Basic DMA

Overview

The data movement is abstracted as the most complicated statement in Croktile. This section will introduce you the basic DMA statement structure and the future variable they produce.

Data Movement Statement

Croktile aims to address multiple levels of data movement. Currently, the primary focus is on data movement between heterogeneous hardware and across memory hierarchies. In hardware terminology, such movements are known as Direct Memory Access (DMA). Croktile adopts this terminology and abstracts data movement as DMA Operations.

Basic Syntax

A DMA statement in Croktile can be an asynchronous entity, meaning that the code following an asynchronous DMA executes in parallel with the DMA statement. For a asynchronous DMA, explicit synchronization is required before using the DMA result.

To support these features, the syntax is organized as follows:

future = dma-op src-expr => dst-expr;

The statement defines a future-typed variable, which appears on the left side of the operator =. In Croktile, a future represents both the handle of the asynchronous execution instance and the DMA result. Therefore, the definition of future can be ignored for synchronized DMA statements.

The right-hand side of the DMA operation includes the operation type (dma-op), the data expression for the operation source (src-expr), and the data expression for the destination (dst-expr). The source and destination are separated by the symbol =>, which indicates the direction of data flow.

Synchronous and Asynchronous

Asynchronous DMA, or Async-DMA, is also known as Non-Blocking DMA because it does not block the execution of subsequent code. Conversely, Synchronous DMA, or Sync-DMA, is referred to as Blocking DMA because the code does not proceed until the DMA operation is complete. These terms will be used interchangeably in the following text.

In Croktile, the .async suffix in a DMA operation indicates that the operation is asynchronous. The following code provides an example:

f0 = dma.copy.async data0 => shared; // non-blocking
f1 = dma.copy data1 => shared;       // blocking
...
wait f0;                             // synchronization

In this example, the DMA operation that produces the future f0 is asynchronous, allowing the program to continue executing while the data transfer occurs in the background. The DMA operation that produces f1 is synchronous, meaning the program will pause until the data is fully transferred from data1 to shared memory. Meanwhile, the data copy of data0 might still be in progress.

Executing the statement wait f0; causes the program to check if data0 has been fully transferred to shared memory. This synchronizes the main execution flow with the asynchronous DMA of f0. Note, if the Async-DMA is not waited, it typically results in unexpected hardware issues. Therefore programmers must make sure there is no "dangling future* left in your code.

Operation Type

Croktile's DMA statement is an abstraction designed to support modern hardware. Beyond simple linear memory copies, advanced hardware such as the Tensor Memory Accelerator (TMA) can transfer shaped data and apply shape transformations in-flight. Croktile maps these functionalities at the software level as different DMA Operation Types. The supported operations include:

• dma.copy: Copies flat memory directly.
• dma.pad: Pads shaped data while transferring the data.
• dma.transp: Transposes shaped data while transferring the data.

The configurations, such as padding and transposing details, are programmed as parameters of the DMA operation. For example:

global f32 [32, 16, 9] input;
dma.transp<0, 2, 1> input => shared;  // Result shape [32, 9, 16]
dma.pad<{1, 0, 3}, {0, 1, 2}, {0, 0, 0}, 0.1f> input => shared; // Result shape [33, 17, 14]

Here, the DMA configurations are enclosed by <>. The configuration varies according to different operations. The detailed configuration syntax and limitations for a specific platform, such as CUDA/Cute, are listed below as an example:

Programmers should note that support for DMA types other than dma.copy varies by platform. For instance, on the CUDA/Cute platform, it could be either a mapping of TMA or an orchestration of load instructions from multiple threads. It is also possible to implement advanced DMA operations using software-only methods or software-hardware cooperation, though these are not yet supported.

Data Expression

So far, we have only used simple data expressions, either a defined spanned data or a storage location. The storage location is used solely for the destination buffer declaration, as it requires the Croktile compiler to allocate memory for it. The following code provides an example:

global f32 [32, 16] input;
shared f32 [32, 16] output;
dma.copy input => output;  // Copy to a user-declared buffer
dma.copy input => shared;  // Same, but to a compiler-allocated buffer

In this example, the destination of the second DMA operation is specified as the storage location shared. This requires the compiler to allocate storage accordingly, making it equivalent to the first DMA operation. In practice, we recommend programmers use storage locations as destinations, as Croktile can deduce the destination shape from the DMA statement.

However, the use of simple data expressions is rare in practice. In the next section, we will introduce the ChunkAt expression to demonstrate how to implement tiling in data expressions.

Future and Wait

Both Sync-DMA and Async-DMA operations can be used to define a future. As seen in earlier examples, a future acts as a handle for asynchronous operations and is typically used as a parameter of the wait statement to synchronize an Async-DMA.

Croktile allows the wait statement to take multiple futures. However, using a future from a Sync-DMA in a wait statement will result in an error. The following code provides an example:

f0 = dma.copy.async input0 => shared;
f1 = dma.copy.async input1 => shared;
f2 = dma.copy input2 => shared;
...
wait f0, f1;  // Multiple wait
wait f2;      // Error: cannot wait on a sync-dma

In Croktile, another use of a future is to retrieve the destination buffer of the associated DMA statement. This is also the reason why Sync-DMA is allowed to define a future. Croktile provides two built-in member functions for future variables:

• .span to retrieve the mdspan of the DMA destination buffer.
• .data to retrieve the reference of the DMA destination buffer (spanned data).

For example:

f0 = dma.copy.async input0 => shared;
f1 = dma.copy input2 => shared;
...
local f32 [f0.span] buffer;
call device_kernel(f1.data, |f1.span|);

In this example, we use .span built-in member function to retrieve the shape of f0's destination buffer, and .data to retrieve the spanned data of f1's destination. In addition, the ElementCount operation on the mdspan of the destination buffer of f1. The ElementCount operation returns the number of elements in an mdspan, which is useful in many scenarios.

Quick Summary

In this section, we learned how Croktile simplifies data movement using DMA statements, making it easier to work with modern hardware. We explored both synchronous and asynchronous operations, and saw how Croktile supports advanced data handling with various DMA Operation Types. Finally, we discovered how futures help manage async operations and retrieve buffers, ensuring smooth data flow and synchronization.

In the next section, we will step further to the Data Expression to see how to make data tiling/blocking happen.