Intel's Meteor Lake integrated graphics have been eagerly awaited by Linux operating system fans. After months of development, the latest patchset, drm-intel-gt-next, was submitted to the Linux 6.4 kernel's incoming merge window.
Enabling Meteor Lake's tGPU (tiled GPU) Architecture for Mobile Platforms
The merge window generally opens shortly after the latest Linux version is released to the public. Intel engineer Joonas Lahtinen was responsible for much of the work, which included enabling Meteor Lake's tGPU (tiled GPU) architecture for mobile platforms.
As the Linux 6.4 Kernel merge window fast approaches following the launch of Linux 6.3, Intel has completed its contribution of the final batch of the drm-intel-gt-next work enabling their upcoming Meteor Lake product.
According to the story by WCCF Tech, Meteor Lake is a mobile-focused graphics processor range that Intel is releasing to target laptops and smaller form factor devices.
Intel Engineer Joonas Lahtinen's Changes to be Implemented Once Merge Window Opens
These devices are touted to have similar capabilities as Alchemist-based discrete graphics, and Intel has been focusing on getting the relevant drm-intel-gt-next adaptations complete before the merge window opens.
Intel engineer Joonas Lahtinen provided a more detailed breakdown of the Intel changes which are set to be implemented once the merge window opens. These items include fixes for context runtime accounting, a DMAR error noise elimination, and memory contents clearing fixes for discrete GPU configurations.
The UAPI header also received some alterations to eliminate the zero-length flexible-array member kernel-wide request, with this expected to have no impact on users' current usage.
Intel Enablement in Linux 6.4: Making Meteor Lake Processors Accessible to Linux Users
Michael Larabel, the lead developer of benchmarking suite OpenBenchmarking.org, commented on the Intel enablement, stating he was delighted to have Intel support ready. More details regarding the 6.4 were released in an article by Phoronix.
He believes Meteor Lake support should be accessible in Linux 6.5, though its current status is still labeled "experimental and behind-the-force". Little by little, Linux users should see more support for Intel's Meteor Lake processors as the merge window soon opens.
This allows the user community to test and adopt the changes Intel has provided. Undoubtedly, this support should now motivate the development community to continue their contributions to the Linux kernel and the overall advancement of existing driver support.
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A Revolution in Mobile Platforms: Metal Lake Comes to Linux
Intel has continued working hard to enable a stable and secure Meteor Lake-supportive Linux kernel. This will herald an era of improved driver support for all users.
The UAPI headers were also altered to replace the zero-length arrays with flexible-array members. This is due to the risk of deprecated code and the need to comply with the C99 standard.
Software developer Michael Larabel reports Meteor Lake graphics is still considered an "experimental and behind-the-force" option. Despite this, Metal Lake is already set to revolutionize mobile platforms with integrated graphics capabilities powerful enough to match discrete graphics.
It's an incredible step forward for Linux users and developers and is expected to be accessible in version 6.5.
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