# pocl/pocl

pocl - Portable Computing Language

Repository: https://github.com/pocl/pocl
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/pocl
Homepage: https://portablecl.org
Language: C
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: opencl, heterogeneous-parallel-programming
Last push: 2026-09-02T11:03:38+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 74/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 100, release rhythm 27, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4759, "days_push": 0, "days_rel": 329, "gap_med": 139, "n_releases_24m": 2}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1075, forks 305 (observed 2026-09-03T02:15:16.976737+00:00)

## What it is
PoCL (Portable Computing Language) is an MIT-licensed, conformant open-source implementation of the OpenCL 3.0 standard that can be easily adapted to new hardware targets. It uses Clang and LLVM as its kernel compiler and supports multiple device backends including x86-64/ARM/RISC-V CPUs, Intel GPUs via Level Zero, NVIDIA GPUs via CUDA, FPGAs, and a remote network driver for distributed OpenCL execution.

## Use cases
- run OpenCL applications on CPUs without vendor drivers
- get OpenCL support for RISC-V or ARM embedded devices
- use an open-source OpenCL implementation for Intel GPUs via Level Zero
- offload OpenCL workloads to remote servers over the network
- use OpenCL as a backend for SYCL/DPC++ on non-Intel hardware
- develop and test portable OpenCL kernels across heterogeneous devices
- run llama.cpp or OpenVINO with an open-source OpenCL runtime

## When to choose
- you need a portable, vendor-neutral OpenCL implementation for CPUs or unusual architectures like RISC-V
- you want to add OpenCL support to a new device with an LLVM backend
- you need distributed or remote OpenCL execution across machines
- you want an open-source OpenCL runtime for SYCL, chipStar, or OpenVINO

## When to avoid
- you need maximum performance on a specific vendor GPU where the vendor's own OpenCL driver is better tuned
- you need OpenCL on architectures like ARM32, i386, PPC, or S390x which are not actively supported
- you require a proprietary driver's full feature set or vendor-specific extensions

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: compiler, concurrency, gpu-computing, sdk
- domain: gpu-computing, developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: windows, cross-platform, cpp, python
- tags: opencl, heterogeneous-computing, gpgpu, llvm, kernel-compilation, risc-v, fpga, level-zero, cuda, remote-computing, sycl, icd, linux, macos, android

## Member repositories
- pocl/pocl (main) score 74

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-09-03T02:15:16.976737+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:53:33.069210+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/pocl/pocl (fetched 2026-09-03T02:15:16.976737+00:00, sha 1d252b24d2d8)
  - homepage: https://portablecl.org (fetched 2026-08-29T12:55:20.879399+00:00, sha 5e1f07470e8a)
  - site_page: https://portablecl.org/docs/html (fetched 2026-08-29T12:55:20.888865+00:00, sha 2a97820b298c)
  - site_page: http://portablecl.org/docs/html/remote.html (fetched 2026-08-29T12:55:20.890819+00:00, sha 49d6e2f0920d)
  - site_page: http://portablecl.org/docs/html/notes_7_1.html (fetched 2026-08-29T12:55:20.895961+00:00, sha 1c2ed1aae6a1)
  - site_page: http://portablecl.org/docs/html/notes_7_0.html (fetched 2026-08-29T12:55:20.897764+00:00, sha a013b72f4927)
  - site_page: http://portablecl.org/docs/html/notes_6_0.html (fetched 2026-08-29T12:55:20.899748+00:00, sha d58d31b9c21e)
  - site_page: http://portablecl.org/docs/html/notes_5_0.html (fetched 2026-08-29T12:55:20.901467+00:00, sha 100a45ace17c)
  - site_page: http://portablecl.org/docs/html/debug.html (fetched 2026-08-29T12:55:20.903222+00:00, sha 9ef53f48c31a)
  - site_page: https://portablecl.org/publications.html (fetched 2026-08-29T12:55:20.893348+00:00, sha 7a0a5be04739)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.