Core Image:

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Graphi...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_Image

I'm not super familiar with it or the competition, but I assume this is what they're talking about.

So, it's basically the MESA Intel graphics pipeline?

EDIT:

For the downvoters and the unclear, the relevant bit talks about compiling exactly the instructions needed to change the image. As I understand it, this JIT recompilation of pixel shaders is effectively what was implemented in the mesa drivers for Intel chipsets.

Compiling the shaders is a big win, since it allows us to do almost all operations in one pass rather than multiple passes. The service is intended to function on-demand and in real time, so latency matters a lot.