Quasar — A new heterogeneous programming framework for image and video processing algorithms on CPU and GPU

In image and video processing research, rapid prototyping and testing of different variations of an algorithm is quite essential (e.g., to find out if a given algorithm can solve a given problem or work in real-time). In the past decade, the computational performance of graphical processing units (GPUs) has improved significantly, where speed-up factors of 10×-50× compared to single-threaded CPU execution are not uncommon. However, GPU programming is challenging, requiring a significant programming expertise and moreover, most existing programming approaches are not well suited for rapid prototyping. In this Show & Tell session, we present a new programming framework, aimed at making the bridge between high-level program specification and low-level implementation and optimization on heterogeneous computation devices. The goal is that the programmer is relieved from (most) implementation issues and can focus on the specification and improvement of the algorithms. We present a new prototype domain-specific programming language (in the first place aimed at image and video processing) that provides a uniform programming approach toward different hardware devices, a run-time environment to manage and communicate with the heterogeneous devices and an integrated development environment (IDE). The IDE provides various useful image processing-related debugging and profiling features.