The OMPi OpenMP compiler now supports the Parallella board

[dimako]

Hello everybody,

We are very excited to announce that our OMPi OpenMP compiler () can now support the Epiphany as an OpenMP 4.0 device. What this means is that code can be offloaded to the Epiphany through the OpenMP "target" directive. In particular, an OpenMP program running at the host (Zynq) may deploy multiple, independent and concurrent kernels onto the Epiphany cores.

At this time this special parallella-specific version of OMPi is available in binary form from OMPi's website. Full source code is planned to be released in the near future.

In addition, we would like to let you know that we have almost reached our initial goal of supporting OpenMP constructs within the Epiphany (i.e. the offloaded kernels may contain OpenMP pragmas themselves). Most OpenMP constructs are already supported. We hope to announce full support in a follow-up post, soon.

Best regards,
Vassilios

[aolofsson]

Vassilios,

Wow, that is incredible!
Congratulations! I am really interested in hearing more about the implementation. So many questions:-)


What were some of the challenges?
How much of the elib infrastructure did you use?
Any limitations to the usage model?
Performance testing?
Is there a publication coming?
Schedule for source code publishing?

Andreas

[dimako]

Andreas,

thank you for providing us with a PUP board! In the following days, we will have all the time to talk about the implementation details. Please test and let us know of any bugs (there are a few minor ones, but we could not wait any more to share...).
A publication is in preparation. As soon as we get an acceptance (maybe sooner ), the source code will be published for everyone to download.

Vassilios