The First DRM Pull Request For Linux 2.6.35 Kernel
The DRM pull request for the Linux 2.6.35 kernel is once again interesting with several major improvements coming to the kernel-side of the open-source graphics scene. Touching the core DRM area is AGP scratch page support, KMS frame-buffer code cleaning, improved disconnected monitor at boot handling support via KSM, many EDID parser updates, an improved fbdev handover mechanism, and faster TTM speed with AGP.
Within the pull request for the ATI Radeon DRM driver is initial KMS power management support for all ATI ASICs. We talk about this new kernel-based ATI power management support within this article where we also monitor the power savings and thermal performance with these different power conservation options. This is just one of the first stabs at in-kernel Radeon power management but the support will continue to evolve over the coming releases.
The 2.6.35 Radeon code also has basic IRQ and acceleration hardware setup code for the ATI Radeon HD 5000 "Evergreen" series of graphics cards, but still there is no usable open-source 2D/3D/video acceleration yet for these AMD GPUs that launched last September. There is also a change within the Radeon code that will allow the driver to access the video RAM beyond the PCI BAR, so that the driver can finally utilize all available video memory on the ATI graphics card.
Within the Intel DRM world their AGP driver has been split into one for the actual AGP support and the other for GTT. There is also Intel Cougar Point support now within this DRM code that will land in the 2.6.35 kernel. Cougar Point is rumored to be Intel's next-generation chipset (the Intel 6 series Express chipset) that will work when combined with a 32nm "Sandy Bridge" CPU. For months now and within the Linux 2.6.34 kernel is already support for the Intel Sandy Bridge graphics on Linux.
Sadly there are no major updates in this DRM pull-request for the Nouveau driver that provides open-source NVIDIA driver support provided by the X.Org community.
The pull request along with the full list of DRM changes being called in for Linux 2.6.35-rc1 can be found on the dri-devel list.
49 Comments
