OpenCL reveals Kindle Fire’s true potential

The Kindle Fire has already proven itself to be a decent tablet, even in the shadow of the iPad and Android powered competitors. But we all agree it does not have the following of its more illustrious counterparts. The competition simply rules the roost. Yet a few digital nuts and bolts, in the form of OpenCL changes the Fire into a lot more than just “the lesser tablet”. Get ready for a gaming and photo manipulation device that will easily hold its own.

The 8.9-inch and 7-inch versions of the Android operated Kindle Fire comes with a graphics card that can handle OpenCL extremely well. Open Computing Language (OpenCL) is a framework for writing programs that enables relatively low-powered devices to perform to their true potential, allowing developers to do incredible things with programs and apps. Newly purchased Kindle’s don’t come with this installed, and at the moment it’s in development mode, but Amazon has been working with Imagination Technologies, the guys behind the PowerVR GPU that runs the Fire to see what can be done. Below is a video that gives an idea of how it would work:

There is no word from Amazon yet if this could be a standard feature for future Kindle’s, but why not?