OpenGL 4.3 Shader Storage Buffer Objects Coming To Mesa

Among other OpenGL 4.x extensions, one of the more recent additions to OpenGL being tackled by open-source developers is ARB_shader_storage_buffer_object.

This shader storage buffer object work is being spearheaded by Iago Toral of consulting firm Igalia. This new type of OpenGL buffer allows for bidirectional communication between the CPU and GPU space and perform random access reads/writes and atomic operations on variables within the buffer objects. If you're unfamiliar with GL_ARB_shader_storage_buffer_object, there is the OpenGL.org registry. This is an extension mandated by the OpenGL 4.3 specification.

Iago has written a lengthy blog post about bringing the shader storage buffer object support to Mesa and specifically the Intel Mesa DRI driver. The Igalia team put out a set of 74 patches for implementing the SSBO support and they're currently being reviewed but should end up being material for Mesa 10.7 now that Mesa 10.6 has been branched.