CUDA MEX

Compile CUDA from within MATLAB! Just write cuda_mex filename.cu and it is ready.

Description

This small script modifies the files used by MATLAB to compile mex-functions within MATLAB so that CUDA is supported.

Once the script setup_cuda_mex.m is run you can just compile CUDA mex files with the function cuda_mex.m.

Only Win32 with Visual Studio is supported in the current version.
CUDA Toolkit and SDK required.

• MATLAB release: MATLAB 7.4 (R2007a)

[Sara]

Works!!! Thank you so much! I've spent the last week arguing with Matlab 2008a, Visual Studio 2008, and CUDA trying to get them to talk to each other.

[Oliver Woodford]

Sounds good, but currently no use to me - I'm desperate for an equivalent function for a linux system.

[Haim Avron]

To do the same on a Linux the one running the script should have root privileges. I currently do not have MATLAB on a Linux for which I have root privileges...

[Oliver Woodford]

Thanks, Haim. I've found a solution now. I use nvcc to convert.cu files to .cpp files, then call mex as normal. This avoids copying/changing any of the MATLAB scripts.

[mklcst mklcst]

Hi Haim Avron, whe i run I get this error:

> Note that only Visual Studio compilers are supported.
> Creating cudamexopts.bat based on mexopts.bat...
> Creating cuda_mex.pl based on mex.pl...
> ??? Error using ==> fprintf
> Invalid file identifier. Use fopen to generate a valid file identifier.
>
> Error in ==> setup_cuda_mex at 73
> fprintf(fid_cuda_mex, '%s', line);

[Haim Avron]

Hi Mklcst,

Do you have permissions to write to MATLAB's directories?

[Sara]

If you add cutil32.lib to

        if (strcmp(name, 'LINKFLAGS'))
            value = [value ' cudart.lib cutil32.lib'];
        end

in setup_cuda_mex.m, the linker will properly access cutil based functions. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why I would get errors in the linking involving various cuda based functions even though the compiler knew the address to the header files...

[Sara]

I'm working on Windows XP...has anyone had problems with cutCreateTimer not working? When it is called by either the CUT_SAFE_CALL or directly it crashes the program.

[Sara]

Still having trouble with the cutCreateTimer. Here is an example. I have modified the example.cu that comes with this package to create this timer. In addition, the cutil32.lib and cutil32D.lib are linked in the setup_cuda_mex.m file. If anyone has a solution, I would be very excited to hear it.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <cuda.h>
#include <cutil.h>

#include "mex.h"

__global__ void square_array(float *a, int N)
{
  int idx = blockIdx.x * blockDim.x + threadIdx.x;
  if (idx<N) a[idx] = a[idx] * a[idx];
}

void mexFunction(int nargout, mxArray *argout[], int nargin, const mxArray *argin[])
{
  float *input, *cuda_mem;
  int N;
  size_t size;
unsigned int hTimer;

cutCreateTimer(&hTimer);

  argout[0] = mxDuplicateArray(argin[0]);
  input = (float *)mxGetPr(argout[0]);
  N = mxGetN(argout[0]) * mxGetM(argout[0]);
  size = N * sizeof(float);
  cudaMalloc((void **) &cuda_mem, size);
  cudaMemcpy(cuda_mem, input, size, cudaMemcpyHostToDevice);
  int block_size = 4;
  int n_blocks = N/block_size + (N%block_size == 0 ? 0:1);
  square_array <<< n_blocks, block_size >>> (cuda_mem, N);
  cudaMemcpy(input, cuda_mem, size, cudaMemcpyDeviceToHost);
  cudaFree(cuda_mem);
}

[Anthony]

What would need to be done to port this code to a 64-bit platform?

[Sara]

Ok, hopefully I'm not overstaying my welcome on this forum, but I've found out more answers to my cutCreateTimer issue and I wanted to put them out there incase someone else falls into this issue.
It appears that somehow the cuda_mex compilation couldn't find my cutil libraries. This is not necessarily it's fault, I don't know much about make files, linking, etc. so it's fairly probable that I screwed something up somewhere. There is likely a short, easy, and correct way to fix this, but since I don't know it, here's my work around. If you find your way into the CUDA SDK folder you will find a Visual Studio solution for compiling everything cutil. If you change the output of these libraries to the cuda standard library ( likely something along the lines of CUDA/bin) and then rebuild the solution the cutil32 libraries will then be found by the compiler/linker. Will keep posting if I find out a more elegant solution.

[R. Scott]

Haim,

nice file, but I have a question. Currently I use XPx64-bit and I was unable to get it to run. I am aware of the x32 is only supported from your notes. But how could I get it to run in x64? Any thoughts.

Oh BTW you may already know this but if you have a CUDA enabled Vid card (non-Tesla) and you are using it as for your monitor as well. There is a max allowed time use of the GPU at 2 sec to any code. If you want more(non-Tesla) it cannot be used as a monitor support vid-card. just FYI that's all

[Shu Heng Shu Heng]

 

[Drew]

Hello,

I have downloaded these files. I am using Matlab 2009b, Windows 7 64 bit, and VS 2008 Express addition.

