Question

I have some code that I want to make into a cuda kernel. Behold:

    for (r = Y; r < Y + H; r+=2)
    {
        ch1RowSum = ch2RowSum = ch3RowSum = 0;
        for (c = X; c < X + W; c+=2)
        {
            chan1Value = //some calc'd value
                            chan3Value = //some calc'd value
            chan2Value = //some calc'd value
            ch2RowSum  += chan2Value;
            ch3RowSum  += chan3Value;
            ch1RowSum  += chan1Value;
        }
        ch1Mean += ch1RowSum / W;
        ch2Mean += ch2RowSum / W;
        ch3Mean += ch3RowSum / W;
    }

Should this be split up into two kernels, one to calculate the RowSums and one to calculate the Means, and how should I handle the fact that my loop indices dont start at zero and end at N?

Answer 1

Let’s suppose you have a kernel that computes the three values. Each thread in your configuration will compute the three values for each (r,c) pair.

__global__ value_kernel(Y, H, X, W)
{
    r = blockIdx.x + Y;
    c = threadIdx.x + W;

    chan1value = ...
    chan2value = ...
    chan3value = ...
}

I don’t believe you can calculate the sum (completely in parallel, at least) in the above kernel. You won’t be able to use += like you have above. You could put it all in one kernel if you have only one thread in each block (row) do the sum and mean, like this…

__global__ both_kernel(Y, H, X, W)
{
    r = blockIdx.x + Y;
    c = threadIdx.x + W;

    chan1value = ...
    chan2value = ...
    chan3value = ...

    if(threadIdx.x == 0)
    {
        ch1RowSum = 0;
        ch2RowSum = 0;
        ch3RowSum = 0;

        for(i=0; i<blockDim.x; i++)
        {
            ch1RowSum += chan1value;
            ch2RowSum += chan2value;
            ch3RowSum += chan3value;
        }

        ch1Mean = ch1RowSum / blockDim.x;
        ch2Mean = ch2RowSum / blockDim.x;
        ch3Mean = ch3RowSum / blockDim.x;
    }
}

but it’s probably better to use the first value kernel and then a second kernel for both sums and means… It’s possible to further parallelize the kernel below, and if it’s separate you can focus on that when you’re ready.

__global__ sum_kernel(Y,W)
{
    r = blockIdx.x + Y;

    ch1RowSum = 0;
    ch2RowSum = 0;
    ch3RowSum = 0;

    for(i=0; i<W; i++)
    {
        ch1RowSum += chan1value;
        ch2RowSum += chan2value;
        ch3RowSum += chan3value;
    }

    ch1Mean = ch1RowSum / W;
    ch2Mean = ch2RowSum / W;
    ch3Mean = ch3RowSum / W;
}