.. _udkernel:

User-Defined Kernels
====================

CuPy provides easy ways to define three types of CUDA kernels: elementwise kernels, reduction kernels and raw kernels.
In this documentation, we describe how to define and call each kernels.


Basics of elementwise kernels
-----------------------------

An elementwise kernel can be defined by the :class:`~cupy.ElementwiseKernel` class.
The instance of this class defines a CUDA kernel which can be invoked by the ``__call__`` method of this instance.

A definition of an elementwise kernel consists of four parts: an input argument list, an output argument list, a loop body code, and the kernel name.
For example, a kernel that computes a squared difference :math:`f(x, y) = (x - y)^2` is defined as follows:

.. doctest::

   >>> squared_diff = cp.ElementwiseKernel(
   ...    'float32 x, float32 y',
   ...    'float32 z',
   ...    'z = (x - y) * (x - y)',
   ...    'squared_diff')

The argument lists consist of comma-separated argument definitions.
Each argument definition consists of a *type specifier* and an *argument name*.
Names of NumPy data types can be used as type specifiers.

.. note::
   ``n``, ``i``, and names starting with an underscore ``_`` are reserved for the internal use.

The above kernel can be called on either scalars or arrays with broadcasting:

.. doctest::

   >>> x = cp.arange(10, dtype=np.float32).reshape(2, 5)
   >>> y = cp.arange(5, dtype=np.float32)
   >>> squared_diff(x, y)
   array([[ 0.,  0.,  0.,  0.,  0.],
          [25., 25., 25., 25., 25.]], dtype=float32)
   >>> squared_diff(x, 5)
   array([[25., 16.,  9.,  4.,  1.],
          [ 0.,  1.,  4.,  9., 16.]], dtype=float32)

Output arguments can be explicitly specified (next to the input arguments):

.. doctest::

   >>> z = cp.empty((2, 5), dtype=np.float32)
   >>> squared_diff(x, y, z)
   array([[ 0.,  0.,  0.,  0.,  0.],
          [25., 25., 25., 25., 25.]], dtype=float32)


Type-generic kernels
--------------------

If a type specifier is one character, then it is treated as a **type placeholder**.
It can be used to define a type-generic kernels.
For example, the above ``squared_diff`` kernel can be made type-generic as follows:

.. doctest::

   >>> squared_diff_generic = cp.ElementwiseKernel(
   ...     'T x, T y',
   ...     'T z',
   ...     'z = (x - y) * (x - y)',
   ...     'squared_diff_generic')

Type placeholders of a same character in the kernel definition indicate the same type.
The actual type of these placeholders is determined by the actual argument type.
The ElementwiseKernel class first checks the output arguments and then the input arguments to determine the actual type.
If no output arguments are given on the kernel invocation, then only the input arguments are used to determine the type.

The type placeholder can be used in the loop body code:

.. doctest::

   >>> squared_diff_generic = cp.ElementwiseKernel(
   ...     'T x, T y',
   ...     'T z',
   ...     '''
   ...         T diff = x - y;
   ...         z = diff * diff;
   ...     ''',
   ...     'squared_diff_generic')

More than one type placeholder can be used in a kernel definition.
For example, the above kernel can be further made generic over multiple arguments:

.. doctest::

   >>> squared_diff_super_generic = cp.ElementwiseKernel(
   ...     'X x, Y y',
   ...     'Z z',
   ...     'z = (x - y) * (x - y)',
   ...     'squared_diff_super_generic')

Note that this kernel requires the output argument explicitly specified, because the type ``Z`` cannot be automatically determined from the input arguments.


Raw argument specifiers
-----------------------

The ElementwiseKernel class does the indexing with broadcasting automatically, which is useful to define most elementwise computations.
On the other hand, we sometimes want to write a kernel with manual indexing for some arguments.
We can tell the ElementwiseKernel class to use manual indexing by adding the ``raw`` keyword preceding the type specifier.

We can use the special variable ``i`` and method ``_ind.size()`` for the manual indexing.
``i`` indicates the index within the loop.
``_ind.size()`` indicates total number of elements to apply the elementwise operation.
Note that it represents the size **after** broadcast operation.

