Otoy has ported the CUDA language to run on AMD, Intel, and ARM GPUs for the first time ever. That means any application written in CUDA can run, without modification, on all major chipsets and platforms. While there is an independent GPGPU standard dubbed OpenCL, it isn’t necessarily as good as CUDA, Otoy believes.
Jules Urbach, chief executive of Los Angeles-based Otoy, said in an exclusive interview with GamesBeat that Nvidia’s CUDA language is superior and enables much richer graphics software. Hence, OpenCL hasn’t provided a true market alternative to CUDA. That’s why building the CUDA “cross compiler” was an important task. And Urbach said the Otoy research and development team was able to do it in 9 weeks.
“We have been able to do this without changing a line of CUDA code, and it runs on AMD chips,” Urbach said. “You can now program once and take CUDA everywhere. AMD has never really been able to provide an alternative.”
