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This could be useful for embarrassingly parallel workloads but 2 points: - the backend is OpenGL so it won't be as performant on NVIDIA hardware as CUDA (NVIDI

This could be useful for embarrassingly parallel workloads but 2 points: - the backend is OpenGL so it won't be as performant on NVIDIA hardware as CUDA (NVIDIA don't like OpenGL) - I don't see any explicit GPU memory management so you might not be able to setup a pipeline of operations which all operate GPU memory (aka the big pipelines you see in ML). That would be another performance hit. Having said that it looks like fun and I'm going to check it out!

murgindrag 6y ago
Speaking from my own personal use, 9 times out of 10, the 10x-30x speedup of going CPU to GPU is what I'm looking for. The extra 1.5-2x speedup at the end is not something I care about. I think this is the major hold-up to more GPGPU adoption. NVidia does an amazing job tweaking libraries for ultrafast performance for Torch/TensorFlow/video games, where it really does matter. In the process, they miss everyone else who has embarrassingly parallel problems, but where it's just not worth the time to code up different versions for CUDA and OpenCL (or whatever ATI/Intel happen to be swinging that week). I think if they did this /well/, they'd take over Intel as the major value-add in computers.
- llukas 6y ago
  Did you check OpenACC out?
modeless 6y ago
> NVIDIA don't like OpenGL Nvidia loves OpenGL. They are probably the single biggest supporter of OpenGL. They have the best OpenGL driver in the industry. The president of Khronos is an Nvidia employee, as is the chair of the OpenGL working group. CUDA is faster than OpenGL because it exposes more Nvidia proprietary features. GPU.js could add a CUDA backend for the Node version, but it wouldn't be portable to the Web or non-Nvidia GPUs.
- pjmlp 6y ago
  Kind of, while they do love OpenGL for the graphics workstation cards, they are also the main hardware partner for DirectX design. NVidia's OpenGL and Vulkan extensions are usually born as hardware support for DirectX capabilities, and then trickle down as extensions for OpenGL/Vulkan. Also their main rendering products, like Optix, are CUDA based actually.
pjmlp 6y ago
WebGL doesn't specify what the backend is supposed to be, in fact there are platforms with WebGL support, where OpenGL is nowhere to be found, like game consoles.

murgindrag 6y ago

Speaking from my own personal use, 9 times out of 10, the 10x-30x speedup of going CPU to GPU is what I'm looking for. The extra 1.5-2x speedup at the end is not something I care about. I think this is the major hold-up to more GPGPU adoption. NVidia does an amazing job tweaking libraries for ultrafast performance for Torch/TensorFlow/video games, where it really does matter. In the process, they miss everyone else who has embarrassingly parallel problems, but where it's just not worth the time to code up different versions for CUDA and OpenCL (or whatever ATI/Intel happen to be swinging that week). I think if they did this /well/, they'd take over Intel as the major value-add in computers.

llukas 6y ago
Did you check OpenACC out?

modeless 6y ago

> NVIDIA don't like OpenGL Nvidia loves OpenGL. They are probably the single biggest supporter of OpenGL. They have the best OpenGL driver in the industry. The president of Khronos is an Nvidia employee, as is the chair of the OpenGL working group. CUDA is faster than OpenGL because it exposes more Nvidia proprietary features. GPU.js could add a CUDA backend for the Node version, but it wouldn't be portable to the Web or non-Nvidia GPUs.

pjmlp 6y ago
Kind of, while they do love OpenGL for the graphics workstation cards, they are also the main hardware partner for DirectX design. NVidia's OpenGL and Vulkan extensions are usually born as hardware support for DirectX capabilities, and then trickle down as extensions for OpenGL/Vulkan. Also their main rendering products, like Optix, are CUDA based actually.

pjmlp 6y ago

WebGL doesn't specify what the backend is supposed to be, in fact there are platforms with WebGL support, where OpenGL is nowhere to be found, like game consoles.