Intel Gets Ready With New X.Org Driver For Sandy Bridge

Intel is gearing up to release their xf86-video-intel 2.14 DDX driver in the coming weeks, which will be their quarterly open-source X.Org driver update for their Intel IGPs. In preparations for this release and the forthcoming release candidates, Intel's Carl Worth has tagged the xf86-video-intel 2.13.901 driver in Git, which is an intermediate development snapshot.

The xf86-video-intel 2.14 driver doesn't contain any breakthrough enhancements or new features for existing Intel customers, but this quarterly update does feature improved Sandy Bridge support, which is their next-generation hardware to begin hitting the market in January. Intel has been working on Sandy Bridge support for many months already and by the time these new CPUs with integrated graphics begin shipping, there will have been open-source Linux support worked on for almost a year. However, it's with the Intel Q4'2010 packages where all of the pieces should be in place for a stable Sandy Bridge setup with OpenGL acceleration, X-Video, etc.

The latest xf86-video-intel Git commits can be found at FreeDesktop.org.