Heterogeneous Habanero-C (H2C): A Portable Programming Model for Heterogeneous Processors

Heterogeneous architectures with their diverse architectural features impose significant programmability challenges. Existing programming systems involve non-trivial learning and are not productive, not portable, and are challenging to tune for performance. In this paper, we introduce Heterogeneous Habanero-C (H2C), which is an implementation of the Habanero execution model for modern heterogeneous (CPU + GPU) architectures. The H2C language provides high-level constructs to specify the computation, communication, and synchronization in a given application. H2C also implements novel constructs for task partitioning and locality. The H2C (source-to-source) compiler and runtime framework efficiently map these high-level constructs onto the underlying heterogeneous platform, which can include multiple CPU cores and multiple GPU devices, possibly from different vendors. Experimental evaluations of four applications show significant improvements in productivity, portability, and performance.