Advanced Micro Devices, the only designer of both leading-edge microprocessors and graphics processors, said that its new software development kit (SDK) for OpenCL application programming interface (API) supports both x86 chips as well as graphics processing units (CPUs). The new SDK will ensure that next-generation programs will take advantage of both product types AMD provides.

“AMD offers the market both high-performance CPU and GPU technology, and as such we are delivering on this unique ability to provide an OpenCL platform that enables developers to create applications that run the way they were meant to be run, on all the available processors in the system,” said Terry Makedon, a manager for software products at ATI, graphics business unit at AMD.

With the beta release of its ATI Stream Software Development Kit (SDK) v2.0, featuring OpenCL 1.0 support, AMD provides a free set of tools software developers can use to create applications that are accelerated by ATI Radeon HD graphics processing units (GPUs) and any multi-core x86 central processing units that support SSE3 working together, which should ensure smooth performance. The ATI Stream SDK v2.0 is certified compliant with OpenCL 1.0 by the Khronos Working Group.

Even though AMD’s ATI Stream SDK 2.0 supports both central processors and graphics processors, at present AMD does not offer OpenCL drivers for end-users that support both CPUs and GPUs.

Tags: AMD, ATI, Radeon, x86, OpenCL, GPGPU