I want to keep NSUInteger into my core data and I don't know which type should I use (integer 16, 32, 64) to suit the space needed.
From my understanding:
Integer 16 can have minimum value of -32,768 to 32,767
Integer 32 can have minimum value of -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647
Integer 64 can have minimum value of -very large to very large
and NSUInteger is type def of unsigned long which equal to unsigned int (Types in objective-c on iPhone)
so If I convert my NSUInteger to NSNumber with numberWithUnsignedInteger: and save it as NSNumber(Integer 32) I could retrieve my data back safely right?
Do you really need the entire range of an NSUInteger? On iOS that's an unsigned 32 bit value, which can get very large. It will find into a signed 64 bit.
But you probably don't need that much precision anyway. The maximum for a uint32_t is UINT32_MAX which is 4,294,967,295 (4 billion). If you increment once a second, it'll take you more than 136 years to reach that value. Your user's iPhone won't be around by then... :)
If at all possible, when writing data to disk or across a network, it's best to be explicit about the size of value. Instead of using NSUInteger as the datatype, use uint16_t, uint32_t, or uint64_t depending on the range you need. This then naturally translates to Integer 16, 32, and 64 in Core Data.
To understand why, consider this scenario:
You opt to use Integer 64 type to store your value.
On a 64-bit iOS device (eg iPhone 6) it stores the value 5,000,000,000.
On a 32-bit iOS device this value is fetched from the store into an NSUInteger (using NSNumber's unsignedIntegerValue).
Now because NSUInteger is only 32-bits on the 32-bit device, the number is no longer 5,000,000,000 because there aren't enough bits to represent 5 billion. If you had swapped the NUInteger in step 3 for uint64_t then the value would still be 5 billion.
If you absolutely must use NSUInteger, then you'll just need to be wary about the issues described above and code defensively for it.
As far as storing unsigned values into the seemingly signed Core Data types, you can safely store them and retrieve them:
NSManagedObject *object = // create object
object.valueNumber = #(4000000000); // Store 4 billion in an Integer 32 Core Data type
[managedObjectContext save:NULL] // Save value to store
// Later on
NSManagedObject *object = // fetch object from store
uint32_t value = object.valueNumber.unsignedIntegerValue; // value will be 4 billion
Related
I am using the NT native API NtQueryObject()/ZwQueryObject() from user mode (and I am aware of the risks in general and I have written kernel mode drivers for Windows in the past in my professional capacity).
Generally when one uses the typical "query information" function (of which there are a few) the protocol is first to ask with a too small buffer to retrieve the required size with STATUS_INFO_LENGTH_MISMATCH, then allocate a buffer of said size and query again -- this time using the buffer and previously returned size.
In order to get the list of object types (67 on my build) on the system I am doing just that:
ULONG Size = 0;
NTSTATUS Status = NtQueryObject(NULL, ObjectTypesInformation, &Size, sizeof(Size), &Size);
And in Size I get 8280 (WOW64) and 8968 (x64). I then proceed to allocate the buffer with calloc() and query again:
ULONG Size2 = 0;
BYTE* Buf = (BYTE*)::calloc(1, Size);
Status = NtQueryObject(NULL, ObjectTypesInformation, Buf, Size, &Size2);
NB: ObjectTypesInformation is 3. It isn't declared in winternl.h, but Nebbett (as ObjectAllTypesInformation) and others describe it. Since I am not querying for a particular object's traits but the system-wide list of object types, I pass NULL for the object handle.
Curiously on WOW64, i.e. 32-bit, the value in Size2 upon return from the second query is 16 Bytes (= 8296) bigger than the previously returned required size.
As far as alignment is concerned, I'd expect at most 8 Bytes for this sort of thing and indeed neither 8280 nor 8296 are at a 16 Byte alignment boundary, but on an 8 Byte one.
Certainly I can add some slack space on top of the returned required size (e.g. ALIGN_UP to the next 32 Byte alignment boundary), but this seems highly irregular to be honest. And I'd rather want to understand what's going on than to implement a workaround that breaks, because I miss something crucial.
The practical issue for the code is that in Debug configurations it tells me there's a corrupted heap somewhere, upon freeing Buf. Which suggests that NtQueryObject() was indeed writing these extra 16 Bytes beyond the buffer I provided.
Question: Any idea why it is doing that?
