6.19. Execution Control

This section describes the execution control functions of the low-level CUDA driver application programming interface.

Functions

CUresult cuFuncGetAttribute ( int* pi, CUfunction_attribute attrib, CUfunction hfunc )
Returns information about a function.
CUresult cuFuncGetModule ( CUmodule* hmod, CUfunction hfunc )
Returns a module handle.
CUresult cuFuncSetAttribute ( CUfunction hfunc, CUfunction_attribute attrib, int  value )
Sets information about a function.
CUresult cuFuncSetCacheConfig ( CUfunction hfunc, CUfunc_cache config )
Sets the preferred cache configuration for a device function.
CUresult cuFuncSetSharedMemConfig ( CUfunction hfunc, CUsharedconfig config )
Sets the shared memory configuration for a device function.
CUresult cuLaunchCooperativeKernel ( CUfunction f, unsigned int  gridDimX, unsigned int  gridDimY, unsigned int  gridDimZ, unsigned int  blockDimX, unsigned int  blockDimY, unsigned int  blockDimZ, unsigned int  sharedMemBytes, CUstream hStream, void** kernelParams )
Launches a CUDA function where thread blocks can cooperate and synchronize as they execute.
CUresult cuLaunchCooperativeKernelMultiDevice ( CUDA_LAUNCH_PARAMS* launchParamsList, unsigned int  numDevices, unsigned int  flags )
Launches CUDA functions on multiple devices where thread blocks can cooperate and synchronize as they execute.
CUresult cuLaunchHostFunc ( CUstream hStream, CUhostFn fn, void* userData )
Enqueues a host function call in a stream.
CUresult cuLaunchKernel ( CUfunction f, unsigned int  gridDimX, unsigned int  gridDimY, unsigned int  gridDimZ, unsigned int  blockDimX, unsigned int  blockDimY, unsigned int  blockDimZ, unsigned int  sharedMemBytes, CUstream hStream, void** kernelParams, void** extra )
Launches a CUDA function.

Functions

CUresult cuFuncGetAttribute ( int* pi, CUfunction_attribute attrib, CUfunction hfunc )
Returns information about a function.
Parameters
pi
- Returned attribute value
attrib
- Attribute requested
hfunc
- Function to query attribute of
Description

Returns in *pi the integer value of the attribute attrib on the kernel given by hfunc. The supported attributes are:

  • CU_FUNC_ATTRIBUTE_MAX_THREADS_PER_BLOCK: The maximum number of threads per block, beyond which a launch of the function would fail. This number depends on both the function and the device on which the function is currently loaded.

  • CU_FUNC_ATTRIBUTE_SHARED_SIZE_BYTES: The size in bytes of statically-allocated shared memory per block required by this function. This does not include dynamically-allocated shared memory requested by the user at runtime.

  • CU_FUNC_ATTRIBUTE_CONST_SIZE_BYTES: The size in bytes of user-allocated constant memory required by this function.

  • CU_FUNC_ATTRIBUTE_LOCAL_SIZE_BYTES: The size in bytes of local memory used by each thread of this function.

  • CU_FUNC_ATTRIBUTE_NUM_REGS: The number of registers used by each thread of this function.

  • CU_FUNC_ATTRIBUTE_PTX_VERSION: The PTX virtual architecture version for which the function was compiled. This value is the major PTX version * 10 + the minor PTX version, so a PTX version 1.3 function would return the value 13. Note that this may return the undefined value of 0 for cubins compiled prior to CUDA 3.0.

  • CU_FUNC_ATTRIBUTE_BINARY_VERSION: The binary architecture version for which the function was compiled. This value is the major binary version * 10 + the minor binary version, so a binary version 1.3 function would return the value 13. Note that this will return a value of 10 for legacy cubins that do not have a properly-encoded binary architecture version.

  • CU_FUNC_CACHE_MODE_CA: The attribute to indicate whether the function has been compiled with user specified option "-Xptxas --dlcm=ca" set .

  • CU_FUNC_ATTRIBUTE_MAX_DYNAMIC_SHARED_SIZE_BYTES: The maximum size in bytes of dynamically-allocated shared memory.

