With the release of Intel® oneAPI the Toolkit components follow semantic versioning. The initial version of the Toolkits themselves is 2021.1 and the initial version of many of the components is 2021.0.0. Other components follow their own Semantic Versioning structure.
Semantic Versioning (SemVer) has become a standard in the world of software development to track what's going on. SemVer allows for faster and easier integration of tools into a developer's CI system.
A SemVer number looks like this: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH.
- The MAJOR release has many new features and changes when ABI/API compatibility is broken.
- The MINOR release is an update to the MAJOR release. Features can include an expanded API or new features that are backwards-compatible.
- Intel oneAPI components may issue a critical PATCH for specific bug and security fixes.
While the major version looks like a year, it is not technically meant to be a year. So it might not change every calendar year.
Not every component follows this exact schema, but all follow the MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH concept.
References
- semver.org
- Introduction to Semantic Versioning at GeekforGeeks.org
- Software Versioning at Wikipedia