Nvidia Corporation

Igor Sevastiyanov

Scott Ricketts

Luke Durant

Nicholas Wang

Brian S Pharris

Brian Matthew Fahs

Andrew Robert Kerr

Barbara Wolfers

Matthew Grant Bolitho

Michael Andersch

One embodiment of the present invention includes a dependency extractor and a dependency investigator that, together, facilitate performance analysis of computer systems. In operation, the dependency extractor instruments a software application to generate run-time execution data for each work task. This execution data includes per-task performance data and dependency data reflecting linkages between tasks. After the instrumented software application finishes executing, the dependency investigator evaluates the captured execution data and identifies the critical path of tasks that establishes the overall run-time of the software application. Advantageously, since the execution data includes both task-level performance data and dependencies between tasks, the dependency investigator enables the developer to effectively optimize software and hardware in computer systems that are capable of concurrently executing tasks. By contrast, conventional performance analysis may not correctly identify critical paths in software applications that execute tasks in parallel across multiple processing units and, consequently, may misdirect optimization efforts.

Determining overall performance characteristics of a concurrent software application

A system, method, and computer program product for management of dynamic task-dependency graphs. The method includes the steps of generating a first task data structure in a memory for a first task, generating a second task data structure in the memory, storing a pointer to the second task data structure in a first output dependence field of the first task data structure, setting a reference counter field of the second task data structure to a threshold value that indicates a number of dependent events associated with the second task, and launching the second task when the reference counter field stores a particular value. The second task data structure is a placeholder for a second task that is dependent on the first task.

System, method, and computer program product for management of dependency between tasks

A system, method, and computer program product for scheduling tasks associated with continuation thread blocks. The method includes the steps of generating a first task metadata data structure in a memory, generating a second task metadata data structure in the memory, executing a first task corresponding to the first task metadata data structure in a processor, generating state information representing a continuation task related to the first task and storing the state information in the second task metadata data structure, executing the continuation task in the processor after the one or more child tasks have finished execution, and indicating that the first task has logically finished execution once the continuation task has finished execution. The second task metadata data structure is related to the first task metadata data structure, and at least one instruction in the first task causes one or more child tasks to be executed by the processor.

System, method, and computer program product for scheduling tasks associated with continuation thread blocks

A system, method, and computer program product for compressing a bounding volume hierarchy is disclosed. The method includes the steps of receiving a bounding volume hierarchy and encoding the bounding volume hierarchy to generate an encoded bounding volume hierarchy, wherein each node in the encoded bounding volume hierarchy indicates whether the node inherits zero or more values from a parent node. The bounding volume hierarchy includes a plurality of nodes, each node in the plurality of nodes is associated with a bounding volume.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Igor Sevastiyanov