  • CU_FUNC_ATTRIBUTE_PREFERRED_SHARED_MEMORY_CARVEOUT: Preferred shared memory-L1 cache split ratio in percent of total shared memory.

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

See also:

cuCtxGetCacheConfig, cuCtxSetCacheConfig, cuFuncSetCacheConfig, cuLaunchKernel, cudaFuncGetAttributes, cudaFuncSetAttribute

CUresult cuFuncGetModule ( CUmodule* hmod, CUfunction hfunc )
Returns a module handle.
Parameters
hmod
- Returned module handle
hfunc
- Function to retrieve module for
Description

Returns in *hmod the handle of the module that function hfunc is located in. The lifetime of the module corresponds to the lifetime of the context it was loaded in or until the module is explicitly unloaded.

The CUDA runtime manages its own modules loaded into the primary context. If the handle returned by this API refers to a module loaded by the CUDA runtime, calling cuModuleUnload() on that module will result in undefined behavior.

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

CUresult cuFuncSetAttribute ( CUfunction hfunc, CUfunction_attribute attrib, int  value )
Sets information about a function.
Parameters
hfunc
- Function to query attribute of
attrib
- Attribute requested
value
- The value to set
Description

This call sets the value of a specified attribute attrib on the kernel given by hfunc to an integer value specified by val This function returns CUDA_SUCCESS if the new value of the attribute could be successfully set. If the set fails, this call will return an error. Not all attributes can have values set. Attempting to set a value on a read-only attribute will result in an error (CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE)

Supported attributes for the cuFuncSetAttribute call are:

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

See also:

cuCtxGetCacheConfig, cuCtxSetCacheConfig, cuFuncSetCacheConfig, cuLaunchKernel, cudaFuncGetAttributes, cudaFuncSetAttribute

CUresult cuFuncSetCacheConfig ( CUfunction hfunc, CUfunc_cache config )
Sets the preferred cache configuration for a device function.
Parameters
hfunc
- Kernel to configure cache for
config
- Requested cache configuration
Description

On devices where the L1 cache and shared memory use the same hardware resources, this sets through config the preferred cache configuration for the device function hfunc. This is only a preference. The driver will use the requested configuration if possible, but it is free to choose a different configuration if required to execute hfunc. Any context-wide preference set via cuCtxSetCacheConfig() will be overridden by this per-function setting unless the per-function setting is CU_FUNC_CACHE_PREFER_NONE. In that case, the current context-wide setting will be used.

This setting does nothing on devices where the size of the L1 cache and shared memory are fixed.

Launching a kernel with a different preference than the most recent preference setting may insert a device-side synchronization point.

The supported cache configurations are:

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

See also:

cuCtxGetCacheConfig, cuCtxSetCacheConfig, cuFuncGetAttribute, cuLaunchKernel, cudaFuncSetCacheConfig

CUresult cuFuncSetSharedMemConfig ( CUfunction hfunc, CUsharedconfig config )
Sets the shared memory configuration for a device function.
Parameters
hfunc
- kernel to be given a shared memory config
config
- requested shared memory configuration
Description

On devices with configurable shared memory banks, this function will force all subsequent launches of the specified device function to have the given shared memory bank size configuration. On any given launch of the function, the shared memory configuration of the device will be temporarily changed if needed to suit the function's preferred configuration. Changes in shared memory configuration between subsequent launches of functions, may introduce a device side synchronization point.

Any per-function setting of shared memory bank size set via cuFuncSetSharedMemConfig will override the context wide setting set with cuCtxSetSharedMemConfig.

Changing the shared memory bank size will not increase shared memory usage or affect occupancy of kernels, but may have major effects on performance. Larger bank sizes will allow for greater potential bandwidth to shared memory, but will change what kinds of accesses to shared memory will result in bank conflicts.

This function will do nothing on devices with fixed shared memory bank size.

