Opencl apps

[wh2332]

My Dad has a first generation Macbook Air, and he is concerned about Opencl. Will a non Opencl capable computer be able to run Opencl apps? or are these just incompatible? can someone explain

 

[vanc]

At least you cannot run OpenCL on non-compatible Macs in SL. It requires compatible GPUs (8600GT or above). OpenCL is designed to run on heterogeneous platforms. But with CPU emulation on the limited 2 cores, it won't be good.

Probably after MBP got 4 cores in the future, Apple could support mixed CPU+GPU in OpenCL.

 

[ayeying]

OpenCL is just an extension, not a requirement. You can run OpenCL programs on non-openCL based systems, as long as the program is written to allow it.

The only program that I can think of would have a problem is folding that's openCL specific.

There aren't any real OpenCL based programs for Macs yet. Windows, the only thing I can think of is Boinc.

 

[wh2332]

So most apps will still run on his MBA, they just won't use opencl for the performance boost.

Thanks

 

[uaecasher]

OpenCL is just an extension, not a requirement. You can run OpenCL programs on non-openCL based systems, as long as the program is written to allow it.

The only program that I can think of would have a problem is folding that's openCL specific.

There aren't any real OpenCL based programs for Macs yet. Windows, the only thing I can think of is Boinc.

Nero?