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@danhoeflinger danhoeflinger commented Jan 28, 2026

This PR refactors the SYCL radix sort implementation to improve performance across multiple work-groups. The optimization focuses on kernel simplification, better memory access patterns, and improved work distribution.

Key Changes

Kernel Consolidation

  • Removed the separate __radix_sort_reorder_peer_kernel
  • Unified even/odd iteration logic to reduce kernel variants
  • Eliminated compile-time kernel specialization overhead

Count Kernel Optimization

  • Reorganized to support larger work-group sizes, previously limited to a single subgroup which resulted in poor occupancy
  • Changed from _CountT (uint32) to uint8 accumulation in shared local memory (SLM) for bucket counters
  • Improved SLM indexing with __index_views helper for better cache locality during counting phase
  • Implemented 8-way unrolling with subgroup-strided memory access for better coalescing
  • Optimized reduction with tree-based aggregation where all work-items participate in parallel
  • Reduced register pressure by having each work-item handle 4 radix states during reduction

Reorder Kernel Improvements

  • Redesigned to support larger work-group sizes, previously limited to a single subgroup per work-group which resulted in bad utilization of the hardware

Code Simplification

  • Removed complex peer prefix algorithm variants (subgroup_ballot, atomic_fetch_or, scan_then_broadcast)

Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
@danhoeflinger danhoeflinger requested a review from Copilot February 2, 2026 18:25
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Pull request overview

This PR optimizes the SYCL radix sort implementation to improve multi-work-group performance through kernel simplification and better memory access patterns. The optimization removes compile-time kernel specialization, unifies iteration logic, and improves work distribution across larger work-group sizes.

Changes:

  • Consolidated kernel variants by removing separate peer reorder kernel and even/odd iteration specializations
  • Optimized count kernel with uint8 accumulation, improved SLM indexing, 8-way unrolling, and tree-based reduction
  • Redesigned reorder kernel to support larger work-group sizes with better subgroup coordination

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

File Description
parallel_backend_sycl_utils.h Added __min_sub_group_size helper function to query minimum supported subgroup size
parallel_backend_sycl_radix_sort.h Major refactoring of radix sort kernels with simplified templates, new count/reorder implementations, and unified iteration logic

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Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
@danhoeflinger danhoeflinger marked this pull request as ready for review February 3, 2026 16:34
@danhoeflinger danhoeflinger added this to the 2022.12.0 milestone Feb 3, 2026
@danhoeflinger danhoeflinger changed the title [Draft] Optimize radix sort for multi-work-group performance Optimize radix sort for multi-work-group performance Feb 3, 2026
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Hoeflinger <dan.hoeflinger@intel.com>
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2 participants