Khronos Group

Last updated

The Khronos Group, Inc.
Company type Consortium
Industry Open standards
Founded2000;24 years ago (2000)
Founder
Headquarters Beaverton, Oregon, US
Key people
 Neil Trevett (President)
ServicesOpen standards for 3D graphics, extended reality, parallel computing, machine learning, and computer vision
Website www.khronos.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

The Khronos Group, Inc. is an open, non-profit, member-driven consortium of 170 organizations developing, publishing and maintaining royalty-free interoperability standards for 3D graphics, virtual reality, augmented reality, parallel computation, vision acceleration and machine learning. [1] [2] The open standards and associated conformance tests enable software applications and middleware to effectively harness authoring and accelerated playback of dynamic media across a wide variety of platforms and devices. The group is based in Beaverton, Oregon. [3]

Contents

History

The Khronos Group was founded in 2000 by companies including 3Dlabs, ATI, Discreet, Evans & Sutherland, Intel, SGI, and Sun Microsystems. [2] [4] Promoter members include AMD, Apple, Arm, Epic Games, Google, Huawei, Nokia, Imagination, Intel, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony, Valve and Verisilicon. [5] Its president is Neil Trevett. [6]

Exploratory groups

Typically, Khronos first creates an exploratory group to gauge industry interest before creating a working group, which companies can join as members to assist in the development of the standard. [7]

Specifications and working groups

Each specification / standard is managed by a working group which is established to define the requirements, solicit input, discuss, and create a specification. [1] There are currently 16 working groups. [8]

Standards and other activities

Active standards

A timeline of API Specification ratification and releases can be found on the Khronos Group website. [22]

Exploratory Groups

Other activities

Inactive standards

Members

Membership and contributions

Khronos members may contribute to the development of Khronos API specifications, vote at various stages before public deployment, and accelerate delivery of their platforms and applications through early access to specification drafts and conformance tests. [1] To ensure that the standards are consistently implemented and to create a reliable platform for developers, any product that implements a Khronos API standard must pass conformance tests. An API Adopter Program enables companies to test their products for conformance. [27] Membership in Khronos Group provides access to an IP framework designed to protect participant IP. Khronos members agree not to assert IP rights against adopters implementing Khronos specifications. The IP framework protects Khronos members from exposure to patent lawsuits and reduces the amount of IP that needs to be licensed from other group members. [28]

Membership levels

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenGL</span> Cross-platform graphics API

OpenGL is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardware-accelerated rendering.

OpenVG is an API designed for hardware-accelerated 2D vector graphics. Its primary platforms are mobile phones, gaming & media consoles and consumer electronic devices. It was designed to help manufacturers create more attractive user interfaces by offloading computationally intensive graphics processing from the CPU onto a GPU to save energy. The OpenGL ES library provides similar functionality for 3D graphics. OpenVG is managed by the non-profit technology consortium Khronos Group.

OpenMAX, often shortened as "OMX", is a non-proprietary and royalty-free cross-platform set of C-language programming interfaces. It provides abstractions for routines that are especially useful for processing of audio, video, and still images. It is intended for low power and embedded system devices that need to efficiently process large amounts of multimedia data in predictable ways, such as video codecs, graphics libraries, and other functions for video, image, audio, voice and speech.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenGL ES</span> Subset of the OpenGL API for embedded systems

OpenGL for Embedded Systems is a subset of the OpenGL computer graphics rendering application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D computer graphics such as those used by video games, typically hardware-accelerated using a graphics processing unit (GPU). It is designed for embedded systems like smartphones, tablet computers, video game consoles and PDAs. OpenGL ES is the "most widely deployed 3D graphics API in history".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Java OpenGL</span>

Java OpenGL (JOGL) is a wrapper library that allows OpenGL to be used in the Java programming language. It was originally developed by Kenneth Bradley Russell and Christopher John Kline, and was further developed by the Game Technology Group at Sun Microsystems. Since 2010, it has been an independent open-source project under a BSD license. It is the reference implementation for Java Bindings for OpenGL (JSR-231).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mesa (computer graphics)</span> Free and open-source library for 3D graphics rendering

Mesa, also called Mesa3D and The Mesa 3D Graphics Library, is an open source implementation of OpenGL, Vulkan, and other graphics API specifications. Mesa translates these specifications to vendor-specific graphics hardware drivers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenGL Shading Language</span> High-level shading language

OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) is a high-level shading language with a syntax based on the C programming language. It was created by the OpenGL ARB to give developers more direct control of the graphics pipeline without having to use ARB assembly language or hardware-specific languages.

