What is Khronos as of today?

The Khronos Group is the organization behind APIs like OpenGL, Vulkan and OpenCL. Over one hundred companies are a member and decide together what your next year phone, camera, computer or media device will be capable of.

We’re at the right, near the bottom.

We work most with OpenCL, but you probably noticed we work with OpenGL, Vulkan and SPIR too. Currently they have the following APIs:

  • COLLADA, a file-format intended to facilitate interchange of 3D assets
  • EGL, an interface between Khronos rendering APIs such as OpenGL ES or OpenVG and the underlying native platform window system
  • glTF, a file format specification for 3D scenes and models
  • OpenCL, a cross-platform computation API.
  • OpenGL, a cross-platform computer graphics API
  • OpenGL ES, a derivative of OpenGL for use on mobile and embedded systems, such as cell phones, portable gaming devices, and more
  • OpenGL SC, a safety critical profile of OpenGL ES designed to meet the needs of the safety-critical market
  • OpenKCam, Advanced Camera Control API
  • OpenKODE, an API for providing abstracted, portable access to operating system resources such as file systems, networks and math libraries
  • OpenMAX, a layered set of three programming interfaces of various abstraction levels, providing access to multimedia functionality
  • OpenML, an API for capturing, transporting, processing, displaying, and synchronizing digital media
  • OpenSL ES, an audio API tuned for embedded systems, standardizing access to features such as 3D positional audio and MIDI playback
  • OpenVG, an API for accelerating processing of 2D vector graphics
  • OpenVX, Hardware acceleration API for Computer Vision applications and libraries
  • OpenWF, APIs for 2D graphics composition and display control
  • OpenXR, an open and royalty-free standard for virtual reality and augmented reality applications and devices
  • SPIR, a intermediate compiler target for OpenCL and Vulkan
  • StreamInput, an API for consistently handling input devices
  • Vulkan, a low-overhead computer graphics API
  • WebCL, a JavaScript binding to OpenCL within a browser
  • WebGL, a JavaScript binding to OpenGL ES within a browser on any platform supporting the OpenGL or OpenGL ES graphics standards

Too few people understand that the organization is very unique, as the biggest processor vendors are discussing collaborations and how to move the market, while they’re normally the fiercest competitors. Without Khronos it would have been a totally different world.

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