Intel OpenCL NEO Driver Becoming Available For Ubuntu 19.04 & Debian

In February of 2018 Intel open-sourced their new OpenCL Linux driver dubbed "NEO" that is the replacement to their long-standing "Beignet" OpenCL driver. This modern OpenCL stack is on its way now to the repositories of Ubuntu and Debian distributions.

OpenCL NEO is a much more capable driver than the Beignet code that now has been effectively unmaintained going back to the end of 2017. NEO relies upon LLVM as part of its compiler stack and is exposing OpenCL 2.1~2.2 functionality.

While Beignet has long been available for Ubuntu/Debian users, the OpenCL NEO support is finally becoming available. Canonical graphics packager Timo Aaltonen recently begun packaging the necessary components to make the Intel OpenCL NEO driver available with the upcoming Ubuntu 19.04 "Disco Dingo" as well as upstream Debian.

At the moment the new intel-opencl driver is available via the canonical-x/x-staging PPA but the hope is to have it in the archive in time for this month's Ubuntu 19.04 debut. The Debian packages meanwhile are still in the new queue. Details on Timo's blog.

It's been some months since I last tried out Intel's OpenCL NEO driver, so it looks like another thing to add to my TODO list.