OpenCL isn't a replacement for more CPUs. It is wonderful though.
Hi Greg;
OpenCL will be great for apps that can leverage the GPU but unfortunately not all apps can. However as things firm up in the GPGPU community a GPU accelerated app will put the old Crays to shame. The OpenCL world is just getting started though and Nvidias Fermi should get things rolling. It is just important to realize that a lot of appps that can leverage GCD will never touch a GPU.
Speaking of Apple's technologies in Snow Leopard it seems you are forgetting about another huge one. OpenCL.
I didn't forget because it means far less to the average user than having the optimal number of CPAus does. OpenCL is fantastic for the apps that can leverage it but not all will.
Once OpenCL comes into it's own you will be better off putting multiple graphics cards in your computer than cores.
The question is what apps will leverage multiple GPU cards in a Mac. Some will I know this, but that doesn't imply most will.
Besides OpenCL suitable hardware is still maturing. Fermi will be the first series of GPUs design with a strong focus on OpenCL like usage. So I don't expect OpenCL to come all that quick, it is a tech that will slowly mature outside of the already known big wins.
GCD is minor as far as i'm concerned when comparing to the potential of OpenCL.
This is simply wrong without being qualified. The potential for good exploitation of those GPU resources is highly dependant on the problem at hand. Some things GPUs just don't do well or don't do well on current hardware. Basically to get these often quote wondeful results, you have to have a problem that fits the hardware well.
So instead of complaining about the lack of cores in a machine people will start to realize that processors should've and could've plateaued at core 2 duo while increasing the number of graphics cards instead.
this is simply wrong and doesn't even acknowledge how computers work. GPU computing is extremely limited in what it can do. Where as putting a quad core into a machine can benefit the user in multiple ways. Not only would a Quad core help those highly threaded apps it benefits the system outside of the app currently getting user attention. Plus your statements fly in the face of research that indicates that the SMP plateau will be hit at a much higher core count.
I really don't think you realize how GPU computing works with respect to the system and what those GPUs are optimized to do. GPU computing is great for certain sorts of math heavy computations or highly parallel operations. Give a GPU a branch bit of non parallel math and it will often end up being slower than an Intel CPU. I'd suggest going to Mac Research dot org and looking at some of the podcasts there.
Dave