For example, a kernel that adds two vectors with reversing one of them can be written as follows:

.. doctest::

   >>> add_reverse = cp.ElementwiseKernel(
   ...     'T x, raw T y', 'T z',
   ...     'z = x + y[_ind.size() - i - 1]',
   ...     'add_reverse')

(Note that this is an artificial example and you can write such operation just by ``z = x + y[::-1]`` without defining a new kernel).
A raw argument can be used like an array.
The indexing operator ``y[_ind.size() - i - 1]`` involves an indexing computation on ``y``, so ``y`` can be arbitrarily shaped and strode.

Note that raw arguments are not involved in the broadcasting.
If you want to mark all arguments as ``raw``, you must specify the ``size`` argument on invocation, which defines the value of ``_ind.size()``.


Texture memory
--------------
Texture objects (:class:`~cupy.cuda.texture.TextureObject`) can be passed to :class:`~cupy.ElementwiseKernel` with their type marked by a unique type placeholder distinct from any other types used in the same kernel, as its actual datatype is determined when populating the texture memory. The texture coordinates can be computed in the kernel by the per-thread loop index ``i``.


Reduction kernels
-----------------

Reduction kernels can be defined by the :class:`~cupy.ReductionKernel` class.
We can use it by defining four parts of the kernel code:

1. Identity value: This value is used for the initial value of reduction.
2. Mapping expression: It is used for the pre-processing of each element to be reduced.
3. Reduction expression: It is an operator to reduce the multiple mapped values.
   The special variables ``a`` and ``b`` are used for its operands.
4. Post mapping expression: It is used to transform the resulting reduced values.
   The special variable ``a`` is used as its input.
   Output should be written to the output parameter.

ReductionKernel class automatically inserts other code fragments that are required for an efficient and flexible reduction implementation.

For example, L2 norm along specified axes can be written as follows:

.. doctest::

   >>> l2norm_kernel = cp.ReductionKernel(
   ...     'T x',  # input params
   ...     'T y',  # output params
   ...     'x * x',  # map
   ...     'a + b',  # reduce
   ...     'y = sqrt(a)',  # post-reduction map
   ...     '0',  # identity value
   ...     'l2norm'  # kernel name
   ... )
   >>> x = cp.arange(10, dtype=np.float32).reshape(2, 5)
   >>> l2norm_kernel(x, axis=1)
   array([ 5.477226 , 15.9687195], dtype=float32)

.. note::
   ``raw`` specifier is restricted for usages that the axes to be reduced are put at the head of the shape.
   It means, if you want to use ``raw`` specifier for at least one argument, the ``axis`` argument must be ``0`` or a contiguous increasing sequence of integers starting from ``0``, like ``(0, 1)``, ``(0, 1, 2)``, etc.

.. note::
   Texture memory is not yet supported in :class:`~cupy.ReductionKernel`.


Raw kernels
-----------

Raw kernels can be defined by the :class:`~cupy.RawKernel` class.
By using raw kernels, you can define kernels from raw CUDA source.

:class:`~cupy.RawKernel` object allows you to call the kernel with CUDA's ``cuLaunchKernel`` interface.
In other words, you have control over grid size, block size, shared memory size and stream.

.. doctest::

   >>> add_kernel = cp.RawKernel(r'''
   ... extern "C" __global__
   ... void my_add(const float* x1, const float* x2, float* y) {
   ...     int tid = blockDim.x * blockIdx.x + threadIdx.x;
   ...     y[tid] = x1[tid] + x2[tid];
   ... }
   ... ''', 'my_add')
   >>> x1 = cp.arange(25, dtype=cp.float32).reshape(5, 5)
   >>> x2 = cp.arange(25, dtype=cp.float32).reshape(5, 5)
   >>> y = cp.zeros((5, 5), dtype=cp.float32)
   >>> add_kernel((5,), (5,), (x1, x2, y))  # grid, block and arguments
   >>> y
   array([[ 0.,  2.,  4.,  6.,  8.],
          [10., 12., 14., 16., 18.],
          [20., 22., 24., 26., 28.],
          [30., 32., 34., 36., 38.],
          [40., 42., 44., 46., 48.]], dtype=float32)

