Intent to Ship: WGSL: unrestricted pointer parameters

[Corentin Wallez]

Contact emails

cwa...@google.com

Explainer

None

Specification

https://gpuweb.github.io/gpuweb/wgsl/#:~:text=unrestricted_pointer_parameters

Summary

Functionality added to the WebGPU/WGSL spec after its first shipment in a browser. Loosens restrictions on which pointers can be passed to WGSL functions such that pointers to storage/uniform/workgroup address spaces are allowed.

Blink component

Blink>WebGPU

Search tags

webgpu

TAG review

None

TAG review status

Not applicable

Risks

Interoperability and Compatibility

Unrestricted pointer access has not yet been implemented in any browser, but has been approved by the GPU for the Web Community Group, with representatives from Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

Gecko: No signal (https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/951)

WebKit: Positive (https://github.com/WebKit/standards-positions/issues/294#issuecomment-1877411933) Note that this is a blanket approval from Safari for addition to the v1 WebGPU/WGSL spec.

Web developers: No signals

Other signals:

WebView application risks

Does this intent deprecate or change behavior of existing APIs, such that it has potentially high risk for Android WebView-based applications?

None at the moment, WebGPU currently does not ship on Android WebView.

Debuggability

None

Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and Android WebView)?

No

All platforms will eventually have support. Will immediately be available on Android, ChromeOS, Mac, and Windows, since those platforms already support WebGPU. Linux is planned to have WebGPU support in the future, so this feature will become available when WebGPU does.

Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests?

Yes

WebGPU/WGSL have a conformance test suite (https://github.com/gpuweb/cts) that is regularly pulled into Chromium and part of the testing of Dawn/Tint in Chromium. Note that tests are still being written, but the feature will not be launched until it is fully tested.

Flag name on chrome://flags

None

Finch feature name

None

Non-finch justification

None

Requires code in //chrome?

False

Tracking bug

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/tint/issues/detail?id=2053

Availability expectation

Feature is available only in Chromium browsers for the near future, on the order of months. Other browsers intend to ship WebGPU support, but don't have specified timelines.

Non-OSS dependencies

Does the feature depend on any code or APIs outside the Chromium open source repository and its open-source dependencies to function?

No

Estimated milestones

No milestones specified

Anticipated spec changes

Open questions about a feature may be a source of future web compat or interop issues. Please list open issues (e.g. links to known github issues in the project for the feature specification) whose resolution may introduce web compat/interop risk (e.g., changing to naming or structure of the API in a non-backward-compatible way).

None

Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status

https://chromestatus.com/feature/5181311436455936

This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status.

[Corentin Wallez]

API owners, PTAL: the tests have been implemented, and all review boxes are green!

[Chris Harrelson]

Great - LGTM1!

Does your comment about tests also apply to the other intents?

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[Corentin Wallez]

Thanks! Tests for other intents are still WIP, though it'd be nice to get the LGTMs so we don't need to come back once they are :) We require tests to be complete (and passing!) in our own process before shipping anyway.

[Chris Harrelson]

Got it, thanks for clarifying and the quick response!

The API owners reviewed today and we're comfortable with not blocking our LGTMs on landing the tests, since your team is committed to adding them before shipping.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/CAGdfWNOh8e8Hvj%2BxAJ%2BnZJaKCn%2B1zCgD-UkmmZ26yNNyW_4_9w%40mail.gmail.com.

[Corentin Wallez]

Thanks a lot!

[Yoav Weiss]

LGTM2

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/CAGdfWNP%2BnjP6Uocu%2Bw94LtHP42yiOFqG22wm6OMas6KFHxYYug%40mail.gmail.com.

[Mike Taylor]

LGTM3

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/CAOmohSJgQp5fev9sQ26CTgoEaeFQTg5c38ybu9Dv7%3Dn5rTkdAw%40mail.gmail.com.