Restrict Register Per Thread in CUDA

[YqWangcfd]

How to restrict the maximum register usage per thread in amrex, when I are trying to profile the GPU program?
I have tried to add a line 'CUDA_MAXREGCOUNT := 128' in the GNUmakefile but it seemed not to work.

There are still output information like 'ptxas info : Used 240 registers, 592 bytes cmem[0]' during compilation.

[WeiqunZhang]

It seems to work for me .

[WeiqunZhang]

Maybe there there was a typo. You can try to set it from command line. make USE_CUDA=TRUE CUDA_MAXREGCOUNT=128. You can also use make help to examine the flags.

$ make USE_CUDA=TRUE CUDA_MAXREGCOUNT=128 help | grep "maxrregcount=128"
    CXXFLAGS      = -ccbin=g++ -Xcompiler='-Werror=return-type -g1 -O3 -finline-limit=43210 -std=c++17  -pthread  -std=c++17' --std=c++17 -Wno-deprecated-gpu-targets -m64 -m
axrregcount=128 --expt-relaxed-constexpr --expt-extended-lambda --forward-unknown-to-host-compiler -Xcudafe --diag_suppress=esa_on_defaulted_function_ignored -Xcudafe --diag
_suppress=implicit_return_from_non_void_function --Werror cross-execution-space-call -lineinfo --ptxas-options=-O3 --ptxas-options=-v --use_fast_math  --Werror ext-lambda-ca
ptures-this --display-error-number --diag-error 20092 --relocatable-device-code=true --generate-code arch=compute_60,code=sm_60 -x cu -c
    CFLAGS        = -ccbin=g++ -Xcompiler='-Werror=return-type -g1 -O3 -finline-limit=43210 -std=c++17  -pthread  -std=c++17' --std=c++17 -Wno-deprecated-gpu-targets -m64 -m
axrregcount=128 --expt-relaxed-constexpr --expt-extended-lambda --forward-unknown-to-host-compiler -Xcudafe --diag_suppress=esa_on_defaulted_function_ignored -Xcudafe --diag
_suppress=implicit_return_from_non_void_function --Werror cross-execution-space-call -lineinfo --ptxas-options=-O3 --ptxas-options=-v --use_fast_math  --Werror ext-lambda-ca
ptures-this --display-error-number --diag-error 20092 --relocatable-device-code=true --generate-code arch=compute_60,code=sm_60 -x cu -c
    LINKFLAGS     = -Wno-deprecated-gpu-targets -m64 -maxrregcount=128 --expt-relaxed-constexpr --expt-extended-lambda --forward-unknown-to-host-compiler -Xcudafe --diag_sup
press=esa_on_defaulted_function_ignored -Xcudafe --diag_suppress=implicit_return_from_non_void_function --Werror cross-execution-space-call -lineinfo --ptxas-options=-O3 --p
txas-options=-v --use_fast_math  --Werror ext-lambda-captures-this --display-error-number --diag-error 20092 --relocatable-device-code=true --generate-code arch=compute_60,c
ode=sm_60 -ccbin=g++ -Xcompiler='-Werror=return-type -g1 -O3 -finline-limit=43210 -std=c++17  -pthread  -std=c++17' --std=c++17

[YqWangcfd]

Yes... By running make USE_CUDA=TRUE CUDA_MAXREGCOUNT=128 help | grep "maxrregcount=128", my outputs are just like yours.
However, there is still >128 per thread register in the ptxas info.

I also noticed that in AMReX there is a mechanism named as "launch__bounds"

amrex/Src/Base/AMReX_GpuLaunchGlobal.H

Line 24 in 7c99975

__launch_bounds__(amrex_launch_bounds_max_threads, min_blocks)

, where it restricts by default the minimum CUDA block per SM to one. Does this play an effective role in tolerating the register usage?

If it is, could please provide a Usage Example on how to use this mechanism to enforcedly lower down the per thread register?

[WeiqunZhang]

I still think you had a typo.

There are still output information like 'ptxas info : Used 240 registers, 592 bytes cmem[0]' during compilation.

Could you provide more detail so that we can see exactly what flags nvcc gets? For example, I can see

nvcc ... -maxrregcount=128 ....
ptxas info    : Overriding maximum register limit 256 for '_ZN3cub17CUB_200802_SM_60011EmptyKernelIvEEvv' with  128 of maxrregcount option

[WeiqunZhang]

It seems that there are two possibilities. (1) nvcc never saw -maxrregcount=128 due to issues in makefile. (2) nvcc does not treat it as hard ceiling. I am not 100% sure. But I believe it was (1).