As usual for NT native API the sources of information are scarce. The x64 version of the exact same code returns the exact number of bytes required. So my thinking here is that WOW64 is the issue. A somewhat cursory look into wow64.dll with IDA didn't reveal any immediate points for suspicion regarding what goes wrong in translating the results to 32-bit here.
PS: Windows 10 (10.0.19043, ntdll.dll "timestamp" 77755782)
PPS: this may be related: https://wj32.org/wp/2012/11/30/obquerytypeinfo-and-ntqueryobject-buffer-overrun-in-windows-8/ Tested it, by checking that OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION::TypeName.Length + sizeof(WCHAR) == OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION::TypeName.MaximumLength in all returned items, which was the case.
The only part of ObjectTypesInformation that's public is the first field defined in winternl.h header in the Windows SDK:
typedef struct __PUBLIC_OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION {
UNICODE_STRING TypeName;
ULONG Reserved [22]; // reserved for internal use
} PUBLIC_OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION, *PPUBLIC_OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION;
For x86 this is 96 bytes, and for x64 this is 104 bytes (assuming you have the right packing mode enabled). The difference is the pointer in UNICODE_STRING which changes the alignment in x64.
Any additional memory space should be related to the TypeName buffer.
UNICODE_STRING accounts for 8 bytes of the difference between 8280 and 8296. The function uses the sizeof(ULONG_PTR) for alignment of the returned string plus an extra WCHAR, so that could easily account for the remaining 8 bytes.
AFAIK: The public use of NtQueryObject is supposed to be limited to kernel-mode use which of course means it always matches the OS native bitness (x86 code can't run as kernel in x64 native OS), so it's probably just a quirk of using the NT functions via the WOW64 thunk.
Alright, I think I figured out the issue with the help of WinDbg and a thorough look at wow64.dll using IDA.
NB: the wow64.dll I have has the same build number, but differs slightly in data only (checksum, security directory entry, pieces from version resources). The code is identical, which was to be expected, given deterministic builds and how they affect the PE timestamp.
There's an internal function called whNtQueryObject_SpecialQueryCase (according to PDBs), which covers the ObjectTypesInformation class queries.
For the above wow64.dll I used the following points of interest in WinDbg, from a 32 bit program which calls NtQueryObject(NULL, ObjectTypesInformation, ...) (the program itself is irrelevant, though):
0:000> .load wow64exts
0:000> bp wow64!whNtQueryObject_SpecialQueryCase+B0E0
0:000> bp wow64!whNtQueryObject_SpecialQueryCase+B14E
0:000> bp wow64!whNtQueryObject_SpecialQueryCase+B1A7
0:000> bp wow64!whNtQueryObject_SpecialQueryCase+B24A
0:000> bp wow64!whNtQueryObject_SpecialQueryCase+B252
Explanation of the above points of interest:
+B0E0: computing length required for 64 bit query, based on passed length for 32 bit
+B14E: call to NtQueryObject()
+B1A7: loop body for copying 64 to 32 bit buffer contents, after successful NtQueryObject() call
+B24A: computing written length by subtracting current (last + 1) entry from base buffer address
+B252: downsizing returned (64 bit) required length to 32 bit
The logic of this function in regards to just ObjectTypesInformation is roughly as follows:
Common steps
Take the ObjectInformationLength (32 bit query!) argument and size it up to fit the 64 bit info
Align the retrieved size up to the next 16 byte boundary
If necessary allocate the resulting amount from some PEB::ProcessHeap and store in TLS slot 3; otherwise using this as a scratch space
Call NtQueryObject() passing the buffer and length from the two previous steps
The length passed to NtQueryObject() is the one from step 1, not the one aligned to a 16 byte boundary. There seems to be some sort of header to this scratch space, so perhaps that's where the 16 byte alignment comes from?
Case 1: buffer size too small (here: 4), just querying required length
The up-sized length in this case equals 4, which is too small and consequently NtQueryObject() returns STATUS_INFO_LENGTH_MISMATCH. Required size is reported as 8968.
