The Great Work In DRM-Next: More Icelake, Vega 20, xGMI & Other Additions

Written by Michael Larabel in Linux Kernel on 7 October 2018 at 06:38 AM EDT. 4 Comments
LINUX KERNEL
Whether it's called Linux 4.20 or Linux 5.0, the next kernel cycle is bringing a heck of a lot of improvements for the open-source graphics/display drivers on the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) front.

With the period for merging new feature work into DRM-Next ahead of this next Linux kernel cycle effectively being over, here's a look back at the mass amount of new feature code that's queued and waiting for this next kernel merge window to begin within a week or two.

On the AMD front:

- Continued bring-up for the highly anticipated Vega 20 GPU that is now looking like it will launch next year. With the Vega 20 enablement work is also initial xGMI support that is quite exciting in its own right. There is also Vega 20 AMDKFD compute support now with this next kernel.

- Support for the yet-to-debut Raven 2 and Picasso APUs as well as Picasso DPG support.

- VCN JPEG engine support for Raven Ridge.

- The AMDKFD compute code is merging into the AMDGPU module itself.

- Various AMDGPU DC display code updates.

- Continued AMDGPU power management improvements, including GFXOFF support for Raven to help with lowering power use.

- Load balancing support within the AMDGPU/DRM scheduler code.

- AMD GPUVM virtual memory performance improvements.

On the Intel front:

- Continued bring-up of Intel "Icelake" Gen 11 graphics though for this next kernel cycle the hardware support is still marked as alpha/experimental.

- A MythTV video fix for older hardware.

- PPGTT being enabled in full for Ivybridge, Valleyview, and Haswell era hardware.

Other DRM work:

- HDMI CEC tunnel code for AMDGPU and Nouveau for supporting CEC with USB-C/DP to HDMI adapters.

- DRM-Misc having a variety of changes including GEM memory management for VKMS, Allwinner R40 Sun4i support, Rockchip PX30 support, and other additions to the smaller drivers.

- Some VMware VMWGFX driver updates to go along with their new driver improvements paired with upcoming VMware virtualization software updates.

- Tegra 194 Xavier SoC support within the Tegra DRM display code.

Sadly not much is new on the Nouveau front and also not queued is the AMD FreeSync/Adaptive-Sync/VRR bits.
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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