Archspec

0.2.5 · active · verified Thu Apr 16

Archspec is a Python library designed to provide a standard set of human-understandable labels for system architectures, primarily focusing on CPU microarchitectures. It offers APIs to detect, query, and compare different CPU types. The project originated from Spack and is under active development. The current version is 0.2.5. While it does not follow a strict release cadence, its update history, including a significant release in October 2024, indicates ongoing maintenance and development.

Common errors

```
archspec.cpu.UnsupportedMicroarchitecture: Host microarchitecture is not supported.
```
cause The CPU microarchitecture of the host system could not be identified by Archspec, or it is not present in its internal database.

fix This often occurs on newer or less common architectures. Check the `archspec.cpu.detect.why_not()` function for a more detailed reason. You might need to update Archspec to a newer version or contribute your architecture's data.
```
archspec.cpu.InvalidCompilerVersion: Invalid format for compiler version.
```
cause An incorrect or unparseable string was provided for a compiler version when querying optimization flags or similar features.

fix Ensure that compiler versions are provided as dot-separated digits (e.g., '10.0.0' for GCC 10.0.0).

Warnings

breaking The naming scheme for Graviton chips changed in v0.2. Graviton is now named 'cortex_a72', Graviton2 is 'neoverse_n1', and 'neoverse_v1' was introduced instead of Graviton3.
Fix: Update references to Graviton microarchitectures to use the new naming scheme (e.g., 'cortex_a72' instead of 'graviton').
breaking Support for Python 2.7 and Python 3.5 was dropped in v0.2.
Fix: Ensure your environment uses Python 3.6 or newer.
gotcha Installing directly from the GitHub repository for development requires Poetry.
Fix: For development, install Poetry (e.g., `curl -sSL https://install.python-poetry.org | python3 -`) then clone the repository and run `poetry install`. For general use, `pip install archspec` is sufficient.

Install

pip install archspec Install from PyPI

Imports

host
```
from archspec.cpu.detect import host
```
The `host` function is the primary way to detect the current CPU microarchitecture.
Microarchitecture
```
from archspec.cpu import Microarchitecture
```
Used to represent and interact with CPU microarchitecture objects.

Quickstart

This quickstart code snippet demonstrates how to detect the host CPU microarchitecture using `archspec.cpu.detect.host()` and print its name. It also includes basic error handling for unsupported architectures.

import archspec.cpu.detect

try:
    host_cpu = archspec.cpu.detect.host()
    if host_cpu:
        print(f"Detected host CPU microarchitecture: {host_cpu.name}")
        # Example of accessing properties
        # print(f"Vendor: {host_cpu.vendor}")
        # print(f"Ancestors: {[a.name for a in host_cpu.ancestors]}")
    else:
        print("Could not detect host CPU microarchitecture.")
        print(f"Reason: {archspec.cpu.detect.why_not('native')}")
except archspec.cpu.UnsupportedMicroarchitecture:
    print("Host microarchitecture is not recognized or supported by archspec.")
except Exception as e:
    print(f"An unexpected error occurred: {e}")

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