Intel Begins Lining Up Graphics Changes For Linux 3.11

While the Linux 3.10 kernel is only mid-way through its development cycle, the Intel Open-Source Technology Center has already begun piling up many changes they would like merged for their DRM graphics driver into Linux 3.11.

Daniel Vetter of Intel has already prepared the first pull request for David Airlie, the DRM subsystem maintainer, to take into his kernel tree. Among the key highlights are:

- The Intel Valley View (now known as "Bay Trail") support is no longer considered preliminary and should be stable for use when Intel Atom Bay Trail hardware is shipping in a few months. This is the first Intel Atom SoC with real in-house HD graphics (derived from Ivy Bridge) rather than using PowerVR-licensed cruft. The last batch of Valley View fixes and other improvements, along with adding Turbo and RC6 power-savings support, are finally in place for Linux 3.11.

- FBC (Frame-Buffer Compression) support for Haswell. Frame-buffer compression support can lead to letting the CPU/GPU rest longer.

- SVDO and TV clean-ups along with refactoring of Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) handling.

- Various mode-setting fixes/improvements.

The full list of Linux 3.11 changes for this first Intel drm-next pull request can be found on the mailing list.