users mailing list

We now have mailing list set up for users of GPULib. To sign up, go to

http://ice.txcorp.com/mailman/listinfo/gpulib-users

Questions, feature requests, feedback, etc. are all welcome.

GPULib 1.0 at SC08

Tech-X will be releasing the 1.0 version of GPULib at SC08.  This supercomputing conference runs from November 15-21, 2008 and will be held in Austin, TX.  Full details are at

http://sc08.supercomputing.org/

If you're going to be at the conference, feel free to stop by the Tech-X booth to see demos of GPULib and chat with some of the developers.

Thanks for all of your feedback from the various beta releases, including the most recent 0.5 beta.  We've gotten many good comments and suggestions -- keep them coming!  You can contact us by leaving comments on the blog, or sending email to support@txcorp.com.

We hope GPULib continues to help you speed up your applications.