HSA Foundation

The HSA (Heterogeneous System Architecture) Foundation is a not-for-profit group whose goal is to make it easy to program for parallel computing.

HSA members are building a heterogeneous compute ecosystem, rooted in industry standards, for combining scalar processing on the CPU with parallel processing on the GPU while enabling high bandwidth access to memory and high application performance at low power consumption. HSA defines interfaces for parallel computation utilizing CPU, GPU and other programmable and fixed function devices, and support for a diverse set of high-level programming languages, thereby creating the next foundation in general purpose computing.

Learn More About HSA

• Developer Program
  
• Developer Tools
• Publications
• Works of Interest
• Developer FAQ

What’s New with HSA

	The Programmer’s Guide to a Universe of Possibility Phil Rogers In this year’s Keynote, Phil discusses the exciting developments surrounding the Heterogeneous System Architecture, since its unveiling last year. The talk includes details of the software execution stack, tools for HSA, and some sample workload analysis. There will also be a few important announcements during Phil’s address. Watch this presentation & other AFDS presentations. Note: access is free, but you’ll need to register.
	An Overview of HSAIL Norman Rubin, Benedict Gaster HSAIL is a new virtual byte code and virtual machine designed for parallel compute on heterogeneous devices. HSAIL makes it easy to compile high performance code both for current and future architectures. HSAIL programs will run unchanged on future hardware . Unlike AMDIL which is the graphics byte code, HSAIL has been architected to support modern high level programming languages such as Java and C++. Watch this presentation & other AFDS presentations. Note: access is free, but you’ll need to register.
	Bolt: A C++ Template Library for HSA Benjamin Sander In this talk, we describe a C++ template library optimized for Heterogeneous System Architecture. In many cases developers will be able to create a single source code base which runs efficiently on both the CPU and the GPU. We provide examples that show a dramatic reduction in lines of code. Finally, we show how the library allows developers to easily access the unique capabilities of HSA , including shared virtual memory, tight CPU and GPU communication, and advanced queuing capabilities. Get slides for this presentation & other AFDS presentations. Note: access is free, but you’ll need to register.

We’re excited about HSA. Here’s why YOU can get excited too!

“The IP catalog they have available with the five founders is borderline staggering, and it will only get bigger. If the HSA Foundation hasn’t gotten a critical mass of coder interest too, it will soon. From here, it looks like AMD did the right thing for the right reason, don’t underestimate this one.” – Charlie Demerjian, SemiAccurate

“We have much more the learn about the HSA Foundation and its direction for the industry but we can easily say that this is probably the most important processor company collaboration announcement in many years – and it does so without the 800 pound gorilla that is Intel in attendance.” – Ryan Shrout, PC Perspective

“A group of Intel’s enemies have banded together to come up with a better way to build more powerful computer chips. The members of this new club are AMD, ARM, Imagination, MediaTek and Texas Instruments and they call themselves the HSA Foundation. If they succeed, we could be treated to another big surge in computational power as soon as 2014, and for all sorts of devices, from smartphones through high-end servers, reports Engadget.” – Julie Bort, Business Insider

“But AMD has followed up at this year’s Fusion developer summit with the announcement of the formation of the Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) group, with some interesting founder members and some notable absentees. It is farsighted stuff and – in my view – the research people at AMD are rightly viewing systems from the top down and as they will be seen in three or four years’ time, with hundreds and thousands of processing elements (PEs).” – Peter Clarke, EE Times

“Now, though, the company is trying to take the lead in creating a unified system of computing architecture. The Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) Foundation is a joint effort between AMD, ARM, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek, and Texas Instruments; its goal is to create a single system architecture that can work across platforms and make programming easier. AMD has had this idea for a while, but seeing other companies join it makes the HSA Foundation seem a great deal more feasible. It’s also a sign of where AMD and other companies might be going.” – Adi Robertson, The Verge

“The HSA Foundation is definitely for real and formed to make a real difference. The hardware is planned to be literally bent to fit the software, and that’s unique. The founding members have a business and technical need, solving the problem means solving huge end user and business problems so there is demand, and the problem will be difficult to solve without many companies agreeing on an approach.” – Patrick Moorhead, Moor Insights & Strategy, Analyst Blog, 6/15/12

Developer Tools

• AMD APP SDK
• C++ AMP