The OpenCL specification that the Khronos Group has been working on for the past six months has been ratified, which is good news for Apple since it makes up one of the key features in the up coming Mac OS X 10.6 release. The Apple-backed specification will let applications run more efficiently by taking advantage of a computer's video processor along with computer's main processor chips.
Khronos Group put the specification on a fast track schedule after it was announced six months ago in order to have it ready for Apple's planned release of Mac OS X 10.6, or Snow Leopard, in early 2009. Apple, however, won't be the only company to benefit from the specification since it is available to other computer and handheld device makers, too.
Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering, commented "We are excited about the industry-wide support for OpenCL. Apple developed OpenCL so that any application in Snow Leopard, the next major version of Mac OS X, can harness an amazing amount of computing power previously available only to graphics applications."
Khronos Group announced the proposed standard in mid November, but couldn't show off any details until the companies backing the standard finished their review process.
OpenCL is backed by a long list of technology companies including 3DLABS, Activision Blizzard, AMD, Electronic Arts, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, NVIDIA, Texas Instruments and more.