Down-size from the 64 bit required length to 32 bit and end up 16 bytes too short
Return the status from NtQueryObject() and the down-sized required length form the previous step
Case 2: buffer size supposedly (!) sufficient
Copy OBJECT_TYPES_INFORMATION::NumberOfTypes from queried buffer to 32 bit one
Step to the first entry (OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION) of source (64 bit) and target (32 bit) buffer, 8 and 4 byte aligned respectively
For for each entry up to OBJECT_TYPES_INFORMATION::NumberOfTypes:
Copy UNICODE_STRING::Length and UNICODE_STRING::MaximumLength for TypeName member
memcpy() UNICODE_STRING::Length bytes from source to target UNICODE_STRING::Buffer (target entry + sizeof(OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION32)
Add terminating zero (WCHAR) past the memcpy'd string
Copy the individual members past the TypeName from 64 to 32 bit struct
Compute pointer of next entry by aligning UNICODE_STRING::MaximumLength up to an 8 byte boundary (i.e. the ULONG_PTR alignment mentioned in the other answer) + sizeof(OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION64) (already 8 byte aligned!)
The next target entry (32 bit) gets 4 byte aligned instead
At the end compute required (32 bit) length by subtracting the value we arrived at for the "next" entry (i.e. one past the last) from the base address of the buffer passed by the WOW64 program (32 bit) to NtQueryObject()
In my debugged scenario these were: 0x008ce050 - 0x008cbfe8 = 0x00002068 (= 8296), which is 16 bytes larger than the buffer length we were told during case 1 (8280)!
The issue
That crucial last step differs between merely querying and actually getting the buffer filled. There is no further bounds checking in that loop I described for case 2.
And this means it will just overrun the passed buffer and return a written length bigger than the buffer length passed to it.
Possible solutions and workarounds
I'll have to approach this mathematically after some sleep, the workaround is obviously to top up the required length returned from case 1 in order to avoid the buffer overrun. The easiest method is to use my up_size_from_32bit() from the example below and use that on the returned required size. This way you are allocating enough for the 64 bit buffer, while querying the 32 bit one. This should never overrun during the copy loop.
However, the fix in wow64.dll is a little more involved, I guess. While adding bounds checking to the loop would help avert the overrun, it would mean that the caller would have to query for the required size twice, because the first time around it lies to us.
Which means the query-only case (1) would have to allocate that internal buffer after querying the required length for 64 bit, then get it filled and then walk the entries (just like the copy loop), skipping over the last entry to compute the required length the same as it is now done after the copy loop.
Example program demonstrating the "static" computation by wow64.dll
Build for x64, just the way wow64.dll was!
#define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
#include <Windows.h>
#include <cstdio>
typedef struct
{
ULONG JustPretending[24];
} OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION32;
typedef struct
{
ULONG JustPretending[26];
} OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION64;
constexpr ULONG size_delta_3264 = sizeof(OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION64) - sizeof(OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION32);
constexpr ULONG down_size_to_32bit(ULONG len)
{
return len - size_delta_3264 * ((len - 4) / sizeof(OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION64));
}
constexpr ULONG up_size_from_32bit(ULONG len)
{
return len + size_delta_3264 * ((len - 4) / sizeof(OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION32));
}
// Trying to mimic the wdm.h macro
constexpr size_t align_up_by(size_t address, size_t alignment)
{
return (address + (alignment - 1)) & ~(alignment - 1);
}
constexpr auto u32 = 8280UL;
constexpr auto u64 = 8968UL;
constexpr auto from_64 = down_size_to_32bit(u64);
constexpr auto from_32 = up_size_from_32bit(u32);
constexpr auto from_32_16_byte_aligned = (ULONG)align_up_by(from_32, 16);
int wmain()
{
wprintf(L"32 to 64 bit: %u -> %u -(16-byte-align)-> %u\n", u32, from_32, from_32_16_byte_aligned);
wprintf(L"64 to 32 bit: %u -> %u\n", u64, from_64);
return 0;
}
static_assert(sizeof(OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION32) == 96, "Size for 64 bit struct does not match.");
static_assert(sizeof(OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION64) == 104, "Size for 64 bit struct does not match.");
static_assert(u32 == from_64, "Must match (from 64 to 32 bit)");
static_assert(u64 == from_32, "Must match (from 32 to 64 bit)");
static_assert(from_32_16_byte_aligned % 16 == 0, "16 byte alignment failed");
static_assert(from_32_16_byte_aligned > from_32, "We're aligning up");
This does not mimic the computation that happens in case 2, though.
