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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Intel Patches To Make It Easier To Run Their Discrete Graphics On Arm, Other Architectures [phoronix.com]

A change currently being evaluated for Intel's "i915" Linux kernel graphics driver would make it easier for building driver support for their forthcoming discrete graphics products for targeting other non-x86 CPU architectures like Arm.

Sent out today as a "request for comments" were patches that change the Intel Linux kernel graphics driver to allow it to optionally build without support for integrated graphics -- leaving the driver just capable of discrete graphics support. While Intel graphics have traditionally been about their integrated graphics on their processors, Intel is moving hard and fast on bringing up their discrete graphics support under Linux with DG2/Alchemist for Intel Arc graphics cards coming together as well as their Xe HPC accelerator.

Because of the integrated graphics being part of Intel's x86 CPUs, their driver really hasn't had to care about other CPU architectures since such combinations haven't been possible. But now with discrete graphics cards and their HPC accelerators, it will be possible to have Intel graphics on say an Arm, POWER, or RISC-V platform. The change being proposed by this RFC patch series would allow building the Linux kernel graphics driver with just that discrete graphics support included.

See also: Intel's Vulkan Linux Driver Adds Experimental Mesh Shader Support For DG2/Alchemist [phoronix.com]

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