Skip to content

RELEASE_NOTES_2.0.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
184 lines (121 loc) · 5.77 KB

RELEASE_NOTES_2.0.md

File metadata and controls

184 lines (121 loc) · 5.77 KB

Amplifier.NET 2.0 Release Notes

Release Date: December 2025

We are excited to announce Amplifier.NET 2.0, a major release that brings full OpenCL 3.0 support, significant improvements to the C#-to-OpenCL code translator, and a comprehensive test suite demonstrating advanced GPU computing patterns.

Highlights

OpenCL 3.0 Support

Amplifier.NET now includes complete bindings for OpenCL 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, and 3.0, enabling access to the latest GPU computing features:

  • Shared Virtual Memory (SVM) — Share memory pointers directly between host and device
  • Pipes — First-in-first-out data structures for kernel-to-kernel communication
  • Device-side Enqueue — Kernels can enqueue other kernels dynamically
  • SPIR-V Support — Load pre-compiled SPIR-V shader binaries
  • Subgroups — Fine-grained work-item synchronization within a subgroup
  • Program Specialization — Set compile-time constants for kernel optimization

New OpenCL Binding Files

File OpenCL Version Key Features
CL20.cs OpenCL 2.0 SVM, Pipes, Atomics, CreateCommandQueueWithProperties
CL21.cs OpenCL 2.1 CreateProgramWithIL, CloneKernel, Device/Host Timers
CL22.cs OpenCL 2.2 Program Release Callbacks, Specialization Constants
CL30.cs OpenCL 3.0 CreateBufferWithProperties, CreateImageWithProperties, Context Destructors

Expanded Enumerations

The Enums.cs file now includes 60+ new constants covering:

  • New error codes (InvalidPipeSize, InvalidDeviceQueue, InvalidSpecId, etc.)
  • SVM memory flags and capabilities
  • Pipe information queries
  • Kernel execution info and subgroup queries
  • Atomic and device-enqueue capabilities

Code Translator Improvements

The C#-to-OpenCL translator (CodeTranslator.cs) has been significantly enhanced to handle modern C# syntax and edge cases:

Fixed Issues

Issue Before After
File-scoped namespaces (C# 10) namespace Foo.Bar; caused malformed output Properly stripped from generated code
Struct spacing globalstruct global struct
StructLayout attributes [StructLayout(...)] in output Removed from OpenCL code
Double semicolons ;; ;
Float constants float.MinValue / float.MaxValue -3.4028234e+38f / 3.4028234e+38f
Integer float suffix 2f (invalid in OpenCL C) 2
Access modifiers Partial removal issues Clean removal with word boundaries

Improved Regex Patterns

  • Access modifiers (public, private, etc.) now removed using \b word boundaries to prevent partial matches
  • Fixed array syntax (fixed float Data[10]) properly converted

Decompiler Fix

Fixed a NullReferenceException in DynamicCallSiteTransform.cs (line 531) that occurred when decompiling certain dynamic call sites. Added null check for callSiteCacheField.ReturnType.

Comprehensive Test Suite

Version 2.0 includes a new comprehensive OpenCL 3.0 test example demonstrating 35+ kernels across 7 categories:

Test Categories

  1. Vector Operations

    • VectorAdd, VectorFMA, VectorMagnitude, VectorNormalize
    • VectorDot, VectorCross

  2. Matrix Operations

    • MatrixVectorMul, MatrixMulNxN, MatrixTranspose

  3. Particle Physics Simulation

    • ParticleIntegrate, ParticleApplyGravity
    • NBodyForces, ParticleBoundsCheck

  4. Image Processing

    • RgbToGrayscale, BrightnessContrast, GammaCorrection
    • Convolve3x3, BoxBlur

  5. Complex Number Operations

    • ComplexMul, ComplexMagnitude, ComplexPhase, PolarToComplex

  6. Neural Network Operations

    • DenseForward, ReLU, LeakyReLU, Sigmoid, Tanh
    • SoftmaxNormalize, BatchNormForward

  7. Reduction Operations

    • ReduceSum, ReduceMax, ReduceMin, ReduceSumSquares

  8. Utility Kernels

    • FillFloat, FillInt, Scale, Abs, Clamp, Copy, Iota

New Struct Types

Eight new struct types for testing complex data scenarios:

  • Float3 — 3D vector (x, y, z)
  • Matrix4x4F — 4x4 transformation matrix
  • Particle — Physics simulation particle
  • ColorRGBA — RGBA color channels
  • ComplexF — Complex number (real, imaginary)
  • HistogramBin — Image processing histogram
  • BoundingBox — Spatial bounds
  • NeuronWeights — Neural network weights

Breaking Changes

None. Version 2.0 is fully backward compatible with 1.x code.

Dependencies Updated

Package Previous New
ICSharpCode.Decompiler 7.x 9.1.0.7988
System.Collections.Immutable — 10.0.1
System.Reflection.Metadata — 10.0.1

Known Limitations

  • OpenCL 2.0+ features (SVM, Pipes, etc.) require driver support; check ComputeDevice capabilities before use
  • The cl_khr_fp64 extension warning appears on devices without double-precision support (non-breaking)
  • Some integrated GPUs may have limited performance with complex kernels

Migration Guide

From 1.x to 2.0

No code changes required. Simply update the NuGet package:

dotnet add package Amplifier.NET --version 2.0.0

Using New OpenCL 3.0 Features

Check device capabilities before using optional features:

var device = compiler.Devices[0];
// Check for SVM support, pipe support, etc. via device properties

Contributors

  • Deepak Battini — Core library, OpenCL 3.0 bindings
  • Community contributors — Bug reports and testing

What's Next

  • CUDA backend support (planned)
  • Automatic kernel optimization hints
  • Improved error messages with C# line number mapping
  • Metal backend for macOS (exploring)

Thank you for using Amplifier.NET!

For questions or issues, please visit: https://github.com/deepakkumar1984/Amplifier.NET/issues