Adaptive dynamic load balancing in heterogeneous multiple GPUs-CPUs distributed setting: Case study of B&B tree search

Abstract

The emergence of new hybrid and heterogenous multi-GPUs multi-CPUs large scale platforms offers new opportunities and poses new challenges when solving difficult optimization problems. This paper targets irregular tree search algorithms in which workload is unpredictable. We propose an adaptive distributed approach allowing to distribute the load dynamically at runtime while taking into account the computing abilities of either GPUs or CPUs. Using Branch-and-Bound and FlowShop as a case study, we deployed our approach using up to 20 GPUs and 128 CPUs. Through extensive experiments in different system configurations, we report near optimal speedups, thus providing new insights into how to take full advantage of both GPUs and CPUs power in modern computing platforms. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.