AMD Clarifies ROCm Compute Support For GUI Applications

[pete910]

Can someone please tell me what this clarification from AMD will mean for [email protected]? It needs openCL to work on their video cards.

To update this, 4.1 has fixed it for me it seems

[bridgman]

What's ROCr? Is that different from ROCm? Anyway, I was under the impression that ROCm would be used only on fairly high end GPUs, while low-end GPUs and APUs would use PAL (https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...OCm-PAL-Future).

ROCR is the ROC Runtime, one of the layers in the ROCm stack. From top to bottom the core stack for ML on Linux is roughly:

ML frameworks (Tensorflow / Pytorch etc...)
MIOpen (CUDNN) and RCCL (NCCL)
Math libraries
HIP language runtime
VDI (virtual device interface, runs over CPU / Orca / PAL / ROCr back ends)
ROCr back end
ROCR
libhsakmt aka "thunk" aka ROCT
amdkfd
amdgpu

For OpenCL it's the same from amdgpu up to VDI, but with OpenCL language runtime replacing HIP language runtime. HPC is similar to ML except CUDNN and the ML frameworks are not normally used.

Do all RDNA GPUs work with ROCr, and will RDNA APUs do so?

Yes, right up to OpenCL so far, and yes.

But yes, open-sourcing PAL OpenCL would still leave a place for Clover on Polaris and older, except those that work with ROCm.
BTW, why can't PAL OpenCL be used on Polaris and earlier, given that AMDVLK works on these?

It could be - just another pile of work for relatively small benefit at a time when we are not exactly looking for more work.

[LinAGKar]

I'll confirm, but AFAIK we were only using PAL for OpenCL on Vega on Linux and that has now moved to ROCr. We do use PAL for Vega and newer on Windows, but Polaris and earlier parts still use legacy aka Orca code paths on both Windows and Linux.

What's ROCr? Is that different from ROCm? Anyway, I was under the impression that ROCm would be used only on fairly high end GPUs, while low-end GPUs and APUs would use PAL (https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...OCm-PAL-Future). Do all RDNA GPUs work with ROCr, and will RDNA APUs do so?

But yes, open-sourcing PAL OpenCL would still leave a place for Clover on Polaris and older, except those that work with ROCm.

BTW, why can't PAL OpenCL be used on Polaris and earlier, given that AMDVLK works on these?

[oleid]

btw, using the Clover you are using opensource APIs ,
Not the closed source ones that amdgpu-pro has..and so freedom is better than closed source

Well, the latest version of the amdgpu-pro opencl driver is open source as well, just the latest bits didn't get released, yet, to the ROCm repo. But I fully agree, freedom is better than closed source.

[tuxd3v]

What card do you have? Doesn't the amdgpu-pro driver work for you as a stop gap?

Has a stop Gap yes, but that it a closed source, when you have Clover which is a opensource one.. do you see the difference?

btw, using the Clover you are using opensource APIs ,
Not the closed source ones that amdgpu-pro has..and so freedom is better than closed source

[oleid]

Can someone please tell me what this clarification from AMD will mean for [email protected]? It needs openCL to work on their video cards.

It is working for some time now with amdgpu-pro. If you can run that driver you're fine.

If not, you can try mesa OpenCL. The following thread says it works with mesa 20.3.

https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/linux-graphics-x-org-drivers/opengl-vulkan-mesa-gallium3d/1211540-opencl-1-2-support-merged-for-mesa-s-gallium3d-clover-while-opencl-3-0-is-being-tackled/page2

[oleid]

Well, I would be already satisfied with clover AMd Image Support within OpenCL1.2

What card do you have? Doesn't the amdgpu-pro driver work for you as a stop gap?

[castlefox]

To be able to download a package and have openCL support in distro of choice would be nice, 6800xt is of no use in things like [email protected] atm moment. Having said that neither is my VII with rocm using manjaro.

Can someone please tell me what this clarification from AMD will mean for Foldi[email protected]? It needs openCL to work on their video cards.

[tuxd3v]

Well, OpenCL3. The big question is if they support any optional features of OpenCL3. Otherwise: no news here. Just good ol' OpenCL 1.2 with a new name.

Well, I would be already satisfied with clover AMd Image Support within OpenCL1.2

[coder]

Of course I am aware that AMD had limited ressources and that ROCm began with a small team with a huge task. Underinvestment in terms of the scope of the tasks at hand was one factor here and I hope so that AMD's product successes and re-gain of some financial strength will cure these problems over time.

Yeah, let's not forget the dire financial situation they were in, shortly before Zen launched. Lisa Su barely managed to keep the lights on, with that Chinese licensing deal.

My employer has been chronically under-investing in my team, over that same timeframe, and they're a profitable Fortune 500 company! So, I can definitely empathize with the feeling of not getting the support you feel you need and deserve.

On the other hand better communication from the start would have helped to know what to expect as keeping these users in the dark for over a year does not deliver a great signal to the market either.

This. Better communication about the roadmap for ROCm, and setting realistic expectations for RDNA support could've gone a long way towards avoiding some of the betrayal now felt in the community. It might've even lead to the community finding more creative workarounds, leading to a sort of win-win.