320 research outputs found
Estimating the Potential Speedup of Computer Vision Applications on Embedded Multiprocessors
Computer vision applications constitute one of the key drivers for embedded
multicore architectures. Although the number of available cores is increasing
in new architectures, designing an application to maximize the utilization of
the platform is still a challenge. In this sense, parallel performance
prediction tools can aid developers in understanding the characteristics of an
application and finding the most adequate parallelization strategy. In this
work, we present a method for early parallel performance estimation on embedded
multiprocessors from sequential application traces. We describe its
implementation in Parana, a fast trace-driven simulator targeting OpenMP
applications on the STMicroelectronics' STxP70 Application-Specific
Multiprocessor (ASMP). Results for the FAST key point detector application show
an error margin of less than 10% compared to the reference cycle-approximate
simulator, with lower modeling effort and up to 20x faster execution time.Comment: Presented at DATE Friday Workshop on Heterogeneous Architectures and
Design Methods for Embedded Image Systems (HIS 2015) (arXiv:1502.07241
Real time motion estimation using a neural architecture implemented on GPUs
This work describes a neural network based architecture that represents and estimates object motion in videos. This architecture addresses multiple computer vision tasks such as image segmentation, object representation or characterization, motion analysis and tracking. The use of a neural network architecture allows for the simultaneous estimation of global and local motion and the representation of deformable objects. This architecture also avoids the problem of finding corresponding features while tracking moving objects. Due to the parallel nature of neural networks, the architecture has been implemented on GPUs that allows the system to meet a set of requirements such as: time constraints management, robustness, high processing speed and re-configurability. Experiments are presented that demonstrate the validity of our architecture to solve problems of mobile agents tracking and motion analysis.This work was partially funded by the Spanish Government DPI2013-40534-R grant and Valencian Government GV/2013/005 grant
On the Usage of GPUs for Efficient Motion Estimation in Medical Image Sequences
Images are ubiquitous in biomedical applications from basic research to clinical practice. With the rapid increase in resolution, dimensionality of the images and the need for real-time performance in many applications, computational requirements demand proper exploitation of multicore architectures. Towards this, GPU-specific implementations of image analysis algorithms are particularly promising. In this paper, we investigate the mapping of an enhanced motion estimation algorithm to novel GPU-specific architectures, the resulting challenges and benefits therein. Using a database of three-dimensional image sequences, we show that the mapping leads to substantial performance gains, up to a factor of 60, and can provide near-real-time experience. We also show how architectural peculiarities of these devices can be best exploited in the benefit of algorithms, most specifically for addressing the challenges related to their access patterns and different memory configurations. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the algorithm on three different GPU architectures and perform a comprehensive analysis of the results
When parallel speedups hit the memory wall
After Amdahl's trailblazing work, many other authors proposed analytical
speedup models but none have considered the limiting effect of the memory wall.
These models exploited aspects such as problem-size variation, memory size,
communication overhead, and synchronization overhead, but data-access delays
are assumed to be constant. Nevertheless, such delays can vary, for example,
according to the number of cores used and the ratio between processor and
memory frequencies. Given the large number of possible configurations of
operating frequency and number of cores that current architectures can offer,
suitable speedup models to describe such variations among these configurations
are quite desirable for off-line or on-line scheduling decisions. This work
proposes new parallel speedup models that account for variations of the average
data-access delay to describe the limiting effect of the memory wall on
parallel speedups. Analytical results indicate that the proposed modeling can
capture the desired behavior while experimental hardware results validate the
former. Additionally, we show that when accounting for parameters that reflect
the intrinsic characteristics of the applications, such as degree of
parallelism and susceptibility to the memory wall, our proposal has significant
advantages over machine-learning-based modeling. Moreover, besides being
black-box modeling, our experiments show that conventional machine-learning
modeling needs about one order of magnitude more measurements to reach the same
level of accuracy achieved in our modeling.Comment: 24 page
Profile driven dataflow optimisation of mean shift visual tracking
