AMD releases new open source software development kit

AMD has just announced the availability of the ATI Stream Software Development Kit (SDK) v2.2 with full OpenCL 1.1. The newly released open source kit will give developers a means to create next generation applications by harnessing the power of both the CPU and GPU. This will in turn improve the ability to create programs that utilize 3D video, HD video chat, multi-display 3D gaming, and more.

"Availability of the ATI Stream SDK v2.2 with OpenCL 1.1 support is a great example of how CPU and GPU technology continues to mature and usher in next-generation computing experiences, where voice, touch, gesture and facial recognition capabilities are common, everyday features," said Patricia Harrell, director of Stream Computing, AMD.

"The enhancements in the ATI Stream SDK v2.2 are especially important due to the support for OpenCL 1.1, which is integral to the forthcoming AMD Fusion family of APUs. These tools allow the developer community to take advantage of heterogeneous computing architectures both today and tomorrow."

The new tool in addition to supporting OpenCL 1.1, also includes support for Ubuntu 10.04 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5. Additional details can be found below.

• Support for the OpenCL 1.1 specification, ratified in June 2010, providing developers with the ability to take full advantage of the new features OpenCL 1.1 brings
• Extended operating system support, including Ubuntu® 10.04, Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 5.5
• Increased hardware support including x86 CPUs with SSE2.x or later, allowing users to run OpenCL applications on a greater variety of CPUs
• Additional support for Linux and Windows compilers, including GNU Compiler Collection 4.1 or later, Microsoft® Visual Studio® (MSVS) 2010 Professional Edition and Minimalist GNU (GCC 4.4) for Windows (MinGW)
• Single-channel format support for OpenCL images, providing developers with greater flexibility to access the caches on the GPU
• Support for OpenCL and DirectX® 10 interoperability increasing overall efficiency when displaying computed results to the user
• Support for additional double-precision floating points routines in OpenCL kernels to enable greater computational accuracy in HPC and scientific based applications.

With open source tools such as this being offered to the development community, it could greatly improve the performance and efficiency of future applications.