Explicit Dependence Metadata in an Active Visual Effects Library

摘要

Developers need to be able to write code using high-level, reusable black-box components. Also essential is confidence that code can be mapped to an efficient implementation on the available hardware, with robust high performance. In this paper we present a prototype component library being developed to deliver this for industrial visual effects applications. Components are based on abstract algorithmic skeletons that provide metadata characterizing data accesses and dependence constraints. Metadata is combined at run-time to build a polytope representation which supports aggressive inter-component loop fusion. We present results for a wavelet-transform-based degraining filter running on multicore PC hardware, demonstrating 3.4x-5.3x speed-ups, improved parallel efficiency and a 30% reduction in memory consumption without compromising the program structure.