AMD Delivers First OpenCL SDK for x86 CPUs

Sunnyvale, California-based Advanced Micro Devices has announced today the availability of a free OpenCL for CPU beta download, part of the company's ATI Stream SDK v2.0 Beta Program. According to the world's second largest chip maker, the newly released beta is meant to help programmers develop parallel software applications and take advantage of its multi-core x86 processors to deliver a better computing experience. AMD added that it had already submitted the conformance logs from its Windows and Linux CPU beta releases to the Khronos Working Group for certification.

“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,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Products Group. “AMD is supporting OpenCL with our ATI Stream SDK as an enabler of wider GPGPU adoption among developers and users.”

According to AMD, its OpenCL for CPU beta, which will be part of the next ATI Stream software development kit (SDK), expected later this year, is a key element of the complete OpenCL platform. The company is the first to officially unveil a beta release of an OpenCL SDK for the x86-based CPUs, an effort that demonstrates the chip maker's commitment to deliver a heterogeneous OpenCL development platform for both the CPU and the GPU.

AMD is the only industry player that can provide users with both high-performance CPU and GPU technologies and products. The chip maker is part of the Khronos Group and stays committed to give developers a choice for building their applications to divide software workloads between the CPU and GPU, consequently increasing performance and providing the end-user with a better computing experience. People interested in the matter can sign-up for the ATI Stream SDK v2.0 Beta program, following this link.