Introduction and installation of CUDA

1. Introduction to CUDA

What is CUDA

CUDA is a parallel computing platform and programming model developed by NVIDIA that enables developers to use GPUs to accelerate computing. Using CUDA, you can run massively parallel computing tasks on the GPU, which can significantly improve computing performance.

Advantages of CUDA

Compared with traditional CPU computing, CUDA has the following advantages:

1. Stronger parallel processing capability: GPU has thousands of processing cores, which can handle a large number of parallel tasks at the same time, while CPU has only dozens of cores.
2. List item calculation speed is faster: GPU has a higher clock frequency than CPU, so it can perform calculation tasks faster.
3. Greater memory bandwidth: GPUs have greater memory bandwidth than CPUs, enabling faster reading and writing of data.
4. More programmability: CUDA provides a convenient programming model that allows developers to easily use GPUs for parallel computing.

2. Install CUDA

Download CUDA

To install CUDA, you first need to download CUDA Toolkit from NVIDIA official website. You can find the latest version of the CUDA Toolkit at: https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-downloads

Install CUDA Toolkit

After downloading CUDA Toolkit, you need to follow the steps below to install it:

1. Double-click the downloaded installer and follow the prompts to install it. If you are installing the CUDA Toolkit for the first time, it is recommended to select the "Custom" installation option so that you can choose which components to install.
2. In the "Custom Installation Options" dialog box, select the components you want to install. It is recommended to install the following components:

• CUDA Toolkit: The main components of CUDA, including CUDA compiler, CUDA runtime library, etc.
• CUDA Samples: CUDA sample programs, including some sample programs that demonstrate CUDA programming.
• CUDA Visual Studio Integration: Used to integrate CUDA into Visual Studio.

3. Click the "Install" button to start installing CUDA Toolkit.

Install CLion

CLion is a cross-platform integrated development environment for C++ development, which can integrate the CUDA development environment. You can find the latest version of CLion at: https://www.jetbrains.com/clion/download/

Install the CUDA plugin

After installing CLion, you need to install a plugin called "CUDA", which allows you to do CUDA development in CLion. To install the CUDA plugin, follow the steps below:

1. Open CLion, select "File" -> "Settings" menu.
2. In the Settings dialog box, select the Plugins tab.
3. Search for "CUDA" in the Marketplace window, find the "CUDA" plugin and click the "Install" button to install it.
4. After the installation is complete, restart CLion.

3. Create a CUDA project

After installing the CUDA plugin, you can create a new CUDA project to start writing CUDA code. Follow the steps below:

1. Open CLion, select "File" -> "New Project" menu.
2. In the New Project dialog, select the CUDA Executable project type.
3. Enter a project name and path, and click the "Create" button.
4. In the "New Project" dialog, select the "Single file" option and enter a file name (eg main.cu).
5. In the "main.cu" file, enter the following code:

#include <stdio.h>
__global__ void helloCUDA()
{
    
    
    printf("Hello CUDA from GPU!\n");
}
int main()
{
    
    
    helloCUDA<<<1,1>>>();
    cudaDeviceSynchronize();
    return 0;
}

6. Click the "Run" button and you should see "Hello CUDA from GPU!" output in CLion.