mtweak

Most automatic code generation to GPUs can be summarized as glorified autovectorization. This includes the bunch of work converting Java to CUDA and C to OCL/CUDA. Autovectorization paired with automatic injection of OMP pragmas can be a great way to introduce increased parallelization.

For FPGAs, OpenCL support is still very new. Both Altera (now Intel) and Xilinx have toolchains that compile OpenCL source into gates through first highlevel synthesis and then taking the output through the normal synthesis, implementation, bitstream flow. It's a huge development that should increase adoption of FPGAs for more common use which is why we're excited about it.

Mazhar Bitfusion.io

Hello, a cofounder of Bitfusion here.

Thanks for your question, you can take a look at our TCD presentation for an overview: http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/05/bitfusion-helps-developers-...

Bitfusion is a software layer that discovers available hardware accelerators and then automatically applies accelerator libraries, smart load scheduling, and dozens of software optimization techniques to make acceleration “plug and play”.

Specifically, our software is built on top of OpenCL which allows our software to take advantage of any device that supports OCL. It’s a solid basis for hardware compatibility, and it allows us to take advantage of FPGAs that just recently started supporting OCL robustly. Second, we’ve build a bunch of functionality to make simultaneous use of multiple accelerators — even from different vendors and types. This is an important step because a fundamental problem for widespread adoption of heterogeneous hardware is being vendor and device neutral to keep software development sane and tractable. Thirdly, we’ve been developing, curating, and partnering to combine the most promising automatic software optimization tech to deliver to our customers to address app performance more generally.

Hardware acceleration to the masses is *primarily about friction: apis, code optimization, vendor-specific code. Bitfusion is all about bringing this friction down to zero. We love talking about this stuff all day, so send us a note if you'd like to talk more.

Mazhar