opencl OpenCL basic setup
Introduction
Before utilizing OpenCL, one has to set up their code to use it. This topic focuses on how to get opencl up and running in your project and execute a basic kernel. The examples are based on the C# wrapper OpenCL.NET but as the wrapper adds no abstraction to OpenCL the code will probably run with very few changes on C/C++ aswell.
Calls in C# may look as follows: 'Cl.GetPlatformIDs'. For the C-Style OpenCL Api you would call 'clGetPlatformIDs' and for the C++ style one 'cl::GetPlatformIDs'
Remarks
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NVidia, AMD and Intel have slightly different implementations of OpenCL but the known differences are (for my experience) limited to parenthesis requirements and implicit casts. Sometimes NVidia will crash your kernel while trying to figure out the correct overload for a method. In this case it helps to offer an explicit cast to aid the GPU. The problem was observed for runtime-compiled kernels.
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To get more information on the used calls in this topic, it is enough to google 'OpenCL ' followed by the function name. The Khronos group has a complete documentation on all parameters and datatypes available on their website.
