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AMD Releases Updated OpenCLSoftware Development Kit

News Editor: Tony Le Bourne Date: 08-08-2011 [ Print | 0 comment(s) ] Discuss in Forums

AMD opens the trottle on APU performance by updating the OpenCL SDK to take advantage of AMD's latest A-Series APUs.

PRESS RELEASE

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced availability of the AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing (APP) Software Development Kit (SDK) v2.5. Featuring advances in CPU to GPU data throughput, the latest version of the APP SDK provides developers a solid foundation to take full advantage of Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), including the latest AMD A-Series APUs offering brilliant HD graphics, supercomputer-like performance and All-Day battery life.

The AMD APP SDK helps developers quickly and easily tap into the power of GPU compute and parallel processing in heterogeneous computing platforms, building on the OpenCL™ industry standard to help developers reach a broader market by writing applications that run on a variety of device form factors.

The updated AMD APP SDK v2.5 delivers a key performance enhancement that reduces CPU to GPU bandwidth limitations, achieving effective data transfer rates as high as 15GB per second with the latest AMD A-Series APUs. In addition to raw performance, AMD A-Series APUs also enable advanced capabilities that can greatly enhance the computing experience such as gestural interfaces, multi-monitor support, 3D entertainment and real-time image stabilisation.[ii]

“Improving performance and programmability on AMD platforms is a key initiative for us, and we work closely with developers to help us make the APU the best possible development platform,” said Manju Hegde, corporate vice president, AMD Fusion Experience Program. “With these latest SDK refinements, we are supporting continued growth of the ecosystem and building on the momentum generated by the successful AMD Fusion Developer Summit held in June of this year.”

“With the introduction of the AMD A-Series APUs and these new enhancements to the SDK, AMD is removing hardware barriers and reducing coding complexity to help developers build immersive computing experiences,” said Graham Brown, chief technology officer, Corel Corporation. “Leveraging open standards, AMD has created a comprehensive platform developers can use to deploy all available compute power and deliver a significantly enhanced experience to multimedia consumers.”

Other features of the AMD APP SDK v2.5 include enhancements to the OpenCL runtime designed to enable more efficient use of available GPU compute capabilities by reducing kernel launch times and PCIe transfer overheads.

In addition, the AMD APP SDK provides broad multi-GPU support on Windows platforms including support for APU plus discrete GPU that enables compute performance scaling across multiple GPUs, as well as AMD PowerXpress™ technology support for APU plus discrete GPU.

The AMD APP SDK is being used by developers who have entered the AMD OpenCL Coding Competition, being run by software development leader TopCoder. This contest, which was announced in June at the AMD Fusion Developer Summit, is open to software developers worldwide, and up to $50,000 in prizes will be awarded to winning submissions. For more information, visit http://amd.topcoder.com.

For a full list of enhancements and to download AMD APP SDK v2.5 please visit: http://developer.amd.com/sdks/AMDAPPSDK/downloads/Pages/default.aspx.

Resources

· Download AMD APP SDK

· View AMD APP Showcase

· Visit AMD Developer Central

· Visit OpenCL Zone

· Follow AMD on Twitter @AMD_Unprocessed and @AMDSoftware

Tagged as: AMD, openCL, APU, Llano, bobcat, FM1, SDK, GPGPU

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