What programming APIs exist for GPGPU?
Current GPGPU programming must use graphics APIs: OpenGL and Direct3D. OpenGL tends to be favored in the academic community due to the platform portability it allows and due to its extension mechanism, which lets vendors add new features to the API as soon as the hardware supports those features (rather than waiting on Microsoft to release a new version of DirectX). DirectX/Direct3D, on the other hand, tends to be favored in the computer game industry, where dependence on Windows is not a particular impediment. In practice, either API works perfectly well for GPGPU, and which one you use is simply a matter of personal preference. A few GPGPU-friendly streaming languages, such as Brook, Sh, and Microsoft’s Accelerator have been developed to insulate developers from the graphics APIs as much as possible. Brook is actively supported in the GPGPU.org Forums. Sh has evolved into a commercial effort (with a very unrestricted academic license) called RapidMind, targetting multicore CPUs, the