Raw kernels operating on complex-valued arrays can be created as well:

.. doctest::

   >>> complex_kernel = cp.RawKernel(r'''
   ... #include <cupy/complex.cuh>
   ... extern "C" __global__
   ... void my_func(const complex<float>* x1, const complex<float>* x2,
   ...              complex<float>* y, float a) {
   ...     int tid = blockDim.x * blockIdx.x + threadIdx.x;
   ...     y[tid] = x1[tid] + a * x2[tid];
   ... }
   ... ''', 'my_func')
   >>> x1 = cupy.arange(25, dtype=cupy.complex64).reshape(5, 5)
   >>> x2 = 1j*cupy.arange(25, dtype=cupy.complex64).reshape(5, 5)
   >>> y = cupy.zeros((5, 5), dtype=cupy.complex64)
   >>> complex_kernel((5,), (5,), (x1, x2, y, cupy.float32(2.0)))  # grid, block and arguments
   >>> y
   array([[ 0. +0.j,  1. +2.j,  2. +4.j,  3. +6.j,  4. +8.j],
          [ 5.+10.j,  6.+12.j,  7.+14.j,  8.+16.j,  9.+18.j],
          [10.+20.j, 11.+22.j, 12.+24.j, 13.+26.j, 14.+28.j],
          [15.+30.j, 16.+32.j, 17.+34.j, 18.+36.j, 19.+38.j],
          [20.+40.j, 21.+42.j, 22.+44.j, 23.+46.j, 24.+48.j]],
         dtype=complex64)

Note that while we encourage the usage of ``complex<T>`` types for complex numbers (available by including ``<cupy/complex.cuh>`` as shown above), for CUDA codes already written using functions from ``cuComplex.h`` there is no need to make the conversion yourself: just set the option ``translate_cucomplex=True`` when creating a :class:`~cupy.RawKernel` instance.

The CUDA kernel attributes can be retrieved by either accessing the :attr:`~cupy.RawKernel.attributes` dictionary,
or by accessing the :class:`~cupy.RawKernel` object's attributes directly; the latter can also be used to set certain
attributes:

.. doctest::

   >>> add_kernel = cp.RawKernel(r'''
   ... extern "C" __global__
   ... void my_add(const float* x1, const float* x2, float* y) {
   ...     int tid = blockDim.x * blockIdx.x + threadIdx.x;
   ...     y[tid] = x1[tid] + x2[tid];
   ... }
   ... ''', 'my_add')
   >>> add_kernel.attributes  # doctest: +SKIP
   {'max_threads_per_block': 1024, 'shared_size_bytes': 0, 'const_size_bytes': 0, 'local_size_bytes': 0, 'num_regs': 10, 'ptx_version': 70, 'binary_version': 70, 'cache_mode_ca': 0, 'max_dynamic_shared_size_bytes': 49152, 'preferred_shared_memory_carveout': -1}
   >>> add_kernel.max_dynamic_shared_size_bytes  # doctest: +SKIP
   49152
   >>> add_kernel.max_dynamic_shared_size_bytes = 50000  # set a new value for the attribute  # doctest: +SKIP
   >>> add_kernel.max_dynamic_shared_size_bytes  # doctest: +SKIP
   50000

Dynamical parallelism is supported by :class:`~cupy.RawKernel`. You just need to provide the linking flag (such as ``-dc``) to :class:`~cupy.RawKernel`'s ``options`` argument. The static CUDA device runtime library (``cudadevrt``) is automatically discovered by CuPy. For further detail, see `CUDA Toolkit's documentation`_.

.. _CUDA Toolkit's documentation: https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-c-programming-guide/index.html#compiling-and-linking

Accessing texture (surface) memory in :class:`~cupy.RawKernel` is supported via CUDA Runtime's Texture (Surface) Object API, see the documentation for :class:`~cupy.cuda.texture.TextureObject` (:class:`~cupy.cuda.texture.SurfaceObject`) as well as CUDA C Programming Guide. For using the Texture Reference API, which is marked as deprecated as of CUDA Toolkit 10.1, see the introduction to :class:`~cupy.RawModule` below.

