Managed Memory Variables
About Managed Memory
The CUDA Unified Memory component defines a managed memory space that allows all GPUs and hosts to “see a single coherent memory image with a common address space,” as described in the NVIDIA documentation “Unified Memory Programming.”
Allocating a variable in managed memory avoids explicit memory transfers between host and GPUs, as any allocation created in the managed memory space is automatically migrated between the host and GPU.
A managed memory variable is marked with a "__managed__" memory space specifier.
How TotalView Displays Managed Variables
To make it easier to recognize and work with managed variables, TotalView annotates their address with the term “Managed”, and, for statically allocated variables, adds the @managed_global type qualifier.
Statically Allocated Managed Variables
For example, consider this statically allocated managed variable, declared with the __managed__ keyword:
__device__ __managed__ int mv_int_initialized=10;
TotalView decorates the type with @managed_global and adds “(Managed)” to its address. Here, note that the managed variable is identified in these ways, while the regular global is not:
Dynamically Allocated Managed Variables
Managed memory can be dynamically allocated using the cudaMallocManaged() function, for example:
cudaMallocManaged((void**)&(elm->name), sizeof(char) * (strlen("hello") + 1) );
Here, the Data View shows that the variable elem points into managed memory. That is, elem is a pointer and its value points into managed memory; note that the pointer’s value is annotated with "(Managed)".
Note that one of its members, name, also points into managed memory.
