Supported features and limitations

Supported features and limitations#

2026-09-08

2 min read time

Applies to Linux

This topic discusses the supported features and limitations of hipCIM 26.06.00 as compared to the cuCIM 26.06.00.

Features#

  • Core image interface (cucim.core):

    • All primary image manipulation functions (read, write, and resample) are GPU-accelerated with CPU fallbacks.

    • Metadata operations (accessing dtype, dims, and shape) run on CPU only.

  • Image processing (cucim.skimage):

    • Nearly all transform operations (resize, rotate, and warp) are GPU-accelerated with CPU fallbacks.

    • Complete filter suite (Gaussian, median, and edge detectors) benefits from GPU acceleration.

    • Most morphological operations (erosion, dilation, and opening) are GPU-accelerated.

  • Segmentation:

    • Several advanced segmentation algorithms (felzenszwalb, quickshift, and active_contour) lack GPU acceleration.

    • Core segmentation operations such as watershed and SLIC are GPU-accelerated.

  • Color operations:

    • All color space conversions (rgb2gray, rgb2hsv, and rgb2lab) are GPU-accelerated.

    • Specialized medical imaging operations, such as stain separation or combination, that also benefit from GPU acceleration.

  • Whole slide imaging:

    • Patch extraction operations are GPU-accelerated.

    • Metadata operations run exclusively on the CPU.

  • Measurement functions:

    • Core measurement functions such as region labeling are GPU-accelerated.

    • Some advanced functions such as marching_cubes lack GPU acceleration.

Image support#

hipCIM supports the following image formats:

  • Single-level Aperio ScanScope Virtual Slide (SVS) with JPEG compression

  • Single-level Philips TIFF with JPEG compression

Note that the image support is limited by rocJPEG chroma subsampling and hardware capabilities.

hipCIM API mirrors scikit-image for image manipulation and OpenSlide for image loading.

Format

Extension

Notes

GPU tile decode

Aperio ScanScope Virtual Slide (SVS), single-level JPEG

.svs

JPEG-compressed tiles; rocJPEG backend

✓

Philips TIFF, single-level JPEG

.tiff

JPEG-compressed tiles; rocJPEG backend

✓

OME-TIFF (multi-page, Z, T, or channel)

.tif, .tiff, .ome.tiff

Flat page list; JPEG tiles GPU-decoded; non-JPEG tiles CPU-decoded

Partial (JPEG tiles)

Generic multi-page TIFF

.tif, .tiff

Flat page list; JPEG tiles GPU-decoded

Partial (JPEG tiles)

Vectra-QPTIFF

.qptiff

Most files supported; 2/6 test files fail (proprietary variant)

Partial

NIfTI-1 (uncompressed)

.nii

CPU read; all NIfTI-1 data types supported

n/a

NIfTI-1 (gzip compressed)

.nii.gz

CPU read; libdeflate decompression

n/a

DICOM (uncompressed, single-frame)

.dcm

Explicit or Implicit VR Little-Endian; CPU read

n/a

DICOM (JPEG compressed, single-frame)

.dcm

Enabled by default (CUMED_DICOM_COMPRESSED=ON)

n/a

Note

SVS and TIFF decode (GPU and CPU fallback) is handled by the cuslide plugin, which loads librocjpeg.so.1 and its amdgpu VA-API driver at startup. If those libraries are unavailable the plugin fails to load and SVS and TIFF files cannot be read at all (Cannot find a plugin to handle '.svs'). See rocJPEG and the amdgpu VA-API driver for how the ROCm 10.0.0 pip packages provide them.

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