Intel C for Metal Compiler 1.0.20 Released

Within Intel's vast open-source software ecosystem and much of the attention being on oneAPI as their preferred programming model for developers these days and there being multiple different open-source Intel graphics compiler back-ends, one that is often forgotten about is the Intel C for Metal Compiler that on Friday saw a new release.

The Intel C for Metal Compiler "cm-compiler" is for their C language dialect as a GPU kernel programming language for Intel graphics processors. C for Metal is their optimized GPU programming language on Windows and Linux. While it is promoted as a "general" GPU programming language, most notably it is used by Intel for their Media Codec SDK and other media processing. In fact, outside of their media stack it's difficult recalling the last time I heard it brought up. Those wanting to learn more about Intel's C for Metal language can find examples and more documentations via 01.org. There is also an overview from earlier this year at software.intel.com.

Just through my close monitoring of all things interesting around open-source Linux hardware support did I notice on Friday that Intel released a new version of their cm-compiler. Intel CM-Compiler 1.0.20 is their new release that now uses a CMOC binary with libocloc for the back-end translation rather than their old implementation. The CMOC tool is the "CM Offline Compiler." This new CMOC binary is capable of creating OpenCL and oneAPI Level Zero binaries and other features.

That's it for the officially listed changes of the C for Metal Compiler 1.0.20 release. But recently have also been many fixes, continued work on its LLVM integration, and other enhancements. Back during the summer the Gen12LP / Tiger Lake support was also merged.

C for Metal Compiler 1.0.20 can be downloaded in source form along with Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora/RHEL, and generic Linux x86_64 packages. Fetch it from GitHub if wanting to experiment with Intel C for Metal this weekend.