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AMD APP 2.6 OpenCL SDK available for download: Includes OpenCL 1.2 and Static C++ Kernel preview

December 20, 2011 by Tony DeYoung

AMD APP SDK v2.6 is officially released. Key features supported in SDK 2.6 and the Catalyst 11.12 drivers include:

• OpenCL runtime integration into Linux and Windows Catalyst drivers.
• Inclusion of the Khronos C++ wrapper API.
• Multi-GPU support on Linux platforms.
• PX5 support.
• Preview: Support for AVX instructions on CPUs that support AVX.
• Support for FMA4 instructions in OpenCL built-in function libraries on CPUs that support FMA4.
• Kernel reflection, query kernel parameters, and enable use of OpenCL kernels in data-driven applications.
• Support for atomic counters on APUs.
• Redesign of OpenCL run-time on CPU, significantly improving performance.
• Support for the cl_amd_media_ops2 extension, exposing hardware capabilities for accelerating image-related processing.
• Async copies preview (set environment variable GPU_ASYNC_MEM_COPY=2 to enable).

The OpenCL 1.2 preview includes the following capabilities (requires 8.93.10 preview drivers):

• Host access flags for memory objects enables more efficient buffer handling.
• Pattern-based GPU buffer and image initialization eliminates need for certain buffer/image transfers.
• Memory objects migration supports early transfer of buffers in preparation for when they are needed.
• New generalized image creation API.
• Enhanced image/buffer map operations.
• OpenCL 1.2 CPU device partition, including partition of a CPU after addition to a context.
• Generalized 1D and 2D images, image arrays, and image<-->buffer interop.

The 8.93.10 preview drivers also enable use of the static C++ kernel language