Producing art images from our research.
Overview
We submitted four images to the 2016 Imperial Art of Research image competition. One image was highlighted as a staff choice. In these images, we show the effect that various bugs in graphics pipelines can have when rendering an image. The bugs produce unintended, yet interesting and striking visuals. The bugs arise from our work on GPU compiler testing (MET 2016) and GPU memory model testing (ASPLOS 2015, PLDI 2016).
The Art of Research images
Check out the fantastic images that were shortlisted. One of our submissions was also highlighted as a staff choice image:
Images
(click image for a link to the full sized, higher resolution image)
Staff choice!
These images represent the intersection of two lines of research into testing graphics processing platforms. The vortex-like background images and the ponies should all appear identical to those shown in the top left. However, bugs in the graphics pipeline cause variations in rendering of the vortex, and weak memory issues cause deterioration of the ponies to varying degrees. The result image is a by-product of our research into identifying such bugs automatically.
References
Pony weak memory model bugs first presented in GPU Concurrency: Weak Behaviours and Programming Assumptions ASPLOS’15, and the pony model was used in this poster and in this video.
We show four versions of a computer-generated image. If rendered correctly, each should be identical to the top-left image. However, a defect in rendering, cause by a compiler bug, causes three images to be incorrect. Our research aims to identify such compiler bugs. As a by-product, the bugs have led to unintended, yet beautiful, images.
References
We show four versions of a computer-generated image. If rendered correctly, each should be identical to the top-left image. However, a defect in rendering, cause by a compiler bug, causes three images to be incorrect. Our research aims to identify such compiler bugs. As a by-product, the bugs have led to unintended, yet beautiful, images.
References
We show four versions of a computer-generated image. If rendered correctly, each should be identical to the left-hand image. However, a defect in rendering, cause by a compiler bug, causes three images to be incorrect. Our research in identifying compiler bugs led to these curious images. The magnitude of the bugs is illustrated by the extent to which they deteriorate the scene. In the extreme right-hand case nothing is rendered.
References
Publications
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Metamorphic Testing for (Graphics) Compilers
Alastair F. Donaldson, Andrei Lascu
1st International Workshop on Metamorphic Testing, in concunction with the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering
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GPU Concurrency: Weak Behaviours and Programming Assumptions
Jade Alglave, Mark Batty, Alastair F. Donaldson, Ganesh Gopalakrishnan, Jeroen Ketema, Daniel Poetzl, Tyler Sorensen, John Wickerson
20th International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS'15)