[email protected] device

The Kernel Execution Machine device

About

The kernel-em NIF (kernel execution machine - [email protected] device) is a HyperBEAM Rust device built on top of wgpu to offer a general GPU-instructions compute execution machine for .wgsl functions (shaders, kernels).

With wgpu being a cross-platform GPU graphics API, hyperbeam node operators can add the KEM device to offer a compute platform for KEM functions. And with the ability to be called from within an ao process through ao.resolve ([email protected] device), KEM functions offer great flexibility to run as GPU compute sidecars alongside ao processes.

This device is experimental, in PoC stage

KEM Technical Architecture

KEM function source code is deployed on Arweave (example, double integer: btSvNclyu2me_zGh4X9ULVRZqwze9l2DpkcVHcLw9Eg), and the source code TXID is used as the KEM function ID.

fn execute_kernel(
    kernel_id: String,
    input_data: rustler::Binary,
    output_size_hint: u64,
) -> NifResult<Vec<u8>> {
    let kernel_src = retrieve_kernel_src(&kernel_id).unwrap();
    let kem = pollster::block_on(KernelExecutor::new());
    let result = kem.execute_kernel_default(&kernel_src, input_data.as_slice(), Some(output_size_hint));
    Ok(result)
}

A KEM function execution takes 3 parameters: function ID, binary input data, and output size hint ratio (e.g., 2 means the output is expected to be no more than 2x the size of the input).

The KEM takes the input, retrieves the kernel source code from Arweave, and executes the GPU instructions on the hyperbeam node operator's hardware against the given input, then returns the byte results.

Technical Architecture Diagram

On Writing Kernel Functions

As the kernel execution machine (KEM) is designed to have I/O as bytes, and having the shader entrypoint standardized as main, writing a kernel function should have the function's entrypoint named main, the shader's type to be @compute, and the function's input/output should be in bytes; here is an example of skeleton function:

// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0

// input as u32 array
@group(0) @binding(0)
var<storage, read> input_bytes: array<u32>;

// output as u32 array
@group(0) @binding(1)
var<storage, read_write> output_bytes: array<u32>;

// a work group of 256 threads
@compute @workgroup_size(256)
// main compute kernel entry point
fn main(@builtin(global_invocation_id) global_id: vec3<u32>) {
}

Uniform Parameters

Uniform parameters have been introduced as well, allowing you to pass configuration data and constants to your compute shaders. Uniforms are read-only data that remains constant across all invocations of the shader.

Here is an example of a skeleton function with uniform parameters:

// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0

// input as u32 array
@group(0) @binding(0)
var<storage, read> input_bytes: array<u32>;

// output as u32 array
@group(0) @binding(1)
var<storage, read_write> output_bytes: array<u32>;

// uniform parameters for configuration
@group(0) @binding(2)
var<uniform> params: vec2<u32>; // example: param1, param2

// a work group of 256 threads
@compute @workgroup_size(256)
// main compute kernel entry point
fn main(@builtin(global_invocation_id) global_id: vec3<u32>) {
    // Access uniform parameters
    let param1 = i32(params.x);
    let param2 = i32(params.y);
    
    // your kernel logic here
}

Example: Image Glitcher

Using the image glitcher kernel function - source code

original image
glitched via the kernel function - minted as AO NFT on Bazar https://bazar.arweave.net/#/asset/0z8MNwaRpkXhEgIxUv8ESNhtHxVGNfFkmGkoPtu0amY

References

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