The supported bank configurations are:

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

See also:

cuCtxGetCacheConfig, cuCtxSetCacheConfig, cuCtxGetSharedMemConfig, cuCtxSetSharedMemConfig, cuFuncGetAttribute, cuLaunchKernel, cudaFuncSetSharedMemConfig

CUresult cuLaunchCooperativeKernel ( CUfunction f, unsigned int  gridDimX, unsigned int  gridDimY, unsigned int  gridDimZ, unsigned int  blockDimX, unsigned int  blockDimY, unsigned int  blockDimZ, unsigned int  sharedMemBytes, CUstream hStream, void** kernelParams )
Launches a CUDA function where thread blocks can cooperate and synchronize as they execute.
Parameters
f
- Kernel to launch
gridDimX
- Width of grid in blocks
gridDimY
- Height of grid in blocks
gridDimZ
- Depth of grid in blocks
blockDimX
- X dimension of each thread block
blockDimY
- Y dimension of each thread block
blockDimZ
- Z dimension of each thread block
sharedMemBytes
- Dynamic shared-memory size per thread block in bytes
hStream
- Stream identifier
kernelParams
- Array of pointers to kernel parameters
Description

Invokes the kernel f on a gridDimX x gridDimY x gridDimZ grid of blocks. Each block contains blockDimX x blockDimY x blockDimZ threads.

sharedMemBytes sets the amount of dynamic shared memory that will be available to each thread block.

The device on which this kernel is invoked must have a non-zero value for the device attribute CU_DEVICE_ATTRIBUTE_COOPERATIVE_LAUNCH.

The total number of blocks launched cannot exceed the maximum number of blocks per multiprocessor as returned by cuOccupancyMaxActiveBlocksPerMultiprocessor (or cuOccupancyMaxActiveBlocksPerMultiprocessorWithFlags) times the number of multiprocessors as specified by the device attribute CU_DEVICE_ATTRIBUTE_MULTIPROCESSOR_COUNT.

The kernel cannot make use of CUDA dynamic parallelism.

Kernel parameters must be specified via kernelParams. If f has N parameters, then kernelParams needs to be an array of N pointers. Each of kernelParams[0] through kernelParams[N-1] must point to a region of memory from which the actual kernel parameter will be copied. The number of kernel parameters and their offsets and sizes do not need to be specified as that information is retrieved directly from the kernel's image.

Calling cuLaunchCooperativeKernel() sets persistent function state that is the same as function state set through cuLaunchKernel API

When the kernel f is launched via cuLaunchCooperativeKernel(), the previous block shape, shared size and parameter info associated with f is overwritten.

Note that to use cuLaunchCooperativeKernel(), the kernel f must either have been compiled with toolchain version 3.2 or later so that it will contain kernel parameter information, or have no kernel parameters. If either of these conditions is not met, then cuLaunchCooperativeKernel() will return CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_IMAGE.

Note:
  • This function uses standard default stream semantics.

  • Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

See also:

cuCtxGetCacheConfig, cuCtxSetCacheConfig, cuFuncSetCacheConfig, cuFuncGetAttribute, cuLaunchCooperativeKernelMultiDevice, cudaLaunchCooperativeKernel

CUresult cuLaunchCooperativeKernelMultiDevice ( CUDA_LAUNCH_PARAMS* launchParamsList, unsigned int  numDevices, unsigned int  flags )
Launches CUDA functions on multiple devices where thread blocks can cooperate and synchronize as they execute.
Parameters
launchParamsList
- List of launch parameters, one per device
numDevices
- Size of the launchParamsList array
flags
- Flags to control launch behavior
Deprecated

This function is deprecated as of CUDA 11.3.

Description

Invokes kernels as specified in the launchParamsList array where each element of the array specifies all the parameters required to perform a single kernel launch. These kernels can cooperate and synchronize as they execute. The size of the array is specified by numDevices.

No two kernels can be launched on the same device. All the devices targeted by this multi-device launch must be identical. All devices must have a non-zero value for the device attribute CU_DEVICE_ATTRIBUTE_COOPERATIVE_MULTI_DEVICE_LAUNCH.

All kernels launched must be identical with respect to the compiled code. Note that any __device__, __constant__ or __managed__ variables present in the module that owns the kernel launched on each device, are independently instantiated on every device. It is the application's responsiblity to ensure these variables are initialized and used appropriately.

The size of the grids as specified in blocks, the size of the blocks themselves and the amount of shared memory used by each thread block must also match across all launched kernels.

