pycl 0.1a2

What is PyCL?

PyCL is yet another OpenCL wrapper for Python. Its primary goal is simple: wrap OpenCL in such a way that as many Python implementations can use it as feasible. It is currently tested on CPython 2.{5,6,7}, 3.2, and PyPy 1.5. It is known to largely not work on Jython, whose ctypes library is still immature.

To achieve this, we eschew extension modules and dependencies outside of the standard library. Ideally things like NumPy arrays and PIL images should Just Work, but they shouldn’t be required.

If you’re looking to get actual work done in OpenCL, this probably isn’t the distribution for you… yet. Before considering using PyCL for anything, give PyOpenCL a look. Its API is stable, its wrapper layer is fast C++, and it has fairly reasonable dependencies.

If you’re looking to contribute, or just get the latest development release, take a look at our repository.

Installation

It’s on PyPI, so installation should be as easy as:

pip install pycl
      -or-
easy_install pycl

But it’s a single module and there’s nothing to compile, so downloading it from PyPI or the repository and using it directly works too.

To actually use it, though, you’ll need an OpenCL platform installed. If you’re on Mac OS X 10.6 or later, you’re already done. Otherwise, download and install an appropriate platform from AMD, Intel, or NVIDIA.