5-Fold Increase in Video Encoding with OpenCL-like Technology

NVidia and Nero announced yesterday that a recent update to the Nero Movie it software application for Windows reduces video encoding time by up to five times by utilizing NVIDIA's CUDA architecture. They specifically describe the encoding of HD video for an iPod going from "hours to mere minutes" when the application is used in conjunction with a supported NVIDIA graphics card.

CUDA is NVIDIA's parallel computing architecture that harnesses the power of their graphics card GPUs. This allows developers to leverage the parallel processing power that is otherwise being unused within these graphics cards.

By using CUDA technology to tap the massively parallel processing power of NVIDIA GPUs, Nero Move it converts videos in a fraction of the usual time, reducing the length of time to perform such tasks as customizing an HD video for an iPod, from hours to mere minutes.

While the announcement is not directly related to Apple, the harnessing of this GPU power is the cornerstone of OpenCL which will be featured in Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

OpenCL is an open standard that was established in collaboration with AMD, Intel and NVIDIA and was ratified in December. Apple is expected to release Mac OS X Snow Leopard later this year, and we should hear more details at WWDC in June.