The Khronos Group, a consortium of digital media and graphics companies consisting of 3Dlabs, ATI, Discreet, Evans & Sutherland, Intel, Nvidia, SGI and Sun Microsystems Inc., announced the on-time delivery of the OpenML 1.0 specification, as originally promised at NAB 2000. OpenML, a software environment that is complementary to the OpenGL API, enables digital content authoring application developers to easily integrate video, audio and graphics capabilities into their application suites, and makes these applications portable over multiple operating systems, CPU architectures and add-in hardware devices.
The OpenML 1.0 specification is complete and entering a final review, with public availability expected by mid-year. The specification can then be used, royalty free, by any adopting company that desires to integrate OpenML functionality into hardware or software products. Commercial implementations of OpenML 1.0 are expected on IRIX, Linux, and Microsoft Windows platforms and the Solaris Operating Environment, with shipments starting later this year.
The Khronos Group is also starting a new initiative to standardize subsets of both OpenML and OpenGL to create small-footprint APIs to bring dynamic media capabilities to a variety of appliances and embedded devices. Khronos will focus on producing API profiles to meet the requirements of a range of market segments such as safety-critical automotive and avionics displays, handheld and line-powered appliances and rich-media devices such as advanced digital TVs, set top boxes and game consoles. Several embedded industry leaders have stated their intent to join the Khronos group to support this initiative.
Upcoming OpenML developments include refinements to the specification, reference implementations and definition of conformance tests to ensure a high level of consistency between OpenML-compliant devices. All OpenGL-based work in the Khronos Group is being undertaken with the support of the OpenGL ARB, the governing body for the OpenGL specification.
