OpenCL API Released

There is a new news item posted at »ASE Labs

»OpenCL API Released

Great news for everyone regarding open GPU calculations. Khronos has released the OpenCL API in record time. <a href="http://www.khronos.org/registry/cl/">OpenCL is the open computing language that allows graphics cards to handle calculations that would otherwise have been done on the general purpose CPU</a>. This will usher a huge wave in innovation. No longer will there be fragmented specific APIs (CUDA, GPGPU), instead we have an API that will run every architecture.

The people behind the standard come from many companies including AMD, Intel, Nvidia and others. This is the type of thing that gets the industry moving.

Please add your comments below.

So, what is the difference between this and OpenGL?

I hate saying this, but did you read the summary?

It is an API to allow general purpose calculations to be done on the GPU instead of the CPU.

Granted, since the GPU is a big ass FPU, it will be relegated to math and physics functions, I'm sure.

I read the summary, I just didn't get what it meant. I wasn't sure what it meant by "calculations."

So basically instead of the CPU Handaling, say a Word Process The GPU Would?