Meeting 2020-09-10

[repi]

Previous meeting: #22

Potential agenda (please add!)

• Prototype compiler status update - @khyperia
• New interns, who & what to work on - @repi & @Jasper-Bekkers
• Additional private collaborators/partners? Who/why/when - @repi & @Jasper-Bekkers
• How does the Discord channel work? - @repi

[khyperia]

• Post-meeting, whoever wants to stick around: more in-depth overview of codebase to get folks who want to contribute directly up to speed (plus folks who are curious). May or may not be useful to glance over the code for a bit and come with questions. - @khyperia

[Jasper-Bekkers]

• Set expectations about when to open source, e.g. how far do we want to be along in the project before we open it up.

[repi]

Meeting notes

Participants

• @repi
• @khyperia
• @VZout
• @Jasper-Bekkers
• @maxded

Minutes

Status update

Codegen - @khyperia

• Making a lot of progress, libcore "compiles"! Not fully successfully but doesn't crash
• Going through spriv-val and fixing up issues
  • Not a 100% validiator, but is pretty close and good
• Feels like we are getting a lot closer
• Right now validating compiled spirv in "kernel" mode, as the structorizer is not ready yet
• Doing a "hello world" kernel mode first, then switch to structorizer
• Then also need to integrate the linker
  • libcore builds with codegen units, so need to link it together
  • could also disable the units in the config as workaround, but good to have proper linker in general

Structorizer - @VZout

• Tracked in SPIRV-Tools Relooper Implementation (SCF) #24
• Now outputting simple shapes!
• Been using examples from the spriv-tools repo

Linker - @Jasper-Bekkers

• Linker is expected to link stuff now! Few test cases up and running (from the spriv-tools linker)

• Our new linker need to do a lot more stuff than just linking, such as dead code stripping

• @khyperia: the actual linking part is likely the easiest

• File an issue describing all the linker needs: Linker #27

• Challenge: writing Rust code probably generates more complex SPIRV code that other compiles just crash on

  • Getting an IHV & Khronos involved would be a help here, figure out a path
  • May want to disable Rust frontend features, such as pointer access
  • "OpenCL made the mistake of supporting everything"

Collaborators

• Make sure all non-Embark collaborators have access to both Discord and GitHub @repi

• @Jasper-Bekkers been talking to AMD contacts, they seem very keen in the project and hopefully can contribute

  • let's bring in them in (2 devs)! @Jasper-Bekkers

• Discussing with 2 new potential internships

Master thesis student in The Netherlands

• @Jasper-Bekkers has been in contact with, and Jasper and @repi talked with today
• Has both compiler and rendering/raytracing interest and experience, not as much on codegen
• Would have be structured as fairly separate work to do a master thesis on
• Potential areas / opportunities:
  • Optimization passes
  • Rust language features and adaption for writing shaders
  • Raytracing support?
• Start talking more in October/November, and master thesis project could start in February (maybe earlier)

Internship candidate in the US

• Experience in rendering, Rust and open source
• @repi and @ari talked with her yesterday about Embark and this project, very interested!
• Can start now!
• @ari would be main mentor and help manage general connection, @Jasper-Bekkers and @khyperia would help with technical mentorship
• Action: Figure out practicalities to set this up @ari
• Action: Join next team meeting and meet the team and discuss & decide what to work on

Other topics

• When to open up the project / release?

  • some milestone to publish the projects
  • Must be able to run some (graphics) shaders
  • At minimum: run hello world shader
  • Also have an decent developer experience so someone new starting with README, new issue: Good project onboarding experience #28

• Discord has been working pretty well!

• @maxded: is there something I can read up on compilers to get into the project (while working on other stuff)

  • "Dragon book" (@khyperia is not a fan of it)
  • Let's find some references and add to README?

[repi]

@Tobski and @nhaehnle from AMD has now been invited!