This thesis is part of a large, multi-laboratory project to develop a GPU system-on-chip (SoC) for embedded systems. In support of this project, this current thesis presents the assembler and linker for the overall system. These tools were developed ¡§from scratch¡¨ for this project, because the both the input (to our assembler) and the output (from our linker) have new formats, due to the novelty of our GPU. One of the challenges of the work in this thesis is the problem of memory management. Another is the problem of deciding upon an assembly format. But the largest challenge was in co-design. The assembler has to work with a compiler which is also under development by other students. Also, the machine instructions that we produce have to support the format and functionality of the GPU hardware. To accomplish this, the specific details of this hardware had to be rigorously defined through discussion and negotiation. Furthermore, the memory addresses also required codesign with the benchmark development team, which needs to have access to these memory locations. So codesign issues impacted many of the features of this thesis.

This thesis describes the development of a compiler for OpenGLES 2.0 programs for a novel GPU. This work is a part of a larger project to develop a low-power GPU for embedded systems. Our compiler has been developed in the LLVM compiler infrastructure. The present thesis focuses on three areas of the compiler: 1) making corrections and improvements to an existing graphics shading language parser, 2) augmenting LLVM¡¦s bit-code format to support the new information from the shading language, and 3) modifying LLVM¡¦s backend to support this augmented bit-code. Much of this work is related to supporting the matrix and vector primitive data types found in OpenGL¡¦s GLSL shading language. In conjunction with several other theses, as listed in the text, this work achieves a working basic compiler for GLSL code on our new GPU. Continuing work by future researchers is necessary to make the compiler more robust and optimized.

Recently there was a significant grow in building HPC systems. Nowadays they are building from mainstream computer components. One of them is graphics accelerators with GPU. This thesis deals with description of graphics accelerators. It examines possibilities usage. GPU chip has hundreds simple processors. This thesis examine possibilities how to benefit from these parallel processors. It contains description of several testing applications, discuss results from experiments and compares them with another components used for HPC.

Since the introduction of programmable Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and procedural shaders, hardware vendors have each developed their own individual real-time shading language standard. None of these shading languages is fully platform independent. Although this real-time programmable shader technology could be developed into 3D application on a single system, this platform dependent limitation keeps the shader technology away from 3D Internet applications. The primary purpose of this dissertation is to design a framework for translating different shader formats to platform independent shaders and embed them into the eXtensible 3D (X3D) scene for 3D web applications. This framework includes a back-end core shader converter, which translates shaders among different shading languages with a middle XML layer. Also included is a shader library containing a basic set of shaders that developers can load and add shaders to. This framework will then be applied to some applications in Biomolecular Visualization.

Modern graphics accelerators have embedded programmable components in the form of vertex and fragment shading units. Current APIs permit specification of the programs for these components using an assembly-language level interface. Compilers for high-level shading languages are available but these read in an external string specification, which can be inconvenient. It is possible, using standard C++, to define an embedded high-level shading language. Such a language can be nearly indistinguishable from a special-purpose shading language, yet permits more direct interaction with the specification of textures and parameters, simplifies implementation, and enables on-the-fly generation, manipulation, and specification of shader programs. An embedded shading language also permits the lifting of C++ host language type, modularity, and scoping constructs into the shading language without any additional implementation effort.

Modern graphics accelerators have embedded programmable components in the form of vertex and fragment shading units. Current APIs permit specification of the programs for these components using an assembly-language level interface. Compilers for high-level shading languages are available but these read in an external string specification, which can be inconvenient. It is possible, using standard C++, to define an embedded high-level shading language. Such a language can be nearly indistinguishable from a special-purpose shading language, yet permits more direct interaction with the specification of textures and parameters, simplifies implementation, and enables on-the-fly generation, manipulation, and specification of shader programs. An embedded shading language also permits the lifting of C++ host language type, modularity, and scoping constructs into the shading language without any additional implementation effort.

Genom att skapa shaders kan datorspelsutvecklare åstadkomma en uppsjö av visuella effekter. Det enda som sätter gränserna är fantasin och prestandan. En av de största spelmotorerna på marknaden är Unity Engine (Unity Technologies, 2005). Det finns två utvecklingsmetoder för att skapa shaders i Unity; genom det visuella verktyget Unity Shader Graph eller genom att programmera i High-Level Shading Language. Fördelen med Unity Shader Graph är dess användarvänlighet. Kan en följd av denna användarvänlighet vara en nackdel på resultatets prestanda?  Denna studies syfte är att undersöka prestandaskillnader mellan shaders implementerade med High-Level Shading Language kontra Unity Shader Graph. Detta undersöktes genom att skapa tre shaders i Unity Shader Graph och sedan tre utseendemässigt liknande shaders i High-Level Shading Language. Efter skapandet, optimerades shadersarna skapta med High-Level Shading Language genom optimeringstekniker föreslagna av Crawford och O’Boyle (2018). Resultatet visade att inga starka kopplingar kunde göras mellan användandet av Unity Shader Graph och försämrad prestanda. Testresultaten var inte konklusiva, vissa shaders presterade bättre på en hårdvara men sämre på alternativ hårdvara. Vid 3 av 6 test presterade de jämförda shadersarna utan en signifikant prestandaskillnad. / <p>Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter tillhörande examensarbetet som ska skickas till arkivet. </p><p>There are other digital material (eg film, image or audio files) or models/artifacts that belongs to the thesis and need to be archived.</p>

Inom spelutveckling vill utvecklare gärna använda sig av visuella effekter för sina spel och genom shaderprogram kan en mångfald av visuella effekter skapas. Det som hindrar spelutvecklare från att använda sig utav alla visuella effekter de vill ha med i spelet är prestandan. Alla användare har inte tillgång till den senaste hårdvaran och kan ha minimikrav på prestandan hos ett spel. Spelbranschen går dessutom mer mot mobila spel (ISFE &amp; EGDF 2021, ss. 18-19). Mobiler har begränsade resurser och har inte lika mycket processorkraft för grafik som en dedikerad grafikprocessor kan ge. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om det finns en skillnad i prestanda på shaders som implementerats med Unreal Material kontra High-Level Shading Language. Detta gjordes genom en implementation i varje språk av två shadereffekter. Efteråt konstruerades två renderingsintensiva scener där tidsmätningar på varje implementation genomfördes. Resultatet av detta kunde inte visa på någon koppling mellan vilket implementationssätt som användes och skillnad i prestanda. Resultaten av testerna kunde endast peka på en försumbar skillnad i prestanda.