AMD has announced availability of a software driver that supports WebGL, which is designed to bring plugin-free 3D graphics to the Internet. The AMD OpenGL ES 2.0 driver is intended to help developers create 3D content that can be rendered more quickly for consumers using open-source web browsers

WebGL is a cross-platform, royalty-free web standard for a low-level 3D graphics API based on OpenGL ES 2.0, exposed through the HTML5 Canvas element as Document Object Model interfaces. Developers familiar with OpenGL ES 2.0 will recognize WebGL as a Shader-based API using GLSL, with constructs that are semantically similar to those of the underlying OpenGL ES 2.0 API. It stays very close to the OpenGL ES 2.0 specification, with some concessions made for what developers expect out of memory-managed languages such as JavaScript.

WebGL brings plugin-free 3D to the web, implemented right into the browser. Major browser vendors Apple (Safari), Google (Chrome), Mozilla (Firefox), and Opera (Opera) are members of the WebGL Working Group.

In addition to enabling 3D and application-like experiences on the web, AMD's new driver empowers software developers to use desktop PCs and workstations, as opposed to embedded systems, when creating applications based on OpenGL ES 2.0 for smartphones, tablets and other portable devices. And a common OpenGL ES programming environment makes it easier for developers to port applications between PCs and handhelds.

The OpenGL ES 2.0 driver from AMD will be generally available with the upcoming ATI Catalyst 10.7 beta for OpenGL ES 2.0.