Parallel Algorithms

Element-wise expression evalution (“map”)

Evaluating involved expressions on pyopencl.array.Array instances by using overloaded operators can be somewhat inefficient, because a new temporary is created for each intermediate result. The functionality in the module pyopencl.elementwise contains tools to help generate kernels that evaluate multi-stage expressions on one or several operands in a single pass.

class pyopencl.elementwise.ElementwiseKernel(context, arguments, operation, name="kernel", preamble="", options=[])

A kernel that takes a number of scalar or vector arguments and performs an operation specified as a snippet of C on these arguments.

Parameters:
  • arguments – a string formatted as a C argument list.
  • operation – a snippet of C that carries out the desired ‘map’ operation. The current index is available as the variable i. operation may contain the statement PYOPENCL_ELWISE_CONTINUE, which will terminate processing for the current element.
  • name – the function name as which the kernel is compiled
  • options – passed unmodified to pyopencl.Program.build().
  • preamble – a piece of C source code that gets inserted outside of the function context in the elementwise operation’s kernel source code.

Warning

Using a return statement in operation will lead to incorrect results, as some elements may never get processed. Use PYOPENCL_ELWISE_CONTINUE instead.

Changed in version 2013.1: Added PYOPENCL_ELWISE_CONTINUE.

__call__(*args, wait_for=None)

Invoke the generated scalar kernel. The arguments may either be scalars or GPUArray instances.

Returns a new pyopencl.Event. wait_for may either be None or a list of pyopencl.Event instances for whose completion this command waits before starting exeuction.

Here’s a usage example:

.. literalinclude:: ../examples/demo_elementwise.py

(You can find this example as examples/demo_elementwise.py in the PyOpenCL distribution.)

Sums and counts (“reduce”)

class pyopencl.reduction.ReductionKernel(ctx, dtype_out, neutral, reduce_expr, map_expr=None, arguments=None, name="reduce_kernel", options=[], preamble="")

Generate a kernel that takes a number of scalar or vector arguments (at least one vector argument), performs the map_expr on each entry of the vector argument and then the reduce_expr on the outcome of that. neutral serves as an initial value. preamble offers the possibility to add preprocessor directives and other code (such as helper functions) to be added before the actual reduction kernel code.

Vectors in map_expr should be indexed by the variable i. reduce_expr uses the formal values “a” and “b” to indicate two operands of a binary reduction operation. If you do not specify a map_expr, in[i] is automatically assumed and treated as the only one input argument.

dtype_out specifies the numpy.dtype in which the reduction is performed and in which the result is returned. neutral is specified as float or integer formatted as string. reduce_expr and map_expr are specified as string formatted operations and arguments is specified as a string formatted as a C argument list. name specifies the name as which the kernel is compiled. options are passed unmodified to pyopencl.Program.build(). preamble specifies a string of code that is inserted before the actual kernels.

__call__(*args, queue=None, wait_for=None, return_event=False, out=None)

wait_for may either be None or a list of pyopencl.Event instances for whose completion this command waits before starting exeuction.

With out the resulting single-entry pyopencl.array.Array can be specified. Because offsets are supported one can store results anywhere (e.g. out=a[3]).

Returns:the resulting scalar as a single-entry pyopencl.array.Array if return_event is False, otherwise a tuple (scalar_array, event).

Note

The returned pyopencl.Event corresponds only to part of the execution of the reduction. It is not suitable for profiling.

New in version 2011.1.

Changed in version 2014.2: Added out parameter.

Here’s a usage example:

a = pyopencl.array.arange(queue, 400, dtype=numpy.float32)
b = pyopencl.array.arange(queue, 400, dtype=numpy.float32)

krnl = ReductionKernel(ctx, numpy.float32, neutral="0",
        reduce_expr="a+b", map_expr="x[i]*y[i]",
        arguments="__global float *x, __global float *y")

my_dot_prod = krnl(a, b).get()

Prefix Sums (“scan”)

A prefix sum is a running sum of an array, as provided by e.g. numpy.cumsum:

>>> import numpy as np
>>> a = [1,1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,2]
>>> np.cumsum(a)
array([ 1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  7,  9, 11, 13, 15])

This is a very simple example of what a scan can do. It turns out that scans are significantly more versatile. They are a basic building block of many non-trivial parallel algorithms. Many of the operations enabled by scans seem difficult to parallelize because of loop-carried dependencies.

