Hi, we have just released an OpenCL app for Mac over at Primegrid (see http://www.primegrid.com/forum_thread.php?id=2837#40344 for discussion). The app has been tested on various machines, but it seems that for those same testers, BOINC does not recognise the ATI GPU and so cannot run WUs on it.

e.g. this host http://www.primegrid.com/show_host_detail.php?hostid=178104 does not show any coprocessors, although the machine has a ATI Radeon 5750. It is running the latest Mac OS 10.7, and has upgraded to the latest BOINC manager (6.13.1).

Is this a known limitation or bug in BOINC?

As far as I know, there are no other project currently offering OpenCL/Mac apps so I guess it has not been tested before!

Any ideas please let me know!

Cheers

- Iain

There are issues in linux with ATI, for the gpu to be recognised boinc must be started from a terminal within X. NVidia doesn't suffer from this problem. Maybe its a similar situation with macs.

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CIC1=CC=C(C2=N[C@@H](CC(OC(C)(C)C)=O)C3=NN=C(C)N3C4=C2C(C)=C(C)S4)C=C1

Do these people run their BOINC client as daemon? If so, tell them to stop doing so. Running as daemon will on all platforms (but for Windows XP) stop BOINC from detecting the GPU.

Furthermore, have them read and follow http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/GPU_computing. Do they have the correct drivers installed?

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Do these people run their BOINC client as daemon? If so, tell them to stop doing so. Running as daemon will on all platforms (but for Windows XP) stop BOINC from detecting the GPU.

Furthermore, have them read and follow http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/GPU_computing. Do they have the correct drivers installed?

Hi,

it is my machine that is linked in the original post by Ian.
I read through the link you posted but I am not sure if my BOINC client runs as deamon or not. After reading http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Tools_for_Mac_OS_X I would presume it is not since I am not using the Make_BOINC_Service.sh script. I am just using the standard installation. Unlike for Windows there was no option to enable/disable protected mode during the installation.

There is also no other project with ATI support for OSX to test and there is no separate ATI driver available for OSX. Unfortunately AMD doesn't list any drivers for OSX on their website. The driver that ships with OSX Lion (10.7) should be the latest version available.

Thanks,
Phil

I'm in the same situation, BOINC Manager throws the following error in system.log when it launches:


9/16/11 12:33:16.868 PM boinc: [CL_INVALID_OPERATION] : OpenCL Error : Failed to retrieve device information! Invalid enumerated value!

We are currently working on OpenCL support on BOINC in general and on the Mac in particular, in cooperation with the researchers at Einstein@home. I don't have an ATI card to test with on the Mac; we have asked AMD to provide us with one. (Since ATI's CAL platform did not support Macs, we have not needed a Mac with an ATI card for GPU computing development until now.)

I will investigate this issue when we get the card.

Note: OpenCL support in BOINC is very much a work in progress. The OpenCL sample code referenced in http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/GPUApp is probably obsolete, and will be updated when we have settled on the implementation details.

For now, I will just say that OpenCL applications should link with api/boinc_opencl.cpp and call thhe boinc_get_opencl_ids() API to get the cl_device_id and cl_platform_id of the GPU assigned to the application instance by BOINC's scheduler.

Note also that OpenCL on Macs requires OS 10.6 or later.

In the meantime, I'll give the PrimeGrid application a try using our NVIDIA 8800GT on the Mac.

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Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer

Is your Mac a laptop with dual GPUs? If so, please see this page which says (at the end):

Some newer MacBooks have dual GPUs with automatic switching. BOINC won't detect the NVIDIA or ATI/AMD GPU unless it is currently selected. You can force selection either permanently or temporarily using a third-party utility. But be aware that forcing the use of the NVIDIA or ATI/AMD GPU may cause faster battery drain; this of course is not an issue when running on AC power.

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Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer

For now, I will just say that OpenCL applications should link with api/boinc_opencl.cpp and call thhe boinc_get_opencl_ids() API to get the cl_device_id and cl_platform_id of the GPU assigned to the application instance by BOINC's scheduler.

Right now we don't do this, just using the first found platform and device, which would clearly cause problems with multiple GPU systems, and we should fix this, but at the moment it seems like the problem is not with the app, but rather with BOINC which is not even detecting the GPU correctly...

The machine linked earlier is not a laptop, so the GPU switching should not be an issue.

Cheers

- Iain

Hello Iain,

The machine linked earlier is not a laptop, so the GPU switching should not be an issue.

As I wrote earlier, I'm afraid I can't do much to investigate this until we get an ATI GPU to test with. I have not heard when that will be.

I do have an NVIDIA GPU, and I have now successfully run several tasks using the PPS (Sieve) 1.39 (cuda32), and have some waiting to run using the cullen/Wodall (Sieve) 1.12 (cuda32) application. Are these OpenCL or CUDA apps?

