Software development for a hybrid computing environment

• US 8,843,880 B2
• Filed: 01/27/2009
• Issued: 09/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Carey, James E., Markland, Matthew W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Wei
• Assistant Examiner(s): HUDA, MOHAMMED NURUL
• Application Number:
  US12/360,158
• Publication Number:
  US 20100192123A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,065 Days
• Field of Search: 717/106
• US Class Current: 717/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/30 Creation or generation of source code

Abstract

Software development for a hybrid computing environment that includes a host computer and an accelerator, the host computer and the accelerator adapted to one another for data communications by a system level message passing module and by two or more data communications fabrics of at least two different fabric types where software development includes creating, by a programmer, a computer program for execution in the hybrid computing environment, the computer program including directives for generation of computer program code that moves contents of memory among host computers and accelerators in the hybrid computing environment; generating, by a code generator application, source code in accordance with the directives; analyzing, by the code generator application, operation of the generated code for data movement and utilization of moved data; and regenerating, by the code generator application, the source code in accordance with the directives and further in accordance with results of the analysis.

Claims

1. A method of software development for a hybrid computing environment, the hybrid computing environment comprising:

a host computer having a host processor comprising a host computer architecture;

an accelerator having an accelerator processor comprising an accelerator architecture, the accelerator architecture optimized, with respect to the host computer architecture, for speed of execution of a particular class of computing functions, the accelerator architecture comprising a different architecture than the host computer architecture such that computer program instructions compiled for native execution by the accelerator cannot, without a recompile, be executed by the host processor and computer program instructions compiled for execution on the host processor cannot, without a recompile, be executed by the accelerator processor;

the host computer and the accelerator adapted to one another for data communications by a system level message passing module;

the host computer and the accelerator adapted to one another for data communications by two or more data communications fabrics of at least two different fabric types;

the method comprising;

receiving from a programmer, a computer program for execution in the hybrid computing environment, the computer program including, along with computer program instructions, directives for generation of computer program code that moves contents of memory, across at least one of the data communications fabrics and between a host computer and an accelerator in the hybrid computing environment;

generating, by a code generator application, source code in accordance with the directives;

analyzing, by the code generator application, operation of the generated code for data movement and utilization of moved data by comparing operational metrics gathered during execution of the source code to historical data communication and memory utilization metrics to identify portions of the source code to alter during regeneration; and

regenerating, by the code generator application, the identified portions of the source code in accordance with the directives and further in accordance with results of the analysis to improve results of execution of the source code in dependence upon the historical data communications and the memory utilization metrics.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing the results of the analysis to the programmer.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein generating source code in accordance with the directives further comprises generating the source code in dependence upon the types of data communications fabric that adapt the host computers and the accelerators.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the directives comprise memory management directives, including:

a memory allocation directive that allocates memory whose contents are to be moved among host computers and accelerators, the memory allocation directive including a name for the allocated memory, an address for the allocated memory, a size of the allocated memory, and a specification of the type of data to be stored in the allocated memory; and

a memory identification directive that identifies memory whose contents are to be moved among host computers and accelerators, the memory identification directive including a name of the identified memory, an address of the identified memory, a size of the identified memory, and a specification of the type of data to be stored in the identified memory.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the directives comprise memory transfer directives, including:

a remote memory transfer directive that transfers the contents of local memory to remote memory, the remote memory transfer directive including a name of a segment of local memory whose contents are to be transferred, a name of a segment of remote memory to which the contents are to be transferred, and a hint regarding a data communications mode for the transfer; and

a local memory transfer directive that transfers the contents of remote memory to local memory, the local memory transfer directive including a name of a segment of remote memory whose contents are to be transferred, a name of a segment of local memory to which the contents are to be transferred, and a hint regarding a data communications mode for the transfer.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the directives comprise memory assignment directives and use directives, the memory assignment directives including:

an assignment directive that assigns a value to a segment of memory, the assignment directive including a name of the segment of memory and a value to assign to the segment;

an assignment start directive that identifies the starting point of the computer program that carries out the assignment of the value to the segment;

an assignment end directive that identifies the end of the computer program that carries out the assignment of the value to the segment;

the use directives including;

a use start directive that identifies the start of the computer program that uses the segment; and

a use end directive that identifies the end of the computer program that uses the segment.

7. A hybrid computing environment for software development, the hybrid computing environment comprising a host computer having a host processor comprising a host computer architecture, an accelerator having an accelerator processor comprising an accelerator architecture, the accelerator architecture optimized, with respect to the host computer architecture, for speed of execution of a particular class of computing functions, the accelerator architecture comprising a different architecture than the host computer architecture such that computer program instructions compiled for native execution by the accelerator cannot, without a recompile, be executed by the host processor and computer program instructions compiled for execution on the host processor cannot, without a recompile, be executed by the accelerator processor, the host computer and the accelerator adapted to one another for data communications by a system level message passing module, the host computer and the accelerator adapted to one another for data communications by two or more data communications fabrics of at least two different fabric types, the hybrid computing environment further comprising a computer processor, a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed within it computer program instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the hybrid computing environment to carry out the steps of:

receiving from a programmer, a computer program for execution in the hybrid computing environment, the computer program including, along with computer program instructions, directives for generation of computer program code that moves contents of memory, across at least one of the data communications fabrics and between a host computer and an accelerator in the hybrid computing environment;

generating, by a code generator application, source code in accordance with the directives;

analyzing, by the code generator application, operation of the generated code for data movement and utilization of moved data by comparing operational metrics gathered during execution of the source code to historical data communication and memory utilization metrics to identify portions of the source code to alter during regeneration; and

regenerating, by the code generator application, the identified portions of the source code in accordance with the directives and further in accordance with results of the analysis to improve results of execution of the source code in dependence upon the historical data communications and the memory utilization metrics.