Adreno is a series of graphics processing unit (GPU) semiconductor intellectual property cores developed by Qualcomm and used in many of their SoCs.

Web3D, also called 3D Web, is a group of technologies to display and navigate websites using 3D computer graphics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenCL</span> Open standard for programming heterogenous computing systems, such as CPUs or GPUs

OpenCL is a framework for writing programs that execute across heterogeneous platforms consisting of central processing units (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), digital signal processors (DSPs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and other processors or hardware accelerators. OpenCL specifies a programming language for programming these devices and application programming interfaces (APIs) to control the platform and execute programs on the compute devices. OpenCL provides a standard interface for parallel computing using task- and data-based parallelism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Parisi (software developer)</span>

Tony Parisi, one of the early pioneers in virtual reality and the metaverse, is an entrepreneur, inventor and developer of 3D computer software. The co-creator of Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML), he has written books and papers on the future of technology. He works on WebGL and WebVR and has written two books on the former, and an introductory book on virtual reality programming. He is the chief strategy officer at Lamina1. Parisi is also a musician, composer and producer working on multiple projects.

Vivante Corporation was a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with an R&D center in Shanghai, China. The company was founded in 2004 as GiQuila and focused on the portable gaming market. The company's first product was a DirectX-compatible graphics processing unit (GPU) capable of playing PC games. In 2007, GiQuila changed its name to Vivante and shifted the direction of the company to the design and licensing of embedded graphics processing unit designs. The company licensed its Mobile Visual Reality to semiconductor solution providers, serving embedded computing markets for mobile gaming, high-definition home entertainment, image processing, and automotive display and entertainment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WebGL</span> JavaScript bindings for OpenGL in web browsers

WebGL is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 2D and 3D graphics within any compatible web browser without the use of plug-ins. WebGL is fully integrated with other web standards, allowing GPU-accelerated usage of physics, image processing, and effects in the HTML canvas. WebGL elements can be mixed with other HTML elements and composited with other parts of the page or page background.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EGL (API)</span> Application programming interface

EGL is an interface between Khronos rendering APIs and the underlying native platform windowing system. EGL handles graphics context management, surface/buffer binding, rendering synchronization, and enables "high-performance, accelerated, mixed-mode 2D and 3D rendering using other Khronos APIs." EGL is managed by the non-profit technology consortium Khronos Group.

Vulkan is a low-level, low-overhead cross-platform API and open standard for 3D graphics and computing. It was intended to address the shortcomings of OpenGL, and allow developers more control over the GPU. It is designed to support a wide variety of GPUs, CPUs and operating systems, and it is also designed to work with modern multi-core CPUs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Standard Portable Intermediate Representation</span> Internal code for computer graphics

Standard Portable Intermediate Representation (SPIR) is an intermediate language for parallel computing and graphics by Khronos Group. It is used in multiple execution environments, including the Vulkan graphics API and the OpenCL compute API, to represent a shader or kernel. It is also used as an interchange language for cross compilation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LunarG</span> American software company

LunarG is a software company specializing in device driver development for video cards.

glTF 3D scene and model file format

glTF is a standard file format for three-dimensional scenes and models. A glTF file uses one of two possible file extensions: .gltf (JSON/ASCII) or .glb (binary). Both .gltf and .glb files may reference external binary and texture resources. Alternatively, both formats may be self-contained by directly embedding binary data buffers. An open standard developed and maintained by the Khronos Group, it supports 3D model geometry, appearance, scene graph hierarchy, and animation. It is intended to be a streamlined, interoperable format for the delivery of 3D assets, while minimizing file size and runtime processing by apps. As such, its creators have described it as the "JPEG of 3D."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SYCL</span> Higher-level programming standard for heterogeneous computing

