Imagination GPUs now support Vulkan 1.4 and Android 16

Our latest driver release (DDK 25.1 RTM2) adds support for the latest version of the Android operating system, along with a richer set of OpenCL extensions and Vulkan 1.4 on Android.

Vulkan is a popular API among our Imagination’s developer community as it offers low-overhead, cross-platform access to modern GPUs, and enables developers to maximise performance and efficiency across a wide range of devices. Its explicit control over GPU operations and support for advanced features like multi-threading and fine-grained resource management make it ideal for high-performance gaming, real-time rendering, and compute-intensive applications.

Vulkan 1.4 was already available to our Imagination community via the Linux driver, but this release extends support into the Android driver as well - a particularly important move given the centrality of Vulkan to Android’s GPU strategy.  Vulkan 1.4 itself is a significant update that consolidates many previously optional features into the core specification, streamlining development and ensuring consistent cross-platform support for high-performance graphics and compute applications. Key enhancements include:

• Streaming Transfers, for efficient, cross-platform data streaming to GPUs while maintaining full rendering performance.
• The integration of widely used extensions such as push descriptors, dynamic rendering local reads, and scalar block layouts, which were previously optional.
• Guaranteed support for advanced capabilities like 8K rendering with up to eight separate render targets.

Following the stable release of Android 16, Android device users have been busy updating their operating system to the latest version. This release’s inclusion of support for Android 16 means that OEMs, developers and consumers can fully leverage the operating system’s advancements in performance, multitasking, and visual fidelity, including new features like:

• Desktop windowing and custom keyboard shortcuts, which enhance multitasking on larger screens, demanding more from the GPU in terms of rendering multiple app windows and transitions.
• Up to 16 KB memory page compatibility, which improves performance and efficiency for apps on newer hardware configurations.
• Live notification updates, predictive back navigation, and haptic sliders, which create a more immersive and responsive user experience and relies on robust GPU support to deliver fluid animations and tactile feedback.

The final key update in the latest driver release is expanded OpenCL support – extremely important for developers looking to leverage our GPUs for AI at the edge. New features now supported include:

• Android HAL Buffer Extension enables efficient sharing of buffers between Android components and OpenCL kernels.
• Kernel Clock Extension provides access to high-resolution device clocks for profiling and time-sensitive operations.
• External Memory and Semaphore Extension facilitates interoperability with external memory and synchronization primitives for advanced multi-device workflows.

We’re also thrilled to introduce support for OpenCL Subgroups — a game-changing upgrade that brings warp-level control and fine-grained parallelism to your compute kernels.  With Subgroups, developers can now accelerate performance with efficient intra-workgroup communication, unlock hardware-level SIMD execution for tighter control and optimize memory access in data-heavy workloads.  Whether building high-performance graphics, AI pipelines, or scientific simulations, Subgroups give developers the tools to push OpenCL applications to the next level.

Imagination maintains its Android, Windows, and open-source and proprietary Linux drivers with regular updates that give customers access to the latest operating systems and APIs (and their popular extensions), as well as performance optimisations.

This release, 25.1 RTM2, will be maintained for at least four years for bug fixes and security vulnerabilities.

To find out more, request a meeting with one of our team.