Recapping The Top Changes Of The Linux 3.14 Kernel

With development of the Linux 3.14 kernel coming to an end and its official release potentially coming in a few days, here's a recap of some of the top features and changes for this next major kernel version.

In talking about the Linux 3.14 kernel on pretty much a daily basis now for the past few months and already having run dozens of benchmarks from Linux 3.14 in its Git state, here's a recap of some of the most exciting work for this new kernel:

Graphics: Of course, the graphics subsystem is our favorite area of the kernel at Phoronix... One of the big Linux 3.14 GPU DRM highlights is stabilizing Intel Broadwell graphics support. The Intel Broadwell Graphics support should be in good shape with Linux 3.14 while further refinements have already been queued up for Linux 3.15. When you get your hands on Broadwell this year, you will also want xf86-video-intel 3.0, Mesa 10.2+, and VA-API 1.3.0.

With the open-source NVIDIA driver (Nouveau) the Linux 3.14 kernel provides NVIDIA GK110 GPU support, a.k.a. the GeForce GTX 780 / TITAN series. There's also now GK208 GPU support for the GeForce 630/640 hardware. The Linux 3.14 kernel doesn't have any support for the GeForce GTX 750 "Maxwell" series. Other Nouveau work includes overlay improvements and various bug-fixes. Still lacking is re-clocking support.

For AMD Radeon open-source fans, the Linux 3.14 kernel enables dynamic power management (DPM) for newer AMD hardware, various bug-fixes, RadeonSI UVD support, and other changes.

With the smaller GPU DRM drivers, the Linux 3.14 kernel has NVIDIA Tegra PRIME support and overhauling the VMware SVGA driver.

Processors: Worth noting for Linux 3.14 for processor coverage is support for AMD's Cryptographic Coprocessor (AMD CCP) and new MIPS CPU cores while Xtensa now supports SMP. There's also Generic CPU Boost support. Xen PVH was merged and PowerPC KVM improvements on the processor virtualization front. Intel Merrifield is also now supported along with new ARM platform support.

Schedulers: SCHED_DEADLINE was merged at long last into the mainline Linux kernel.

Networking: A new networking kernel feature is TCP auto corking for Linux.

Devices: Logitech Dual Action Pads are now supported along with other input device improvements to the Linux kernel. There's also USB and staging updates.

File-Systems / Block Layer: Improvements to file-systems of the Linux 3.14 kernel include F2FS performance improvements, new features for Btrfs, and Kernfs was merged. On the block device front were Bcache and blk-mq updates.

That's most of the 3.14 kernel work that immediately comes to mind... If I missed out on anything interesting for Linux 3.14 let me know via the forums or @MichaelLarabel on Twitter. If you appreciate all of this extensive and timely Linux kernel coverage -- along with benchmarks you can't find anywhere else -- please consider subscribing to Phoronix Premium.