The Need for Safety-Critical Compute API Standards
The demand for advanced compute is growing in a wide range of industries where safety is paramount, including automotive, avionics and medical where it is vital that systems meet safety-critical standards. First introduced in 2014, SYCL is a C++ based heterogeneous parallel programming framework for accelerating high-performance computing (HPC), machine learning, embedded computing, and compute-intensive desktop applications on a wide range of processor architectures, including CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, and tensor accelerators.
An Introduction to SYCL SC
In March 2023, the Khronos Group announced the creation of the SYCL SC Working Group (Press Release) to create a high-level compute standard for safety-critical systems that leverages the widely-adopted SYCL 2020 standard. The formation of the Working Group is the result of an extensive exploratory process that involved companies in the safety-critical community working together since March 2022 to build consensus on use cases and industry requirements to catalyze and guide the design of this new open standard. The SYCL SC Working Group is open to any Khronos member, and Khronos membership is open to any organisation.
Leveraging the proven industry standard SYCL 2020, SYCL SC should reduce development and certification costs in safety-critical markets where using the SYCL higher-level programming model can improve programming productivity. SYCL SC will bridge the gap between low-level APIs such as Vulkan® SC and the C++ high-level language and will leverage Vulkan SC design principles where appropriate and aim to enable open standards that can streamline system safety certifications at every level of the software stack.
Khronos members involved in the new SYCL for Safety-Critical Systems Working Group will present a session on "What’s New in SYCL for Safety-Critical Systems,” at the upcoming International Workshop on OpenCL and SYCL Conference (IWOCL), taking place on April 18-20 in Cambridge, UK. Learn More.
Aligning With Safety Certification Standards
The SYCL SC API will adhere to the new MISRA C++ 202X guidelines and align with safety certification standards such as RTCA DO-178C Level A / EASA ED-12C (avionics), ISO 26262/21448 (automotive), IEC 61508 (industrial), and IEC 62304 (Medical).