Hello everyone!
I am Asadbek, a Computer Science student at Saarland University,
Germany. I will be working on the DCompute Metal backend project
with Nicholas as my mentor.
The goal of the project is to make the Metal GPU backend
available for D language GPGPU programming. The work is divided
into three main parts as in the Vulkan backend project:
- **LDC Compiler**: Add the necessary LLVM metadata that Apple's
Metal compiler expects, and prepare the compiled LLVM IR for
address space and ABI compatibility with Apple devices.
- **DCompute Runtime**: Build a host-side runtime using
Objective-C bindings to load and dispatch Metal kernels from D
code.
- **Testing**: Validate the generated IR and ensure end-to-end
kernel execution works correctly on Apple hardware.
I have already made some initial progress — basic hello world and
saxpy kernels successfully compile and run on Apple hardware. The
next step is further investigation into the LLVM bitcode format
that Apple's Metal compiler expects to ensure full compatibility.
I will be posting weekly updates as the project progresses.
Looking forward to contributing to the D community and learning
along the way!