If your kernel relies on the C++ std library headers such as ``<type_traits>``, it is likely you will encounter compilation errors. In this case, try enabling CuPy's `Jitify <https://github.com/NVIDIA/jitify>`_ support by setting ``jitify=True`` when creating the :class:`~cupy.RawKernel` instance. It provides basic C++ std support to remedy common errors.

.. note::
    The kernel does not have return values.
    You need to pass both input arrays and output arrays as arguments.

.. note::
    When using ``printf()`` in your CUDA kernel, you may need to synchronize the stream to see the output.
    You can use ``cupy.cuda.Stream.null.synchronize()`` if you are using the default stream.

.. note::
    In all of the examples above, we declare the kernels in an ``extern "C"`` block,
    indicating that the C linkage is used. This is to ensure the kernel names are not
    mangled so that they can be retrived by name.

Kernel arguments
----------------
Python primitive types and NumPy scalars are passed to the kernel by value.
Array arguments (pointer arguments) have to be passed as CuPy ndarrays.
No validation is performed by CuPy for arguments passed to the kernel, including types and number of arguments.

Especially note that when passing a CuPy :class:`~cupy.ndarray`, its ``dtype`` should match with the type of the argument declared in the function signature of the CUDA source code (unless you are casting arrays intentionally). 

As an example, ``cupy.float32`` and ``cupy.uint64`` arrays must be passed to the argument typed as ``float*`` and ``unsigned long long*``, respectively. CuPy does not directly support arrays of non-primitive types such as ``float3``, but nothing prevents you from casting a ``float*`` or ``void*`` to a ``float3*`` in a kernel.

Python primitive types, ``int``, ``float``, ``complex`` and ``bool`` map to ``long long``, ``double``, ``cuDoubleComplex`` and ``bool``, respectively.

NumPy scalars (``numpy.generic``) and NumPy arrays (``numpy.ndarray``) **of size one** 
are passed to the kernel by value.
This means that you can pass by value any base NumPy types such as ``numpy.int8`` or ``numpy.float64``, provided the kernel arguments match in size. You can refer to this table to match CuPy/NumPy dtype and CUDA types:

+-----------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------+
| CuPy/NumPy type | Corresponding kernel types                    | itemsize (bytes) |
+=================+===============================================+==================+
| bool            | bool                                          | 1                |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------+
| int8            | char, signed char                             | 1                |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------+
| int16           | short, signed short                           | 2                |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------+
| int32           | int, signed int                               | 4                |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------+
| int64           | long long, signed long long                   | 8                |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------+
| uint8           | unsigned char                                 | 1                |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------+
| uint16          | unsigned short                                | 2                |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------+
| uint32          | unsigned int                                  | 4                |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------+
| uint64          | unsigned long long                            | 8                |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------+
| float16         | half                                          | 2                |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------+
| float32         | float                                         | 4                |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------+
| float64         | double                                        | 8                |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------+
| complex64       | float2, cuFloatComplex, complex<float>        | 8                |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------+
| complex128      | double2, cuDoubleComplex, complex<double>     | 16               |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------+

The CUDA standard guarantees that the size of fundamental types on the host and device always match.
The itemsize of ``size_t``, ``ptrdiff_t``, ``intptr_t``, ``uintptr_t``, 
``long``, ``signed long`` and ``unsigned long`` are however platform dependent. 
To pass any CUDA vector builtins such as ``float3`` or any other user defined structure 
as kernel arguments (provided it matches the device-side kernel parameter type), see :ref:`custom_user_structs` below.

.. _custom_user_structs:

Custom user types
-----------------

It is possible to use custom types (composite types such as structures and structures of structures)
as kernel arguments by defining a custom NumPy dtype.
When doing this, it is your responsibility to match host and device structure memory layout.
The CUDA standard guarantees that the size of fundamental types on the host and device always match.
It may however impose device alignment requirements on composite types.
This means that for composite types the struct member offsets may be different from what you might expect.

