Apple M1 PCIe Driver Leads The PCI Changes For Linux 5.16

Sent in on Friday by Bjorn Helgaas were all of the PCI subsystem updates for the Linux 5.16 merge window.

Arguably most notable with the PCI feature pull request is the introduction of the Apple Silicon PCIe driver. That Apple PCIe driver written by Alyssa Rosenzweig and Marc Zyngier is to get more components working for the Apple M1 MacBook and Mac Mini systems. Besides PCI Express itself being important, getting this driver mainlined is necessary for being able to get USB Type-A, Ethernet, WiFi, and Bluetooth working on the Apple M1 hardware.

This initial Apple PCIe driver is another step forward for ultimately getting the Apple M1 devices working well under Linux. The Linux upbringing effort has already been going on for a year but good progress is being made, fortunately it doesn't look like too many invasive changes for getting the M1 Pro and M1 Max up and running, and the more complex areas like the M1 graphics support continue to be worked on.

In addition to the Apple M1 PCIe driver, the PCI pull for Linux 5.16 also includes adding Kirin 970 PCIe support and adding a MediaTek MT7621 PCIe host controller driver. The rest of the PCI changes are mostly smaller in nature and scattered throughout the PCI(e) space. The full list of PCI changes for this next kernel version can be found via this pull request.