ARM Mali GPU passes conformance tests for OpenCL 1.1 Full Profile

[caveman-jim]

An ARM blog today details how HSA Foundation founder member ARM has detailed the OpenCL compliance of their Mali GPU

Full Profile is the ubiquitous implementation today: all desktops, laptops and servers that support OpenCL implement Full Profile. This means that all OpenCL developers produce code targeting Full Profile. This is what they are accustomed to, ever since OpenCL was first introduced over 4 years ago.

Existing OpenCL software has been written for Full Profile platforms, therefore assuming the presence of a large amount of features that are optional in Embedded Profile. The list of optional features is detailed in the Khronos specification. The most important ones include:

• Native support for 64-bit integer maths (including vector data types and operations). Implementing 64-bit arithmetic directly in hardware on the Mali-T600 Series of GPUs makes it radically faster and more efficient than software emulation. This helps in areas such as pointer arithmetic for large address spaces (making you future proof for the post 4 GByte world), and can benefits many applications including multimedia encoders, decoders and encryption software.
• Hardware accelerated support for 3D images. Great for volumetric modelling.
• Compliance to IEEE 754-2008 precision. That means your code will get the same accuracy on a Mali-T600 Series GPU as any other Full Profile conformant platform.
• Built-in atomic functions accelerated in hardware. OpenCL is about parallel computation, a world where atomic operations (and barriers/fences – these are also implemented in hardware on Mali-T600) are commonplace. Resolving this in hardware is far more efficient that any sort of emulation or expensive external memory synchronization.

Well, we are very excited about it, and today we are proud to announce this landmark achievement: The Mali-T600 series of processors bring mainstream GPU Computing to the embedded and mobile markets... with no compromises.

Read the full blog here.