[petsc-dev] Backend independent VecGetArray for GPUs

[Lisandro Dalcin]

On 17 October 2014 17:54, Dominic Meiser <dmeiser at txcorp.com> wrote:
> Hi Ashwin,
>
> Are you suggesting that `VecGetGPUArray*`  be added to the `Vec` interface?
> That might be problematic because these methods only makes sense for GPU
> vectors. The interface of `Vec` would then be tied to the PETSc
> configuration.
>

These methods could be always available simply generate an error for
non-GPU vector types.

> An alternative might be to compose the various `VecCUSPGetArray` and related
> methods with `Vec` objects. You could then query these methods and use them
> if available (and handle absence of the methods if needed, e.g. throw an
> exception). This would be easy to add.
>

Yes, however note that what we really need is a backend-independent
way to get the RAW pointer to the GPU buffers. Right now we have calls
to get the CUSP or ViennaCL array, to handle them you need C++ and
depend on CUDA/OpenCL at compile-time.


-- 
Lisandro Dalcin
============
Research Scientist
Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences & Engineering (CEMSE)
Numerical Porous Media Center (NumPor)
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
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