AMD Wants Mantle On Linux, OS X, Mobile Devices

[ChrisXY]

presentation about Mantle that also includes more low-level details about the graphics API,

Still no specification?

[iniudan]

Here DICE's Johan Anderson presentation at APU13.

[peppercats]

Oh man, a phoronix subject that I happen to be an expert on!

OpenGL is ass.
DirectX is bigger ass.

I don't particularly enjoy working directly with either anymore, it feels about the same as when I have to go manage some C code. I don't want to do it, I won't enjoy doing it, but somebody has to do it.

Not much information about this, so no comment on mantle.

[iniudan]

Found a video of the presentation

[iniudan]

From what I see, Mantle was almost stillborn when Microsoft nixed it on Xbox One. Let it die peacefully..

What are you talking about, Mantle was never on Xbox one, game console have got it own low level API which is even less abstracted due to stable hardware configuration.

[iniudan]

Actually from what I read on http://www.hardware.fr/news/13445/ap...s-details.html (in french btw), Mantle API actually has two part, the basic API which target generic functionality and his hardware agnostic, but there is also extended level available that specifically target AMD hardware, so I guess each GPU manufacturer would have to write their own module to replicate the extended level part. But there is still no mention if there of what kind of licensing there will be for the like of Nvidia, Intel... at the moment.

[DanL]

From what I see, Mantle was almost stillborn when Microsoft nixed it on Xbox One. Let it die peacefully..

[ua=42]

If it's just a vendor- and architecture-neutral API, what benefit does it give AMD over the competition?

A large head start, while also increasing the chances of it catching hold and being used.

If it is fairly hardware agnostic, they will likely be the only ones with an implementation for the next year and probably the only good implementation for the next 2. And that's if NVIDIA/INTEL start working on it right away.

[mendieta]

Love all the double-speak. "Not tied to AMD's GCN architecture." That's not really how it was sold.

If it's just a vendor- and architecture-neutral API, what benefit does it give AMD over the competition?

Of course, "want" to see it on Linux, etc. doesn't mean there's any kind of active effort going on to make that happen.

I am really confused at this point. Why would anyone code against a vendor specific API? In Linux, you code against OpenGL, and it will work on pretty much any graphics card.

Now, if the goal is to have a simpler (than OpenGL) or better in someways acceleration API, shouldn't they be working with a consortium where all major vendors are represented?

[ElderSnake]

So it won't be tied to AMD hardware necessarily... that's something I suppose.

Was a bit worried about vendor lock-in there.