Sunday, April 8, 2012

Setting up CUDA on Windows and Visual C++ Express 2008

Assuming we already have Visual C++ 2008 Express installed, we need to perform the following
steps:
  • Download and install the latest nVidia driver with CUDA that is compatible with the system’s graphics card. Then reboot your system so that the driver loads to memory. Note that nVidia publishes a special series of drivers for desktops and for notebooks cards (the later with some time lag).
  • Download and install both the CUDA Toolkit and the CUDA SDK. These must be the same version as the driver before. If the examples in the bin directory of the SDK do not work, this indicates you have a wrong version of the driver (and of the whole package).

Syntax highlight and Intellisense

Since the extension .cu is not recognized as C code by Visual C++, it will not highlight the language’s reserved words. NVidia supply a usertype.dat under: “<CUDA SDK install dir>\doc\syntax_highlighting\visual_studio_8”.
  • Copy this file to: “\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE”. Now open Visual Studio and navigate to:  tools->options->text editor->file extension. In the extension box type “cu”, make sure you select “Microsoft Visual C++”.
For Intellisense, the process is not automatic as the previous ones. It involves dealing with internal Visual C++ registry settings:
  • On Windows 7, open the registry editor and navigate to “HKEY_USERS\<user code>\Software\Microsoft\VCExpress\9.0\Languages\Language Services\C/C++” then go to the string entry “NCB Default C/C++ Extensions” and add “;.cu;.cuh” to the end of the list. The <user code> is machine-specific, the best thing to do is look for “NCB Default C/C++ Extensions” in the registry editor. Restart Visual Studio and Intellisense will work for your CUDA files. If there is a specific CUDA C feature, it will not recognize it, but all the normal C keywords will be benefited.

Building

nVidia supply a rules file which you will find under the “<CUDA SDK install dir>\common”
directory.
  • Select it under “project -> custom build rules -> find existing”. This will allow the IDE to find the compiler nvcc for the .cu files.
After Visual C++ instructs nvcc to compile .cu files, it links the object files (with the native compiler) into an executable file. Inspect the following output:
Debug Win32 ------
1>Compiling with CUDA Build Rule...
1>"D:\my\CUDA\bin\nvcc.exe"    -arch sm_10 -ccbin "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio
9.0\VC\bin"  -use_fast_math  -Xcompiler "/EHsc /W3 /nologo /O2 /Zi   /MT  " -
I"D:\my\CUDA_SDK\common\inc" -maxrregcount=32  --compile -o "Debug\kernel.cu.obj"
"c:\Users\Gabo\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\more\cuda\kernel.cu" 
1>kernel.cu
1>tmpxft_00001314_00000000-3_kernel.cudafe1.gpu
1>tmpxft_00001314_00000000-8_kernel.cudafe2.gpu
1>tmpxft_00001314_00000000-3_kernel.cudafe1.cpp
1>tmpxft_00001314_00000000-13_kernel.ii
1>Compilando...
1>main.cpp
1>math.cpp
1>Building code...
1>Linking...
1>main.obj : warning LNK4075: se omite '/EDITANDCONTINUE' due to the specification
'/INCREMENTAL:NO'
1>Incrustando manifiesto...
1>El registro de compilación se guardó en el "file://c:\Users\Gabo\Documents\Visual Studio
2008\Projects\more\cuda\Debug\BuildLog.htm"
1>cuda - 0 errors, 3 warnings
Notice that the compilation of the .cu files (with nvcc), then the .cpp files (with the Visual C++
compiler) and, last, the linking process.
Remark: nVidia compiler, nvcc, treats differently the objects it finds in the .cu files. If it is a kernel, it compiles it into PTX instructions and stores them into a data section of the object file. On the other hand, if it finds a plain C function, it compiles it as any C compiler would do, storing native hardware instructions into the executable text section of the object file. Remark: Since the device code is executed in the GPU, the kernels live as data in the host code and are copied to the device memory in an I/O operation initiated by the code nvcc put when the C function in the .cu file invoked the kernel. This is explained later.

Linking difficulties

For a seamless compilation, the best thing to do is to copy an existing CUDA project from the SDK to a separate folder, including the libraries (from the “common” directory), rename and redistribute everything and start from there

However, if an output like this is experienced:
1>MSVCRTD.lib(MSVCR90D.dll) : error LNK2005: ya se definió _free en LIBCMT.lib(free.obj)
1>MSVCRTD.lib(MSVCR90D.dll) : error LNK2005: ya se definió _malloc en LIBCMT.lib(malloc.obj)
1>MSVCRTD.lib(MSVCR90D.dll) : error LNK2005: ya se definió _printf en LIBCMT.lib(printf.obj)
1>MSVCRTD.lib(ti_inst.obj) : error LNK2005: ya se definió "private: __thiscall type_info::type_info(class type_info const &)" (??0type_info@@AAE@ABV0@@Z) en LIBCMT.lib(typinfo.obj)
1>MSVCRTD.lib(ti_inst.obj) : error LNK2005: ya se definió "private: class type_info & __thiscall type_info::operator=(class type_info const &)" (??4type_info@@AAEAAV0@ABV0@@Z) en LIBCMT.lib(typinfo.obj)
Adding /NODEFAULTLIB:LIBCMT.lib to “project -> Configuration Properties -> Linker ->
Command Line” in the Additional Options textbox.
Since the .cu files are compiled by nvcc and kinked to the nVidia libraries (according to the
supplied build rules), a general Visual C++ project links to the standard set of libraries, and
some of them get in conflict with nVidia’s. The previous fix avoids using the conflicting
standard libraries.

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