Microsoft Publishes Linux GPU Frame-Buffer Driver

Microsoft's Linux kernel contributions continue... This time around they have published a synthetic frame-buffer driver.

For exposing a kernel frame-buffer on guests when running Linux atop Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization platform, Microsoft has published an initial patch that provides Hyper-V Synthetic Video support. This kernel frame-buffer driver supports Microsoft's virtual Synthetic Video device.

Haiyang Zhang, the Microsoft engineer responsible for this new Microsoft Linux driver, wrote on the kernel mailing list, "This is the driver for the Hyper-V Synthetic Video, which supports screen resolution up to Full HD 1920x1080 on Windows Server 2012 host, and 1600x1200 on Windows Server 2008 R2 or earlier. It also solves the double mouse cursor issue of the emulated video mode."

This Microsoft Synthetic Video Driver is currently under a "request for comments" state but it's possible if the review goes well it could be potentially merged for the forthcoming Linux 3.9 kernel development cycle otherwise Linux 3.10.