Bandicoot: C++ Library for GPU Linear Algebra and Scientific Computing

TL;DR

Bandicoot is a C++ library that extends Armadillo to GPU-accelerated linear algebra, enabling seamless, high-performance scientific computing on GPUs with minimal code changes.

Contribution

It introduces a GPU-enabled linear algebra library compatible with Armadillo, using template meta-programming for compile-time optimization, ready for production use.

Findings

Provides efficient GPU-accelerated linear algebra operations.

Maintains compatibility with existing Armadillo codebases.

Achieves compile-time optimization of mathematical expressions.

Abstract

This report provides an introduction to the Bandicoot C++ library for linear algebra and scientific computing on GPUs, overviewing its user interface and performance characteristics, as well as the technical details of its internal design. Bandicoot is the GPU-enabled counterpart to the well-known Armadillo C++ linear algebra library, aiming to allow users to take advantage of GPU-accelerated computation for their existing codebases without significant changes. Adapting the same internal template meta-programming techniques that Armadillo uses, Bandicoot is able to provide compile-time optimisation of mathematical expressions within user code. The library is ready for production use and is available at https://coot.sourceforge.io. Bandicoot is distributed under the Apache 2.0 License.