W3C Posts First Public Working Drafts For WebGPU, WebGPU Shading Language

Written by Michael Larabel in Standards on 18 May 2021 at 08:22 PM EDT. 18 Comments
STANDARDS
WebGPU as a next-gen web standard for accelerated graphics and compute is stepping closer to reality with the first public working drafts having been published.

WebGPU continues to be worked on by the W3C with contributions from Apple, Google, Mozilla, Microsoft, and others. WebGPU is derived from modern 3D/compute concepts but isn't based directly on the likes of Vulkan or Direct3D, unlike WebGL that is based on OpenGL (ES). WebGPU at this stage has broad industry support and interest and can be supported across all major platforms with not being tied explicitly to say Metal, Direct3D, or other vendor-specific APIs.

With WebGPU is also the WebGPU Shading Language (WGSL) that can be easily translated to SPIR-V.

The first public working drafts of WebGPU and the WebGPU Shading Language are available from the W3C.org.
Related News
About The Author
Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

Popular News This Week