AMD releases OpenCL SDK

August 7, 2009 | 08:36

Tags: #cuda #gpgpu #gpu #opencl #stream #windows

Companies: #amd #khronos-group

Note: This article states that the latest version of Stream SDK includes support for GPU acceleration in OpenCL, which is incorrect and was an error that wasn't picked up before publication. Please see the following article which is an addendum to the original article you see below.

ATI Stream SDK 2.0 beta 2 lacks OpenCL GPU support

- Tim


If you're a programmer with an ATI graphics card, you'll be pleased to hear that the latest beta of AMD's Stream SDK 2.0 package features the company's first publicly released OpenCL development tools.

As reported over on V3.co.uk, the beta package builds on the already-released Stream SDK 1.4 by adding OpenCL support in Windows XP, Vista, and Linux - officially openSUSE 11.0 or higher and Ubuntu 8.04 or higher, but others should be unofficially supported.

The introduction of OpenCL support into the Stream SDK promises to make the development of GPU accelerated and multi-threaded applications easier, allowing programmers to create cross-platform applications with ease.

Although this is the first version of the Stream SDK to introduce support for the OpenCL standard, it's far from the first application to make use of it in order to offload intensive processing tasks: since the Khronos Group unveiled version 1.0 of the specification late last year several technologies have been ported to utilise it, including accelerated versions of the Havok physics engine and the promise of HD upscaling for your DVDs.

In order to ensure the adherence to specification of this latest beta, AMD has sent the conformance logs to the Khronos Group for validation. Once received, programmers should be able to start using the beta without the fear that some mis-implemented part of the OpenCL specification will throw them off course.

Do you believe that the future of computing lies on the GPU, or does the CPU simply need to get more efficient? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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