So obviously there's no 32 bit float, but if we're trying to store big data efficiently and many of our values are floats no greater than 100,000 with exactly 2 decimal places, it makes sense to store the 64 bit value in 32 bits by dropping the bits representing the precision that we don't need.
I tried doing this by simply writing to a 64 bit BE float buffer like so and slicing the first 4 bytes:
// float32 = Number between 0.00 and 100000.00
const setFloat32 = (float32) => {
b64.writeDoubleBE(float32, 0) // b64 = 64 bit buffer
b32 = b64.slice(0, 4)
return b32;
}
And reading it by adding on 4 empty bytes:
// b32 = the 32 bit buffer from the previous func
const readFloat32 = (b32) => {
// b32Empty = empty 32 bit buffer
return Buffer.concat([b32, b32Empty]).readDoubleBE(0);
}
But this modified flat decimals like:
1.85 => 1.8499994277954102
2.05 => 2.049999237060547
How can I fix my approach to do this correctly, and do so in the most efficient manner for read speed?
If you only want to keep two decimals of precision, you can convert your value to a shifted integer and store that:
function shiftToInteger(val, places) {
// multiply by a constant to shift the decimals you want to keep into
// integer positions, then use Math.round() or Math.floor()
// to truncate the rest of the decimals - depending upon which behavior you want
// then return the shifted integer that will fit into a U32 for storage
return Math.round(val * (10 ** places));
}
This creates a shifted integer that can then be stored in a 32 bit value (with the value limits you described), such as a Uint32Array or Int32Array. To use it when you retrieve it from storage, you would then divide it by 100 to convert it back to a standard Javascript float for usage.
The key is to convert whatever decimal precision you want to keep to an integer so you can store that in a non-float type of value that is just large enough for your max anticipated value. You can storage efficiency because you're using all the storage bits for the desired precision rather than wasting a lot of unnecessary storage bits on the decimal precision that you don't need to keep.
Here's an example:
function shiftToInteger(val, places) {
return Math.round(val * (10 ** places));
}
function shiftToFloat(integer, places) {
return integer / (10 ** places);
}
let x = new Uint32Array(10);
x[0] = shiftToInteger(1.85, 2);
console.log(x[0]); // output shifted integer value
console.log(shiftToFloat(x[0], 2)); // convert back to decimal value
I need a cryptographically secure random number generator to replace Math.random()
I came across crypto.randomBytes() however, it returns a byte array. What is a way to make the byte array into 0-1 ( so that it is compatible with Math.random)
This should do the trick:
crypto.randomBytes(4).readUInt32LE() / 0xffffffff;
randomBytes generates 4 random bytes, which are then read as a 32-bit unsigned integer in little endian. The max value of a 32bit unsigned int is 0xffffffff (or 4,294,967,295 in decimal). By dividing the randomly generated 32bit int by its max value you get a value between 0 and 1.
You could do something like:
var randomVal = (crypto.randomBytes(1)[0] / 255);
My PC has an AMD processor with an ATI 3200 GPU which doesn't support OpenCL. The rest of the codes all running by "Falling back to CPU itself".
I am converting one of the code from CUDA to OpenCL but stuck in some particular part for which there is no exact conversion code in OpenCL. since i have less experience in OpenCL I can't make out this, please suggest me some solution if any of you think will work,
The CUDA code is,
size_t pitch = 0;
cudaError error = cudaMallocPitch((void**)&gpu_data, (size_t*)&pitch,
instances->cols * sizeof(float), instances->rows);
for( int i = 0; i < instances->rows; i++ ){
error = cudaMemcpy((void*)(gpu_data + (pitch/sizeof(float))*i),
(void*)(instances->data + (instances->cols*i)),
instances->cols * sizeof(float) ,cudaMemcpyHostToDevice);
If I remove the pitch value from the above I end up with an problem which doesn't write to the device memory "gpu_data".
