Mediatek Posts 8k Lines Of New Linux Kernel Driver Code For AI Processing Unit Support

For a number of months Mediatek engineers have been posting some Linux kernel driver code for bringing up the AI Processing Unit (APU) within the MT8192 SoC while out this weekend is the complete patch series at more than eight thousand lines of code.

There has been some APU power handling and IOMMU patches previously posted while on Saturday was the complete set of patches for bringing up the MT8192 APU with power control, tinysys controller (a micro-controller on the APU), and middleware support. In total it's 8.1k lines of new kernel code.

Mediatek's documentation on the MT8192 promotes its AI processor as being an "APU 2.0" design and capable of 2.4 TOPs, five times the performance of their previous generation APU. "This highly capable, multi-core AI processor can work in conjunction with the inbuilt cameras and microphones to enrich a wide range of voice and vision-based applications such as voice ID recognition and voice control, speech and image recognition, speech to text, live translation, object recognition, background removal, noise reduction, image and video segmentation, gesture control and Google AR Core-based enhancements, all in real-time."

The MT8192 SoC is found within some Chromebooks and other devices since its announcement last year. The octa-core layout of the MT8192 are four Cortex-A76 cores and four A55 cores while on the graphics side is Arm Mali G-57.

The 13 patches supporting this AI Processing Unit are now out for review. So far I haven't found any supported user-space code for going along with this Mediatek APU kernel driver, so we'll see ultimately how this contribution is received and what ends up happening to it ahead.