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As I understand it AMD and Nouvoue are implementing OpenCL support using the Gallium3D state tracker.
Intel however, instead of using the Gallium3D state tracker and sharing code with AMD and Nouvoue so we can have a common OpenCL implementation shared by all drivers, they're making their own OpenCL implementation outside of Gallium3D that will only be used by themselves.
This is unfortunate, but probably inevitable when you employ more people to work on something than all of your competitors combined.
Is Intel implementing their own API, like NVIDIA CUDA? Or is this a free extension made to leverage OpenCL APIs but without Gallium?
As I understand it AMD and Nouvoue are implementing OpenCL support using the Gallium3D state tracker.
Intel however, instead of using the Gallium3D state tracker and sharing code with AMD and Nouvoue so we can have a common OpenCL implementation shared by all drivers, they're making their own OpenCL implementation outside of Gallium3D that will only be used by themselves.
I suspect that this is at least partially to support embedded systems. Having OpenCL makes a lot of sense for some embedded applications and linking in vendor specific libraries (e.g. Intel's ipp and mkl) that match the target CPU you've picked is a common approach. Since AMD has been implementing OpenCL on their Fusion APUs perhaps Intel is getting some market pressure to do something similar. Nvidia's CUDA is the 800lb proprietary gorilla here so I fail to see how supporting an open API is a bad thing. Also, see the article 'Intel's Mesa Team Has Grown About 10x In Three Years'. Its possible we're seeing disjoint pieces of some larger strategy so its WAY to soon to grab out pitchforks and storm the castle over this.
Yeah, talk about splitting hairs, for Linus' sake! Intel is producing, as usual, an open source solution for Linux. They honor the standard APIs. But they choose a path that doesn't seem the best in terms of code reuse by other OS partners. But hey, they need to move quickly and chase NVIDIA, I would assume that they assessed the situation and chose what they feel best works for them. Was that soooo bad, really? Chill, my friends, chill!
I suspect that this is at least partially to support embedded systems. Having OpenCL makes a lot of sense for some embedded applications and linking in vendor specific libraries (e.g. Intel's ipp and mkl) that match the target CPU you've picked is a common approach. Since AMD has been implementing OpenCL on their Fusion APUs perhaps Intel is getting some market pressure to do something similar. Nvidia's CUDA is the 800lb proprietary gorilla here so I fail to see how supporting an open API is a bad thing. Also, see the article 'Intel's Mesa Team Has Grown About 10x In Three Years'. Its possible we're seeing disjoint pieces of some larger strategy so its WAY to soon to grab out pitchforks and storm the castle over this.
If Intel does not like Gallium3D for whatever reason, then they are free to write their own things.
I find it funny when someone assumes a critic is equal to "OH, GOD, BAN THEM FROM LIFE!!!". They are free to do whatever they like, and people are free to like or dislike such things. And that leads to controversy. Some people will probably like it, and some people will probably dislike it. And there's people in between, like me.
On my post, which I wrote drunk and missed a few facts, I want to point out that another reason I didn't talk about is the fact that they already invested lots of work on their classic mesa driver, so it's normal they don't want to ditch it. The corporate reasons are still something pretty much likely, and partially fair to the companies (probably not the users, but to the companies, since they don't help Intel either when working on their closed source drivers). And considering how they help a lot on infrastructure pieces, they do help a lot of competitors' products users.
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