What is the NVIDIA CUDA Compiler Driver?

The NVIDIA CUDA Compiler Driver is a toolchain for compiling CUDA C/C++ programs. It outputs binary executables that conform to the host ABI and include PTX and/or SASS to be executed on the GPU — a so-called "fat binary". These binaries are inspectable with the same tools used for other binaries, like readelf on Linux, but can be additionally manipulated with the specialized CUDA Binary Utilities .

The included PTX code is versioned by Compute Capability , configured by passing compute_XYz values to the --gpu-architecture or --gpu-code options.

The included SASS code is versioned by SM architecture version , configured by passing sm_XYz values to the --gpu-architecture or --gpu-code options. Passing compute_XYz to --gpu-code will also trigger the generation of SASS code with the same version as the PTX .

Compilation of host/CPU code is done using the host system's compiler driver, e.g. the gcc compiler driver. Note that compiler drivers are not to be confused with hardware drivers, like the NVIDIA GPU Drivers .

The documentation for nvcc can be found here .