Apple seeks to trademark OpenCL
updated 03:20 pm EST, Fri November 21, 2008
Apple OpenCL trademark
Apple has filed for a trademark on OpenCL technology, documents from the US Patent and Trademark Office show. The standard is intended to better distribute processing power on a computer, by using the normally segregated processing on a video card to help with tasks unrelated to graphics. Video cards can be extremely powerful, Apple notes, but only tend to maximize their use in certain applications, such as games.
A trademark is being sought under International Class 009, which revolves around computer software.
OpenCL is similar in concept to the CUDA technology developed by NVIDIA, but should be independent of any particular card or platform. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has in fact described OpenCL as "way beyond" code by NVIDIA or any other company. It is being overseen not just by Apple, however, but by the Khronos Group, which specializes in creating such APIs. Other companies participating in development of OpenCL include game publishers like Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts, numerous phone and computer hardware makers, and NVIDIA itself. Apple's implementation should first see public exposure in Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
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OpenCL is a horrible idea
OpenCL is a horrible idea. Macs already get sub-standard performance compared with Windows when running interactive virtual reality clients such as SecondLife and OpenLife. Now you're going to vampire the GPU and glom it in with the CPU? UGH! What's next, using the ethernet controller and USB controller for more CPU as well? In the end we'll just have a computer that's only a pure CPU and can only be a render node or something.
Look, Apple! GPU's exist FORAREASON!!! It's to be the GPU!!!!!
So now we're going to need a second GPU that's dedicated for graphics? Sigh. Was 8 cores of processor not enough for you people? Can't you leave well enough alone???