.. _Reduction:
Reduction
=========
.. container:: section
.. rubric:: Problem
:class: sectiontitle
Perform an associative reduction operation across a data set.
.. container:: section
.. rubric:: Context
:class: sectiontitle
Many serial algorithms sweep over a set of items to collect summary
information.
.. container:: section
.. rubric:: Forces
:class: sectiontitle
The summary can be expressed as an associative operation over the
data set, or at least is close enough to associative that
reassociation does not matter.
.. container:: section
.. rubric:: Solution
:class: sectiontitle
Two solutions exist in |full_name|.
The choice on which to use depends upon several considerations:
- Is the operation commutative as well as associative?
- Are instances of the reduction type expensive to construct and
destroy. For example, a floating point number is inexpensive to
construct. A sparse floating-point matrix might be very expensive
to construct.
Use ``oneapi::tbb::parallel_reduce`` when the objects are inexpensive to
construct. It works even if the reduction operation is not
commutative.
Use ``oneapi::tbb::parallel_for`` and ``oneapi::tbb::combinable`` if the reduction
operation is commutative and instances of the type are expensive.
If the operation is not precisely associative but a precisely
deterministic result is required, use recursive reduction and
parallelize it using ``oneapi::tbb::parallel_invoke``.
.. container:: section
.. rubric:: Examples
:class: sectiontitle
The examples presented here illustrate the various solutions and some
tradeoffs.
The first example uses ``oneapi::tbb::parallel_reduce`` to do a + reduction
over sequence of type ``T``. The sequence is defined by a half-open
interval [first,last).
::
T AssociativeReduce( const T* first, const T* last, T identity ) {
return oneapi::tbb::parallel_reduce(
// Index range for reduction
oneapi::tbb::blocked_range<const T*>(first,last),
// Identity element
identity,
// Reduce a subrange and partial sum
[&]( oneapi::tbb::blocked_range<const T*> r, T partial_sum )->float {
return std::accumulate( r.begin(), r.end(), partial_sum );
},
// Reduce two partial sums
std::plus<T>()
);
}
The third and fourth arguments to this form of ``parallel_reduce``
are a built in form of the agglomeration pattern. If there is an
elementwise action to be performed before the reduction,
incorporating it into the third argument (reduction of a subrange)
may improve performance because of better locality of reference. Note
that the block size for agglomeration is not explicitly specified;
``parallel_reduce`` defines blocks automatically with the help of
implicitly used ``oneapi::tbb::auto_partitioner``.
The second example assumes the + is commutative on ``T``. It is a
good solution when ``T`` objects are expensive to construct.
::
T CombineReduce( const T* first, const T* last, T identity ) {
oneapi::tbb::combinable<T> sum(identity);
oneapi::tbb::parallel_for(
oneapi::tbb::blocked_range<const T*>(first,last),
[&]( oneapi::tbb::blocked_range<const T*> r ) {
sum.local() += std::accumulate(r.begin(), r.end(), identity);
}
);
return sum.combine( []( const T& x, const T& y ) {return x+y;} );
}
Sometimes it is desirable to destructively use the partial results to
generate the final result. For example, if the partial results are
lists, they can be spliced together to form the final result. In that
case use class ``oneapi::tbb::enumerable_thread_specific`` instead of
``combinable``. The ``ParallelFindCollisions`` example in :ref:`Divide_and_Conquer`
demonstrates the technique.
Floating-point addition and multiplication are almost associative.
Reassociation can cause changes because of rounding effects. The
techniques shown so far reassociate terms non-deterministically.
Fully deterministic parallel reduction for a not quite associative
operation requires using deterministic reassociation. The code below
demonstrates this in the form of a template that does a + reduction
over a sequence of values of type ``T``.
::
template<typename T>
T RepeatableReduce( const T* first, const T* last, T identity ) {
if( last-first<=1000 ) {
// Use serial reduction
return std::accumulate( first, last, identity );
} else {
// Do parallel divide-and-conquer reduction
const T* mid = first+(last-first)/2;
T left, right;
oneapi::tbb::parallel_invoke(
[&]{left=RepeatableReduce(first,mid,identity);},
[&]{right=RepeatableReduce(mid,last,identity);}
);
return left+right;
}
}
The outer if-else is an instance of the agglomeration pattern for
recursive computations. The reduction graph, though not a strict
binary tree, is fully deterministic. Thus the result will always be
the same for a given input sequence, assuming all threads do
identical floating-point rounding.
``oneapi::tbb::parallel_deterministic_reduce`` is a simpler and more
efficient way to get reproducible non-associative reduction. It is
very similar to ``oneapi::tbb::parallel_reduce`` but, unlike the latter,
builds a deterministic reduction graph. With it, the
``RepeatableReduce`` sample can be almost identical to
``AssociativeReduce``:
::
template<typename T>
T RepeatableReduce( const T* first, const T* last, T identity ) {
return oneapi::tbb::parallel_deterministic_reduce(
// Index range for reduction
oneapi::tbb::blocked_range<const T*>(first,last,1000),
// Identity element
identity,
// Reduce a subrange and partial sum
[&]( oneapi::tbb::blocked_range<const T*> r, T partial_sum )->float {
return std::accumulate( r.begin(), r.end(), partial_sum );
},
// Reduce two partial sums
std::plus<T>()
);
}
Besides the function name change, note the grain size of 1000
specified for ``oneapi::tbb::blocked_range``. It defines the desired block
size for agglomeration; automatic block size selection is not used
due to non-determinism.
The final example shows how a problem that typically is not viewed as
a reduction can be parallelized by viewing it as a reduction. The
problem is retrieving floating-point exception flags for a
computation across a data set. The serial code might look something
like:
::
feclearexcept(FE_ALL_EXCEPT);
for( int i=0; i<N; ++i )
C[i]=A[i]*B[i];
int flags = fetestexcept(FE_ALL_EXCEPT);
if (flags & FE_DIVBYZERO) ...;
if (flags & FE_OVERFLOW) ...;
...
The code can be parallelized by computing chunks of the loop
separately, and merging floating-point flags from each chunk. To do
this with ``tbb:parallel_reduce``, first define a "body" type, as
shown below.
::
struct ComputeChunk {
int flags; // Holds floating-point exceptions seen so far.
void reset_fpe() {
flags=0;
feclearexcept(FE_ALL_EXCEPT);
}
ComputeChunk () {
reset_fpe();
}
// "Splitting constructor"called by parallel_reduce when splitting a range into subranges.
ComputeChunk ( const ComputeChunk&, oneapi::tbb::split ) {
reset_fpe();
}
// Operates on a chunk and collects floating-point exception state into flags member.
void operator()( oneapi::tbb::blocked_range<int> r ) {
int end=r.end();
for( int i=r.begin(); i!=end; ++i )
C[i] = A[i]/B[i];
// It is critical to do |= here, not =, because otherwise we
// might lose earlier exceptions from the same thread.
flags |= fetestexcept(FE_ALL_EXCEPT);
}
// Called by parallel_reduce when joining results from two subranges.
void join( Body& other ) {
flags |= other.flags;
}
};
Then invoke it as follows:
::
// Construction of cc implicitly resets FP exception state.
ComputeChunk cc;
oneapi::tbb::parallel_reduce( oneapi::tbb::blocked_range<int>(0,N), cc );
if (cc.flags & FE_DIVBYZERO) ...;
if (cc.flags & FE_OVERFLOW) ...;
...
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