An Application Framework for Migrating GPGPU Cloud Applications

Abstract

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) have become a common computing resource for general-purpose computing (GPGPU). GPU usage has also spread to high-throughput server applications, taking advantage of its massively parallel nature and wide availability at various cloud platforms. Although various methods currently exist to share a single GPU among multiple applications, migrating GPGPU server applications across different machines is challenging due to lack of hardware mechanisms, such as programmable preemption and access to GPU context. This paper presents an event-driven framework for GPGPU server applications, which enables us to implement a software based approach for migration which overcomes current hardware limitations.