Intel Compute-Runtime Updated With DG2/Alchemist Support

Intel's open-source engineers today released the Compute-Runtime 21.47.21710 as their latest update to this open-source compute stack for Linux systems enabling their graphics processors to enjoy performant OpenCL and oneAPI Level Zero support.

Notable with today's Compute Runtime update is that v21.47.21710 is the first having DG2 "Alchemist" graphics card support in place. This goes along with other DG2/Alchemist enablement going on in the Linux kernel and Mesa, etc. When pairing the latest kernel now with Intel Compute-Runtime should yield preliminary support for OpenCL and oneAPI L0 on Alchemist but expect more refinements and optimizations to come over the months ahead.

Intel Arc DG2/Alchemist graphics cards are still expected for being announced in Q1'2022. By the time these graphics cards are widely available it's trending like the Linux graphics driver support should be in good shape if running an up-to-date distribution next year.

Intel's Compute Runtime 21.47.21710 update is also notable for using the newest Intel Graphics Compiler (IGC). Intel Graphics Compiler 1.0.9289 released earlier this week with many improvements to this LLVM-based graphics compiler as noted in that earlier article. The Intel Compute-Runtime release today is rounded out by having an updated GMMLIB memory management library, building against the latest kernel headers, and disabling device enqueue support for aging Broadwell hardware due to issues.

More details on this compute stack update along with the sources and Ubuntu pre-built binaries can be found via GitHub.