14 DAY TRIAL // WebGL may still be in the early stages, but there are already plans and initial work on the next stage WebCL project. While WebGL leverages GPU power for 3D graphics in the browser, WebCL is an attempt to make it possible for web pages and apps to access the GPU via the OpenCL standard, for general purpose computing.
WebCL would offer web developers access to great computing power for tasks different than 3D graphics, through standard JavaScript coding.
WebCL is very much in the early stages, but the first steps are being made.
The Khronos Group, which supervises OpenGL, OpenCL, WebGL and WebCL, is trying to ratify WebCL as a standard, but it is still very early in the process.
Granted, it didn't take too long for WebGL to become standard, so it shouldn't be much of a problem for WebCL either.
Already, some companies involved are making progress, the latest being Samsung which has provided a WebKit implementation of WebCL.
It's an experimental build and only works on Mac OS X with Nvidia cards, but it's a good sign of things to come.
"Samsung has just open sourced an implementation of 'WebCL' for WebKit. This is a prototype of a proposed WebCL standard that aims to define JavaScript APIs for OpenCL," Samsung's Gyuyoung Kim announced in a WebKit mailing list.
"We're interested in any feedback on the prototype and how it can be better integrated with WebKit," he added.
Samsung open-sourced the code, under a very permissive BSD license, and is providing it in a Google Code repository.
The challenge is now to take this prototype implementation and expand on it to not only make sure that it supports the full WebCL standard, but also that it works on all browsers and platforms leveraging WebKit.