SPIR: The Standard IR for Parallel Compute and Graphics

SPIR-V enables high-level language front-ends to emit programs in a standardized intermediate form to be ingested by a wider range of drivers, including Vulkan, OpenGL and OpenCL. SPIR-V eliminates the need for high-level language front-end compilers in device drivers, significantly reducing driver complexity and enabling a broad range of language and framework front-ends to run on diverse hardware architectures and encourages a vibrant ecosystem of open source analysis, porting, debug and optimization tools.

For developers, using SPIR-V means that kernel source code no longer has to be directly exposed, kernel load times can be accelerated, and developers can choose the use of a common language front-end compiler, improving kernel reliability and portability across multiple hardware implementations.