The streams used to launch these kernels must have been created via either cuStreamCreate or cuStreamCreateWithPriority. The NULL stream or CU_STREAM_LEGACY or CU_STREAM_PER_THREAD cannot be used.

The total number of blocks launched per kernel cannot exceed the maximum number of blocks per multiprocessor as returned by cuOccupancyMaxActiveBlocksPerMultiprocessor (or cuOccupancyMaxActiveBlocksPerMultiprocessorWithFlags) times the number of multiprocessors as specified by the device attribute CU_DEVICE_ATTRIBUTE_MULTIPROCESSOR_COUNT. Since the total number of blocks launched per device has to match across all devices, the maximum number of blocks that can be launched per device will be limited by the device with the least number of multiprocessors.

The kernels cannot make use of CUDA dynamic parallelism.

The CUDA_LAUNCH_PARAMS structure is defined as:

‎        typedef struct CUDA_LAUNCH_PARAMS_st
              {
                  CUfunction function;
                  unsigned int gridDimX;
                  unsigned int gridDimY;
                  unsigned int gridDimZ;
                  unsigned int blockDimX;
                  unsigned int blockDimY;
                  unsigned int blockDimZ;
                  unsigned int sharedMemBytes;
                  CUstream hStream;
                  void **kernelParams;
              } CUDA_LAUNCH_PARAMS;
where:

By default, the kernel won't begin execution on any GPU until all prior work in all the specified streams has completed. This behavior can be overridden by specifying the flag CUDA_COOPERATIVE_LAUNCH_MULTI_DEVICE_NO_PRE_LAUNCH_SYNC. When this flag is specified, each kernel will only wait for prior work in the stream corresponding to that GPU to complete before it begins execution.

Similarly, by default, any subsequent work pushed in any of the specified streams will not begin execution until the kernels on all GPUs have completed. This behavior can be overridden by specifying the flag CUDA_COOPERATIVE_LAUNCH_MULTI_DEVICE_NO_POST_LAUNCH_SYNC. When this flag is specified, any subsequent work pushed in any of the specified streams will only wait for the kernel launched on the GPU corresponding to that stream to complete before it begins execution.

Calling cuLaunchCooperativeKernelMultiDevice() sets persistent function state that is the same as function state set through cuLaunchKernel API when called individually for each element in launchParamsList.

When kernels are launched via cuLaunchCooperativeKernelMultiDevice(), the previous block shape, shared size and parameter info associated with each CUDA_LAUNCH_PARAMS::function in launchParamsList is overwritten.

Note that to use cuLaunchCooperativeKernelMultiDevice(), the kernels must either have been compiled with toolchain version 3.2 or later so that it will contain kernel parameter information, or have no kernel parameters. If either of these conditions is not met, then cuLaunchCooperativeKernelMultiDevice() will return CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_IMAGE.

Note:
  • This function uses standard default stream semantics.

  • Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

See also:

cuCtxGetCacheConfig, cuCtxSetCacheConfig, cuFuncSetCacheConfig, cuFuncGetAttribute, cuLaunchCooperativeKernel, cudaLaunchCooperativeKernelMultiDevice

CUresult cuLaunchHostFunc ( CUstream hStream, CUhostFn fn, void* userData )
Enqueues a host function call in a stream.
Parameters
hStream
- Stream to enqueue function call in
fn
- The function to call once preceding stream operations are complete
userData
- User-specified data to be passed to the function
Description

Enqueues a host function to run in a stream. The function will be called after currently enqueued work and will block work added after it.

The host function must not make any CUDA API calls. Attempting to use a CUDA API may result in CUDA_ERROR_NOT_PERMITTED, but this is not required. The host function must not perform any synchronization that may depend on outstanding CUDA work not mandated to run earlier. Host functions without a mandated order (such as in independent streams) execute in undefined order and may be serialized.

For the purposes of Unified Memory, execution makes a number of guarantees:

  • The stream is considered idle for the duration of the function's execution. Thus, for example, the function may always use memory attached to the stream it was enqueued in.

  • The start of execution of the function has the same effect as synchronizing an event recorded in the same stream immediately prior to the function. It thus synchronizes streams which have been "joined" prior to the function.

