Linux's Hantro VPU Media Driver Looks To Be Promoted Out Of Staging

The Hantro VPU driver that has been developed the past several years for supporting the Hantro video/image processing IP found on various Rockchip and NXP SoCs is set to be promoted out of the Linux kernel's staging area.

The Hantro VPU media driver in the mainline kernel allows for accelerated video/image encoding and decoding to various formats on several Rockchip SoCs as well as the NXP i.MX8M. The Hantro video IP is developed and licensed by VeriSilicon. Hantro video IP can be found with other hardware but among the upstream Linux kernel contributors the motivation is around NXP and Rockchip SoCs with seemingly some focus for Chromebook usage. VP8, MPEG-2, H.264, HEVC/H.265, VP9, and other codecs are supported by this driver while it comes down to the actual Hantro IP / SoC for the actual video encode/decode capabilities.

VeriSilicon Hantro

The Hantro driver was kept in the Linux kernel's staging area until supporting the stateless video codec controls, but now that those items are all squared away, it's time to finally move Hantro out of staging.

The proposal for promoting Hantro is going through the kernel mailing list and looks like there is agreement that it is ready to be promoted as a stable driver. This change could happen as soon as the upcoming v5.20 cycle.