Contexts, Programs and Kernels

The package CL.Contexts

The first object you have to create in order to use any OpenCL functionality is a context, which is a container for the data and kernels you’ll work with. You can create a context for use with one or multiple OpenCL devices.

The package CL.Programs

You compile your OpenCL C code into a Program object. The source can either be passed as string or loaded from a file. After successful compilation, you can also query the compiled binaries and cache them somewhere so you don’t need to compile them again later. Note that the binaries are platform-dependent. You have to associate your programs with a context.

You have to explicitly build your program by calling Build after loading the sources. You can query the status of your program with Status.

The package CL.Kernels

The entry point(s) of your program are so-called kernels. They can be data-parallel (executed mulitple times on a set of identical data) and task-parallel (execution of multiple different kernels at the same time).

After loading a kernel from a Program object, you have to set its parameters. For parameters of scalar or vector OpenCL types, use the generic function Set_Kernel_Argument instantiated with the desired type and argument index (0-based). If you want to pass an OpenCL object (e.g. a buffer or picture) to the kernel, use Set_Kernel_Argument_Object instead.