Intel Linux engineers have begun posting patches for enabling the Xe3P architecture. While Xe3P is also expected to be found with next-generation Intel discrete GPUs, the initial focus is on enabling support for Nova Lake.
With Intel’s open-source Linux graphics driver engineers having the Xe3 support for Panther Lake and Wildcat Lake about settled in the latest upstream kernel, they are beginning to shift focus to Xe3P with confirmation Xe3P is powering Nova Lake desktop processors.
Sent out to the dri-devel mailing list this week was the initial 22 patches for laying out the groundwork for Xe3P.
The patch cover letter explains and confirms the Nova Lake connection:
“This begins the support for the Xe3p arch – it contains generic support for graphics version 35 and the Xe3p_xpc IP, the Xe3p_LPM IP for media and support for Nova Lake S (NVL-S), that uses a mix of IPs – the display side for NVL-S will be submitted separately.”
Given the timing of this initial Xe3P bring-up, the preliminary code could land potentially for the Linux v6.19 kernel as the first stable kernel of 2026. But it may take a few kernel cycles for fully enabling Xe3P, Nova Lake display support, etc. In any event it’s good to see the Intel Xe3P open-source Linux driver upstreaming now getting underway ahead of Nova Lake and then eventually the Celestial discrete GPUs.
So far this Xe3P enablement is just in kernel-space for the Xe kernel driver. As of writing no Xe3P patches have surfaced yet in merge requests for the Iris Gallium3D or ANV Vulkan drivers.