SYCL is a higher-level programming model to improve programming productivity on various hardware accelerators. It is a single-source embedded domain-specific language (eDSL) based on pure C++17. It is a standard developed by Khronos Group, announced in March 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WebGPU</span> Web standard and API

WebGPU is a JavaScript API provided by a web browser that enables webpage scripts to efficiently utilize a device's graphics processing unit (GPU). This is achieved with the underlying Vulkan, Metal, or Direct3D 12 system APIs. On relevant devices, WebGPU is intended to supersede the older WebGL standard.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "OGC seeking participants in the Second Interoperable Simulation and Gaming Sprint". directionsmag.com. Archived from the original on August 19, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Khronos Outlook and Web3D Consortium Town Hall". web3d.siggraph.org. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  3. ↑ "Khronos and EMVA collaborate on embedded camera standards". linuxgizmos.com. February 24, 2021. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  4. ↑ "Khronos Group Conformant members". April 13, 2023.
  5. ↑ Blackert, Axel (2016). "Evaluation of Multi-Threading in Vulkan". S2CID   16990966.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  6. ↑ Yoshida, Junko (February 22, 2021). "Looking for APIs that Sit Between Sensors and Vehicle Apps?". eetimes.com. Archived from the original on August 19, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  7. ↑ "Khronos Group exploring industry interest for new open standard for high performance embedded computing (HPEC) applications". greencarcongress.com. Archived from the original on August 19, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  8. ↑ "The Khronos Group". The Khronos Group. June 29, 2022. Archived from the original on June 29, 2022. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  9. ↑ "3D Commerce - Render Everything Everywhere". The Khronos Group. July 28, 2019. Archived from the original on January 17, 2023. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
  10. ↑ "The future of pervasive 3D". rapidcompact.com. December 8, 2020. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  11. ↑ "Camera". The Khronos Group. January 19, 2022. Archived from the original on January 17, 2023. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  12. ↑ "EGL Overview". Khronos website. October 15, 2009. Archived from the original on April 17, 2021. Retrieved September 29, 2014.
  13. ↑ "glTF". Khronos website. September 2, 2016. Archived from the original on April 21, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Khronos Ratifies KTX 2.0". phoronix.com. Archived from the original on August 19, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  15. ↑ "Neural Network Exchange Format (NNEF)". October 4, 2016. Archived from the original on October 30, 2018. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
  16. ↑ "Khronos launches heterogeneous computing initiative". Khronos press release. June 16, 2008. Archived from the original on June 20, 2008. Retrieved September 29, 2014.
  17. ↑ "Khronos Announces OpenCL 3.0". anandtech.com. Archived from the original on September 10, 2024. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  18. ↑ "WebGL 2.0—Why It's the Path to Stable Open Standards-based 3D Web Graphics". architosh.com. February 12, 2019. Archived from the original on September 10, 2024. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  19. ↑ "Khronos Group announces multiple OpenXR conformant devices". auganix.org. July 29, 2020. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  20. ↑ "Khronos Releases SYCL 2020 Specification". insidehpc.com. February 9, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  21. ↑ "Khronos releases Vulkan 1.0 specification for GPU use". gfxspeak.com. February 16, 2016. Archived from the original on September 10, 2024. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  22. ↑ "Khronos Timeline". khronos.org. Archived from the original on August 19, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  23. ↑ "Exploratory Group - Heterogeneous Communication". The Khronos Group. August 1, 2018. Archived from the original on January 17, 2023. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  24. ↑ "Khronos Machine Learning". The Khronos Group. April 20, 2022. Archived from the original on September 10, 2024. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  25. ↑ "SYCL SC". The Khronos Group. March 23, 2022. Archived from the original on January 17, 2023. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  26. ↑ jriordon. "The Metaverse Standards Forum". Metaverse Standards Forum. Archived from the original on June 29, 2022. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  27. ↑ "API Adopter Program". khronos.org. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  28. ↑ "Khronos Background". khronos.org. Archived from the original on August 16, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
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