Phoronix
Independent Linux hardware news, graphics/compute drivers, benchmarks, and kernel developments.
Yet Another Fix Coming For Older AMD GPUs On Linux - Thanks To Valve Developer
Valve open‑source graphics engineer Timur Kristóf has released a patch for the AMDGPU driver that restores functionality to legacy Radeon GCN 1.1 GPUs found in older iMacs, such as the Radeon R9 M380. The fix disables the memory‑clock dynamic power management (MCLK DPM) and forces the highest memory clock, addressing voltage‑dependency errors that caused kernel boot failures. After more than a year of bug reports, the patches are now ready for review and potential upstreaming. If accepted, decade‑old Apple machines could run Linux with the modern AMDGPU stack rather than the legacy Radeon driver.
Linux 7.0 Further Prepares For Intel Diamond Rapids With NTB Driver Support
The upstream Linux kernel is largely ready for Intel’s upcoming Xeon Diamond Rapids processors. With the Linux 7.0 release, a new NTB driver adds support for the Gen6 non‑transparent bridge, enabling PCIe 6.0 inter‑CPU communication. Only a few dozen lines of...
Intel Hiring More Linux Developers - Including For GPU Drivers / Linux Gaming Stack
Intel announced six new engineering openings focused on its Linux graphics stack, including three GPU software development engineers tasked with enhancing Mesa, DRM kernel drivers, and the Linux gaming ecosystem such as Wine and Proton. Additional hires include middleware engineers...
Linux 7.0 Shows Significant PostgreSQL Performance Gains On AMD EPYC
Early benchmarking of the Linux 7.0 kernel on an AMD EPYC Turin server revealed notable PostgreSQL performance gains compared with the stable 6.19 release. The tests used identical hardware, software stacks and compiler toolchains, isolating the kernel as the variable. While Intel Panther Lake...
Linux Begins Seeing Early Preparations For PCIe 7.0
Early Linux kernel patches for PCI Express 7.0 have been posted, outlining register definitions, speed detection, and basic bandwidth controls. PCIe 7.0, released by the PCI‑SIG in mid‑2025, doubles the raw data rate to 128 GT/s, enabling up to 512 GB/s bi‑directional throughput on...
Linux 7.0 Brings Apple Type-C PHY, Snapdragon X2 & Rockchip HDMI 2.1 FRL Additions
The Linux 7.0 kernel merge introduced a wave of new PHY drivers, notably adding mainline support for Apple Silicon USB‑C, Qualcomm Snapdragon X2, and several SoC‑specific interfaces. Qualcomm’s lineup now includes PCIe Gen4, DP/eDP, USB UNI, and UFS PHYs for the X2 and 8 Elite...
Cloud Hypervisor 51 Brings Performance Improvements, Better QCOW2 V3 Support
Cloud Hypervisor 51, the Rust‑based virtual machine monitor, has been released, now steered by Microsoft, Cyberus Tech, Tencent, Ant Group and others. The update adds Transparent Huge Pages for shared memory and speeds up the vhost‑user‑net device, delivering noticeable performance gains. It...
Mesa KosmicKrisp Driver Is Coming To iOS, More Performance & Vulkan 1.4 Expected
LunarG’s KosmicKrist driver, now merged into Mesa, brings a native Vulkan‑on‑Metal implementation for Apple Silicon. After proving its macOS capabilities, the team announced a roadmap that includes iOS support, performance optimizations, and Vulkan 1.4 conformance. Funding from Google aims to boost...
Intel's Discontinued Open-Source OpenPGL Project Finds A New Home
Intel discontinued its open‑source OpenPGL library in 2025, ending development within the oneAPI Rendering Toolkit. The path‑guiding library, widely adopted by Blender, Autodesk, V‑Ray and other VFX tools, has now been transferred to the Academy Software Foundation (ASWF). ASWF will...
System76 Preparing To Introduce Redesigned Thelio Hardware
System76 announced a ground‑up redesign of its Thelio desktop and workstation chassis, signaling the next generation of its Linux‑focused hardware line. CEO Carl Richell highlighted ten months of engineering, more than 16,000 durability tests, and over 250 hours of thermal...
Linux 7.0 Brings Several Enhancements For Modern Laptops
Linux 7.0’s merge window delivered a suite of x86 platform‑driver updates aimed at modern laptops. The AMD Platform Management Framework now surfaces detailed Ryzen AI NPU metrics, while ASUS, HP, and Lenovo WMI drivers gain enhanced backlight, fan, and hardware‑monitoring controls....
LoongArch Ready With New Features In Linux 7.0
The Linux 7.0 kernel introduces a suite of enhancements for the LoongArch architecture, a China‑origin CPU design derived from MIPS64 and RISC‑V. New capabilities include SMT hot‑plug support, 128‑bit atomic compare‑and‑exchange operations, and the memfd_secret system call. Additional updates bring BPF...
Apple M3 With Asahi Linux Continues Making Progress, No ETA Yet For Shipping
Asahi Linux released a status update following the Linux 6.19 kernel, outlining progress on Apple Silicon support. The team reports that core M3 hardware components—keyboard, touchpad, Wi‑Fi, NVMe and USB‑3—are functional, though still requiring local patches. DisplayPort Alt Mode remains experimental,...
Intel Lands Initial Preparations For DSA 3.0 Accelerators In Linux 7.0
Intel’s Data Streaming Accelerator (DSA) 3.0 support has been merged into the Linux 7.0 kernel, bringing native off‑load capabilities for recent Xeon processors, likely Diamond Rapids. The update introduces new sysfs interfaces that expose DSA 3.0 capability registers and adds...
KVM In Linux 7.0 Adds Support For Virtualizing AMD ERAPS
The upcoming Linux 7.0 kernel brings a major KVM update, adding native virtualization of AMD’s Enhanced Return Address Predictor Security (ERAPS). This enables guests to access a 64‑entry Return Stack Buffer, double the previous limit, and introduces user‑space fetching of SEV‑SNP...