The Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) Foundation on Monday announced a milestone with its release of the 1.0 HSA specification, which brings the technology industry one step closer to heterogeneous computing on platforms spanning mobile devices, desktops, high-performance computing (HPC) systems and servers. The HSA Foundation was officially introduced back in 2012, in a quest to build interoperable hardware and software that would address the high-efficiency requirements of next-generation platforms.

The newly-approved specification comprises the key elements that improve the programmability of heterogeneous processors, the portability of programming code and interoperability across different vendor devices. These include:

• The HSA System Architecture Specification, which defines how the hardware operates;
• The HSA Programmers Reference Manual (PRM), which targets the software ecosystem, tool and compiler developers;
• The HSA Runtime Specification, which defines how applications interact with HSA platforms.

The HSA specifications let graphics cores share coherent memory as equal citizens with CPU cores, enabling performance gains across a wide range of applications. The approach also lets developers program SoCs using it in familiar high-level languages such as C++ and Python. AMD which led the formation of the group said its latest x86 SoC, Carrizo, will get certified as compliant with the spec when tests are ready later this year.

The Linux kernel has been also updated with patches supporting HSA, thanks to work on Ubuntu from Canonical. Microsoft co-hosted the first public HSA event, but has so far remained mum on whether it will build HSA support into Windows.

On the otehr hand, the new specifications failed to win support from the chief rivals of its promoters Intel and Nvidia.

"HSA specification 1.0 includes several crucial features for efficient implementation of productive high-level languages, such as C++, Java and Python on heterogeneous computing hardware," said Professor Wen-Mei Hwu, CTO, Multicoreware, and Professor, Computer Engineering, UIUC. "Such enhancement of programmability will make the benefit of heterogeneous computing available to mainstream, mobile and server applications."

The specification was officially launched on Monday during the HSA 1.0 launch event held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California. The event featured a panel discussion among HSA Foundation board members, including AMD, ARM, Imagination Technologies, LG, MediaTek, Qualcomm and Samsung.