Intel's Linux Driver Team Jumps On Vulkan 1.0.54 Changes

While the Intel Linux OpenGL driver had been slow to adapt to new versions of the specification from The Khronos Group, times have changed and with the Vulkan API they are doing a darn fine job in keeping up with the latest revisions to the specification.

With this morning's big Vulkan 1.0.54 update we were quick to see NVIDIA release a new Vulkan beta driver while we have yet to see a new "PRO" driver release from AMD nor any release from the community-driven RADV, which has access to the advanced Khronos specifications with the key contributors being employed by Red Hat and Google, Khronos members.

Some patch series worth noting today meanwhile on the open-source Intel driver front is VK_KHR_variable_pointers / VK_KHR_storage_buffer_storage_class support, promoting the KHX extensions to KHR (RADV included here), and KHR_external_semaphore.

Not bad at all and great to see Intel's open-source "ANV" Vulkan Linux driver continuing to catch up to the latest Khronos specifications. In fact, I haven't yet seen a Windows Intel driver update for the v1.0.54 changes.

What remains to be seen though is whether these patch series will be merged in time for next week's Mesa 17.2 branching, which will be released as stable in August. Otherwise, these ANV 1.0.54 changes will not reach stable until the end of the calendar year except for those riding Mesa Git.