See also

Prefix sums and their applications, by Guy Blelloch.
This article gives an overview of some surprising applications of scans.
Simple / Legacy Interface
These operations built into PyOpenCL are realized using GenericScanKernel.

Usage Example

This example illustrates the implementation of a simplified version of pyopencl.algorithm.copy_if(), which copies integers from an array into the (variable-size) output if they are greater than 300:

knl = GenericScanKernel(
        ctx, np.int32,
        arguments="__global int *ary, __global int *out",
        input_expr="(ary[i] > 300) ? 1 : 0",
        scan_expr="a+b", neutral="0",
        output_statement="""
            if (prev_item != item) out[item-1] = ary[i];
            """)

out = a.copy()
knl(a, out)

a_host = a.get()
out_host = a_host[a_host > 300]

assert (out_host == out.get()[:len(out_host)]).all()

The value being scanned over is a number of flags indicating whether each array element is greater than 300. These flags are computed by input_expr. The prefix sum over this array gives a running count of array items greater than 300. The output_statement the compares prev_item (the previous item’s scan result, i.e. index) to item (the current item’s scan result, i.e. index). If they differ, i.e. if the predicate was satisfied at this position, then the item is stored in the output at the computed index.

This example does not make use of the following advanced features also available in PyOpenCL:

  • Segmented scans
  • Access to the previous item in input_expr (e.g. for comparisons) See the implementation of unique() for an example.

Making Custom Scan Kernels

New in version 2013.1.

class pyopencl.scan.GenericScanKernel(ctx, dtype, arguments, input_expr, scan_expr, neutral, output_statement, is_segment_start_expr=None, input_fetch_exprs=[], index_dtype=<type 'numpy.int32'>, name_prefix='scan', options=[], preamble='', devices=None)

Generates and executes code that performs prefix sums (“scans”) on arbitrary types, with many possible tweaks.

Usage example:

from pyopencl.scan import GenericScanKernel
knl = GenericScanKernel(
        context, np.int32,
        arguments="__global int *ary",
        input_expr="ary[i]",
        scan_expr="a+b", neutral="0",
        output_statement="ary[i+1] = item;")

a = cl.array.arange(queue, 10000, dtype=np.int32)
scan_kernel(a, queue=queue)
Parameters:
  • ctx – a pyopencl.Context within which the code for this scan kernel will be generated.
  • dtype – the numpy.dtype with which the scan will be performed. May be a structured type if that type was registered through pyopencl.tools.get_or_register_dtype().
  • arguments – A string of comma-separated C argument declarations. If arguments is specified, then input_expr must also be specified. All types used here must be known to PyOpenCL. (see pyopencl.tools.get_or_register_dtype()).
  • scan_expr –

    The associative, binary operation carrying out the scan, represented as a C string. Its two arguments are available as a and b when it is evaluated. b is guaranteed to be the ‘element being updated’, and a is the increment. Thus, if some data is supposed to just propagate along without being modified by the scan, it should live in b.

    This expression may call functions given in the preamble.

    Another value available to this expression is across_seg_boundary, a C bool indicating whether this scan update is crossing a segment boundary, as defined by is_segment_start_expr. The scan routine does not implement segmentation semantics on its own. It relies on scan_expr to do this. This value is available (but always false) even for a non-segmented scan.

    Note

    In early pre-releases of the segmented scan, segmentation semantics were implemented without relying on scan_expr.

  • input_expr –

    A C expression, encoded as a string, resulting in the values to which the scan is applied. This may be used to apply a mapping to values stored in arguments before being scanned. The result of this expression must match dtype. The index intended to be mapped is available as i in this expression. This expression may also use the variables defined by input_fetch_expr.

    This expression may also call functions given in the preamble.

  • output_statement –

    a C statement that writes the output of the scan. It has access to the scan result as item, the preceding scan result item as prev_item, and the current index as i. prev_item in a segmented scan will be the neutral element at a segment boundary, not the immediately preceding item.

    Using prev_item in output statement has a small run-time cost. prev_item enables the construction of an exclusive scan.

    For non-segmented scans, output_statement may also reference last_item, which evaluates to the scan result of the last array entry.

