Asynchronous Algorithms

The functions defined in the STL <algorithm> or <numeric> headers are traditionally blocking. oneAPI DPC++ Library (oneDPL) extends the functionality of the C++17 parallel algorithms by providing asynchronous algorithms with non-blocking behavior. This experimental feature enables you to express a concurrent control flow by building dependency chains, interleaving algorithm calls, and interoperability with SYCL* kernels.

The current implementation for async algorithms is limited to device execution policies. All the functionality described below is available in the oneapi::dpl::experimental namespace.

The following async algorithms are currently supported:

• copy_async

• fill_async

• for_each_async

• reduce_async

• sort_async

• inclusive_scan_async

• exclusive_scan_async

• transform_async

• transform_reduce_async

• transform_inclusive_scan_async

• transform_exclusive_scan_async

All the interfaces listed above are a subset of the C++17 STL algorithms, where the suffix _async is added to the corresponding name (for example: reduce, sort, etc.). The behavior and signatures are overlapping with the C++17 STL algorithm with the following changes:

• They do not block the execution.

• They take an arbitrary number of events (including 0) as last arguments to allow you to express input dependencies.

• They return a future-like object that allows you to use wait for completion and get for the result.

The type of the future-like object returned from an asynchronous algorithm is unspecified. The following member functions are present:

• get() returns the result.

• wait() waits for the result to become available.

If the returned object is the result of an algorithm with a device policy, it can be converted into a sycl::event. The lifetime of any resources the algorithm allocates (for example: temporary storage) is bound to the lifetime of the returned object.

The following utility functions are available:

• wait_for_all(…) waits for an arbitrary number of objects that are convertible into sycl::event to become ready.

Example of Async API Usage

#include <oneapi/dpl/execution>
#include <oneapi/dpl/async>
#include <sycl/sycl.hpp>

int main() {
    /* Build and compute a simple dependency chain: Fill buffer -> Transform -> Reduce */
    sycl::buffer<int> a{10};

    auto fut1 = dpl::experimental::fill_async(dpl::execution::dpcpp_default,
                                              dpl::begin(a),dpl::end(a),7);

    auto fut2 = dpl::experimental::transform_async(dpl::execution::dpcpp_default,
                                                   dpl::begin(a),dpl::end(a),dpl::begin(a),
                                                   [&](const int& x){return x + 1; },fut1);
    auto ret_val = dpl::experimental::reduce_async(dpl::execution::dpcpp_default,
                                                   dpl::begin(a),dpl::end(a),fut1,fut2).get();
    return 0;
}