CUDPP and CUDA 2.1 beta known issues

[Mark Harris]

Hi all,

Because NVIDIA has posted the beta release of CUDA 2.1 today, I wanted to give CUDPP users a heads up now before you run into problems.  CUDPP does NOT compile with CUDA 2.1.  cudafe, the CUDA compiler frontend, crashes when compiling scan_app.cu and segmented_scan_app.cu, probably related to their use of C++ features like templates.  We do not yet have a workaround for this, and I am told that this bug will NOT be fixed in the release version of CUDA 2.1. 

The reason it will not be fixed is because the fix is already implemented in the CUDA trunk and will be released with CUDA 2.2.  This fix is part of a large overhaul of templates that is too complex to incorporate into CUDA 2.1 (it would delay CUDA 2.1 release too much).

I'm sorry for the inconvenience.  However, here's what you CAN do if you need to use CUDA 2.1: compile CUDPP with CUDA 2.0, and the rest of your application with CUDA 2.1.  This works, at least in the 2 CUDA SDK samples that use CUDPP (lineOfSight and marchingCubes).  You can pretty easily have both CUDA 2.0 and CUDA 2.1 installed on your system (no need to switch display drivers, just use the display driver released for CUDA 2.1).  Compile CUDPP with 2.0, then switch to 2.1 for further development.

Again, sorry for the inconvenience.  If this causes big problems for major applications please do let us know here on the list, I'd like to track the issues.

Cheers,
Mark

[David Strippgen]

Dear Mark,
can't actually find the CUDA 2.1 release anywhere on the NVIDIA site!

Any idea -- aka link-- where I can find the new beta and some info on
changes?

Thanks and best regards,
David

[Mark Harris]

Just wait a bit and they will be posting information on the forums.  I kind of jumped the gun a bit, but it's a matter of hours, I believe.

Cheers,

Mark