OpenGL History
This skimming of the topic was AI assisted
Khronos and OpenGL/Vulkan History
- 1981: SGI (Silicon Graphics) founded by James H. Clark (later Netscape founder)
- 1992: SGI created OpenGL, formed OpenGL Architecture Review Board (ARB) to maintain it
- 2000: Khronos Group founded by SGI, NVIDIA, ATI, Intel, Sun
- 2006: ARB voted to transfer OpenGL spec to Khronos Group
- 2016: Vulkan launched as "complementary" to OpenGL (not replacement)
- 2017: OpenGL 4.6 (last version, still maintained but not actively developed)
- OpenGL still maintained (bug fixes), Vulkan is the focus for new development
SGI Background
- Built high-performance 3D workstations
- Dominated Hollywood visual effects (Jurassic Park, Titanic)
- IRIX operating system, MIPS processors
- Acquired: Alias Research, Wavefront, Cray Research
- Declined in 1990s as commodity GPUs took over
- Bankrupt 2009, acquired by Rackable Systems → HPE
OpenGL vs Vulkan
- OpenGL is easier, more abstracted, manages boilerplate in driver
- Vulkan is lower-level, more manual control, more code required
- Complexity has to live somewhere - OpenGL hides it in driver, Vulkan pushes it to application
- Vulkan has better multithreading, but steeper learning curve
Implementation vs Specification
- OpenGL is a specification (by Khronos Group), not a library
- GPU vendors (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel) implement it in their drivers