Metal API
| Initial release | June 2014 |
|---|---|
| Written in | C++11 |
| Operating system | iOS, macOS, tvOS |
| Type | 3D graphics API |
| Website | developer |
Metal is a low-level, low-overhead hardware-accelerated graphics and compute application programming interface (API) that debuted in iOS 8. It combines functionality similar to OpenGL and OpenCL under one API. It is intended to bring to iOS, macOS, and tvOS some of the performance benefits of similar APIs on other platforms, such as Khronos Group's cross-platform Vulkan (which debuted in mid-February 2016) and Microsoft's Direct3D 12 for Windows.
Metal has been available since June 2, 2014 on iOS devices using the Apple A7 or later, and since June 8, 2015 on Macs (2012 models or later) running OS X El Capitan.
On June 5 2017 at WWDC, Apple announced an update to Metal called Metal 2. Metal 2 is supported by macOS High Sierra, iOS 11 and tvOS 11. It is not a separate API from Metal and it is supported by the same hardware. Metal 2 brings several features to Metal across supported operating systems, enabling more efficient profiling and debugging in Xcode, accelerated machine learning, lower CPU workload, support for Virtual Reality on macOS, and specificities of the Apple A11 GPU, in particular.
On iOS and tvOS, Metal supports Apple-designed SoCs from the Apple A7 or newer. On macOS, Metal supports Intel HD and Iris Graphics from the HD 4000 series or newer, AMD GCN-based GPUs, and Nvidia Fermi-based GPUs or newer.
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