Re: Project proposal for GSoC.

[Ben Abbott]

On Feb 26, 2012, at 7:44 PM, Daniel J Sebald wrote:

> On 02/25/2012 11:43 PM, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso wrote:
>> On 25 February 2012 23:26, SAYANTAN DATTA<address@hidden>  wrote:
>>> I am looking for opportunities to contribute in the field of parallel
>>> processing and GPU computing.As many of the algorithms in mathematics are
>>> inherently parallel ,it could save a huge time if we could use the power of
>>> GPUs and multicore CPU, especially when the data sets are very large.For
>>> example LU decomposition,FFT,matrix inverse ,numerical integration, ODE and
>>> PDE solving etc could be computed much faster if they are performed using
>>> GPUs and multicore CPUs.
>>> 
>>>  Also I would like to mention that I'm quiet familiar with OpenCL,OpenMP
>>> ,MPI and majority of the numerical methods used commonly in engineering.
>>> 
>>>  So is there any scope for implementing the above mentioned idea for octave
>>> in this year's GSoC?
>> 
>> Perhaps, but there is a huge problem we keep facing: is there a free
>> and GPL compatible implementation of OpenCL? It seems like a big shame
>> that the only way to do GPU computing is by giving up control of your
>> hardware to some binary blob made by nvidia or ATI. I know last year's
>> GSoC had a project to implement OpenCL:
>> 
>>     http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTgwOQ
>> 
>> There seems to be more recent progress on nouveau too:
>> 
>>     http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA1Mzk
>> 
>> I personally see getting a working free OpenCL implementation like a
>> prerequisite before we can think of how to integrate this into Octave.
>> My advice is to see if there is something you can do on that side
>> first.
> 
> It would be interesting to see how GPUs could be included in Octave. 
> Processing video streams would be the obvious choice, but GPUs and OpenCL are 
> surely catching on with bigger software companies in fields like medical 
> imaging.
> 
> I don't think there is anything dissuading writing code for a non-open piece 
> of software, just that the Octave portion of things needs to be. OpenCL is a 
> standard as well, if I understand correctly.  It would be like compiling 
> Octave using a compiler other than gcc.

Are we back to the "what constitutes a system library?"

Ben