Intel Graphics Compiler Makes More Preparations For DG2/Alchemist & Ponte Vecchio

At the end of November was a big update to Intel's Graphics Compiler while out today is IGC 1.0.9441 as the first update since to this open-source, cross-platform graphics compiler.

Going along with recent activity around DG2/Alchemist from this Intel compute stack code down through other activity around Intel's kernel graphics driver and their Mesa OpenGL/Vulkan drivers, that frenzy of work has continued this week along with specifically calling out changes for "PVC" -- Ponte Vecchio (Xe HPC).

Merged for this release were the initial workarounds being added for DG2 (Alchemist) and Ponte Vecchio hardware. There is also the enabling of the virtual ISA (vISA) for DG2 and PVC along with some detection additions around Xe HPG/HPC.

This latest DG2 and PVC work along with other improvements to the Intel Graphics Compiler can be found with the newly minted IGC 1.0.9441. If trends hold, a new Intel Compute Runtime release will be available in the next few days rebuilt against this latest IGC revision. Intel's Windows driver has also been using IGC since last year for their graphics shader compiler. Currently Intel's Mesa OpenGL "Iris" and Vulkan "ANV" drivers do not make use of the IGC compiler but we've been told they are still exploring that for the future.

In any case, great seeing the continued open-source/Linux support moving along for next year's Intel ARC graphics cards and Xe HPC accelerators.