en/devices/graphics/arch-vulkan.html - platform/docs/source.android.com - Git at Google

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 <p>Android 7.0 adds support for
 <a href="https://www.khronos.org/vulkan/">Vulkan</a>, a low-overhead,
 cross-platform API for high-performance 3D graphics. Like OpenGL ES, Vulkan
 provides tools for creating high-quality, real-time graphics in applications.
 Vulkan advantages include reductions in CPU overhead and support for the
 <a href="https://www.khronos.org/spir">SPIR-V Binary Intermediate</a> language.
 </p>

 <p>System on chip vendors (SoCs) such as GPU Independent Hardware Vendors (IHVs)
 can write Vulkan drivers for Android; OEMs simply need to integrate these
 drivers for specific devices. For details on how a Vulkan driver interacts with
 the system, how GPU-specific tools should be installed, and Android-specific
 requirements, see <a href="/devices/graphics/implement-vulkan.html">Implementing
 Vulkan.</a></p>

 <p>Application developers can take advantage of Vulkan to create apps that
 execute commands on the GPU with significantly reduced overhead. Vulkan also
 provides a more direct mapping to the capabilities found in current graphics
 hardware, minimizing opportunities for driver bugs and reducing developer
 testing time (e.g. less time required to troubleshoot Vulkan bugs).</p>

 <p>For general information on Vulkan, refer to the
 <a href="http://khr.io/vulkanlaunchoverview">Vulkan Overview</a> or see the list
 of <a href="#resources">Resources</a> below.</p>

 <h2 id=vulkan_components>Vulkan components</h2>
 <p>Vulkan support includes the following components:</p>
 <p><img src="/devices/graphics/images/ape_graphics_vulkan.png"></p>
 <p class=img-caption><strong>Figure 1.</strong> Vulkan components</p>

 <ul>
 <li><strong>Vulkan Validation Layers</strong> (<em>provided in the Android
 NDK</em>). A set of libraries used by developers during the development of
 Vulkan apps. The Vulkan runtime library and the Vulkan driver from graphics
 vendors do not contain runtime error-checking to keep Vulkan runtime efficient.
 Instead, the validation libraries are used (only during development) to find
 errors in an application's use of the Vulkan API. The Vulkan Validation
 libraries are linked into the app during development and perform this error
 checking. After all API usage issues are found, the aplication no longer needs
 to include these libraries in the app.</li>
 <li><strong>Vulkan Runtime </strong><em>(provided by Android)</em>. A native
 library <code>(libvulkan.so</code>) that provides a new public native API
 called <a href="https://www.khronos.org/vulkan">Vulkan</a>. Most functionality
 is implemented by a driver provided by the GPU vendor; the runtime wraps the
 driver, provides API interception capabilities (for debugging and other
 developer tools), and manages the interaction between the driver and platform
 dependencies such as BufferQueue.</li>
 <li><strong>Vulkan Driver </strong><em>(provided by SoC)</em>. Maps the Vulkan
 API onto hardware-specific GPU commands and interactions with the kernel
 graphics driver.</li>
 </ul>

 <h2 id=modified_components>Modified components</h2>
 <p>Android 7.0 modifies the following existing graphics components to support
 Vulkan:</p>

 <ul>
 <li><strong>BufferQueue</strong>. The Vulkan Runtime interacts with the existing
 BufferQueue component via the existing <code>ANativeWindow</code> interface.
 Includes minor modifications (new enum values and new methods) to
 <code>ANativeWindow</code> and BufferQueue, but no architectural changes.</li>
 <li><strong>Gralloc HAL</strong>. Includes a new, optional interface for
 discovering whether a given format can be used for a particular
 producer/consumer combination without actually allocating a buffer.</li>
 </ul>

 <p>For details on these components, see
 <a href="/devices/graphics/arch-bq-gralloc.html">BufferQueue and
 gralloc</a> (for details on <code>ANativeWindow</code>, see
 <a href="/devices/graphics/arch-egl-opengl.html">EGLSurface and OpenGL
 ES</a>).

