AMD Wants Mantle On Linux, OS X, Mobile Devices

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMD Wants Mantle On Linux, OS X, Mobile Devices

As part of the recent Radeon Rx 200 series and Hawaii GPU launch, AMD also unveiled Mantle as a new graphics rendering API to compete with OpenGL and Direct3D. AMD claims Mantle is easier, faster, and all-around better than OpenGL for game engines and other purposes. This week AMD has renewed their push that they want to see Mantle on Linux and other platforms...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTUxMzY

[widardd]

Not convinced at all. Proper drivers first, please.

[mark45]

What do Intel & Nvidia say? Nothing?

[johnc]

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.

[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.

[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?

[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.

[DanL]

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

[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.

[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.