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[dravisher]

How do they fit together / which does what?

Hello. I'm just curious what the relationship is between the SKD releases and the Catalyst driver releases. How does it fit together?

My understanding is that the SDK releases include the OpenCL compiler (and headers and library), but what does it compile to? Does it compile directly to assembly code for the relevant device, or does it compile to IL, and then the driver further compiles the IL code to assembly?

Are there performance / correctness improvements in the drivers between SDK releases, or does the SDK do everything?

Just curios. If this is already explained somewhere or someone can give a quick overview that would be great 🙂

[nou]

http://developer.amd.com/gpu/ATIStreamSDK/pages/DriverCompatibility.aspx

for my understanding clc compiler in SDK compile directly to x86 assembly for CPU and IL code for GPU. then AMD OpenCL implementation use CAL (as for everything else) to compile this IL code into ISA/assembly for targeted GPU.

[dravisher]

So is CAL a part of the driver, not the SDK release? So we will see improvements in the IL->Assembly compiler with driver releases, while the OpenCL->IL compiler is improved with SDK releases?

[nou]

AFAIK yes.

[MicahVillmow]

nou is correct.
CAL and now OpenCL are part of the driver releases as long as you get the 'APP' version. The SDK is what you will need to develop, not what you will need to run an application.