NVIDIA rolls out hardware GPU debugger

Posted on Thursday, April 09 2009 @ 20:25 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
NVIDIA has published CUDA 2.2 Beta, this update features the first hardware debugger and visual profiler for the GPU:
The CUDA architecture continues to blaze a trail as the leading platform for developing and running GPU Computing applications, with support for C, OpenCL, DirectX Compute, Fortran and other languages and APIs. The latest CUDA 2.2 Beta contains a host of significant new features, including:

Hardware debugger for the GPU
Linux developers can now use a debugger on CUDA-enabled GPUs that offers both the familiar interface of the popular open-source GDB debugger and the ability to debug kernels as they execute on the GPU. The GPU-side debugger has all the features that developers expect from GDB, including the ability to have breakpoints, watch variables, inspect state, etc., as well as additional functions for CUDA-specific features.

Visual Profiler v2.2 for the GPU
The most common step in tuning application performance is profiling the application and then modifying the code. The CUDA Visual Profiler is a graphical tool that enables profiling C applications running on the GPU. This latest release of the CUDA Visual Profiler supports full measurement of memory bandwidth within a kernel, giving developers visibility into one of the most performance-critical areas of CUDA.

Full support for Microsoft Windows Server 2003/2008
Tesla C1060 and S1070 are now fully supported under both Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2008, offering developers and high-performance computing users more flexibility in their choice of operating system. CUDA 2.2 runs on Windows, MacOSX and major LINUX distributions.

Additional Features Coming with CUDA 2.2
  • Improved OpenGL interop performance
  • Texture from pitch linear memory
  • Zero-copy support for direct access to system memory
  • Pinned shared system memory allows compute kernels to share system memory
  • Asynchronous memcopy on Vista


  • About the Author

    Thomas De Maesschalck

    Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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