One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a method for sharing graphics objects between a compute unified device architecture (CUDA) application programming interface (API) and a graphics API. The CUDA API includes calls used to alias graphics objects allocated by the graphics API and, subsequently, synchronize accesses to the graphics objects. When an application program emits a “register” call that targets a particular graphics object, the CUDA API ensures that the graphics object is in the device memory, and maps the graphics object into the CUDA address space. Subsequently, when the application program emits “map” and “unmap” calls, the CUDA API respectively enables and disables accesses to the graphics object through the CUDA API. Further, the CUDA API uses semaphores to synchronize accesses to the shared graphics object. Finally, when the application program emits an “unregister” call, the CUDA API configures the computing system to disregard interoperability constraints.