Linux 3.16 Is Looking Good For ARM Hardware Support

The Linux 3.16 kernel is set to debut with a fair amount of new ARM hardware / SoC enablement, which in turn will soon benefit Fedora ARM users seeing as they are likely to lock onto this new version for the Fedora 21 release.

Among the highlights for ARM hardware in Linux 3.16 include mainline support for the NVIDIA Jetson TK1 development board with its Tegra K1 high-end SoC, Samsung Exynos multi-platform support is finally in place, Qualcomm MSM 8×60 / 8960 / 8974 support, APM X-Gene, and initial AMD Seattle support.

The APM X-Gene and AMD Seattle support initially found within the Linux 3.16 kernel are among the first pieces of 64-bit ARM (AArch64) hardware.

Besides the new ARM support in Linux 3.16, there's also many improvements to existing ARM hardware with this kernel that will be officially christened in the weeks ahead. Aside from the ARM work, there's plenty of other new features to benefit all Linux users as we have been covering in our dozens of 3.16 articles to date.

For those curious about the Fedora ARM 3.16 state since it's getting close to the lock-in for Fedora 21, read this blog post by Peter Robinson.