Atomic operations are often essential for multithreaded programs, especially when different threads need to access or modify the same data. Conventional multicore CPUs generally use a test-and-set instruction to manage which thread controls which data. CUDA has a much more expansive set of atomic operations. With CUDA, you can effectively perform a test-and-set using the atomicInc() instruction. However, you can also use atomic operations to actually manipulate the data itself, without the need for a lock variable. Continue reading ‘CUDA – Tutorial 5 – Performance of atomics’ »