Cheers,
--Charlie

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Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer

I'm in the same situation, BOINC Manager throws the following error in system.log when it launches:

9/16/11 12:33:16.868 PM boinc: [CL_INVALID_OPERATION] : OpenCL Error : Failed to retrieve device information! Invalid enumerated value!

To help us diagnose this, please answer a few questions:
• What model Mac?
• What version of the OS?
• What make and model GPU?

Thanks.

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Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer

As I wrote earlier, I'm afraid I can't do much to investigate this until we get an ATI GPU to test with. I have not heard when that will be.

Sorry - I'm not intending to hassle you!

I do have an NVIDIA GPU, and I have now successfully run several tasks using the PPS (Sieve) 1.39 (cuda32), and have some waiting to run using the cullen/Wodall (Sieve) 1.12 (cuda32) application. Are these OpenCL or CUDA apps?

The existing Mac GPU apps you mentioned are both CUDA apps. We don't currently have any OpenCL apps except the new one we are discussing PPS (Sieve) 1.39 (ati13ati). This app will run OK on Nvidia GPUs if you run it outside BOINC, but we don't plan to offer it to Nvidia clients via BOINC since the CUDA app is better optimised for Nvidia than the new OpenCL app.

Cheers

- Iain

I'm in the same situation, BOINC Manager throws the following error in system.log when it launches:

9/16/11 12:33:16.868 PM boinc: [CL_INVALID_OPERATION] : OpenCL Error : Failed to retrieve device information! Invalid enumerated value!

To help us diagnose this, please answer a few questions:
• What model Mac? 
• What version of the OS?
•  What make and model GPU?

Thanks.

From the other posts in the thread this sounds like an unimplimented portion of BOINC on ATI macs. But here's my stats for future reference:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac11,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Memory: 8 GB
System Version: Mac OS X 10.7.1 (11B26)
Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 4850
BOINC manager: 6.13.1

I'm in the same situation, BOINC Manager throws the following error in system.log when it launches:

9/16/11 12:33:16.868 PM boinc: [CL_INVALID_OPERATION] : OpenCL Error : Failed to retrieve device information! Invalid enumerated value!

To help us diagnose this, please answer a few questions:
• What model Mac?
• What version of the OS?
• What make and model GPU?

Thanks.

For reference here are my systems stats:


Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac11,3
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.93 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Memory: 12 GB


Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 5750
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 1024 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x68a1
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-B9710C-238
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.417

System Version: Mac OS X 10.7.1
BOINC manager: 6.13.1

If I can help test things, I will. I also have had no luck either getting GPU’s recognized (ATI) or used (NVIDIA) by my Boinc Manager. I have three Macs including both types of GPU:

Machine One

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro5,1
Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3.33 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 6
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 12 MB
Memory: 12 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 6.4 GT/s

Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 5770
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 1024 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x68b8
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-C0160C-155
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.436

The Boinc Manager log says: No usable GPUs found

——————————————————————————————

Machine Two has CUDA Driver Version: 4.0.50

Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 5770
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 1024 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x68b8
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-C0160C-155
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.436

This machine has the two GPU’s and it requires me to manually select my GPU

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0647
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3437
gMux Version: 1.7.3

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
Type: GPU
Bus: PCI
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0863
Revision ID: 0x00b1
ROM Revision: 3437
gMux Version: 1.7.3

The Boinc Manger log says:

NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce 9600M GT (driver version 262194, CUDA version 4000, compute capability 1.1, 512MB, 80 GFLOPS peak)

—————————————————————————————

Machine Three has CUDA Driver Version: 4.0.50


Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MM41.0042.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.65f2


Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 320M
Type: GPU
Bus: PCI
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x08a4
Revision ID: 0x00a2
ROM Revision: 3546
Displays:


The Boinc manager log says:

NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce 320M (driver version 262194, CUDA version 4000, compute capability 1.2, 253MB, 91 GFLOPS peak)

——————————
Robert F. Brost Boinc@Brost.net

If I can help test things, I will. I also have had no luck either getting GPU’s recognized (ATI) or used (NVIDIA) by my Boinc Manager. I have three Macs including both types of GPU:

Thank you for your offer. BOINC 6.12.x and earlier depend on ATI's CAL framework to recognize and identify ATI GPUs, but CAL has never been available for Macs. So BOINC 6.12.x has no way of recognizing or using ATI GPUs on Macs.

BOINC 6.13.x is currently under development, and one of the key new features will be support for OpenCL. This will allow BOINC to detect and use ATI CPUs (as well as NVIDIA CPUs even when CUDA is not installed.)

BOINC definitely does need more Mac testers. Please look over this information for alpha testers. If you wish to help us with testing, please follow the instructions there to sign up.

Thanks in advance.

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Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer