(j3.2006) IEEE and the GPU world

[Keith Bierman]

The issues raised by GPUs are not new; we had them with attached array
processors (FPS, et al), and on non-homogeneous processors (e.g. the Cydra5
which had a VLIW numeric engine, and multiple 68K processors, and program
execution was transparently split (well, transparent to the user, the folks
making the system work certainly had no automatic tools!).

So I suggest the language be made slightly more generic to handle any
combination of IEEE and nonIEEE fp hardware, irrespective of what the device
is otherwise intended to do.

If a *note* has to be included to spell out what a GPU is, and that
contemporary GPUs can fit into this role so be it. But I would have argued
that it's such a common term, it would like spelling out CPU ... which is
sometimes the correct pedantic thing to do, but is hardly necessary in the
context of an interpretation.


Keith Bierman
khbkhb at gmail.com
kbiermank AIM
303 997 2749


On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 8:19 AM, Whitlock, Stan <stan.whitlock at intel.com>wrote:

> John,
>
> Please add the word "that" in the following paragraphs under "Answer" and
> "Edits":
>
>  A scoping unit that has no explicit USE statement for an IEEE module
>  ...............^^^^
>  and makes no explicit use of an IEEE feature might be compliled to
>  run fully or partially on a GPU that does not support any IEEE flags.
>
> Thanks                          /Stan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: j3-bounces at j3-fortran.org [mailto:j3-bounces at j3-fortran.org] On
> Behalf Of John Reid
> Sent: Friday, August 13, 2010 7:16 AM
> To: fortran standards email list for J3
> Subject: Re: (j3.2006) IEEE and the GPU world
>
> J3,
>
> Here is a draft interp that I constructed after following the "IEEE and the
> GPU
> world" thread. Does anyone have any comments before I send it in?
>
> Cheers,
>
> John.
>
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>
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