Intel's OpenCL SDK brings open source parallel programming to the Windows platform.

Intel has just released an alpha of its OpenCL SDK, an implementation of OpenCL* 1.1 optimised for Intel multi-core processors under Windows 7/Vista.

OpenCL is an open source language aimed at making general purpose parallel programming easier.  Currently the alpha software only supports 32-bit processors and it only works with Visual Studio 2008 (or via the command line). It also includes some optional extensions:

1. Out-of-order Execution model
2. Execution of native kernels
3. Image support
4. Compiler optimization options
5. Double precision floating point support
6. Creating OpenCL* context from an OpenGL context or share group
7. Sharing memory objects with OpenGL* or OpenGL* ES buffers, texture and render bigger objects

It also comes with some tools - VTune, Graphics performance analyzer, the offline compiler and printf support.

The samples included with the SDK are:

• Dot Product
  Demonstrates how to compute a dot product of two float4 arrays and writes the result to a float array
• Bitonic Sort
  Demonstrates how to sort an arbitrary input array of integer values with OpenCL using Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) bitonic sorting networks.
• God Rays
  Demonstrates how to use high dynamic range (HDR) rendering with God Rays (crepuscular rays) in OpenCL.
• Median Filter
  Demonstrates how to use a median filter in OpenCL.

More information: Intel OpenCL SDK
Download: Download Intel OpenCL SDK