Intel Pushes Open-Source Support For Ivy Bridge

Just as I had said two weeks ago: expect Intel "Ivy Bridge" open-source Linux support to be pushed to the Linux 2.6.40 kernel. This code was pushed today in preparation for the Linux 2.6.40 kernel. It will land in a similar manner to Valve's Source/Steam native Linux support coming soon, early AMD Bulldozer benchmarks, ATI/AMD's "Orka" Linux driver support in the past, etc. Here's Intel's Ivy Bridge code that enables next-generation hardware support.

The start of the Intel Ivy Bridge patch series starts here. With the Linux 2.6.40 kernel it enables basic VGA and DisplayPort (DP is untested right now) output for the next-generation hardware, but expect much more refined support coming in succeeding kernel releases. This initial code adds two mobile chipsets and three desktop chipsets to the Ivy Bridge support series.

This initial code treats "Panther Point" (evidently the same as what "Cougar Point" was to Sandy Bridge") as the same display outputs.

That's all we can officially say at this point. The Intel Linux DRM patches are just publicly landing at this point. Expect Intel to push out xf86-video-intel DDX and Mesa driver updates at some point in the near future. At least with the Intel DDX and Mesa updates, they are more under Intel's control to release at any point. However, expect those patches to land in next quarter's update. That support will be refined over the coming months prior to Ivy Bridge's official launch.

As was said back in January, Intel will work on better timing support for Ivy Bridge. Intel will aim for adequate support for Ivy Bridge in Ubuntu 11.10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1, Fedora 16, etc.

With Sandy Bridge under Linux, the support was a bit challenging since the open-source components were released a bit late, which caused some complaints.Thanks to Ivy Bridge and Panther Point not being too different from the current SNB and Cougar Point hardware, expect a better "out of the box" implementation when the IVB hardware launches late in the calendar year.

With Intel's SNB hardware, the support was refined vastly over time with many hardware improvements. With Ivy Bridge you can expect this to be similar enhancements over time. Stay tuned to Phoronix (and my Twitter feed) for more Intel Ivy Bridge details and its Linux support. Right now the Linux kernel DRM support has landed but the DDX and Mesa user-space support will likely land soon.

Of course, right now there is major regressions in Linux power management, but hopefully that will be addressed soon.