Metal (API)

Metal is a low-level, low-overhead hardware-accelerated graphics and compute application programming interface (API) that debuted in iOS 8. It combines functionality similar to OpenGL and OpenCL under one API. It is intended to bring to iOS some of the performance benefits of similar APIs on other platforms, such as Khronos Group's cross-platform Vulkan and Microsoft's Direct3D 12 for Windows. Since June 8, 2015, Metal is available for iOS devices using the Apple A7 or later, as well as Macs (2012 models or later) running OS X El Capitan. Metal also further improves the capabilities of GPGPU programming by introducing compute shaders.

Metal uses a new shading language based on C++11; this is implemented using Clang and LLVM.

Support for Metal on OS X was announced at WWDC 2015.

Performance

Metal should have better performance than OpenGL, for several reasons:

Metal (Wu Xing)

Metal (Chinese: 金; pinyin: jīn), the fourth phase of the Chinese philosophy of Wu Xing, is the decline of the matter, or the matter's decline stage. Metal is yin in character, its motion is inwards and its energy is contracting. It is associated with the autumn, the west, old age, the planet Venus, the color white, dry weather, and the White Tiger (Bai Hu) in Four Symbols. The archetypal metals are silver and gold.

Attributes

In Chinese Taoist thought, Metal attributes are considered to be firmness, rigidity, persistence, strength, and determination. The metal person is controlling, ambitious, forceful, and set in their ways as metal is very strong. They are self-reliant and prefer to handle their problems alone. The metal person is also wise, business-oriented, and good at organization and stability. However, the metal person can also appreciate luxury and enjoy the good things in life. Just as metal can conduct electricity, the metal person has strong impulses and generative powers and can bring about changes and transformations for those who come into contact with them. The metal person is patient, as well as a good person with a strong will.

Metal (Manilla Road album)

Metal is an album released by heavy metal band Manilla Road in 1982.

Track listing

Credits

References

Come Sail Away – The Styx Anthology

Come Sail Away – The Styx Anthology is a musical album by Styx, released on May 4, 2004. It is a compilation consisting of two compact discs and contains a thorough history of the band. The album encompasses many of the band's most popular and significant songs, ranging from the band's first single from their self-titled album, "Best Thing," through the song "One with Everything," a track included on Styx's most recent album at the time of release, Cyclorama.

The most notable omission from the compilation is "Don't Let It End," Dennis DeYoung's top-ten single from their 1983 album, Kilroy Was Here.

This is the only Styx compilation album to date to combine the original versions of songs from the band's early Wooden Nickel albums with their later material. Their Wooden Nickel breakout hit "Lady" was included on the 1995 Greatest Hits collection, but as a note-for-note re-recording, labelled "Lady '95." As such, this is the first truly career-spanning collection for the band ever compiled.

Gold (2015 film)

Gold. is a German experimental short documentary film directed by Alexander Tuschinski. It intercuts abandoned 19th century gold-mining towns in the desert with sequoia trees in a forest. The film had its world premiere at Mykonos Biennale on July 3, 2015, where it was screened in competition and received the Biennale's Golden Pelican Award by Lydia Venieri. It had its German premiere at Berlin Short Film Festival on July 4, 2015.

Production

The film is set to the fourth movement of Beethoven's seventh symphony, which has been called "Apotheosis of Dance" by Richard Wagner. The director's intention was to intercut nature and human structures to show nature overtaking. It was filmed with a tight schedule and the crew travelled long distances in a short amount of time to get many different shots needed. Tuschinski edited the film from six hours of material from "countless camera-angles", as most shots are shown only very briefly due to the often rapid editing. Planning the film, he was inspired by the early works of his friend and mentor Hugo Niebeling that connect cinematoraphy and music in a very direct way.

Gold (crater)

Gold is a crater in the Oxia Palus quadrangle of Mars, located at 20.2° N and 31.3° W. It is 9.0 km in diameter and was named after a town in Pennsylvania, USA.

Gold is famous as being one of several craters showing clear evidence that it was affected by floods of water from Maja Valles on Mars.

References