Last week Intel's
Graphics Execution Manager (GEM) had entered the
Linux 2.6.28 kernel. As most of you should be aware, GEM is the new kernel memory manager for graphics processors that was developed by Intel as a replacement for
TTM. Not only was there this batch of new code, but new graphics-related work continues to be pushed into the 2.6.28 kernel.
David Airlie has called out to Linus to pull in another series of changes. In this most recent patch set there are a number of GEM stabilization fixes and other kernel DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) fixes. Included in this code is the vblank improvements, which
Eric Anholt talked about this week. The kernel mailing list message can be read
here.
While the 2.6.28 kernel will go without
kernel mode-setting (
KMS) support, there's a fair amount to be excited about already in this next Linux kernel -- particularly if you're using the open-source Intel driver.
In related Intel graphics news,
Jesse Barnes has pushed forward patches that add GTT mapping support for GEM and fence register management on Intel 965 hardware and later (
message) and GTT mapping support for libdrm (
message).