The problem with OpenCL, just like OpenGL, is that it relies on vendor support for essentially the full stack. That means if a single vendor doesn't support the

The problem with OpenCL, just like OpenGL, is that it relies on vendor support for essentially the full stack. That means if a single vendor doesn't support the feature, it's basically impossible to ship any code that uses that feature to arbitrary users. Nvidia lagging behind in its support for OpenCL 2.x was probably not explicitly stated as "let's sabotage this competing open standard by dragging our feet" but that was the result. AMD and Intel both put together OpenCL 2.x support, so clearly Nvidia could have finished their incomplete support but didn't. The fundamental failing Khronos made was repeating the GLSL mistake and not specifying a compiled IR that would decouple OpenCL kernel code from program execution. This was clearly known to be a mistake at the time, given ample evidence from CUDA and HLSL that an IR was possible and could greatly improve the developer experience.