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Re: Mathematica 8

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg113923] Re: Mathematica 8
• From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
• Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2010 07:05:05 -0500 (EST)

If that response cited AMD, then I apologize for missing it. If not, 
then it's no wonder I didn't see the connection to AMD graphics cards.

In any event, the support for OpenCL, as implemented at the GPU end by 
AMD graphics cards, seems to be getting a decidedly secondary -- indeed, 
perhaps, nearly hidden -- mention in the publicity for Mathematica 8.

Thus in the "News" area overlaying http://wolfram.com, one sees 
"Pioneering Free-Form Linguistic Input"; "Revolutionizing ePublishing", 
and "Simplifying CUDA Programming".  And the last-mentioned itemsays 
nothing about AMD or OpenCL and has a link to a wihte paper on .

If you look at the page http://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/new-in-8/, 
then you do see a reference to CUDA and OpenCL finally.  And on the 
target of that link, finally reference to AMD, too.

I'd like to see some discussion in this group about 
advantages/disadvantages of CUDA vs. OpenCL, especially when used in 
conjunction with Mathematica 8?  I'll have to upgrade my hardware from 
an ATI board that's too old to support OpenCL, so I want to choose 
wisely between ATI and nVidia, with now Mathematica 8 in the picture.

On 11/17/2010 9:10 AM, John Fultz wrote:
> I also indicated (just a few words after the part of my response you quoted)
> that v8 supports OpenCL.  Many AMD cards support OpenCL.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> John Fultz
> jfultz at wolfram.com
> User Interface Group
> Wolfram Research, Inc.
>
>
> On Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:31:17 -0500 (EST), Murray Eisenberg wrote:
>> Does ATI/AMD offer anything like CUDA that might be the target of future
>> Mathematica development?
>>
>> I ask because I'd hate to think I'd be condemned to using ATI/AMD
>> graphics cards to take advantage of the GPU from Mathematica. I say this
>> since my experience over many years is that nVidia graphics drivers have
>> been less stable than ATI drivers. (But that's just my own experience,
>> and of course others' may vary.)
>>
>> On 11/16/2010 5:05 AM, John Fultz wrote:
>>
>>> Other new features related to this functionality include support for
>>> CUDA
>
>

-- 
Murray Eisenberg                     murray at math.umass.edu
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower      phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts                413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street            fax   413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305