[YqWangcfd]

Thanks for your response.

When I run make USE_CUDA=TRUE CUDA_MAXREGCOUNT=128 help | grep "maxrregcount=128", I got

 make USE_CUDA=TRUE CUDA_MAXREGCOUNT=128 help | grep "maxrregcount=128"
    CXXFLAGS      = -ccbin=g++ -Xcompiler=' -Werror=return-type -g -O3 -finline-limit=43210 -std=c++17  -pthread  -std=c++17' --std=c++17 -Wno-deprecated-gpu-targets -m64 -maxrregcount=128 --expt-relaxed-constexpr --expt-extended-lambda --forward-unknown-to-host-compiler -Xcudafe --diag_suppress=esa_on_defaulted_function_ignored -Xcudafe --diag_suppress=implicit_return_from_non_void_function --Werror cross-execution-space-call -lineinfo --ptxas-options=-O3 --ptxas-options=-v --use_fast_math  --Werror ext-lambda-captures-this --display-error-number --diag-error 20092 --generate-code arch=compute_80,code=sm_80 -x cu -dc -Xptxas --disable-optimizer-constants
    CFLAGS        = -ccbin=g++ -Xcompiler=' -Werror=return-type -g -O3 -finline-limit=43210 -std=c++17  -pthread  -std=c++17' --std=c++17 -Wno-deprecated-gpu-targets -m64 -maxrregcount=128 --expt-relaxed-constexpr --expt-extended-lambda --forward-unknown-to-host-compiler -Xcudafe --diag_suppress=esa_on_defaulted_function_ignored -Xcudafe --diag_suppress=implicit_return_from_non_void_function --Werror cross-execution-space-call -lineinfo --ptxas-options=-O3 --ptxas-options=-v --use_fast_math  --Werror ext-lambda-captures-this --display-error-number --diag-error 20092 --generate-code arch=compute_80,code=sm_80 -x cu -dc
    LINKFLAGS     = -Wno-deprecated-gpu-targets -m64 -maxrregcount=128 --expt-relaxed-constexpr --expt-extended-lambda --forward-unknown-to-host-compiler -Xcudafe --diag_suppress=esa_on_defaulted_function_ignored -Xcudafe --diag_suppress=implicit_return_from_non_void_function --Werror cross-execution-space-call -lineinfo --ptxas-options=-O3 --ptxas-options=-v --use_fast_math  --Werror ext-lambda-captures-this --display-error-number --diag-error 20092 --generate-code arch=compute_80,code=sm_80 -ccbin=g++ -Xcompiler=' -Werror=return-type -g -O3 -finline-limit=43210 -std=c++17  -pthread  -std=c++17' --std=c++17

By compiling using make USE_CUDA=TRUE CUDA_MAXREGCOUNT=128, I presume this flag is passed to nvcc

nvcc -MMD -MP -ccbin=g++ -Xcompiler=' -Werror=return-type -g -O3 -finline-limit=43210 -std=c++17  -pthread  -std=c++17' --std=c++17 -Wno-deprecated-gpu-targets -m64 -maxrregcount=128 ...

But I cannot see the register limit override in the ptxas info like yours. Mine is like

ptxas info    : Used 255 registers, 1096 bytes cmem[0]
ptxas info    : Compiling entry function '_ZN5amrex13launch_globalILi256EZNS_6launchILi256EZNS_9ReduceOpsIJNS_11ReduceOpSumEEE4evalIiNS_10ReduceDataIJiEEEZNS_6Reduce3SumIiiZN4pele7physics9reactions11ReactorRK645reactEPdSE_SE_SE_RdSF_iP11CUstream_stEUliE0_vEET_T0_RKT1_SJ_EUliE_vEEvT_RT0_RKT1_EUlvE_EEvimSH_RKSK_EUlvE_EEvSK_' for 'sm_80'
ptxas info    : Function properties for _ZN5amrex13launch_globalILi256EZNS_6launchILi256EZNS_9ReduceOpsIJNS_11ReduceOpSumEEE4evalIiNS_10ReduceDataIJiEEEZNS_6Reduce3SumIiiZN4pele7physics9reactions11ReactorRK645reactEPdSE_SE_SE_RdSF_iP11CUstream_stEUliE0_vEET_T0_RKT1_SJ_EUliE_vEEvT_RT0_RKT1_EUlvE_EEvimSH_RKSK_EUlvE_EEvSK_
    0 bytes stack frame, 0 bytes spill stores, 0 bytes spill loads

[WeiqunZhang]

I presume this flag is passed to nvcc
nvcc -MMD -MP -ccbin=g++ -Xcompiler=' -Werror=return-type -g -O3 -finline-limit=43210 -std=c++17 -pthread -std=c++17' --std=c++17 -Wno-deprecated-gpu-targets -m64 -maxrregcount=128 ...