8. The hybrid computing environment of claim 7 further comprising computer program instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the hybrid computing environment to carry out the steps of:

providing the results of the analysis to the programmer.

9. The hybrid computing environment of claim 7 wherein generating source code in accordance with the directives further comprises generating the source code in dependence upon the types of data communications fabric that adapt the host computers and the accelerators.

10. The hybrid computing environment of claim 7 wherein the directives comprise memory management directives, including:

a memory allocation directive that allocates memory whose contents are to be moved among host computers and accelerators, the memory allocation directive including a name for the allocated memory, an address for the allocated memory, a size of the allocated memory, and a specification of the type of data to be stored in the allocated memory; and

a memory identification directive that identifies memory whose contents are to be moved among host computers and accelerators, the memory identification directive including a name of the identified memory, an address of the identified memory, a size of the identified memory, and a specification of the type of data to be stored in the identified memory.

11. The hybrid computing environment of claim 7 wherein the directives comprise memory transfer directives, including:

a remote memory transfer directive that transfers the contents of local memory to remote memory, the remote memory transfer directive including a name of a segment of local memory whose contents are to be transferred, a name of a segment of remote memory to which the contents are to be transferred, and a hint regarding a data communications mode for the transfer; and

a local memory transfer directive that transfers the contents of remote memory to local memory, the local memory transfer directive including a name of a segment of remote memory whose contents are to be transferred, a name of a segment of local memory to which the contents are to be transferred, and a hint regarding a data communications mode for the transfer.

12. The hybrid computing environment of claim 7 wherein the directives comprise memory assignment directives and use directives, the memory assignment directives including:

an assignment directive that assigns a value to a segment of memory, the assignment directive including a name of the segment of memory and a value to assign to the segment;

an assignment start directive that identifies the starting point of the computer program that carries out the assignment of the value to the segment;

an assignment end directive that identifies the end of the computer program that carries out the assignment of the value to the segment;

the use directives including;

a use start directive that identifies the start of the computer program that uses the segment; and

a use end directive that identifies the end of the computer program that uses the segment.

13. A computer program product for software development for a hybrid computing environment, the hybrid computing environment comprising a host computer having a host processor comprising a host computer architecture, an accelerator having an accelerator processor comprising an accelerator architecture, the accelerator architecture optimized, with respect to the host computer architecture, for speed of execution of a particular class of computing functions, the accelerator architecture comprising a different architecture than the host computer architecture such that computer program instructions compiled for native execution by the accelerator cannot, without a recompile, be executed by the host processor and computer program instructions compiled for execution on the host processor cannot, without a recompile, be executed by the accelerator processor, the host computer and the accelerator adapted to one another for data communications by two or more data communications fabrics of at least two different fabric types, the computer program product disposed in a computer readable, recordable medium that is not a signal medium, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to carry out the steps of:

receiving from a programmer, a computer program for execution in the hybrid computing environment, the computer program including, along with computer program instructions, directives for generation of computer program code that moves contents of memory, across at least one of the data communications fabrics and between a host computer and an accelerator in the hybrid computing environment;

generating, by a code generator application, source code in accordance with the directives;

analyzing, by the code generator application, operation of the generated code for data movement and utilization of moved data by comparing operational metrics gathered during execution of the source code to historical data communication and memory utilization metrics to identify portions of the source code to alter during regeneration; and

regenerating, by the code generator application, the identified portions of the source code in accordance with the directives and further in accordance with results of the analysis to improve results of execution of the source code in dependence upon the historical data communications and the memory utilization metrics.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising computer program instructions that when executed by the computer cause the computer to carry out the steps of:

providing the results of the analysis to the programmer.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein generating source code in accordance with the directives further comprises generating the source code in dependence upon the types of data communications fabric that adapt the host computers and the accelerators.

16. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the directives comprise memory management directives, including:

a memory allocation directive that allocates memory whose contents are to be moved among host computers and accelerators, the memory allocation directive including a name for the allocated memory, an address for the allocated memory, a size of the allocated memory, and a specification of the type of data to be stored in the allocated memory; and

a memory identification directive that identifies memory whose contents are to be moved among host computers and accelerators, the memory identification directive including a name of the identified memory, an address of the identified memory, a size of the identified memory, and a specification of the type of data to be stored in the identified memory.

17. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the directives comprise memory transfer directives, including:

a remote memory transfer directive that transfers the contents of local memory to remote memory, the remote memory transfer directive including a name of a segment of local memory whose contents are to be transferred, a name of a segment of remote memory to which the contents are to be transferred, and a hint regarding a data communications mode for the transfer; and

a local memory transfer directive that transfers the contents of remote memory to local memory, the local memory transfer directive including a name of a segment of remote memory whose contents are to be transferred, a name of a segment of local memory to which the contents are to be transferred, and a hint regarding a data communications mode for the transfer.

18. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the directives comprise memory assignment directives and use directives, the memory assignment directives including:

an assignment directive that assigns a value to a segment of memory, the assignment directive including a name of the segment of memory and a value to assign to the segment;

an assignment start directive that identifies the starting point of the computer program that carries out the assignment of the value to the segment;

an assignment end directive that identifies the end of the computer program that carries out the assignment of the value to the segment;

the use directives including;

a use start directive that identifies the start of the computer program that uses the segment; and

a use end directive that identifies the end of the computer program that uses the segment.