OpenCL:Why Pointer to a pointer cannot be passed as an argument to a kernel function?

Question

Hi, I just want some clarification on Why we can not pass the 2D array pointer as argument to the kernel . Why it is not allowed . What will happen if I use this as argument (Internally??as I know the code will give some error) .

Please do the needful .

Answer 1

Because in OpenCL 1.x the device has a separate address space. Kernels executing on the device wouldn't know what to do with a pointer that is only useful in host address space.

Note that in OpenCL 2.0 Shared Virtual Memory (SVM) removes this restriction and allows buffers containing pointers to be used on both host and device side.