PowerVR Binary Blob Added To Linux-Firmware.Git For New Graphics Driver
Like with recent AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA open-source kernel graphics drivers, firmware binaries are necessary for enabling the hardware support. Merged on Monday to linux-firmware.git was the PowerVR firmware for the initially supported GPU target. Linux-firmware.git serves as the de facto repository for all the firmware binaries used by the many open-source mainline Linux kernel drivers from networking to graphics.
In the initial PowerVR firmware commit, the firmware was added for the Imagination Technologies AXE-1-16M GPU. This firmware has been tested with the open-source "powervr" DRM kernel driver expected for Linux 6.8.
The Imagination AXE-1-16M product page with what looks like an Intel LGA-775 CPU featured. Not with any socketed processors, but Intel did use PowerVR graphics back during the notorious Poulsbo days many years ago. But Pouslbo also isn't relevant to the current PowerVR open-source driver activity.
The firmware comes in as a 114688 byte binary that can now be redistributed by Linux kernel distributions and others wishing to provide support for this open-source PowerVR graphics stack with the forthcoming DRM kernel driver and the already merged PowerVR Vulkan driver within Mesa.
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