OpenCilk 2.1

[neboat]

Release notes for OpenCilk 2.1

OpenCilk 2.1 features the following enhancements.

Major changes

• The compiler has been upgraded and is now based on LLVM 16.0.6.
• [New, beta feature] The compiler includes the LambdaABI Tapir back end. Using LambdaABI, one can extend OpenCilk with a new parallel runtime system simply by providing an appropriate bitcode-ABI file for that runtime system, as described in the OpenCilk conference paper at ACM PPoPP 2023.
• Reducers have been improved in several ways:
  • In C++, reducers are now implicitly converted to views when binding references.
  • The previous restriction that Cilk programs can use at most 1024 reducers has been lifted.
  • Reducer performance has been improved.
• Support has been improved for using ASan to check Cilk programs for memory errors.
• Support for building the runtime system and Cilk tools as standalone projects has been improved.
• Many bug fixes and performance improvements have been incorporated.

Minor changes

• [Beta feature] The OpenMPABI Tapir back end has been replaced with a new OMPTaskABI back end that uses a bitcode-ABI file, as described in the OpenCilk conference paper.
• Cilksan has been extended with instrumentation for more library functions and compiler intrinsics.
• Cilksan's support for reducers is now independent of the runtime system. Cilksan's reducer support no longer requires specialized functionality from cheetah to simulate steals.
• The runtime system's implementation of C++-exception support has been simplified.
• The runtime system's logic for stealing work has been simplified.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to everyone who helped test this new version of OpenCilk, especially:

• Brian Wheatman
• Samir Droubi
• Ryan Deng
• @bababuck
• MIT course 6.106, Fall 2023

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This discussion was created from the release OpenCilk 2.1.

[behoppe]

Congratulations @neboat!

Is there anything I can do to help document the improved support for using ASan and building standalone projects?