Speaker: Alastair Murray, Codeplay

Title: Heterogeneous Programming in C++: Today and Tomorrow

Abstract: Until recently the programming of heterogeneous accelerators, such as
GPUs, has largely revolved around low-level programming models that were
designed to match the capabilities on the hardware. As heterogeneous programming
has become more mainstream the need for higher-level models, based on the
requirements of the programmer, has become apparent. Many approaches have
appeared, but those extending the C++ programming model have seen the most
interest as they manage to provide both high-level abstractions and low-level
control if required. This has led to a standardisation of key approaches and
proposed attempts to provide a unified hardware description.

This talk will describe some of the standardised approaches for parallel and
heterogeneous programming in C++ that are appearing today, such as SYCL for
OpenCL and the C++17 Parallel STL. Then there will be a more speculative look at
how C++ could look when programming forthcoming hardware, such as the
Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA), where the CPU and accelerators are more
tightly connected.