Sent out today by longtime Freedreno/MSM open-source Qualcomm GPU driver developer Robin Clark are the main set of MSM kernel graphics/display driver updates targeting the upcoming Linux 6.17 merge window. There are several exciting feature additions coming to this next kernel version for those relying on Qualcomm graphics capabilities.
First up, the MSM kernel graphics driver is landing VM_BIND support. VM_BIND can help with lowering CPU overhead for the user-space Mesa drivers to deliver better performance. Additionally, VM_BIND is needed for Vulkan sparse requirements. The VM_BIND support for the Qualcomm MSM driver has been in development for a while and amounts to dozens of patches with the main focus on being supporting the Vulkan sparse memory needs by the TURNIP Mesa driver.
Another notable feature addition is providing Qualcomm Adreno X1-85 GPU “speedbin” support. Speedbin is important for reaching the maximum performance capabilities on Snapdragon graphics processors. The Adreno X1-85 is interesting for being the graphics found on the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite laptops. Long story short, with Linux 6.17 the graphics performance will hopefully be nicely improved thanks to the speedbin functionality now in place.
This open-source driver code also has Snapdragon X1-45 GPU support for that graphics processor found within the Snapdragon X Plus SoCs.
The MSM driver changes for Linux 6.17 also now provide a single source of truth for Universal Bandwidth Compression (UBWC) configuration handling, further decoupling between the GPU and KMS code, SM8750 support in the DPU and DSI and MDSS code, and various fixes.
More details on these pending Qualcomm MSM DRM driver improvements slated for Linux 6.17 via today’s pull request to DRM-Next. I’ll be working on some new Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite benchmarks with the Acer X1E laptop once the Linux 6.17 cycle is underway.
