The Khronos Group, Inc. is anopen standards organization that is driven by over 180 member companies developing, publishing and maintaining royalty-free interoperability standards for3D graphics,virtual reality,augmented reality,parallel computation, vision acceleration andmachine learning.[1][2] The open standards and associated conformance tests enable software applications and middleware to effectively harness authoring and accelerated playback of dynamic media across a wide variety of platforms and devices. The group is based inBeaverton, Oregon.[3]
Each specification / standard is managed by a working group which is established to define the requirements, solicit input, discuss, and create a specification.[1] There are currently 16 working groups.[7]
3D Commerce, universal guidelines, standards and certifications for 3D content creation and distribution in e-commerce[8][9]
ANARI, Analytic Rendering Interface for Data Visualization
COLLADA, a file-format intended to facilitate interchange of 3D assets
EGL, an interface between rendering APIs (such as OpenGL ES) and the nativewindow system[10]
glTF, a file format specification for 3D scenes and models[11]
Kamaros, a cross-platform API for programming camera and sensor hardware, and ISP processing[12]
KTX, a container file format for storingGPU-ready texture data[13]
NNEF reduces machine learning deployment fragmentation by enabling a rich mix of neural network training tools and inference engines to be used by applications across a diverse range of devices and platforms[14]
Slang, open-sourceshading language and compiler/transpiler that targets existing shading languages (GLSL,MSL, CUDA,WGSL), bytecodes (D3D11, D3D12, VulkanSPIR-V) as well as the CPU. Mostly source code compatible with HLSL and GLSL.[19]
SPIR-V, an intermediate compiler target for OpenCL and Vulkan
Typically, Khronos first creates an exploratory group to gauge industry interest before creating a working group, which companies can join as members to assist in the development of the standard.[23]
Machine Learning Council, a collaborative forum composed of Khronos member companies working to ensure that Khronos AI and ML related standards evolve in line with industry needs.[24]
Member of the Metaverse Standards Forum, working on development of interoperability standards for an inclusive and openmetaverse, in conjunction with other international standards organizations[25]
Khronos members may contribute to the development of KhronosAPI specifications, vote at various stages before public deployment, and accelerate delivery of their platforms and applications through early access to specification drafts and conformance tests.[1] To ensure that the standards are consistently implemented and to create a reliable platform for developers, any product that implements a Khronos API standard must pass conformance tests. An API Adopter Program enables companies to test their products for conformance.[27] Membership in Khronos Group provides access to anIP framework designed to protect participant IP. Khronos members agree not to assert IP rights against adopters implementing Khronos specifications. The IP framework protects Khronos members from exposure to patent lawsuits and reduces the amount of IP that needs to be licensed from other group members.[28]
