Software-assisted instruction level execution preemption

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to preempt execution of program instructions in a multi-threaded system, by performing the steps of:

• executing program instructions in a processing pipeline within the multi-threaded system using a first context;
• preempting execution using the first context at a compute thread array level to execute different program instructions in the multi-threaded system using a second context;
• storing an indication that execution of the program instructions using the first context was preempted;
• and
• execute the different program instructions in the processing pipeline using the second context

A multi-threaded system for preempting execution of program instructions, the multi-threaded system comprising:

• a memory configured to store program instructions corresponding to a first context and different program instructions corresponding to a second context;
• a host interface coupled to a processing pipeline and configured to preempt execution of the program instructions using the first context at a compute thread array level to execute different program instructions using a second context;
• and
• the processing pipeline configured to:
• execute the program instructions using the first context;
• preempt execution of the program instructions using the first context to execute the different program instructions using the second context;
• store an indication that execution of the program instructions using the first context was preempted;
• and
• execute the different program instructions using the second context.