Linux 6.5 Adding Initial Support For USB4 v2, Intel Barlow Ridge

Last year the USB4 v2.0 specification was published as the next iteration of the USB4 standard. USB4 v2 supports 80 Gbps transfer rates with USB Type-C active cables and the ability to handle up to 120 Gbps in one direction and 40 Gbps for the other direction. Intel is contributing initial support for USB4 v2 to the Linux 6.5 kernel along with initial enablement on their new Intel Barlow Ridge discrete controller.

Intel engineer Mika Westerberg who maintains the Thunderbolt/USB4 driver for the Linux kernel has been working with Intel's many Linux engineers on this initial USB4 v2 bring-up.and enabling their Barlow Ridge controller. The initial support includes 80G symmetric link support, the bits needed to bring-up the router in v2 mode, adaptive TMU handling, PCIe extended encapsulation, DisplayPort 2.x tunneling support, and CL2 low-power link state handling. The 120G and 80G link support and other changes are to follow soon.

I haven't found many hits on Intel Barlow Ridge itself besides these patches but appears to be Intel's first upcoming USB v2 dedicated controller.

The USB4 v2 support for Linux was sent in as part of the USB pull request for Linux 6.5. That pull also adds a new Qualcomm PMIC Type-C driver, NVIDIA Tegra stream protocol support, the CDNS2 gadget driver, and many other updates.