UXL Khronos Team Advances Portable Safety-Critical SYCL

The UXL Foundation has partnered with the Khronos Group to work on integrating SYCL and C++ libraries for safety-critical applications, as well as for heterogeneous AI and high-performance computing applications. This collaboration aims to leverage the strengths of both organizations to enhance the evolution of SYCL and support the development of performance portable heterogeneous applications from a single C++ code base.

The SYCL standard, defined by members of the Khronos Group, enables developers to write code for heterogeneous and offload processors using modern C++. It also contributes to discussions on future ISO C++ releases. The collaboration between the SYCL SC Working Group and UXL Foundation Safety Critical Special Interest Group will facilitate the integration of SYCL into systems that require certification to safety standards such as ISO 26262 or DO-178C.

UXL Foundation's oneAPI specification includes APIs for driving high-performance libraries across various domains such as C++ parallel routines, math, data analytics, and AI. Open source projects implementing the oneAPI specification utilize the SYCL standard to accelerate diverse targets including AMD, ARM, Intel, and Nvidia chips.

Khronos is responsible for defining the specification and extensions under its IP framework, while UXL focuses on developing the oneAPI libraries and gathering feedback to enhance the specification. The collaboration aims to expand the SYCL ecosystem by optimizing libraries for domains like BLAS, FFT, and neural networks, ensuring cross-platform portability through adherence to the SYCL 2020 specification and selected extensions.

"The Khronos Group warmly welcomes the UXL Foundation to the community of open standards organizations and looks forward to collaborating on enabling developers to write performance portable heterogeneous applications using SYCL," said Dr. Tom Deakin, Chair of the Khronos SYCL Working Group.

"The UXL Foundation's vision for accelerated computing, based on the oneAPI specification and open standards like SYCL and ISO C++, provides a vendor-neutral approach to software development for heterogeneous architectures," said Rod Burns, Chair of the UXL Foundation Steering Committee.

"This collaboration between Khronos and the UXL Foundation will enhance communication and exchange of requirements, use cases, and feedback, benefiting the Safety Critical industry by promoting collaboration among experts," said Verena Beckham, Chair of the Khronos SYCL SC Working Group and UXL Safety Critical Special Interest Group.

Khronos and UXL will work together to develop tools and technologies that assist developers in creating performance portable heterogeneous applications using SYCL. The UXL Foundation libraries, built on SYCL, offer high-performance implementations for computational patterns in various fields, enriching the cross-platform ecosystem for application developers.

For more information, visit the Safety Critical Website for details on specifications, extensions, and UXL Special Interest Groups.