Efficient implementations of HPC applications for parallel architectures generally rely on external software packages (e.g., BLAS, LAPACK, CUDNN). While these libraries provide highly optimized routines for certain characteristics of inputs (e.g., square matrices), they generally do not retain optimal performance across the wide range of problems encountered in practice. In this paper, we present an input-aware auto-tuning framework for matrix multiplications and convolutions, ISAAC, which uses predictive modeling techniques to drive highly parameterized PTX code templates towards not only hardware-, but also application-specific kernels. Numerical experiments on the NVIDIA Maxwell and Pascal architectures show up to 3x performance gains over both cuBLAS and cuDNN after only a few hours of auto-tuning.
This paper describes an approach for the automatic generation and optimization of numerical software for processors with deep memory hierarchies and pipelined functional units. The production of such software for machines ranging from desktop workstations to embedded processors can be a tedious and time consuming process. The work described here can help in automating much of this process. We will concentrate our efforts on the widely used linear algebra kernels called the Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines (BLAS). In particular, the work presented here is for general matrix multiply, DGEMM. However much of the technology and approach developed here can be applied to the other Level 3 BLAS and the general strategy can have an impact on basic linear algebra operations in general and may be extended to other important kernel operations. FFTW is an implementation of the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) that adapts to the hardware in order to maximize performance. This paper shows that such an approach can yield an implementation that is competitive with hand-optimized libraries, and describes the software structure that makes our current FFTW3 version flexible and adaptive. We further discuss a new algorithm for real-data DFTs of prime size, a new way of implementing DFTs by means of machine-specific single-instruction, multiple-data (SIMD) instructions, and how a special-purpose compiler can derive optimized implementations of the discrete cosine and sine transforms automatically from a DFT algorithm. The Optimized Sparse Kernel Interface (OSKI) is a collection of low-level primitives that provide automatically tuned computational kernels on sparse matrices, for use by solver libraries and applications. These kernels include sparse matrix-vector multiply and sparse triangular solve, among others. The primary aim of this interface is to hide the complex decision-making process needed to tune the performance of a kernel implementation for a particular user's sparse matrix and machine, while also exposing the steps and potentially non-trivial costs of tuning at run-time. This paper provides an overview of OSKI, which is based on our research on automatically tuned sparse kernels for modern cache-based superscalar machines. SPIRAL is a generator for libraries of fast software implementations of linear signal processing transforms. These libraries are adapted to the computing platform and can be re-optimized as the hardware is upgraded or replaced. This paper describes the main components of SPIRAL: the mathematical framework that concisely describes signal transforms and their fast algorithms; the formula generator that captures at the algorithmic level the degrees of freedom in expressing a particular signal processing transform; the formula translator that encapsulates the compilation degrees of freedom when translating a specific algorithm into an actual code implementation; and, finally, an intelligent search engine that finds within the large space of alternative formulas and implementations the "best" match to the given computing platform. We present empirical data that demonstrate the high performance of SPIRAL generated code.