The Vulkan working group has released a major Vulkan 1.0 specification update that adds eighteen new KHR extensions. They include KHR replacements for the experimental KHX_external_memory_* and KHX_external_semaphore_* extensions released earlier this year, incorporating changes based on developer and implementer feedback. The release also adds a set of KHR_external_fence_* extensions. Together, these extensions allow applications to share memory and synchronization primitives across process and API boundaries. Two new extensions, KHR_dedicated_allocation and KHR_get_memory_requirements2, provide more expressive and extensible ways for applications to optimize their GPU memory allocation policies. KHR_16bit_storage, KHR_storage_buffer_storage_class, and KHR_variable_pointer allow Vulkan implementations to accept shader programs containing new programming constructs recently added to the SPIR-V intermediate shading language.


The new extensions are accompanied by a new release of the Vulkan 1.0 conformance test that checks that the new extensions are implemented correctly, and a new Vulkan SDK that provides loader and validation support and a snapshot of a compatible release of the GLSLang shader compiler. All of the new extensions are supported in the latest NVIDIA drivers, and support from other GPU vendors is in progress.


For more information, see the Vulkan Changelog