  • is_segment_start_expr –

    A C expression, encoded as a string, resulting in a C bool value that determines whether a new scan segments starts at index i. If given, makes the scan a segmented scan. Has access to the current index i, the result of input_expr as a, and in addition may use arguments and input_fetch_expr variables just like input_expr.

    If it returns true, then previous sums will not spill over into the item with index i or subsequent items.

  • input_fetch_exprs –

    a list of tuples (NAME, ARG_NAME, OFFSET). An entry here has the effect of doing the equivalent of the following before input_expr:

    ARG_NAME_TYPE NAME = ARG_NAME[i+OFFSET];

    OFFSET is allowed to be 0 or -1, and ARG_NAME_TYPE is the type of ARG_NAME.

  • preamble – A snippet of C that is inserted into the compiled kernel before the actual kernel function. May be used for, e.g. type definitions or include statements.

The first array in the argument list determines the size of the index space over which the scan is carried out, and thus the values over which the index i occurring in a number of code fragments in arguments above will vary.

All code fragments further have access to N, the number of elements being processed in the scan.

__call__(*args, allocator=None, queue=None, size=None, wait_for=None)

queue and allocator default to the ones provided on the first pyopencl.array.Array in args. size may specify the length of the scan to be carried out. If not given, this length is inferred from the first array argument passed.

Returns a new pyopencl.Event. wait_for may either be None or a list of pyopencl.Event instances for whose completion this command waits before starting exeuction.

Note

The returned pyopencl.Event corresponds only to part of the execution of the scan. It is not suitable for profiling.

Debugging aids

class pyopencl.scan.GenericDebugScanKernel

Performs the same function and has the same interface as GenericScanKernel, but uses a dead-simple, sequential scan. Works best on CPU platforms, and helps isolate bugs in scans by removing the potential for issues originating in parallel execution.

Simple / Legacy Interface

class pyopencl.scan.ExclusiveScanKernel(ctx, dtype, scan_expr, neutral, name_prefix="scan", options=[], preamble="", devices=None)

Generates a kernel that can compute a prefix sum using any associative operation given as scan_expr. scan_expr uses the formal values “a” and “b” to indicate two operands of an associative binary operation. neutral is the neutral element of scan_expr, obeying scan_expr(a, neutral) == a.

dtype specifies the type of the arrays being operated on. name_prefix is used for kernel names to ensure recognizability in profiles and logs. options is a list of compiler options to use when building. preamble specifies a string of code that is inserted before the actual kernels. devices may be used to restrict the set of devices on which the kernel is meant to run. (defaults to all devices in the context ctx.

__call__(self, input_ary, output_ary=None, allocator=None, queue=None)
class pyopencl.scan.InclusiveScanKernel(dtype, scan_expr, neutral=None, name_prefix="scan", options=[], preamble="", devices=None)

Works like ExclusiveScanKernel.

Changed in version 2013.1: neutral is now always required.

For the array [1,2,3], inclusive scan results in [1,3,6], and exclusive scan results in [0,1,3].

Here’s a usage example:

knl = InclusiveScanKernel(context, np.int32, "a+b")

n = 2**20-2**18+5
host_data = np.random.randint(0, 10, n).astype(np.int32)
dev_data = cl_array.to_device(queue, host_data)

knl(dev_data)
assert (dev_data.get() == np.cumsum(host_data, axis=0)).all()

Predicated copies (“partition”, “unique”, ...)

pyopencl.algorithm.copy_if(ary, predicate, extra_args=[], preamble='', queue=None, wait_for=None)

Copy the elements of ary satisfying predicate to an output array.

Parameters:
  • predicate – a C expression evaluating to a bool, represented as a string. The value to test is available as ary[i], and if the expression evaluates to true, then this value ends up in the output.
  • extra_args – a list of tuples (name, value) specifying extra arguments to pass to the scan procedure. For version 2013.1, value must be a of a numpy sized scalar type. As of version 2013.2, value may also be a pyopencl.array.Array.
  • preamble – A snippet of C that is inserted into the compiled kernel before the actual kernel function. May be used for, e.g. type definitions or include statements.
  • wait_for – wait_for may either be None or a list of pyopencl.Event instances for whose completion this command waits before starting exeuction.
Returns:

a tuple (out, count, event) where out is the output array, count is an on-device scalar (fetch to host with count.get()) indicating how many elements satisfied predicate, and event is a pyopencl.Event for dependency management. out is allocated to the same length as ary, but only the first count entries carry meaning.

