64-Bit ARM Changes Already Sent In For The Linux 5.3 Kernel

Due to summer holidays, the 64-bit ARM (AArch64/ARM64) architecture changes were already sent in days ago for the Linux 5.3 kernel merge window.

With ARM64 for Linux 5.3 are a number of notable improvements. Among the additions for Linux 5.3 on the modern Arm front include:

- ARM64 system call emulation support.

- A minor performance optimization of keeping soft IRQs enabled when touching the FPSMID/SVE state.

- Exposing more ARMv8.5 features to user-space.

- Support for ARM Statistical Profiling Extensions (SPE) on ACPI platforms.

- DDR performance monitoring support for iMX8QXP platform.

- CONFIG_RANDOMIZE_BASE is now enabled by default for the ARM64 default kernel configuration, which is for enabling KASLR by default.

The complete list of changes can be found via this pull request.