Intel has ramped up the pace for next-gen enablement at Linux as the firm pushes out vital updates for Lunar Lake and Xe2 GPU architectures.
Intel's Latest Mesa Patches Focused On Lunar Lake & Xe2 GPU's Ray-Tracing Support, Reveals Initial Graphics Device IDs As Well
Well, it seems like every other firm is rushing to support their upcoming Linux products. Intel also looks determined since the company has uploaded multiple patches, ensuring enablement for its future architectures.
Phoronix reports that Intel engineers have been busy preparing their drivers for the upcoming Lunar Lake architecture since the firm uploaded new merge requests at MESA 24.2, focusing on the CPU's device information and early ray-tracing support for the Xe2 graphics architectures.
Speaking about Lunar Lake first, Intel has added an initial for Lunar Lake device information, which includes the lineup's graphics PCI device IDs. Interestingly, the firm has added an "INTEL_FORCE_PROBE" environment variable with the associated PCI IDs as well, which is an attempt to allow Lunar Lake's graphics architecture to work with the driver despite not being fully supported. This move was seen in the Xe kernel drivers as well, and the primary purpose of it is to experiment with things around, but it does show that we are near to official launch timelines.
The new graphics device IDs added are 0x6420, 0x64a0, & 0x64b0, along with the experimental variable. Moreover, the 11 new patches added also mentioned early support for Xe2 ray tracing, although details weren't too much to mention here. Not only that, but there are also several new PCI IDs listed based on Intel's Battlemage BMG-G21 GPU which are listed below:
So, with that, it's safe to say that Lunar Lake Linux adopters might not need to worry much about out-of-box support for Linux. Still, there could be a few compromises that might require some self-adjustments, like a "rolling release distribution."
News Source: Phorornix
About the author: Muhammad Zuhair is a hardware and technology reporter for Wccftech, specializing in the semiconductor industry and the complex interplay between technology, manufacturing, and geopolitics. His coverage focuses on the corporate strategies and technological roadmaps of industry giants like TSMC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Intel. Zuhair's expertise lies in deconstructing complex topics such as fabrication nodes (e.g., 2nm process), the economic impact of policies like the CHIPS Act, and the strategic development of AI infrastructure from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
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