Memory Management in CUDA

Learn about different types of memory in CUDA and how to manage them effectively.

Memory Hierarchy

CUDA provides several types of memory with different characteristics:

  • Global Memory: Largest but highest latency, accessible by all threads
  • Shared Memory: Low latency, shared within thread blocks
  • Local Memory: Private to each thread
  • Constant Memory: Read-only, cached for fast access
  • Texture Memory: Cached, optimized for 2D spatial locality

Memory Management Example

Here's an example that demonstrates basic memory management in CUDA:

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Best Practices

  • Minimize data transfers between host and device
  • Use pinned memory for faster host-device transfers
  • Utilize shared memory for frequently accessed data
  • Ensure proper alignment for coalesced memory access
  • Free allocated memory to prevent memory leaks