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wxt

It sounds like ISPC program instances are essentially "threads". What is the difference, if any?

ferozenaina

Conceptually, they may feel similar. But in implementation, if two threads are running and one finishes early, it is not forced to wait for other thread to complete. A different thread can be started.

However, all ISPC instances have to finish before the next set/gang of instances is executed.

JJ

I think we should not mix the ISPC abstraction with the implementation, but if we need to think about how the gang of instances are implemented, I think it's better to think of them as SIMD instructions instead of threads. So the instances finish together before next instruction. ISPC tasks however, are implemented by threads are mentioned later in class.