arrayfire / arrayfire/arrayfire-python

OpenCL interoperability does not work on 64-bit OS

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#265 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Dominant language
Python
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Description

Currently the OpenCL interoperability does not work on 64-bit Windows machine. The reason for this is the use of `c_int_t` which defaults to long on Windows (which on the other hand is 32-bit). This can be problematic with things like device IDs as they can easily go over 2^32/2-1. For example https://github.com/arrayfire/arrayfire-python/blob/master/arrayfire/opencl.py#L88 uses `c_int_t`, as well as a few other functions in the same file. This can be fixed by replacing the `c_int_t` with, for example, `c_void_ptr_t` as it is used with the context. Is there by the way some specific reason why context is treated differently?

There is also another issue. When the context is created by PyOpenCL, the input device, context and queue values are input as python ints in order to use the same context and queue, but on Windows you get `: int too long to convert` errors then. These can be avoided by casting them to, for example, `c_int64`-types. For example in https://github.com/arrayfire/arrayfire-python/blob/master/arrayfire/opencl.py#L156, replace `safe_call(backend.get().afcl_add_device_context(dev, ctx, que))` with `safe_call(backend.get().afcl_add_device_context(ct.c_int64(dev), ct.c_int64(ctx), ct.c_int64(que)))` (using `c_void_p` seems to work too).

I haven't tested these changes extensively, but they do seem to get things working on 64-bit Windows. I can provide a PR if needed.

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Research direction

The affected entry points are arrayfire/opencl.py around lines 88 and 156, plus the other c_int_t uses in that file. Read those ctypes declarations first, then reproduce the 64-bit Windows OpenCL/PyOpenCL setup; done means device IDs and shared device, context, and queue values no longer overflow and interoperability works.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
hpc
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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