Macworld reports from the SuperComputing 08 conference which is taking place in Austin, Texas this week. The Khronos group was present to celebrate the launch of the upcoming OpenCL specification which Apple is planning to implement in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. OpenCL is a new programming interface (API) to allow developers to take advantage of parallel computing across graphics processing units (GPUs) and multi-core CPUs.
While few details were revealed, Khronos' president Neil Trevett explained how quickly the OpenCL specification had come together.
"If you go to some other larger standards bodies, it's quite normal for a standard to take five years or more," Trevett said. "That's quite commonplace. You actually have to really push to get it down to eighteen months. Our record was 12 months, up to now; we've done this one in six [OpenCL]."
The speed at which they completed the specification was due to Apple's tight schedule to allow it to ship with Snow Leopard. The specification is now being reviewed by lawyers for the next 30 days to make sure no intellectual property has been breached. The specification will presumably be complete once it passes this 30 day inspection.
Trevett was very optimistic about the prospects of OpenCL specifically implemented in Snow Leopard:
"If Apple ends up following through on the plans they stated on building this specification into Snow Leopard, I think you could see opportunity for imaging applications vendors, video application vendors to tap into the goodness of GPU hardware," Trevett said. "Everyone has a supercomputer locked away in their Mac, but it's hard to get at it. And OpenCL will unlock the potential of that supercomputer."
He also acknowledged that OpenCL would work from the cell phones to high end computers, leaving open the possibility that we could see OpenCL implemented in future iPhones.
Apple's Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) is expected to ship in 2009 with recent hints suggesting the first quarter of 2009.
Wednesday December 24, 2025 8:40 am PST by Joe Rossignol
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Apple Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, and then use it to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps.
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To set up the...
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Below, we have recapped 12 features rumored for the iPhone 18 Pro models.
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Under-screen Face ID
Front camera in...
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Apple hasn't updated the Apple TV 4K since 2022, and 2025 was supposed to be the year that we got a refresh. There were rumors suggesting Apple would release the new Apple TV before the end of 2025, but it looks like that's not going to happen now.
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Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said several times across 2024 and 2025 that Apple would...
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Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Alt-Tab (Free) - Alt-Tab brings a Windows-style alt + tab thumbnail preview option to the Mac. You can see a full window preview of open apps and app windows.
One Thing (Free) -...
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Earlier this month, Apple released iOS 26.2, following more than a month of beta testing. It is a big update, with many new features and changes for iPhones.
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They seem close to some...
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With the end of 2025 near, the time has come to look back at the devices and accessories that Apple discontinued throughout the year.
Most of the products that were discontinued this year were simply replaced by a new model with an updated chip. However, the iPhone SE line was entirely discontinued when the iPhone 16e launched, and the iPhone Plus line is being phased out.
Below, we have...
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Samsung is working on a new foldable smartphone that's wider and shorter than the models that it's released before, according to Korean news site ETNews. The "Wide Fold" will compete with Apple's iPhone Fold that's set to launch in September 2026.
Samsung's existing Galaxy Z Fold7 display is 6.5 inches when closed, and 8 inches when open, with a 21:9 aspect ratio when folded and a 20:18...
