PyStream: Python Shaders Running on the GPU

Abstract Graphics processing units (GPUs) have tremendous computing power, but are hard to program. Most GPU programming languages are extremely low level; no one has run a general-purpose high-level language on a GPU. This dissertation shows how to run Python shaders on a GPU for real-time rendering. Shaders written in Python run 30,000 - 300,000 times faster than on a CPU. This is partly because GPUs are designed to run shaders and partly because of the design of PyStream, a Python compiler for the GPU. PyStream advances the state-of-the-art in pointer analysis for Python, eliminates abstraction overhead for Python, maps a language with references onto an architecture that does not support references, and uses a single code base to program both the CPU and GPU. PyStream points the way for running high-level languages on specialized architectures.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical & Computer Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2010

Author dc:creator

• Bray, Nicholas C.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hwu, Wen-Mei W.
• Johnson, Ralph E.
• Hart, John C.
• Wah, Benjamin W.
• Lumetta, Steven S.

• Python
• Graphics Processing Units (GPU)
• Real-time Rendering
• Compiler
• Pointer Analysis

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2010 Nicholas C. Bray

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/16886

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/16886