When a kernel argument is passed by value, the CUDA driver will copy exactly ``sizeof(param_type)`` bytes starting from the beginning of the NumPy object data pointer, where ``param_type`` is the parameter type in your kernel. 
You have to match ``param_type``'s memory layout (ex: size, alignment and struct padding/packing) 
by defining a corresponding `NumPy dtype <https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/arrays.dtypes.html>`_.

For builtin CUDA vector types such as ``int2`` and ``double4`` and other packed structures with 
named members you can directly define such NumPy dtypes as the following:

.. doctest::

    >>> import numpy as np
    >>> names = ['x', 'y', 'z']
    >>> types = [np.float32]*3
    >>> float3 = np.dtype({'names': names, 'formats': types})
    >>> arg = np.random.rand(3).astype(np.float32).view(float3)
    >>> print(arg)  # doctest: +SKIP
    [(0.9940819, 0.62873816, 0.8953669)]
    >>> arg['x'] = 42.0
    >>> print(arg)  # doctest: +SKIP
    [(42., 0.62873816, 0.8953669)]

Here ``arg`` can be used directly as a kernel argument.
When there is no need to name fields you may prefer this syntax to define packed structures such as 
vectors or matrices:

.. doctest::

    >>> import numpy as np
    >>> float5x5 = np.dtype({'names': ['dummy'], 'formats': [(np.float32,(5,5))]}) 
    >>> arg = np.random.rand(25).astype(np.float32).view(float5x5)
    >>> print(arg.itemsize)
    100

Here ``arg`` represents a 100-byte scalar (i.e. a NumPy array of size 1)
that can be passed by value to any kernel.
Kernel parameters are passed by value in a dedicated 4kB memory bank which has its own cache with broadcast.
Upper bound for total kernel parameters size is thus 4kB
(see `this link <https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-c-programming-guide/index.html#function-parameters>`_).
It may be important to note that this dedicated memory bank is not shared with the device ``__constant__`` memory space.

For now, CuPy offers no helper routines to create user defined composite types. 
Such composite types can however be built recursively using NumPy dtype `offsets` and `itemsize` capabilities,
see `cupy/examples/custum_struct <https://github.com/cupy/cupy/tree/main/examples/custom_struct>`_ for examples of advanced usage.

.. warning::
    You cannot directly pass static arrays as kernel arguments with the ``type arg[N]`` syntax where N is a compile time constant. The signature of ``__global__ void kernel(float arg[5])`` is seen as ``__global__ void kernel(float* arg)`` by the compiler. If you want to pass five floats to the kernel by value you need to define a custom structure ``struct float5 { float val[5]; };`` and modify the kernel signature to ``__global__ void kernel(float5 arg)``.


Raw modules
-----------

For dealing a large raw CUDA source or loading an existing CUDA binary, the :class:`~cupy.RawModule` class can be more handy. It can be initialized either by a CUDA source code, or by a path to the CUDA binary. It accepts most of the arguments as in :class:`~cupy.RawKernel`. The needed kernels can then be retrieved by calling the :meth:`~cupy.RawModule.get_function` method, which returns a :class:`~cupy.RawKernel` instance that can be invoked as discussed above.

.. doctest::

