Linux 5.10 Continues Maturing The USB4 Support

Earlier this year Linux 5.6 brought initial USB4 support by leveraging Intel's existing Thunderbolt kernel support for which the updated USB specification is based. Succeeding kernels have continued maturing this USB4 implementation and that has continued with Linux 5.10.

Included as part of the USB / PHY / Thunderbolt changes for Linux 5.10 are more USB 4 updates, primarily this cycle fixing a few low-level issues in the code. The work continues to be led by Intel open-source engineers.

A lot of Thunderbolt work has also continued around Tiger Lake, including run-time power management in the CM mode, optimizing the force power logic, a DebugFS interface for Thunderbolt debugging, and other fixes and improvements. It was back during Linux 5.9 that the initial Tiger Lake Thunderbolt / USB4 code landed and refined in succeeding kernels.

Other material part of this pull also includes USB Type-C updates and minor work throughout a number of different USB and PHY drivers. One other notable addition is USB 3 PHY support for Intel's Lightning Mountain SoC.