Re: [Boost-users] [boost] Boost.Compute v0.1 Released

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] [boost] Boost.Compute v0.1 Released
From: Kyle Lutz (kyle.r.lutz_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-03-17 11:29:27

On Sun, Mar 16, 2014 at 6:10 PM, Rhys Ulerich <rhys.ulerich_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 16, 2014 at 7:03 PM, Kyle Lutz <kyle.r.lutz_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>> Boost.Compute is a GPGPU and parallel-programming library based on
>> OpenCL. It provides an STL-like API and implements many common
>> containers (e.g. vector<T>, array<T, N>) as well as many common
>> algorithms (e.g. sort(), accumulate(), transform()). A full list can
>> be found in the header reference [3].
>
> Besides the OpenGL niceness and STLishness, is there a reason to
> prefer Boost.Compute over alternatives targeted at OpenCL/CUDA
> numerics?    There's already been much work in this space [1],
> including VexCL [2] which many of my collaborators like.  While there
> is an answer in the FAQ [3], it seems dodgy as clearly VexCL could not
> presently be built on Boost.Compute since the latter does not support
> for CUDA while the former does.

Good point. That FAQ entry was written before VexCL added its CUDA
back-end (which occurred relatively recently). Boost.Compute and VexCL
have different aims and scopes. Boost.Compute is more similar to the
C++ STL while VexCL is more similar to a linear algebra library like
Eigen. Also see this StackOverflow question [1] entitled "Differences
between VexCL, Thrust, and Boost.Compute".

-kyle

[1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20154179/differences-between-vexcl-thrust-and-boost-compute