Hi,
In this post I wanted to introduce you with a new construct we added to the latest release of CUDA.NET (2.3.6) and will be available with the published OpenCL.NET library.
The problem
.NET is a very fixed environment, defining well known types, such that an int is always 4 bytes long (32 bit) and a long is always 8 bytes long (64 bit).
This is not the case with native code, for developers of C/C++. Writing a program in 32 bit environment, will always yield 32 bit types, unless using specific directives to get 64 bit variables. When writing 64 bit programs, they do get access to 64 bit wide variables as primitives supported by the compiler.
This clearly creates a portability problem for code and applications written in 32 and 64 bit environments.
Another example, is pointer size, where in C/C++ environments, under 32 bit the pointer is 4 bytes wide (int) and under 64 bit systems it is 8 bytes wide (long). The .NET environment (through different languages) provides a simple construct to overcome this problem, namely the IntPtr object, which some of you may be familiar with.
Now, coming back to our domain, the runtime API (also the driver in a new CUDA 2.3 function) and OpenCL makes extensive use of the C/C++ size_t data type. This data type ensures for developers that under different environments they will get the maximum width of the supported data type, unsigned int for 32 bit systems and unsigned long for 64 bit systems.
Possible options
By means of the interoprating library (wrapper), such as CUDA.NET, it creates a problem, since the API should provide several versions of the function, one given an uint (to map to 32 bit with unsigned int C/C++ type), and ulong (to map against unsigned long in 64 bit C/C++ systems). Supplying such an interface to the user will have to force him a specific behavior and system, since in .NET, the uint is always 32 bit wide, and ulong is 64 bit wide, no matter what.
Another option can be to provide a unique, standalone interface, using the IntPtr object, since .NET takes care to make it 32 bit wide in 32 bit systems and 64 bit wide for 64 bit systems, dynamically, without user intervention.
But using the IntPtr and a very serious downside, it is not dynamic, once it’s value is set, it cannot be changed through simple arithmetic operators, like +,-,*,/ or else.
The solution
Exactly for this purpose we created the SizeT object (structure). First, it maps to the same name as it’s native counterpart (size_t) and second it provides the dynamic mechanisms we want for working with 32 or 64 bit systems transparently.
SizeT can serve just like any other basic primitive in .NET.
For example:
SizeT temp = 15;
uint value = (uint)temp;
ulong value2 = (ulong)temp;
temp = value;
Internally, the SizeT wraps the IntPtr object to provide the same dynamic capabilities under 32 and 64 bit platforms.
It can host the required .NET primitives (int, uint, long, ulong), so when programming, one will make a good habit for using the SizeT instead of other data types (working with the runtime CUDA API).
For OpenCL the interface was built from the first place to use SizeT in mind, as the OpenCL API uses only size_t data types for cross platform functions.