Trait parenchyma::ExtensionPackage [−] [src]

pub trait ExtensionPackage: 'static + Debug + Sized {
    type Extension: ?Sized;

    const PACKAGE_NAME: &'static str;
}

Provides the generic functionality for a backend-specific implementation of a library.

A package can be a binary, a source file, c code, a single kernel, etc., or a collective which share related functionalities. A package is provided by a specific library such as BLAS. Notice that packages are analogous to those of Rust (i.e., crates):

compiled crate <-> package library (one or more modules) <-> bundle

A package needs to be built, which is handled by the specific implementation of a binary representation, and returns initialized operations based on the library. Interacting directly with the package itself is possible, but it should be used to construct the backend-agnostic operations, which can then be executed and parallelized via a unified interface.

Associated Types

A library can be a binary, a source file, c code, a single kernel, etc., or a collective.

A backend is a Rust struct like any other, therefore you probably would like to implement certain methods for the Backend. As the whole purpose of a Backend is to provide an abstraction over various computation devices and computation languages, these implemented methods will than be able to execute on different devices and use the full power of the machine's underlying hardware.

Extending the backend with operations is easy. In Parenchyma we call crates, which provide operations for the backend, extensions. Extensions are usually a group of related operations of a common field. Two examples for Parenchyma extensions are [BLAS][parenchyma-blas] and [NN][parenchyma-nn].

An extension provides generic traits and the explicit implementation of these traits for one or (even better) all available Parenchyma frameworks - common host CPU, OpenCL, CUDA.

The structure of an extension is pretty simple with as little overhead as possible. Macros and build-scripts make implementations even easier. If you would like to use specific extension for you backend, all you need to do is set them as dependencies in your Cargo file in addition to the Parenchyma crate. The extension then automatically extends the backend provided by Parenchyma.

Extending the backend with your own extension is a straightforward process. For now we recommend that you take a look at the general code structure of [Parenchyma-BLAS][parenchyma-blas] or its documentation. Let us now about your extension on the Gitter chat, we are happy to feature your Parenchyma Extension on the README.

Associated Constants

The name of the package.

This associated constant is primarily used for logging/debugging purposes. The naming convention is as follows: "[organization]/[package-name]" (e.g., "parenchyma/nn").

Implementors