AMD revealed that it is offering a free OpenCL for CPU beta download as part of the ATI Stream SDK v2.0 Beta Program. The company claimed that the beta will help programmers to more easily develop parallel software programs and take further advantage of multi-core x86 CPUs to accelerate software and deliver a better computing experience.
OpenCL (Open Computing Language) is an open and royalty-free programming standard for general-purpose computations on heterogeneous systems. The company said OpenCL allows programmers to preserve their expensive source code investment and easily target both multi-core CPUs and the latest GPUs, such as those from AMD.
According to AMD, OpenCL for CPU beta is a key component of the complete OpenCL development platform included in the next ATI Stream software development kit (SDK), which is expected later in 2009. By supporting OpenCL, ATI Stream technology lets developers divide software workloads between different hardware elements, such as the CPU and GPU, to efficiently execute their application.
Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager of AMD Products Group, siad: “By supporting multi-core CPUs and GPUs with our OpenCL environment, AMD gives developers easy access to both processing resources, so they can efficiently write cross-platform applications for heterogeneous architectures with a single programming interface. AMD is supporting OpenCL with our ATI Stream SDK as an enabler of wider GPGPU adoption among developers and users.”
