and just as i had expected, OpenCL looks like it will live up to the hype, as long as more developers embrace it:

http://www.khronos.org/opencl/

http://www.hardware.info/en-US/news/ymicl5qZwpWaa5Y/44_faster_encoding_by_OpenCLGCD/

http://web.mac.com/cducommun/MG_English/Home.html

unlike CUDA and ATI's AVIVO encoder, OpenCL is not limited to anyone particular architecture, rather it's a framework that allows an application to be executed across a range of different architectures simultaneously, what this means is that you could build a system (as an example) using amd's new 785g chipset and an X2 550, add in an nvidia graphics card and a cell based spurs engine card and using a properly coded OpenCL video editing/encoding app have the workload spread across all 4 separate processors for maximum performance.

assuming OpenCL powered encoders gain traction this will have huge payoffs once hybrid gpu/cpu processors hit the market, such as sandy bridge, fusion and even clarkdale.

things are about to get very interesting, i almost wish i had a mac right now...

almost.