The Many Changes Lining Up So Far For The Linux 5.1 Kernel

While Linux 5.0 isn't even out yet, there are a lot of changes building up for the Linux 5.1 cycle that have us excited.

In our close monitoring of the mailing list activity and many "-next" Git branches, here is some of what is on the table for the Linux 5.1 kernel cycle that will kick off in the weeks ahead:

- Io_uring for fast and efficient I/O that should be quite promising over the long-term.

- Better boot performance for big NUMA servers.

- Shared Virtual Memory for Nouveau with this open-source NVIDIA driver beginning to tap into the Linux kernel's Heterogeneous Memory Management (HMM) infrastructure.

- Intel has finally enabled Fastboot support by default for recent generations of graphics hardware.

- Coffeelake GVT support for Intel graphics virtualization.

- A user-space API addition to the Intel driver for working with Icelake and Intel's new VA-API media driver.

- AMDGPU DC seamless boot was merged along with various fixes and improvements.

- The Arm Komeda driver is being added to the DRM subsystem.

- Bitmain SoC support for the BM1880 and Sophon Edge developer board. This is a 64-bit ARM chip plus having a tensor platform and also a RISC-V core albeit not yet supported by the current code.

- Qualcomm FastRPC is being mainlined for offloading work from the application processor to the DSP on supported SoCs.

- Also on the Qualcomm front is mainlining its vibrator driver.

- Better AVX-512 tracking to allow for user-space to work on more optimal task placement.

- MacBook Pro keyboard/touchpad support for the latest generations of devices, albeit this might be pushed back from 5.1 as the code hasn't been staged yet.

- Improved Thunderbolt support for older Apple hardware.

- A new async driver probing option.

- Addressing more quirky hardware on the HID front, mostly various ASUS and Lenovo laptops.

- Intel WiFi support for Cyclone Peak and other new WiFi chips.

- Devlink health reporting and recovery system made it into the networking subsystem.

- The Google Chrome OS Wilco driver has now been staged in its 5.1 branch for this new embedded controller (EC) for new Chromebooks.

- Support for the Fireface UCX high-end audio solution.

- The new TEO CPU idle governor for tickless systems.

- Atomic replace support for kernel livepatching.

- The XGI display driver is being EOL'ed.

Stay tuned for more coverage of the Linux 5.1 kernel cycle once it kicks off and then the subsequent benchmarks.