Intel 12.02 Package Proclaims Stable Ivy Bridge

Intel released its "12.02 graphics driver" package today for Linux, which advertises stable support for the Intel Ivy Bridge platform.

The 12.02 graphics driver is basically what was Intel's quarterly package release under a new numbering scheme. Instead of being the "2012Q1" Linux driver package, it's now 12.02 to reflect its release in February of 2012. Back in October I wrote about Intel working on a new release cycle and this is part of their new development process.

The "package" is still the same and it's just their recommended driver component versions when it comes to the Linux kernel, 2D driver, 3D driver, libdrm, libva, and vaapi-driver-intel. Intel 12.02 calls for the Linux 3.2.x kernel, Mesa 8.0.1, xf86-video-intel 2.17.0, libdrm 2.4.31, and VA-API 1.0.15. The Intel developers also recommend using X.Org Server 1.11.1. These component versions is pretty much what will be matched by the upcoming Ubuntu 12.04 LTS release, among other H1'2012 Linux distributions.

Besides going under a new versioning scheme and having "stable" Ivy Bridge support is the OpenGL 3.0 / GLSL 1.30 support for Sandy Bridge from Mesa 8.0. There's also performance improvements in this package, stability fixes, improved support for ELD (EDID-Like Data) over HDMI and DisplayPort, support for Embedded Display Port (eDP) connections, and fixed rendering issues.

The open-source Ivy Bridge graphics support on Linux right now should be on-par with Sandy Bridge now that the missing IRQ issue has been fixed plus many other fixes and improvements that should really make Ivy Bridge graphics quite compelling as soon as the hardware begins to ship. There's also triple monitor support for Ivy Bridge.

With Sandy Bridge support being stable and this release now out the door, look for the initial Intel Haswell graphics driver support to be pushed soon.

The announcement of the Intel 12.02 version was made on the intel-gfx mailing list and they refer users to IntelLinuxGraphics.org.