New in version 2013.1.

pyopencl.algorithm.remove_if(ary, predicate, extra_args=[], preamble='', queue=None, wait_for=None)

Copy the elements of ary not satisfying predicate to an output array.

Parameters:
  • predicate – a C expression evaluating to a bool, represented as a string. The value to test is available as ary[i], and if the expression evaluates to false, then this value ends up in the output.
  • extra_args – a list of tuples (name, value) specifying extra arguments to pass to the scan procedure. For version 2013.1, value must be a of a numpy sized scalar type. As of version 2013.2, value may also be a pyopencl.array.Array.
  • preamble – A snippet of C that is inserted into the compiled kernel before the actual kernel function. May be used for, e.g. type definitions or include statements.
  • wait_for – wait_for may either be None or a list of pyopencl.Event instances for whose completion this command waits before starting exeuction.
Returns:

a tuple (out, count, event) where out is the output array, count is an on-device scalar (fetch to host with count.get()) indicating how many elements did not satisfy predicate, and event is a pyopencl.Event for dependency management.

New in version 2013.1.

pyopencl.algorithm.partition(ary, predicate, extra_args=[], preamble='', queue=None, wait_for=None)

Copy the elements of ary into one of two arrays depending on whether they satisfy predicate.

Parameters:
  • predicate – a C expression evaluating to a bool, represented as a string. The value to test is available as ary[i].
  • extra_args – a list of tuples (name, value) specifying extra arguments to pass to the scan procedure. For version 2013.1, value must be a of a numpy sized scalar type. As of version 2013.2, value may also be a pyopencl.array.Array.
  • preamble – A snippet of C that is inserted into the compiled kernel before the actual kernel function. May be used for, e.g. type definitions or include statements.
  • wait_for – wait_for may either be None or a list of pyopencl.Event instances for whose completion this command waits before starting exeuction.
Returns:

a tuple (out_true, out_false, count, event) where count is an on-device scalar (fetch to host with count.get()) indicating how many elements satisfied the predicate, and event is a pyopencl.Event for dependency management.

New in version 2013.1.

pyopencl.algorithm.unique(ary, is_equal_expr='a == b', extra_args=[], preamble='', queue=None, wait_for=None)

Copy the elements of ary into the output if is_equal_expr, applied to the array element and its predecessor, yields false.

Works like the UNIX command uniq, with a potentially custom comparison. This operation is often used on sorted sequences.

Parameters:
  • is_equal_expr – a C expression evaluating to a bool, represented as a string. The elements being compared are available as a and b. If this expression yields false, the two are considered distinct.
  • extra_args – a list of tuples (name, value) specifying extra arguments to pass to the scan procedure. For version 2013.1, value must be a of a numpy sized scalar type. As of version 2013.2, value may also be a pyopencl.array.Array.
  • preamble – A snippet of C that is inserted into the compiled kernel before the actual kernel function. May be used for, e.g. type definitions or include statements.
  • wait_for – wait_for may either be None or a list of pyopencl.Event instances for whose completion this command waits before starting exeuction.
Returns:

a tuple (out, count, event) where out is the output array, count is an on-device scalar (fetch to host with count.get()) indicating how many elements satisfied the predicate, and event is a pyopencl.Event for dependency management.

New in version 2013.1.

Sorting (radix sort)

class pyopencl.algorithm.RadixSort(context, arguments, key_expr, sort_arg_names, bits_at_a_time=2, index_dtype=<type 'numpy.int32'>, key_dtype=<type 'numpy.uint32'>, options=[])

Provides a general radix sort on the compute device.

New in version 2013.1.

Parameters:
  • arguments – A string of comma-separated C argument declarations. If arguments is specified, then input_expr must also be specified. All types used here must be known to PyOpenCL. (see pyopencl.tools.get_or_register_dtype()).
  • key_expr – An integer-valued C expression returning the key based on which the sort is performed. The array index for which the key is to be computed is available as i. The expression may refer to any of the arguments.
  • sort_arg_names – A list of argument names whose corresponding array arguments will be sorted according to key_expr.
__call__(*args, **kwargs)

Run the radix sort. In addition to args which must match the arguments specification on the constructor, the following keyword arguments are supported:

Parameters:
  • key_bits – specify how many bits (starting from least-significant) there are in the key.
  • allocator – See the allocator argument of pyopencl.array.empty().
  • queue – A pyopencl.CommandQueue, defaulting to the one from the first argument array.
  • wait_for – wait_for may either be None or a list of pyopencl.Event instances for whose completion this command waits before starting exeuction.
Returns:

A tuple (sorted, event). sorted consists of sorted copies of the arrays named in sorted_args, in the order of that list. event is a pyopencl.Event for dependency management.

