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SCALE by Spectral Compute#

What is SCALE?#

SCALE is a GPGPU programming toolkit that can natively compile CUDA applications for AMD GPUs.

SCALE does not require the CUDA program or its build system to be modified.

Support for more GPU vendors and CUDA APIs is in development.

How do I use SCALE?#

  1. Install SCALE.
  2. Activate SCALE, eg. . /opt/SCALE/scaleenv gfx1100
  3. Compile your application, following the same steps you would use for NVIDIA CUDA.

What projects have been tested?#

We validate SCALE by compiling open-source CUDA projects and running their tests. The list of currently-tested projects and their compatibility status can be found here

Which GPUs are supported?#

The following GPU targets are supported:

  • AMD gfx900 (Vega 10, GCN 5.0)`
  • AMD gfx906 (MI50/MI60)
  • AMD gfx908 (MI100)
  • AMD gfx90a (MI210/MI250)
  • AMD gfx942 (MI300x)
  • AMD gfx950 (MI350x/MI355x)
  • AMD gfx1010
  • AMD gfx1030 (Navi 21, RDNA 2.0)
  • AMD gfx1100 (Navi 31, RDNA 3.0)
  • AMD gfx1151 (Strix-halo etc.)
  • AMD gfx1101
  • AMD gfx1102
  • AMD gfx1200 (RX 9060 XT etc.)
  • AMD gfx1201 (RX 9070 XT etc.)

Contact us if you want us to expedite support for a particular AMD GPU architecture.

What are the components of SCALE?#

SCALE consists of:

  • An nvcc-compatible compiler capable of compiling nvcc-dialect CUDA for AMD GPUs, including PTX asm.
  • An implementation of the CUDA runtime, driver and math APIs for AMD GPUs.
  • Open-source wrapper libraries providing the "CUDA-X" APIs by delegating to the corresponding ROCm libraries. This is how libraries such as cuBLAS and cuSOLVER are handled.

What are the differences between SCALE and other solutions?#

Instead of providing a new way to write GPGPU software, SCALE allows programs written using the widely-popular CUDA language to be directly compiled for AMD GPUs.

SCALE aims to be fully compatible with NVIDIA CUDA. We believe that users should not have to maintain multiple codebases or compromise on performance to support multiple GPU vendors.

SCALE's language is a superset of NVIDIA CUDA, offering some opt-in language extensions that can make writing GPU code easier and more efficient for users who wish to move away from nvcc.

SCALE is a work in progress. If there is a missing API that is blocking your attempt to use SCALE, please contact us so we can prioritise its development.

Contact us#

There are multiple ways to get in touch with us: