Re: Xeon Phi port
On Sun, Aug 9, 2015 at 6:02 PM, Václav Šmilauer <eu@doxos.eu> wrote:
> Hi devs,
>
> I am currently trying to complie numerical simulation code Woo [1] to run on
> Xeon Phi. Woo is written in a mix of Python and c++, using a number of c++
> libs and Python packages.
>
> As you may know, Xeon Phi is 60-core (240 Hyper-Threaded cores) card with
> 4-16GB RAM, Pentium-like cores and ISA with many extensions for 64bit and
> parallel computing; it can be used either as co-processor for CPU tasks, or
> as a standalone machine accessible over virtual network between the host and
> the card. The card itself boots minimalistic Linux and userland
> (Yocto-based) and has access to the host filesystem through NFS. The
> platform is identified as x86_64-k1om-linux-gnu; gcc, binutils and glibc
> support this arch since a few years back (gcc supports it as target, but
> does not have target-specific optimizations, which are only present in the
> commercial Intel compiler).
>
> My experience with Yocto was not great (it fails to build with newer headers
> in the system), and Intel's forum seems to welcome only people running huge
> clusters in this segment.
>
> The first goal of this port would be to bootstrap Debian (using gcc+binutils
> as cross-compiler, those are available from Intel IIRC) and use its
> cross-compiled userland (compiler, packaging infrastructure) over NFS to
> compile other packages on the card itself, using cross-compiled native
> compiler (Python cannot be really cross-compiled currently).
>
> Second optional goal would be to compile some of the debian packages (many
> wouldn't make sense) on the card natively and have pre-built binaries in the
> public archive.
>
> After that, see how feasible it would be to boot Debian itself on the card
> -- that might be complicated due to special services for the card (like
> virtual network, configuration framework, no access to console while booting
> AFAIK) and is perhaps not really needed.
>
FIrst, you should make sure gcc/linux/glibc works for Phi,
and then bootstrap them with these steps:
https://wiki.debian.org/MultiarchCrossToolchainBootstrap
You will need to figure out your patch for these 3 packages' debian/ staff.
> From what I understood, the porting infrastructure is being consolidated at
> the moment, so I would appreciate some guidance on where to start; if there
> is a more specific and more suitable list (debian-ports was shut down
> recently), please let me know. Maybe some other Debian developers have the
> same interest, or more experience with Xeon Phi.
>
> Looking forward to fruitful discussion.
>
> Cheers, Václav
>
>
> [1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=794710
--
YunQiang Su
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