  • Adding device work to any stream does not have the effect of making the stream active until all preceding host functions and stream callbacks have executed. Thus, for example, a function might use global attached memory even if work has been added to another stream, if the work has been ordered behind the function call with an event.

  • Completion of the function does not cause a stream to become active except as described above. The stream will remain idle if no device work follows the function, and will remain idle across consecutive host functions or stream callbacks without device work in between. Thus, for example, stream synchronization can be done by signaling from a host function at the end of the stream.

Note that, in contrast to cuStreamAddCallback, the function will not be called in the event of an error in the CUDA context.

Note:
  • This function uses standard default stream semantics.

  • Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

See also:

cuStreamCreate, cuStreamQuery, cuStreamSynchronize, cuStreamWaitEvent, cuStreamDestroy, cuMemAllocManaged, cuStreamAttachMemAsync, cuStreamAddCallback

CUresult cuLaunchKernel ( CUfunction f, unsigned int  gridDimX, unsigned int  gridDimY, unsigned int  gridDimZ, unsigned int  blockDimX, unsigned int  blockDimY, unsigned int  blockDimZ, unsigned int  sharedMemBytes, CUstream hStream, void** kernelParams, void** extra )
Launches a CUDA function.
Parameters
f
- Kernel to launch
gridDimX
- Width of grid in blocks
gridDimY
- Height of grid in blocks
gridDimZ
- Depth of grid in blocks
blockDimX
- X dimension of each thread block
blockDimY
- Y dimension of each thread block
blockDimZ
- Z dimension of each thread block
sharedMemBytes
- Dynamic shared-memory size per thread block in bytes
hStream
- Stream identifier
kernelParams
- Array of pointers to kernel parameters
extra
- Extra options
Description

Invokes the kernel f on a gridDimX x gridDimY x gridDimZ grid of blocks. Each block contains blockDimX x blockDimY x blockDimZ threads.

sharedMemBytes sets the amount of dynamic shared memory that will be available to each thread block.

Kernel parameters to f can be specified in one of two ways:

1) Kernel parameters can be specified via kernelParams. If f has N parameters, then kernelParams needs to be an array of N pointers. Each of kernelParams[0] through kernelParams[N-1] must point to a region of memory from which the actual kernel parameter will be copied. The number of kernel parameters and their offsets and sizes do not need to be specified as that information is retrieved directly from the kernel's image.

2) Kernel parameters can also be packaged by the application into a single buffer that is passed in via the extra parameter. This places the burden on the application of knowing each kernel parameter's size and alignment/padding within the buffer. Here is an example of using the extra parameter in this manner:

‎    size_t argBufferSize;
          char argBuffer[256];
      
          // populate argBuffer and argBufferSize
      
          void *config[] = {
              CU_LAUNCH_PARAM_BUFFER_POINTER, argBuffer,
              CU_LAUNCH_PARAM_BUFFER_SIZE,    &argBufferSize,
              CU_LAUNCH_PARAM_END
          };
          status = cuLaunchKernel(f, gx, gy, gz, bx, by, bz, sh, s, NULL, config);

The extra parameter exists to allow cuLaunchKernel to take additional less commonly used arguments. extra specifies a list of names of extra settings and their corresponding values. Each extra setting name is immediately followed by the corresponding value. The list must be terminated with either NULL or CU_LAUNCH_PARAM_END.

The error CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE will be returned if kernel parameters are specified with both kernelParams and extra (i.e. both kernelParams and extra are non-NULL).

Calling cuLaunchKernel() invalidates the persistent function state set through the following deprecated APIs: cuFuncSetBlockShape(), cuFuncSetSharedSize(), cuParamSetSize(), cuParamSeti(), cuParamSetf(), cuParamSetv().

Note that to use cuLaunchKernel(), the kernel f must either have been compiled with toolchain version 3.2 or later so that it will contain kernel parameter information, or have no kernel parameters. If either of these conditions is not met, then cuLaunchKernel() will return CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_IMAGE.

Note:
  • This function uses standard default stream semantics.

  • Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

See also:

cuCtxGetCacheConfig, cuCtxSetCacheConfig, cuFuncSetCacheConfig, cuFuncGetAttribute, cudaLaunchKernel