    >>> loaded_from_source = r'''
    ... extern "C"{
    ...
    ... __global__ void test_sum(const float* x1, const float* x2, float* y, \
    ...                          unsigned int N)
    ... {
    ...     unsigned int tid = blockDim.x * blockIdx.x + threadIdx.x;
    ...     if (tid < N)
    ...     {
    ...         y[tid] = x1[tid] + x2[tid];
    ...     }
    ... }
    ...
    ... __global__ void test_multiply(const float* x1, const float* x2, float* y, \
    ...                               unsigned int N)
    ... {
    ...     unsigned int tid = blockDim.x * blockIdx.x + threadIdx.x;
    ...     if (tid < N)
    ...     {
    ...         y[tid] = x1[tid] * x2[tid];
    ...     }
    ... }
    ...
    ... }'''
    >>> module = cp.RawModule(code=loaded_from_source)
    >>> ker_sum = module.get_function('test_sum')
    >>> ker_times = module.get_function('test_multiply')
    >>> N = 10
    >>> x1 = cp.arange(N**2, dtype=cp.float32).reshape(N, N)
    >>> x2 = cp.ones((N, N), dtype=cp.float32)
    >>> y = cp.zeros((N, N), dtype=cp.float32)
    >>> ker_sum((N,), (N,), (x1, x2, y, N**2))   # y = x1 + x2
    >>> assert cp.allclose(y, x1 + x2)
    >>> ker_times((N,), (N,), (x1, x2, y, N**2)) # y = x1 * x2
    >>> assert cp.allclose(y, x1 * x2)

The instruction above for using complex numbers in :class:`~cupy.RawKernel` also applies to :class:`~cupy.RawModule`.

For CUDA kernels that need to access global symbols, such as constant memory, the :meth:`~cupy.RawModule.get_global` method can be used, see its documentation for further detail.

Note that the deprecated API :meth:`cupy.RawModule.get_texref` has been removed since CuPy vX.X due to the removal of texture reference support from CUDA.

To support C++ template kernels, :class:`~cupy.RawModule` additionally provide a ``name_expressions`` argument. A list of template specializations should be provided, so that the corresponding kernels can be generated and retrieved by type:

.. doctest::

    >>> code = r'''
    ... template<typename T>
    ... __global__ void fx3(T* arr, int N) {
    ...     unsigned int tid = blockIdx.x * blockDim.x + threadIdx.x;
    ...     if (tid < N) {
    ...         arr[tid] = arr[tid] * 3;
    ...     }
    ... }
    ... '''
    >>>
    >>> name_exp = ['fx3<float>', 'fx3<double>']
    >>> mod = cp.RawModule(code=code, options=('-std=c++11',),
    ...     name_expressions=name_exp)
    >>> ker_float = mod.get_function(name_exp[0])  # compilation happens here
    >>> N=10
    >>> a = cp.arange(N, dtype=cp.float32)
    >>> ker_float((1,), (N,), (a, N))
    >>> a
    array([ 0.,  3.,  6.,  9., 12., 15., 18., 21., 24., 27.], dtype=float32)
    >>> ker_double = mod.get_function(name_exp[1])
    >>> a = cp.arange(N, dtype=cp.float64)
    >>> ker_double((1,), (N,), (a, N))
    >>> a
    array([ 0.,  3.,  6.,  9., 12., 15., 18., 21., 24., 27.])

.. note::

    The name expressions used to both initialize a :class:`~cupy.RawModule` instance and retrieve the kernels are
    the original (*un-mangled*) kernel names with all template parameters unambiguously specified. The name mangling
    and demangling are handled under the hood so that users do not need to worry about it.

.. _kernel_fusion:

Kernel fusion
--------------------

:func:`cupy.fuse` is a decorator that fuses functions.  This decorator can be used to define an elementwise or reduction kernel more easily than :class:`~cupy.ElementwiseKernel` or :class:`~cupy.ReductionKernel`.

By using this decorator, we can define the ``squared_diff`` kernel as follows:

.. doctest::

   >>> @cp.fuse()
   ... def squared_diff(x, y):
   ...     return (x - y) * (x - y)

The above kernel can be called on either scalars, NumPy arrays or CuPy arrays likes the original function.

.. doctest::

   >>> x_cp = cp.arange(10)
   >>> y_cp = cp.arange(10)[::-1]
   >>> squared_diff(x_cp, y_cp)
   array([81, 49, 25,  9,  1,  1,  9, 25, 49, 81])
   >>> x_np = np.arange(10)
   >>> y_np = np.arange(10)[::-1]
   >>> squared_diff(x_np, y_np)
   array([81, 49, 25,  9,  1,  1,  9, 25, 49, 81])

At the first function call, the fused function analyzes the original function based on the abstracted information of arguments (e.g. their dtypes and ndims) and creates and caches an actual CUDA kernel.  From the second function call with the same input types, the fused function calls the previously cached kernel, so it is highly recommended to reuse the same decorated functions instead of decorating local functions that are defined multiple times.

