[webkit-dev] Parallel JavaScript: Why a separate ParallelArray types

[Benjamin Poulain]

On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 11:07 PM, Ryosuke Niwa <rniwa at webkit.org> wrote:

> Do you think it's possible to come up with an API/semantics that would
> allow us to seamlessly switch between single-threaded, SIMD/GPU
> accelerated, and GPU accelerations?  Or would be too cumbersome / too hard
> to implement?
>
> It would be really neat if we could dynamically detect cases where we can
> use lightweight alternatives such as OpenCL instead of creating a real
> thread.
>

I think we can keep the GPU problems out of the equation to have a better
focus. If only because their programming model is quite different.

WebGL already offer GPU computation. Long before Cuda and OpenCL, engineers
have just been abusing OpenGL shaders to perform general computation. (e.g.
of publication from 2005:
https://developer.nvidia.com/content/gpu-gems-2-chapter-31-mapping-computational-concepts-gpus
).

WebGL definitely offers a less convenient model than OpenCL or Cuda, but it
is not like OpenCL is a silver bullet.

On the other hand, efficient concurrent programming is simply not possible
with JavaScript. I think that is worth looking into.

Benjamin
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