The OpenCL Library Ecosystem
Karl Rupp · 2016
OpenCL as an open standard for parallel programming of heterogeneous systems seems to be an attractive choice for software library implementations. Indeed, iwocl.org1 lists 83 OpenCL-enabled libraries as of February 12, 2016, suggesting a healthy library ecosystem. On closer inspection, however, a significant share of these libraries are either OpenCL bindings for other languages, libraries with OpenCL features in experimental state at best, or orphaned. Clearly, there is room for improvement; but what is required to improve the state of the OpenCL-enabled library ecosystem? Which future extensions to OpenCL can make library development easier? This talk aims to stimulate discussion by sharing lessons learnt in the area of high performance computing through the development of ViennaCL2.