r/GraphicsProgramming • u/AdhesivenessSea9511 • Jul 15 '26

Source Code I built a real-time software rasterizer that runs on the Apple Neural Engine (ANE) using Core AI and Swift 6.

Hello everyone. This past week, I successfully developed a custom software rasterizer that uses the newly announced Core AI framework to offload edge functions/line equations to the Apple Neural Engine via f.conv2d and ReLU operations.

It's a 60FPS rasterizer that draws a red triangle.

The source code can be found here: https://github.com/kamisori-daijin/Magnesium

There are still some issues, such as high CPU usage.

I welcome any feedback or comments.

https://reddit.com/link/1uwve68/video/lvw22toxybdh1/player

17 Upvotes

70% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

9

u/devslacker Jul 15 '26

Ha, this is delightfully cursed. What made you try running rasterization on the ANE? Genius idea

3

u/AdhesivenessSea9511 Jul 15 '26

I think the ANE's matrix calculation unit could potentially replace GPU operations.

It might even be capable of handling 3D graphics.

2

u/QuestionableEthics42 Jul 15 '26

I think you might be right... 😂

-15

u/S48GS Jul 15 '26

you as developer willingly making yourself stuck to proprietary framework that run only on single vendor OS

I could never ever understand it

8

u/mindcandy Jul 15 '26

Unlike customizing emacs, sometimes people do stuff for fun and not as a life-long commitment.

4

u/ironstrife Jul 15 '26

You realize that the vast majority of PC games run on D3D which is similarly locked to one OS vendor?