Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 17:10:21 +0000 From: "b. f." <bf1783@googlemail.com> To: Eduardo <emorras@xroff.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD, GPGPU and OpenCL/CUDA Message-ID: <AANLkTim%2Bbx4np0XOz70GQOvvk5rTTz1%2BxmFvdS2VVtbq@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20100820165427.000072f8@unknown> References: <AANLkTinEYVB7utow2mpMzaNwj53fWuhBtJjj3ENfzpV1@mail.gmail.com> <20100820165427.000072f8@unknown>
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On 8/20/10, Eduardo <emorras@xroff.net> wrote: > On Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:24:16 +0000 > "b. f." <bf1783@googlemail.com> wrote: > Reading documentation, thanks b. f. I'm already on freebsd-hackers > list. Is that the correct list for this topic? If you have a specific technical question about FreeBSD internals, then freebsd-hackers is probably a good place to ask. -hackers is a low-volume list, and the subscribers will not be happy if there are a flood of very general inquiries or chat, or if the person who is asking questions hasn't thought about them beforehand. -arch is even more conservative, and solely for questions about the direction of the base system, especially the kernel. -ports may also be a good place to ask about porting software. > Not only compilers for Fortran or other languages but for new > architetures, Cluster of SMP CPUs with GPU attached. Okay. Maybe we'll see a convergence of the two in the medium/long term. Right now, interested parties need to look at the available hardware, and then talk to the vendors about whether they would be willing to support a port of their software to FreeBSD, and _specifically_, what is needed. For example, we faced a similar situation with the newer Nvidia GPUs not so long ago. Some key developers like John Baldwin got involved, and determined what changes needed to be made in the FreeBSD base system in order to support the newer hardware and graphics drivers. It would have been nice to get an open-source driver, but since Nvidia wasn't willing to do that, FreeBSD chose to meet them half-way. Probably a similar effort will be needed for CUDA. Someone should look at the requirements, and have a _detailed_, _sustained_ discussion with Nvidia and the FreeBSD Foundation. If, for example, KMS is needed, then the Foundation may be willing to invest in that, because it will probably also be needed for new graphics drivers and Xorg, anyway. Robert Noland was working on it, but he was doing it largely by himself in his spare time, and then he got a new job and had to slow down considerably, if not stop altogether. ... > For now i'm going to port my hpc app to FreeBSD. Good. You may want to consider discussing any substantial effort first on -ports, to avoid duplication of effort, and to see if there are any better alternatives available. b.
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