GPU Execution Model Overview
The General Purpose GPU (GPGPU) compute model consists of a host connected to
one or more compute devices. Each compute device consists of many GPU Compute
Engines (CE), also known as Execution Units (EU) or X
e
Vector Engines (XVE).
The compute devices may also include caches, shared local memory (SLM),
high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and so on, as shown in the figure
General Purpose Compute Model. Applications are then built as a combination of
host software (per the host framework) and kernels submitted by the host to run
on the VEs with a predefined decoupling point.General Purpose Compute Model

The GPGPU compute architecture contains two distinct units of execution:
a host program and a set of kernels that execute within the context set
by the host. The host interacts with these kernels through a command
queue. Each device may have its own command queue. When a command is
submitted into the command queue, the command is checked for
dependencies and then executed on a VE inside the compute unit
clusters. Once the command has finished executing, the kernel
communicates an end of life cycle through “end of thread” message.
The GP execution model determines how to schedule and execute the
kernels. When a kernel-enqueue command submits a kernel for execution,
the command defines an index space or N-dimensional range. A
kernel-instance consists of the kernel, the argument values associated
with the kernel, and the parameters that define the index space. When a
compute device executes a kernel-instance, the kernel function executes
for each point in the defined index space or N-dimensional range.
An executing kernel function is called a work-item, and a collection of
these work-items is called a work-group. A compute device manages
work-items using work-groups. Individual work-items are identified by
either a global ID, or a combination of the work-group ID and a local ID
inside the work-group.
The work-group concept, which essentially runs the same kernel on
several unit items in a group, captures the essence of data parallel
computing. The VEs can organize work-items in SIMD vector format and run
the same kernel on the SIMD vector, hence speeding up the compute for
all such applications.
A device can compute each work-group in any arbitrary order. Also, the
work-items within a single work-group execute concurrently, with no
guarantee on the order of progress. A high level work-group function,
like Barriers, applies to each work-item in a work-group, to facilitate
the required synchronization points. Such a work-group function must be
defined so that all work-items in the work-group encounter precisely the
same work-group function.
Synchronization can also occur at the command level, where the
synchronization can happen between commands in host command-queues. In
this mode, one command can depend on execution points in another command
or multiple commands.
Other types of synchronization based on memory-order constraints inside
a program include Atomics and Fences. These synchronization types
control how a memory operation of any particular work-item is made
visible to another, which offers micro-level synchronization points in
the data-parallel compute model.
Note that an Intel GPU device is equipped with many Vector Engines
(VEs), and each VE is a multi-threaded SIMD processor. Compiler
generates SIMD code to map several work-items to be executed
simultaneously within a given hardware thread. The SIMD-width for a kernel
is a heuristic driven compiler choice. Common SIMD-width examples are
SIMD-8, SIMD-16, and SIMD-32.
For a given SIMD-width, if all kernel instances within a thread are
executing the same instruction, the SIMD lanes can be maximally
utilized. If one or more of the kernel instances choose a divergent
branch, then the thread executes the two paths of the branch and merges
the results by mask. The VE’s branch unit keeps track of such branch
divergence and branch nesting.