Comparison of GPU Programming Models: Kokkos, OpenMP, OpenACC and CUDA

This workshop provides a practical, side‑by‑side comparison of Kokkos, OpenMP, OpenACC, and CUDA for GPU programming on modern HPC systems. Participants will explore the strengths, trade‑offs, and programming models behind each technology through hands‑on examples and guided discussion.

Additional details: CUDA is a low-level programming model that requires writing detailed code in C++ or Fortran for NVIDIA GPUs only. Kokkos is a high-level programming model in C++ for writing performance portable applications for all major HPC platforms (e.g., NVIDIA GPUs, AMD GPUs and CPUs, Intel CPUs, ARM CPUs). OpenMP and OpenACC are directive-based approaches which require fewer code changes.

Workshop format: Presentation with some hands-on exercises

Target audience: Researchers looking to accelerate their C++ or Fortran code using GPUs or multicore CPUs.

Knowledge prerequisites: Some experience with C++ programming would be beneficial.

Hardware/software prerequisites: Participants must have an account on our Adroit cluster to work through the hands-on exercises using Kokkos. Details on requesting an account are found in this guide.

Learning objectives: Participants will develop a sense of which GPU programming model to use for a given problem.

Is your research group looking to accelerate a code using GPUs? Consider applying to the 2026 Princeton Open Hackathon by March 4.

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Co-hosted with: GradFUTURES

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