Somebody please convert this code to OpenCL and reply. I have converted it to OpenCL, but its not working and the data is not written to "gpu_data". My converted OpenCL code is
gpu_data = clCreateBuffer(context, CL_MEM_READ_WRITE, ((instances->cols)*(instances->rows))*sizeof(float), NULL, &ret);
for( int i = 0; i < instances->rows; i++ ){
ret = clEnqueueWriteBuffer(command_queue, gpu_data, CL_TRUE, 0, ((instances->cols)*(instances->rows))*sizeof(float),(void*)(instances->data + (instances->cols*i)) , 0, NULL, NULL);
Sometimes it runs well for this code and gets stuck in the reading part i.e.
ret = clEnqueueReadBuffer(command_queue, gpu_data, CL_TRUE, 0,sizeof( float ) * instances->cols* 1 , instances->data, 0, NULL, NULL);
overhere. And it gives error like
Unhandled exception at 0x10001098 in CL_kmeans.exe: 0xC000001D: Illegal Instruction.
when break is pressed , it gives:
No symbols are loaded for any call stack frame. The source code cannot be displayed.
while debugging. In the call stack it is displaying:
OCL8CA9.tmp.dll!10001098()
[Frames below may be incorrect and/or missing, no symbols loaded for OCL8CA9.tmp.dll]
amdocl.dll!5c39de16()
I really dont know what it means. someone please help me to rid of this problem.
First of all, in the CUDA code you're doing a horribly inefficient thing to copy the data. The CUDA runtime has the function cudaMemcpy2D that does exactly what you are trying to do by looping over different rows.
What cudaMallocPitch does is to compute an optimal pitch (= distance in byte between rows in a 2D array) such that each new row begins at an address that is optimal for coalescing, and then allocates a memory area as large as pitch times the number of rows you specify. You can emulate the same thing in OpenCL by first computing the optimal pitch and then doing the allocation of the correct size.
The optimal pitch is computed by (1) getting the base address alignment preference for your card (CL_DEVICE_MEM_BASE_ADDR_ALIGN property with clGetDeviceInfo: note that the returned value is in bits, so you have to divide by 8 to get it in bytes); let's call this base (2) find the largest multiple of base that is no less than your natural data pitch (sizeof(type) times number of columns); this will be your pitch.
You then allocate pitch times number of rows bytes, and pass the pitch information to kernels.
Also, when copying data from the host to the device and converesely, you want to use clEnqueue{Read,Write}BufferRect, that are specifically designed to copy 2D data (they are the counterparts to cudaMemcpy2D).
I'm working on a small embedded system that has 32 bit long ints. For one calculation I need output the time since 1970 in ms. I can get the time in 32 bit unsigned long seconds since 1970, but how can I represent this as a 64 bit no. of ms if my biggest int is only 32bits? I'm sure stackoverflow will have a cunning answer! I am using Dynamic C, close to standard C. I have some sample code from another system which has a 64 bit long long data type:
long long T = (long long)(SampleTime * 1000.0 + 0.5);
data.TimeLower = (unsigned int)(T & 0xffffffff);
data.TimeUpper = (unsigned short)((T >> 32) & 0xffff);
Since you are only multiplying by 1000 (seconds -> millis), you can do it with two 16 bit mutliplies and one add and a bit of bit fiddling, I have used your putative data type to store the result below:
uint32_t time32 = time();
uint32_t t1 = (time32 & 0xffff) * 1000;
uint32_t t2 = ((time32 >> 16) * 1000) + (t1 >> 16);
data.TimeLower = (uint32_t) ((t2 & 0xffff) << 16) | (t1 & 0xffff);
data.TimeUpper = (uint32_t) (t2 >> 16);
The standard approach, assuming you have a 16x16->32 multiply available, would be to split both numbers into 16-bit high and low parts, compute four partial products, and add the results. If you don't have a 16x16->32 primitive which is faster than a 32x32->32 primitive, though, I'm not sure what the best approach would be. I would think that a 32x32->32 multiply should be more useful than a 16x16->32, but I can't think how one would use it.
Personally, I wish there were a standard primitive to return the top half of a NxN multiply (32x32, certainly; also 16x16 for smaller machines and 64x64 for larger ones).
It might be helpful if you were more specific about what kinds of calculations you need to do. 64-bit multiplication implemented with 32-bit operations is quite slow, and you may have the additional overhead of 64-bit division (to convert back to seconds and milliseconds), which is even slower.
Without knowing more about what exactly you need to do, it seems to me that it would be more efficient to use a struct, containing a 32-bit unsigned int for the number of seconds and a 16-bit int for the number of milliseconds (the "remainder"). (Or use a 32-bit int for the milliseconds if 64-bit alignment is more important than saving a couple of bytes.)