 <h2 id=apis>Vulkan API</h2>
 <p>The Android platform includes an
 <a href="https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/graphics/index.html">Android-specific
 implementation</a> of the <a href="https://www.khronos.org/vulkan/">Vulkan API
 specification</a> from the Khronos Group. Android applications must use the
 <a href="/devices/graphics/implement-vulkan.html#wsi">Window System
 Integration (WSI) extensions</a> to output their rendering.</p>

 <h2 id=resources>Resources</h2>
 <p>Use the following resources to learn more about Vulkan:</p>
 <ul>

 <li>
 <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/native/+/master/vulkan/#">Vulkan
 Loader </a>(libvulkan.so) at <code>platform/frameworks/native/vulkan</code>.
 Contains Android's Vulkan loader, as well as some Vulkan-related tools useful to
 platform developers.</li>

 <li><a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/native/+/master/vulkan/doc/implementors_guide/implementors_guide.html">Vulkan
 Implementor's Guide</a>. Intended for GPU IHVs writing Vulkan drivers for
 Android and OEMs integrating those drivers for specific devices. It describes
 how a Vulkan driver interacts with the system, how GPU-specific tools should be
 installed, and Android-specific requirements.</li>

 <li><a href="https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/graphics/index.html">Vulkan
 Graphics API Guide</a>. Includes information on getting started with using
 Vulkan in an Android app, details on Vulkan design guidelines on the Android
 platform, how to use Vulkan's shader compilers, and how to use use validation
 layers to help assure stability in apps using Vulkan.</li>

 <li><a href="https://www.khronos.org/#slider_vulkan">Vulkan News</a>. Covers
 events, patches, tutorials, and more Vulkan-related news articles.</li>
 </ul>

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 </html>
	<html devsite>
	<head>
	<title>Vulkan</title>
	<meta name="project_path" value="/_project.yaml" />
	<meta name="book_path" value="/_book.yaml" />
	</head>
	<body>
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	Copyright 2017 The Android Open Source Project

	Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
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	Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
	distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
	WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
	See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
	limitations under the License.
	-->



	<p>Android 7.0 adds support for
	<a href="https://www.khronos.org/vulkan/">Vulkan</a>, a low-overhead,
	cross-platform API for high-performance 3D graphics. Like OpenGL ES, Vulkan
	provides tools for creating high-quality, real-time graphics in applications.
	Vulkan advantages include reductions in CPU overhead and support for the
	<a href="https://www.khronos.org/spir">SPIR-V Binary Intermediate</a> language.
	</p>

	<p>System on chip vendors (SoCs) such as GPU Independent Hardware Vendors (IHVs)
	can write Vulkan drivers for Android; OEMs simply need to integrate these
	drivers for specific devices. For details on how a Vulkan driver interacts with
	the system, how GPU-specific tools should be installed, and Android-specific
	requirements, see <a href="/devices/graphics/implement-vulkan.html">Implementing
	Vulkan.</a></p>

	<p>Application developers can take advantage of Vulkan to create apps that
	execute commands on the GPU with significantly reduced overhead. Vulkan also
	provides a more direct mapping to the capabilities found in current graphics
	hardware, minimizing opportunities for driver bugs and reducing developer
	testing time (e.g. less time required to troubleshoot Vulkan bugs).</p>

	<p>For general information on Vulkan, refer to the
	<a href="http://khr.io/vulkanlaunchoverview">Vulkan Overview</a> or see the list
	of <a href="#resources">Resources</a> below.</p>

	<h2 id=vulkan_components>Vulkan components</h2>
	<p>Vulkan support includes the following components:</p>
	<p><img src="/devices/graphics/images/ape_graphics_vulkan.png"></p>
	<p class=img-caption><strong>Figure 1.</strong> Vulkan components</p>

