Does CUDA support recursion?
A:
Not according to http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5403843 and http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t65244.html
agrothe
2010-09-05 02:55:11
+1
A:
Any recursive algorithm can be implemented with a stack and a loop. It's way more of a pain, but if you really need recursion, this can work.
dicroce
2010-09-05 02:59:00
+2
A:
Yes, see the NVIDIA CUDA Programming Guide:
device functions only support recursion in device code compiled for devices of compute capability 2.0.
You need a Fermi card to use them.
Matias Valdenegro
2010-09-05 03:29:45
+3
A:
It does on NVIDIA hardware supporting compute capability 2.0 and CUDA 3.1:
New language features added to CUDA C / C++ include:
Support for function pointers and recursion make it easier to port many existing algorithms to Fermi GPUs
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/cuda_3_1_downloads.html
Function pointers: http://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/sdk/website/CUDA_Advanced_Topics.html#FunctionPointers
Recursion: I can't find a code sample on NVIDIA's website, but on the forum someone post this:
__device__ int fact(int f)
{
if (f == 0)
return 1;
else
return f * fact(f - 1);
}
Stringer Bell
2010-09-05 08:32:39
Having "recent" hardware is not enough. Not all recent cards are Fermi (aka compute capability 2.0). At present, there are no Fermi mobile GPUs.
Mark Borgerding
2010-09-07 14:38:25
You're right, I updated my anwser. But what about Geforce GTX 480M? There's a Fermi chip inside.
Stringer Bell
2010-09-07 15:06:22
There are laptops with Fermi; Geforce 480M and Quadro FX5000M have been out for a little while.
Tom
2010-09-09 08:53:57
Indeed. And new GeForce GT 415M, 420M, 425M, 435M, 445M and GTX 460M, 470M are coming! All have compute capability 2.0.
Stringer Bell
2010-09-09 09:07:32