DESCRIPTION

The spu_run() system call is used on PowerPC machines that implement the Cell Broadband Engine Architecture in order to access Synergistic Processor Units (SPUs). The fd argument is a file descriptor returned by spu_create(2) that refers to a specific SPU context. When the context gets scheduled to a physical SPU, it starts execution at the instruction pointer passed in npc.

Execution of SPU code happens synchronously, meaning that spu_run() blocks while the SPU is still running. If there is a need to execute SPU code in parallel with other code on either the main CPU or other SPUs, a new thread of execution must be created first (e.g., using pthread_create(3)).

When spu_run() returns, the current value of the SPU program counter is written to npc, so successive calls to spu_run() can use the same npc pointer.

The event argument provides a buffer for an extended status code. If the SPU context was created with the SPU_CREATE_EVENTS_ENABLED flag, then this buffer is populated by the Linux kernel before spu_run() returns.

The status code may be one (or more) of the following constants:

NULL is a valid value for the event argument. In this case, the events will not be reported to the calling process.

RETURN VALUE

On success, spu_run() returns the value of the spu_status register. On error it returns −1 and sets errno to one of the error codes listed below.

The spu_status register value is a bit mask of status codes and optionally a 14-bit code returned from the stop-and-signal instruction on the SPU. The bit masks for the status codes are:

If spu_run() has not returned an error, one or more bits among the lower eight ones are always set.

ERRORS

VERSIONS

The spu_run() system call was added to Linux in kernel 2.6.16.

CONFORMING TO

This call is Linux-specific and only implemented by the PowerPC architecture. Programs using this system call are not portable.

NOTES

Glibc does not provide a wrapper for this system call; call it using syscall(2). Note however, that spu_run() is meant to be used from libraries that implement a more abstract interface to SPUs, not to be used from regular applications. See http://www.bsc.es/projects/deepcomputing/linuxoncell/ for the recommended libraries.

EXAMPLE

The following is an example of running a simple, one-instruction SPU program with the spu_run() system call.

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <fcntl.h>

#define handle_error(msg) \
    do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } while (0)

int main(void)
{
    int context, fd, spu_status;
    uint32_t instruction, npc;

    context = spu_create("/spu/example−context", 0, 0755);
    if (context == -1)
        handle_error("spu_create");

    /* write a 'stop 0x1234' instruction to the SPU's
     * local store memory
     */
    instruction = 0x00001234;

    fd = open("/spu/example−context/mem", O_RDWR);
    if (fd == -1)
        handle_error("open");
    write(fd, &instruction, sizeof(instruction));

    /* set npc to the starting instruction address of the
     * SPU program. Since we wrote the instruction at the
     * start of the mem file, the entry point will be 0x0
     */
    npc = 0;

    spu_status = spu_run(context, &npc, NULL);
    if (spu_status == -1)
        handle_error("open");

    /* we should see a status code of 0x1234002:
     *   0x00000002 (spu was stopped due to stop−and−signal)
     * | 0x12340000 (the stop−and−signal code)
     */
    printf("SPU Status: 0x%08x\n", spu_status);

    exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

SEE ALSO

close(2), spu_create(2), capabilities(7), spufs(7)