Is that what you actually saw or what you think what happened?

[WeiqunZhang]

Looks like you are compiling PelePhysics. My guess is you are compiling from a code that recursively calls make to compile PelelPhysics and not all flags are forwarded. If that is the case, the simplest approach might be modify the default value in your amrex source code.

[YqWangcfd]

I have tried another case within a workspace without PelePhysics.

In this case, I have hard-coded the per thread register limit in nvcc from
NVCC_FLAGS = -Wno-deprecated-gpu-targets -m64 -maxrregcount=$(CUDA_MAXREGCOUNT) --expt-relaxed-constexpr --expt-extended-lambda --forward-unknown-to-host-compiler
to
NVCC_FLAGS = -Wno-deprecated-gpu-targets -m64 -maxrregcount=32 --expt-relaxed-constexpr --expt-extended-lambda --forward-unknown-to-host-compiler.

However, the issue does not get improved at all. It reports as

ptxas info    : Used 38 registers, 424 bytes cmem[0]
ptxas info    : Compiling entry function '_ZN5amrex13launch_globalILi256EZNS_11ParallelForILi256EZNS_12experimental6detail11ParallelForILi128ENS_8FabArrayINS_9FArrayBoxEEEZNS_3AddIS6_vEEvRNS5_IT_EERKSA_iiiRKNS_9IntVectNDILi2EEEEUliiiiiE_EENSt9enable_ifIXsr5amrex10IsFabArrayIT0_vEE5valueEvE4typeERKSK_SH_iSH_bRKT1_EUliiiE_Li2EEENSJ_IXsr5amrex19MaybeDeviceRunnableISK_vEE5valueEvE4typeERKNS_3Gpu10KernelInfoERKNS_5BoxNDIXT1_EEESO_EUlvE_EEvSK_' for 'sm_80'

[WeiqunZhang]

May I ask again?

Could you provide more detail so that we can see exactly what flags nvcc gets?

The most important missing information is the lines above ptaxas info where we can see exactly what flags are used by nvcc. It's possible that NVCC_FLAGS you set somehow was not used by nvcc.

[YqWangcfd]

Sorry for the delay.

The nvcc flags are as follows, if I specify 128 as the maximum per thread register.
nvcc -MMD -MP -ccbin=g++ -Xcompiler=' -Werror=return-type -g -O3 -finline-limit=43210 -std=c++17 -pthread -std=c++17' --std=c++17 -Wno-deprecated-gpu-targets -m64 -maxrregcount=128 --expt-relaxed-constexpr --expt-extended-lambda --forward-unknown-to-host-compiler -Xcudafe --diag_suppress=esa_on_defaulted_function_ignored -Xcudafe --diag_suppress=implicit_return_from_non_void_function --Werror cross-execution-space-call -lineinfo --ptxas-options=-O3 --use_fast_math --Werror ext-lambda-captures-this --display-error-number --diag-error 20092 --generate-code arch=compute_80,code=sm_80 -x cu -dc -Xptxas --disable-optimizer-constants ...

It looks like I successfully passed '128' to the parameter ‘-maxrregcount’, but the ptxas info indicates in many kernels/device functions the register usage spills out of this value.
I wonder how you got this result

nvcc ... -maxrregcount=128 ....
ptxas info : Overriding maximum register limit 256 for '_ZN3cub17CUB_200802_SM_60011EmptyKernelIvEEvv' with 128 of maxrregcount option

. Maybe I could have it tested on my own PC and then debug my program step by step.

[WeiqunZhang]

Could you do the following? make clean, make ...... >& make.ou, and then upload the make.ou file.

I was compiling a test in amrex/Tests/.

[YqWangcfd]

Sure. Please see the attached. I have used

make -j10 CUDA_MAXREGCOUNT=32 USE_CUDA=TRUE >& make.txt

in the command line.

make.txt

[WeiqunZhang]

I thought maxrregcount is a hard ceiling for nvcc. But it is not. https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-compiler-driver-nvcc/index.html#maxrregcount-amount-maxrregcount

A value less than the minimum registers required by ABI will be bumped up by the compiler to ABI minimum limit.

I guess for some of the kernels it's impossible to run without bumping up the register counts. Then there is probably nothing you can do.