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Inside VOLT: Designing an Open-Source GPU Compiler (Tool)

delete2026-01-01
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PRE
AI
S
Shinnung Jeong *
C
Chihyo Ahn
H
Huanzhi Pu
J
Jisheng Zhao
H
Hyesoon Kim
B
Blaise Tine
DOI:10.1145/3771775.3786275delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
Recent efforts in open-source GPU research are opening new avenues in a domain that has long been tightly coupled with a few commercial vendors. Emerging open GPU architectures define SIMT functionality through their own ISAs, but executing existing GPU programs and optimizing performance on these ISAs relies on a compiler framework that is technically complex and often undercounted in open-hardware development costs. To address this challenge, the Vortex-Optimized Light-weight Toolchain (VOLT) has been proposed. This paper presents its design principles, overall structure, and the key compiler transformations required to support SIMT execution on Vortex. VOLT enables SIMT code generation and optimization across multiple levels of abstraction through a hierarchical design that accommodates diverse front-end languages and open GPU hardware. To ensure extensibility as GPU architectures evolve, VOLT centralizes fundamental SIMT-related analyses and optimizations in the middle-end, allowing them to be reused across front-ends and easily adapted to emerging open-GPU variants. Through two case studies on ISA extensions and host-runtime API, this paper also demonstrates how VOLT can support extensions.
Keywords:
Compiler
Open GPU
Divergence Management

Journal

P
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 35TH ACM SIGPLAN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPILER CONSTRUCTION, CC 2026
IF:
0
Papers:
18
Citations:
0

Organization

G
georgia institute of technology
Scholars:
2.0K
Papers: 983
Citations: 0
U
university system of georgia
Scholars:
7.3W
Papers: 6.5W
Citations: 101