Profile guided optimisation is a common technique used by compilers and runtime systems to shorten execution runtimes and to optimise locality aware scheduling and memory access on heterogeneous hardware platforms. Some profiling tools trace the execution of low level code, whilst others are designed for abstract models of computation to provide rich domain-specific context in profiling reports. We have implemented mean shift, a computer vision tracking algorithm, in the RVC-CAL dataflow language and use both dynamic runtime and static dataflow profiling mechanisms to identify and eliminate bottlenecks in our naive initial version. We use these profiling reports to tune the CPU scheduler reducing runtime by 88%, and to optimise our dataflow implementation that reduces runtime by a further 43% - an overall runtime reduction of 93%. We also assess the portability of our mean shift optimisations by trading off CPU runtime against resource utilisation on FPGAs. Applying all dataflow optimisations reduces FPGA design space significantly, requiring fewer slice LUTs and less block memory
PyCUDA and PyOpenCL: A Scripting-Based Approach to GPU Run-Time Code Generation
High-performance computing has recently seen a surge of interest in
heterogeneous systems, with an emphasis on modern Graphics Processing Units
(GPUs). These devices offer tremendous potential for performance and efficiency
in important large-scale applications of computational science. However,
exploiting this potential can be challenging, as one must adapt to the
specialized and rapidly evolving computing environment currently exhibited by
GPUs. One way of addressing this challenge is to embrace better techniques and
develop tools tailored to their needs. This article presents one simple
technique, GPU run-time code generation (RTCG), along with PyCUDA and PyOpenCL,
two open-source toolkits that support this technique.
In introducing PyCUDA and PyOpenCL, this article proposes the combination of
a dynamic, high-level scripting language with the massive performance of a GPU
as a compelling two-tiered computing platform, potentially offering significant
performance and productivity advantages over conventional single-tier, static
systems. The concept of RTCG is simple and easily implemented using existing,
robust infrastructure. Nonetheless it is powerful enough to support (and
encourage) the creation of custom application-specific tools by its users. The
premise of the paper is illustrated by a wide range of examples where the
technique has been applied with considerable success.Comment: Submitted to Parallel Computing, Elsevie
Efficient transfer entropy analysis of non-stationary neural time series
Information theory allows us to investigate information processing in neural
systems in terms of information transfer, storage and modification. Especially
the measure of information transfer, transfer entropy, has seen a dramatic
surge of interest in neuroscience. Estimating transfer entropy from two
processes requires the observation of multiple realizations of these processes
to estimate associated probability density functions. To obtain these
observations, available estimators assume stationarity of processes to allow
pooling of observations over time. This assumption however, is a major obstacle
to the application of these estimators in neuroscience as observed processes
are often non-stationary. As a solution, Gomez-Herrero and colleagues
theoretically showed that the stationarity assumption may be avoided by
estimating transfer entropy from an ensemble of realizations. Such an ensemble
is often readily available in neuroscience experiments in the form of
experimental trials. Thus, in this work we combine the ensemble method with a
recently proposed transfer entropy estimator to make transfer entropy
estimation applicable to non-stationary time series. We present an efficient
implementation of the approach that deals with the increased computational
demand of the ensemble method's practical application. In particular, we use a
massively parallel implementation for a graphics processing unit to handle the
computationally most heavy aspects of the ensemble method. We test the
performance and robustness of our implementation on data from simulated
stochastic processes and demonstrate the method's applicability to
magnetoencephalographic data. While we mainly evaluate the proposed method for
neuroscientific data, we expect it to be applicable in a variety of fields that
are concerned with the analysis of information transfer in complex biological,
social, and artificial systems.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, submitted to PLOS ON
Parallel Evolutionary Algorithms for Energy Aware Scheduling
International audienceReducing energy consumption is an increasingly important issue in computing and embedded systems. In computing systems, minimizing energy consumption can significantly reduces the amount of energy bills. The demand for computing systems steadily increases and the cost of energy continues to rise. In embedded systems, reducing the use of energy allows to extend the autonomy of these systems. In addition, the reduction of energy decreases greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, many researches are carried out to develop new methods in order to consume less energy. This chapter gives an overview of the main methods used to reduce the energy consumption in computing and embedded systems. As a use case and to give an example of a method, the chapter describes our new parallel bi-objective hybrid genetic algorithm that takes into account the completion time and the energy consumption. In terms of energy consumption, the obtained results show that our approach outperforms previous scheduling methods by a significant margin. In terms of completion time, the obtained schedules are also shorter than those of other algorithms
- …