:func:`cupy.fuse` also supports simple reduction kernel.

.. doctest::

   >>> @cp.fuse()
   ... def sum_of_products(x, y):
   ...     return cp.sum(x * y, axis = -1)

You can specify the kernel name by using the ``kernel_name`` keyword argument as follows:

.. doctest::

   >>> @cp.fuse(kernel_name='squared_diff')
   ... def squared_diff(x, y):
   ...     return (x - y) * (x - y)

.. note::
   Currently, :func:`cupy.fuse` can fuse only simple elementwise and reduction operations.  Most other routines (e.g. :func:`cupy.matmul`, :func:`cupy.reshape`) are not supported.

.. _jit_kernel_definition:

JIT kernel definition
---------------------

The :class:`cupyx.jit.rawkernel` decorator can create raw CUDA kernels from Python functions.

In this section, a Python function wrapped with the decorator is called a *target function*.

A target function consists of elementary scalar operations, and users have to manage how to parallelize them. CuPy's array operations which automatically parallelize operations (e.g., :func:`~cupy.add`, :func:`~cupy.sum`) are not supported. If a custom kernel based on such array functions is desired, please refer to the :ref:`kernel_fusion` section.

Basic Usage
^^^^^^^^^^^

Here is a short example for how to write a :class:`cupyx.jit.rawkernel` to copy the values from ``x`` to ``y`` using a grid-stride loop:

.. doctest::

   >>> from cupyx import jit
   >>>
   >>> @jit.rawkernel()
   ... def elementwise_copy(x, y, size):
   ...     tid = jit.blockIdx.x * jit.blockDim.x + jit.threadIdx.x
   ...     ntid = jit.gridDim.x * jit.blockDim.x
   ...     for i in range(tid, size, ntid):
   ...         y[i] = x[i]

   >>> size = cupy.uint32(2 ** 22)
   >>> x = cupy.random.normal(size=(size,), dtype=cupy.float32)
   >>> y = cupy.empty((size,), dtype=cupy.float32)

   >>> elementwise_copy((128,), (1024,), (x, y, size))  # RawKernel style
   >>> assert (x == y).all()

   >>> elementwise_copy[128, 1024](x, y, size)  #  Numba style
   >>> assert (x == y).all()

Both styles to launch the kernel, as shown above, are supported. The first two entries are the grid and block sizes, respectively. ``grid`` ( RawKernel style ``(128,)`` or Numba style ``[128]``) is the sizes of the grid, i.e., the numbers of blocks in each dimension; ``block`` (``(1024,)`` or ``[1024]``) is the dimensions of each thread block, please refer to :class:`cupyx.jit._interface._JitRawKernel` for details. Launching a CUDA kernel on a GPU with pre-determined grid/block sizes requires basic understanding in the `CUDA Programming Model`_.

.. _CUDA Programming Model: https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/cuda-refresher-cuda-programming-model/

The compilation will be deferred until the first function call. CuPy's JIT compiler infers the types of arguments at the call time, and will cache the compiled kernels for speeding up any subsequent calls.

See :doc:`../reference/kernel` for a full list of API.

Basic Design
^^^^^^^^^^^^

CuPy's JIT compiler generates CUDA code via Python AST. We decided not to use Python bytecode to analyze the target function to avoid perforamance degradation. The CUDA source code generated from the Python bytecode will not effectively optimized by CUDA compiler, because for-loops and other control statements of the target function are fully transformed to jump instruction when converting the target function to bytecode.

Typing rule
^^^^^^^^^^^

The types of local variables are inferred at the first assignment in the function. The first assignment must be done at the top-level of the function; in other words, it must *not* be in ``if``/``else`` bodies or ``for``-loops.

Limitations
^^^^^^^^^^^

JIT does not work inside Python's interactive interpreter (REPL) as the compiler needs to get the source code of the target function.