	<ul>
	<li><strong>Vulkan Validation Layers</strong> (<em>provided in the Android
	NDK</em>). A set of libraries used by developers during the development of
	Vulkan apps. The Vulkan runtime library and the Vulkan driver from graphics
	vendors do not contain runtime error-checking to keep Vulkan runtime efficient.
	Instead, the validation libraries are used (only during development) to find
	errors in an application's use of the Vulkan API. The Vulkan Validation
	libraries are linked into the app during development and perform this error
	checking. After all API usage issues are found, the aplication no longer needs
	to include these libraries in the app.</li>
	<li><strong>Vulkan Runtime </strong><em>(provided by Android)</em>. A native
	library <code>(libvulkan.so</code>) that provides a new public native API
	called <a href="https://www.khronos.org/vulkan">Vulkan</a>. Most functionality
	is implemented by a driver provided by the GPU vendor; the runtime wraps the
	driver, provides API interception capabilities (for debugging and other
	developer tools), and manages the interaction between the driver and platform
	dependencies such as BufferQueue.</li>
	<li><strong>Vulkan Driver </strong><em>(provided by SoC)</em>. Maps the Vulkan
	API onto hardware-specific GPU commands and interactions with the kernel
	graphics driver.</li>
	</ul>

	<h2 id=modified_components>Modified components</h2>
	<p>Android 7.0 modifies the following existing graphics components to support
	Vulkan:</p>

	<ul>
	<li><strong>BufferQueue</strong>. The Vulkan Runtime interacts with the existing
	BufferQueue component via the existing <code>ANativeWindow</code> interface.
	Includes minor modifications (new enum values and new methods) to
	<code>ANativeWindow</code> and BufferQueue, but no architectural changes.</li>
	<li><strong>Gralloc HAL</strong>. Includes a new, optional interface for
	discovering whether a given format can be used for a particular
	producer/consumer combination without actually allocating a buffer.</li>
	</ul>

	<p>For details on these components, see
	<a href="/devices/graphics/arch-bq-gralloc.html">BufferQueue and
	gralloc</a> (for details on <code>ANativeWindow</code>, see
	<a href="/devices/graphics/arch-egl-opengl.html">EGLSurface and OpenGL
	ES</a>).

	<h2 id=apis>Vulkan API</h2>
	<p>The Android platform includes an
	<a href="https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/graphics/index.html">Android-specific
	implementation</a> of the <a href="https://www.khronos.org/vulkan/">Vulkan API
	specification</a> from the Khronos Group. Android applications must use the
	<a href="/devices/graphics/implement-vulkan.html#wsi">Window System
	Integration (WSI) extensions</a> to output their rendering.</p>

	<h2 id=resources>Resources</h2>
	<p>Use the following resources to learn more about Vulkan:</p>
	<ul>

	<li>
	<a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/native/+/master/vulkan/#">Vulkan
	Loader </a>(libvulkan.so) at <code>platform/frameworks/native/vulkan</code>.
	Contains Android's Vulkan loader, as well as some Vulkan-related tools useful to
	platform developers.</li>

	<li><a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/native/+/master/vulkan/doc/implementors_guide/implementors_guide.html">Vulkan
	Implementor's Guide</a>. Intended for GPU IHVs writing Vulkan drivers for
	Android and OEMs integrating those drivers for specific devices. It describes
	how a Vulkan driver interacts with the system, how GPU-specific tools should be
	installed, and Android-specific requirements.</li>

	<li><a href="https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/graphics/index.html">Vulkan
	Graphics API Guide</a>. Includes information on getting started with using
	Vulkan in an Android app, details on Vulkan design guidelines on the Android
	platform, how to use Vulkan's shader compilers, and how to use use validation
	layers to help assure stability in apps using Vulkan.</li>

	<li><a href="https://www.khronos.org/#slider_vulkan">Vulkan News</a>. Covers
	events, patches, tutorials, and more Vulkan-related news articles.</li>
	</ul>

	</body>
	</html>