Building many variable-size lists

class pyopencl.algorithm.ListOfListsBuilder(context, list_names_and_dtypes, generate_template, arg_decls, count_sharing=None, devices=None, name_prefix='plb_build_list', options=[], preamble='', debug=False, complex_kernel=False)

Generates and executes code to produce a large number of variable-size lists, simply.

Note

This functionality is provided as a preview. Its interface is subject to change until this notice is removed.

New in version 2013.1.

Here’s a usage example:

from pyopencl.algorithm import ListOfListsBuilder
builder = ListOfListsBuilder(context, [("mylist", np.int32)], """
        void generate(LIST_ARG_DECL USER_ARG_DECL index_type i)
        {
            int count = i % 4;
            for (int j = 0; j < count; ++j)
            {
                APPEND_mylist(count);
            }
        }
        """, arg_decls=[])

result, event = builder(queue, 2000)

inf = result["mylist"]
assert inf.count == 3000
assert (inf.list.get()[-6:] == [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3]).all()

The function generate above is called once for each “input object”. Each input object can then generate zero or more list entries. The number of these input objects is given to __call__() as n_objects. List entries are generated by calls to APPEND_<list name>(value). Multiple lists may be generated at once.

Parameters:
  • context – A pyopencl.Context.
  • list_names_and_dtypes – a list of (name, dtype) tuples indicating the lists to be built.
  • generate_template – a snippet of C as described below
  • arg_decls – A string of comma-separated C argument declarations.
  • count_sharing – A mapping consisting of (child, mother) indicating that mother and child will always have the same number of indices, and the APPEND to mother will always happen before the APPEND to the child.
  • name_prefix – the name prefix to use for the compiled kernels
  • options – OpenCL compilation options for kernels using generate_template.
  • complex_kernel – If True, prevents vectorization on CPUs.

generate_template may use the following C macros/identifiers:

  • index_type: expands to C identifier for the index type used for the calculation
  • USER_ARG_DECL: expands to the C declarator for arg_decls
  • USER_ARGS: a list of C argument values corresponding to user_arg_decl
  • LIST_ARG_DECL: expands to a C argument list representing the data for the output lists. These are escaped prefixed with “plg_” so as to not interfere with user-provided names.
  • LIST_ARGS: a list of C argument values corresponding to LIST_ARG_DECL
  • APPEND_name(entry): inserts entry into the list name. entry must be a valid C expression of the correct type.

All argument-list related macros have a trailing comma included if they are non-empty.

generate_template must supply a function:

void generate(USER_ARG_DECL LIST_ARG_DECL index_type i)
{
    APPEND_mylist(5);
}

Internally, the kernel_template is expanded (at least) twice. Once, for a ‘counting’ stage where the size of all the lists is determined, and a second time, for a ‘generation’ stage where the lists are actually filled. A generate function that has side effects beyond calling append is therefore ill-formed.

__call__(queue, n_objects, *args, **kwargs)
Parameters:
  • args – arguments corresponding to arg_decls in the constructor. pyopencl.array.Array are not allowed directly and should be passed as their pyopencl.array.Array.data attribute instead.
  • allocator – optionally, the allocator to use to allocate new arrays.
  • wait_for – wait_for may either be None or a list of pyopencl.Event instances for whose completion this command waits before starting exeuction.
Returns:

a tuple (lists, event), where lists a mapping from (built) list names to objects which have attributes

  • count for the total number of entries in all lists combined

  • lists for the array containing all lists.

  • starts for the array of starting indices in lists. starts is built so that it has n+1 entries, so that the i‘th entry is the start of the i‘th list, and the i‘th entry is the index one past the i‘th list’s end, even for the last list.

    This implies that all lists are contiguous.

    event is a pyopencl.Event for dependency management.