I run into the following problem when trying to compile the example through setup_cuda_mex.m

WARNING: $ARCH (UNKNOWN) not set correctly [win64]
 
  C:\PROGRA~1\MATLAB\R2009B\BIN\CUDA_MEX.PL:
  Error: Using options file:
         C:\Users\dcreal\AppData\Roaming\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2009b\cudamexopts.bat
         You cannot use this file with the UNKNOWN architecture because it enables
         a compiler for a different architecture.
         Running mex -setup may resolve this problem.

Has anyone run into a similar problem? Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Eddie Kotowski]

@Drew,
             To get 64-bit working you need to open the cuda_mex.pl file and around line 203 just hard code the $ARCH to "win64" so it would look like this.

$ARCH = "win64";

Also ensure that you have vcvarsamd64.bat and ensure that this information is in it and in this location (C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\bin\amd64\) Here is what vcvarsamd64.bat should have in it:

@SET VSINSTALLDIR=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0
@SET VCINSTALLDIR=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC
@SET WIN64SDKDIR=C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.1

@SET FrameworkDir=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework64
@SET FrameworkVersion=v3.5
@if "%VSINSTALLDIR%"=="" goto error_no_VSINSTALLDIR
@if "%VCINSTALLDIR%"=="" goto error_no_VCINSTALLDIR

@echo Setting environment for using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 x64 tools.

@set PATH=%VCINSTALLDIR%\BIN\amd64;%FrameworkDir%\%FrameworkVersion%;%VCINSTALLDIR%\VCPackages;%VSINSTALLDIR%\Common7\IDE;%VSINSTALLDIR%\Common7\Tools;%WIN64SDKDIR%\Bin\x64;%WIN64SDKDIR%\Bin\x64\vsstools;c:\CUDA\bin;%PATH%
@set INCLUDE=%VCINSTALLDIR%\INCLUDE;%WIN64SDKDIR%\INCLUDE;%INCLUDE%
@set LIB=%VCINSTALLDIR%\LIB\amd64;%WIN64SDKDIR%\Lib\x64;%LIB%

@set LIBPATH=%FrameworkDir%\%Framework35Version%;%VCINSTALLDIR%\ATLMFC\LIB\amd64;%VCINSTALLDIR%\LIB\amd64;%LIBPATH%
 

[Drew]

Eddie,

I was able to get it working! I have also compiled and run some of the other examples available in the Matlab/CUDA tutorial.

Thank you so much!

Drew

[Petter]

With the above hack in cuda_mex.pl I got it working the Windows 64-bit. The author should update the script to do this automatically.

[Jason Riley]

Hi,
Ok so I have it working, great!
One question I have 2 CUDA compattible cards, how do i know which one it is using and how do i chose which one it uses?
:)
I know other cuda interfaces give you the option, although i have found them less 'useful' for other reasons..

Thanks,
Jason

[bochra]

Hi,

I have downloaded these files. I am using Matlab 2010b, Windows 7 64 bit, and VS 2008 .

I run into the following problem when trying to compile the example through setup_cuda_mex.m :
Note that only Visual Studio compilers are supported.
Creating cudamexopts.bat based on mexopts.bat...
Creating cuda_mex.pl based on mex.pl...
??? Error using ==> fprintf
Invalid file identifier. Use fopen to generate a valid file identifier.

Error in ==> setup_cuda_mex at 73
    fprintf(fid_cuda_mex, '%s', line);

Has anyone run into a similar problem?
Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Haim Avron]

@bochra

It looks like it failed to create a file.
Check if you have write permission to the directory.

[Loren]

The script reads {prefdir}/mexopts.bat and I do not have such a file on this computer.

r2010b, x64, Windows 7

I have permission, btw.

[Stanimir Mollov]

Many thanks, successfully compiled from the first time with 32bit Window 7, MATLAB 2008a, VS 2005 and CUDA 4.0, on a Dell XPS M1730 & GeForce 8800GXT :)

[San Baz]

VISUAL STUDIO 2010 anybody?
Thanks Hakim for a nearly automatic solution. I'm still having some trouble. I'm running win64, Cuda 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010.
I tried the original solution and performed Eddie Kotowski's hack but to no avail.
I get the error:

 Visual Studio configuration file '(null)' could not be found for installation at 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\bin\amd64/../../..

Thanks!
SB

[Kevin Brown]

San, this can happen when you don't have the 64-bit part of Visual Studio installed - check your installation of Visual Studio(Control Panel -> Modify Program) to see if the x64 part is installed (mine did not by default , so I had to update it).

[Takashi]

Hi,
I had some troubles when I used it on windows7(x64), Matlab R2011a(x64) and Visual C++ 2010 express with WinSDK7.1, but I could get over it. I had to add a slight modification to Eddie's advice. Thanks Haim and Eddie!!

Modify cuda_mex.pl modification as written above.
Add
$ARCH = "win64";
before the command (line 184)
$ENV{'ARCH'} = $ARCH;

Also, you need to comment out the entire block in the setup_cuda_mex.m titled as
%% Process mex.pl
to prevent further renewal of mex_cuda.pl

vcvarsamd64.bat should be created as written above. You have to slightly change it for use with VS2010Ex and SDK7.1.

Finally, you have to move the cudamexopts.bat to the C:\Users\(USER\AppData\Roaming\MathWorks\MATLAB.
Funny thing is that Matlab R2011a create an additional folder, named R2011a, in above folder and put cudamexopts.bat to the directory, which is not recognized by cuda_mex. So this caused the error message saying 'option file not found'. You just move it to the upper directory and things will go perfectly well.