Khronos Releases OpenCL Spec 115
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."
Re:what does it DO? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:what does it DO? (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.
Re:what does it DO? (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 [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?
Re:what does it DO? (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, there is a CUDA driver and SDK for Linux on NVIDIA's site: http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_get.html
math co-proc have always been there! (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.
Re:what does it DO? (Score:4, Informative)
CUDA is already doing great things in molecular dynamics, which bears some similarity to FEA:
HOOMD Benchmarks [ameslab.gov]
A single 8800 GTX reaching 75% of the performance of a 32 node cluster isn't bad. I imagine the GTX 280 would easily beat the cluster.
Re:Great! (Score:1, Informative)
Sorry, your joke is that the utility functions exactly as documented? Really?
Re:what does it DO? (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 [amd.com] from SIGGRAPH 2008. Demo and screen shots here: Froblins Demo [amd.com]
Re:what does it DO? (Score:1, Informative)
I about 99% sure that the 8800/9800 series are single precision, and gt260/280 have double precision. I'd guess everything beyond 260/280 will have double precision, but you never know.
Re:what does it DO? (Score:2, Informative)
This isn't necessary for that because modern GPUs already have dedicated hardware for video decode [slashdot.org].
Re:what does it DO? (Score:1, Informative)
Oh, and you need floating point exceptions, not silent over/underflow.
Otherwise you get nonsense out the other end and have to start over.
I've yet to see a graphics card that's fully IEEE-compliant.
Re:That's nice (Score:1, Informative)
It's in the spec as an extension. The feature will appear when hardware implements it.