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Khronos Releases OpenCL Spec

Posted by kdawson on from the fast-work dept.

kpesler writes "Today, the Khronos Group released the OpenCL API specification (which we discussed earlier this year). It provides an open API for executing general-purpose code kernels on GPUs — so-called GPGPU functionality. Initially bolstered by Apple, the API garnered the support of major players including NVIDIA, AMD/ATI, and Intel. Motivated by inclusion in OS X Snow Leopard, the spec was completed in record time — about half a year from the formation of the group to the ratified spec."

10 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. what does it DO? by Bizzeh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    is this simply a spec that people expect ati and nvidia to conform to? or is this another api outside of CUDA and CAL, that wraps the two up so that a single api can execute code on all GPGPU's?

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    portfolio
    1. Re:what does it DO? by u38cg · · Score: 4, Informative

      No it basically turns your graphics card into a general purpose floating point number cruncher, which is potentially useful for all sorts of things (although I predict Moore's Law will in a few years render it as obsolete as the maths co-processor).

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      [FUCK BETA]
    2. Re:what does it DO? by san · · Score: 5, Informative

      is this simply a spec that people expect ati and nvidia to conform to? or is this another api outside of CUDA and CAL, that wraps the two up so that a single api can execute code on all GPGPU's?

      It's the latter: a single API + kernel language for any GPU. Because both NVIDIA and AMD are represented in the contributor list, it actually has a chance of being adopted.

    3. Re:what does it DO? by moogord · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It has applications further than that, the SIMD architecture of gpus makes them almost perfect as a hugely powerful non general purpose processor. Do you want to use this to handle AI? no. do you want to use this to enable millions of crates to go flying every which way when you fire a rocket? yes. Its essentially what glsl is to Nvidia's Cg, but instead of cg its an open (that's the important thing) CUDA replacement.

    4. Re:what does it DO? by mikrorechner · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's the latter: a single API + kernel language for any GPU. Because both NVIDIA and AMD are represented in the contributor list, it actually has a chance of being adopted.

      According to heise.de (in German), nVidia says that OpenCL applications will run seamlessly on any gpus with a CUDA-compliant driver. Does anyone know if that applies to the proprietary Linux drivers?

      If this really takes off, how long until the hardworking people from the x.264 or VLC or ffmpeg or mplayer projects can write a H.264/AVC decoder that uses the GPU?

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      "Oh, a lesson in not changing history from Mr I'm-my-own-Grandpa." - Dr Hubert Farnsworth
    5. Re:what does it DO? by chris_oat · · Score: 4, Informative

      Do you want to use this to handle AI?

      It depends on what kind of AI you are talking about. Path finding actually maps nicely to the GPU. AMD released a demo that showcases this by running a path finding simulation on the GPU for several tens of thousands of agents. Read all about it in Chapter 3 the Advanced Real-Time Rendering course notes from SIGGRAPH 2008. Demo and screen shots here: Froblins Demo

  2. I hope this becomes a cross-platform thing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's no way I'm writing a single line of CUDA code when it only works with nVidia hardware, and I think there are a lot of other people like me. This could open up GPGPU programming to a much wider group of programmers.

  3. Re:yeah... by CarpetShark · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes, but you get 2**256 very tiny virtual consoles on screen, each with only 128bits of ram. On the up side, every console can be at a slightly different angle, with different specularity.

  4. math co-proc have always been there! by malaba · · Score: 4, Informative

    they just have been integrated into the main chip

    by 486 era if I remember correctly.

    By that time they had enough transistor to just put everything inside the same silicon chip, faster, cheaper.

    Today, every CPU have an IEEE floating point unit.
    To say we don't have maths co-proc is misleading.

  5. Re:Great! by robthebloke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think the OP meant, "If they could finally get around to ratifying an openGL 3.1 specification in 6 months (instead of being 2 or 3 years late as GL3.0 was); turn it into a useful standard that people actually want to use (which GL3.0 is not); and finally make good on all the things we were promised for 3.0, which they ended up ditching at the last minute. If that happens linux/mac openGL developers around the world will feel less dirty than they do right now"....

    He wasn't implying anything about windows + GL as such, more making the observation that openGL is vital to Mac/linux - and as such those OS's are very much at the mercy of the Khronos group's actions (or more accurately - no action at all as was the case with GL3).