Comments on: OpenCL Gives Your Computer Wings

By: The End of x86 Domination: AMD Is Cool With That

The End of x86 Domination: AMD Is Cool With That — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:29:47 +0000

[...] the consumer side, the demand for graphics, which drove AMD’s purchase of ATI back in 2005, has taken the emphasis and even some of the [...]

By: Netbook Is Nothing But a Cheap PC

Netbook Is Nothing But a Cheap PC — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:27:16 +0000

[...] Huang says he will continue from investing more in R&D around his three core initiatives – GPU computing, mobile computing and visual [...]

By: Axure

Axure — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:14:54 +0000

A very interesting topic – but a sloppily written article.

Mike Ross, it depends how divisible certain tasks are. It’s like programming for multiple cores (hard in itself, as you have surely heard) brought to the next level. If you are able to separate out certain tasks that could run as separate threads/processes and that would actually benefit (!) from another architecture (like GPU), then it would undoubtedly make sense.

By: Netbooks and the Death of x86 Computing

Netbooks and the Death of x86 Computing — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:10:11 +0000

[...] everything from netbooks to mobile internet devices running on ARM processors. Other machines will offload more processing to the graphics processor. This is great for consumers, who will soon be able to choose a computer that fits their lifestyle, [...]

By: Marc’s Voice » Blog Archive » final 2008 blogging

Marc’s Voice » Blog Archive » final 2008 blogging — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:30:03 +0000

[...] The birth of OpenCL [...]

By: PIF

PIF — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 19:04:00 +0000

APPL is also introducing Grand Central which may (with OpenCL) do something about shared Core memory spaces – we’ll see.

By: Jeff Lebowski

Jeff Lebowski — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:49:48 +0000

@ Mike Ross:

Thanks for the informative post. From what you have revealed, it sounds like it will not improve the performance of real-time tasks. But, it seems like it still could be utilized to speed up tasks like rendering effects on digital photos and videos. Do you agree?

By: Mike Ross

Mike Ross — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 14:57:01 +0000

I’m excited about this technology too, but there’s one very vital limitation that few are talking about. Current CPU/GPU architectures have CPU/Cores and CPU/Cores each ONLY able to access their own memory space. This means that when OpenCL (with the block language extensions) executes code on a GPU/Core, it must first block copy memory to the GPU/Core and then after execution block copy the results back. The overhead of this option is minimal compared to the performance gain for moderate to deep mathematical computations, but becomes an issue with general computing logic. If OpenCL is used for general computing logic, it’s possible that it will execute slower than if only CPU/Cores are used. OpenCL is an important step, but until CPU/GPU have a shared memory space – GPU/Cores for general computing will be prohibitive.

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 00:37:11 +0000

Actually OpenCL will allow programmers to take advantage of any and all supported processing units/cores, not just CPUs and GPUs; this also includes DSPs and anything else that is designed for specialized tasks.