[RFC] GPGPU Support In KVM

[RFC] GPGPU Support In KVM

[Prasad Joshi]

Hello All,

I am Prasad Joshi, studying in a UK University. As a part of project in the University, I have decided to add GPGPU support in the KVM using virtio. There are two parts of supporting GPU in VM

1. GPU as a Graphics Device
2. GPU as a Parallel Programming Device (GPGPU)

For this project I would be interested in the second application of GPU.

Supporting GPGPU in VM has significant advantages in the HPC and Cloud Computing. None of the virtualization mechanism has support for GPGPU in the Virtual Machine.

There are few alternatives like vCUDA (only supported Xen) and gVirtuS. But both of them relay on intercepting the CUDA API calls and forwarding them to a machine that has GPU card attached to it. None of them actually make GPGPU device available to VM, they use a RPC (call forwarding) mechanism to run the GPU programs.

The aim of my project is to make GPGPU device available to the VM as a parallel programming device same as it is available in Host Machine. I intend to use the virtio mechanism for communication between Guest and Host machine. If you think there are better alternative that virtio please guide.

If I could successfully complete the project, what are the chances that the code would be included in the KVM repository?

I have been following the KVM mailing list last few months and have learned that the KVM does not have the GPU pass-through support. As far as I can understand, adding GPU pass-through would make GPU device available to VM as a Graphics Card, let me know if I am wrong. After the completion GPGPU support in VM I would love to work on this support as well.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks and Regards,
Prasad Joshi (Student ID: 19015523)
MRes Systems Engineering

Re: [RFC] GPGPU Support In KVM

[André Weidemann]

Hi,
On 24.11.2010 15:06, Prasad Joshi wrote:
> I have been following the KVM mailing list last few months and have learned that the KVM does not have the GPU pass-through support. As far as I can understand, adding GPU pass-through would make GPU device available to VM as a Graphics Card, let me know if I am wrong. After the completion GPGPU support in VM I would love to work on this support as well.
>
> Please let me know your thoughts.

There is already someone who was working on GPU pass-trough for KVM. 
Search the mailing list archives for _Fede_. Back in June he said that 
he would need to debug a BIOS issue in order to make it work.
Maybe you two should get together.
I hope this helps. I am really looking forward to see this in KVM.

Regards
  André

RE: [RFC] GPGPU Support In KVM

[Prasad Joshi]

> From: Andre.Weidemann@web.de [Andre.Weidemann@web.de]
> Sent: 24 November 2010 19:56
> To: Prasad Joshi
> Cc: kvm@vger.kernel.org
> Subject: Re: [RFC] GPGPU Support In KVM
> 
> Hi,
> On 24.11.2010 15:06, Prasad Joshi wrote:
>> I have been following the KVM mailing list last few months and have learned that the KVM does not have the GPU pass-through support. >As far as I can understand, adding GPU pass-through would make GPU device available to VM as a Graphics Card, let me know if I am >wrong. After the completion GPGPU support in VM I would love to work on this support as well.
>>
>> Please let me know your thoughts.
>
> There is already someone who was working on GPU pass-trough for KVM.
> Search the mailing list archives for _Fede_. Back in June he said that
> he would need to debug a BIOS issue in order to make it work.
> Maybe you two should get together.
> I hope this helps. I am really looking forward to see this in KVM.

Thanks a lot for your response. I will try to contact him.

Thanks and Regards,
Prasad

> Regards
>  André

Re: [RFC] GPGPU Support In KVM

[linux_kvm]

Interesting, indeed. Looking forward to it as well.


On Wed, 24 Nov 2010 20:56 +0100, "André Weidemann"
<Andre.Weidemann@web.de> wrote:
> Hi,
> On 24.11.2010 15:06, Prasad Joshi wrote:
> > I have been following the KVM mailing list last few months and have learned that the KVM does not have the GPU pass-through support. As far as I can understand, adding GPU pass-through would make GPU device available to VM as a Graphics Card, let me know if I am wrong. After the completion GPGPU support in VM I would love to work on this support as well.
> >
> > Please let me know your thoughts.
> 
> There is already someone who was working on GPU pass-trough for KVM. 
> Search the mailing list archives for _Fede_. Back in June he said that 
> he would need to debug a BIOS issue in order to make it work.
> Maybe you two should get together.
> I hope this helps. I am really looking forward to see this in KVM.
> 
> Regards
>   André
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