April 21 - 3:35pm EDT   Google this afternoon took the covers from an early version of O3D, a new standard for controllable 3D on the web. The format is intended to be a truly browser- and OS-independent format that supports truly modern 3D graphics and which runs well when interacting with the modern web. It takes advantage of the shader (visual programming) effects of current graphics chipsets to produce visuals such as rippling water, reflections and fire, all while properly supporting JavaScript for elements such as real-time changes to the 3D world. [full story]

December 8 - 11:40pm EST   Heralding the era of GPU-enhanced computing, the Khronos Group on Monday evening announced the ratification and public release of the Apple-proposed OpenCL 1.0 specification, the open, royalty-free standard for cross-platform, parallel programming in PCs. The OpenCL spec, proposed by Apple under six months ago, is designed to improve performance of software applications (ranging from gaming to scientific and medical software) and is supported by vendors such as Activision, Blizzard, AMD, Apple, ARM, Broadcom, Electronic Arts, IBM, Intel, Nokia, NVIDIA, and Samsung. The OpenCL standard was completed in nearly six months time by the working group in order to be ready ... [full story]

August 13 - 8:40am EDT   Standards backer Khronos Group has published the specifications for OpenGL 3.0, the next major revision to the universal graphics programming format. The new version focuses on high dynamic range (HDR) images and now includes support for 32-bit, floating point data both for depth and rendering buffers as well as for textures. The advance allows for more precise color and also permits more accurate calculation for visual effects. [full story]