AMD SoC PMC Driver Slated To Come With Linux 5.11

In addition to the AMD Sensor Fusion Hub (SFH) driver coming with Linux 5.11 for improving Ryzen laptop support, the AMD SoC PMC driver is also under review for landing in this next kernel release.

The AMD SoC PMC driver is for the power management controller found so far with Raven Ridge, Picasso, Renoir, and Cezanne SoCs. While Raven through Renoir has been available for a while, AMD only now is contributing this power management controller for the mainline Linux kernel -- presumably due to AMD Chromebooks and the like that have motivated the other recent AMD Linux mobile improvements.

This AMD power management controller driver is responsible for S2Idle transactions that are driven by the platform firmware on the system management unit. This is about improving the power management abilities for Ryzen notebook/embedded hardware but no impact on Ryzen desktops.

The AMD PMC driver is currently under review with the platform-drivers-x86.git code and if all goes well it will be there with the Linux 5.11 kernel and its merge window opening in December.