New Intel Driver Takes SNA Accel Mainstream

Posted by Michael Larabel on July 15, 2012

Chris Wilson released the xf86-video-intel 2.20 driver on Sunday, which brings SNA acceleration to the masses.

The Intel SNA acceleration architecture significantly improves the X.Org driver's performance over the UXA acceleration method that's the default. SNA has been in development since last year with much of the development being done by Chris Wilson of Intel OTC. SNA stands for Sandy Bridge New Acceleration, but it benefits all generations of Intel graphics hardware. SNA has worked out extremely well in recent months with all bugs appearing to have been squashed.

With the xf86-video-intel 2.20 release, SNA isn't the default, but now it's compiled into the driver without needing to build the driver separate while passing the --enable-sna switch. SNA can easily be enabled by just setting the AccelMethod within the /etc/X11/xorg.conf to SNA.

The xf86-video-intel 2.20 driver release alone brings 456 changes from Chris Wilson, most of them relating to SNA acceleration.

Aside from the SNA loving, xf86-video-intel 2.20 brings UXA acceleration bug-fixes and X.Org Server API compatibility improvements for X.Org Server 1.13.

The release announcement for xf86-video-intel 2.20 can be read on the Xorg mailing list.

Discuss this article in our forums, IRC channel, or email the author. You can also follow our content via RSS and on social networks like Facebook, Identi.ca, and Twitter (@Phoronix and @MichaelLarabel). Subscribe to Phoronix Premium to view our content without advertisements, view entire articles on a single page, and experience other benefits.
Latest Hardware Reviews
  1. Intel Haswell HD Graphics 4600 vs. AMD Radeon Graphics On Linux
  2. Intel Haswell HD Graphics 4600 Performance On Ubuntu Linux
  3. Intel Core i7 4770K "Haswell" Benchmarks On Ubuntu Linux
  4. The First Experience Of Intel Haswell On Linux
Latest Software Articles
  1. Optimized Binaries Provide Great Benefits For Intel Haswell
  2. 11-Way Linux, BSD Platform Comparison
  3. SNA Acceleration Works Great For Intel Core i7 Haswell
  4. The Linux Evolution For Intel Haswell's Performance
Latest Linux News
  1. NVIDIA Driver Soon Likely To Support EGL, Mir
  2. OpenMandriva Goes Into Alpha Form, Russian-Based
  3. NVIDIA Brings Their Linux Driver To ARM
  4. D Language Still Showing Promise, Advancements
  5. Planetary Annihilation Released For Linux Gamers
  6. Gentoo Starts Work On KDE-Wayland Support
  7. NVIDIA To License Its Kepler GPU Technology
  8. KDE's KWin Made Lots Of Progress In 4.11
  9. Ubuntu Announces Carrier Advisory Group
  10. Qt 5.1 Release Candidate 1 Has Arrived
  11. In-Fighting Continues Over Mir On Non-Unity Ubuntu
Latest Forum Talk
  1. OpenMandriva Goes Into Alpha Form, Russian-Based
  2. D Language Still Showing Promise, Advancements
  3. Gentoo Starts Work On KDE-Wayland Support
  4. NVIDIA Driver Soon Likely To Support EGL, Mir
  5. NVIDIA Brings Their Linux Driver To ARM
  6. Ubuntu Announces Carrier Advisory Group
  1. Computers
  2. Display Drivers
  3. Graphics Cards
  4. Motherboards
  5. Peripherals
  6. Processors
  7. Software
  8. Operating Systems
  9. All Articles
  1. Linux Benchmarking
  2. OpenBenchmarking.org
  3. Phoronix Test Suite