Intel Protected Xe Path Code Updated, Now Defaults PXP Code To Disabled

Intel's open-source driver engineers remain very active on bringing up their discrete graphics card support under Linux with restructuring of the kernel driver to handle local/dedicated memory among a variety of other changes needed. Plus there are new features with the latest generation of Intel graphics such as the Protected Xe Path (PXP) for hardware-protected sessions for multi-user / multi-process scenarios. The Intel PXP code for their Linux driver has been in the works since last year and the latest revision now submitted.

Protected Xe Path is hardware-protected sessions by way of encrypted video memory and a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) for protecting different sessions/clients running on Intel Xe graphics. This will likely be of importance for Intel Xe Graphics in the data center and any public clouds for ensuring different clients/processes are properly isolated. Intel hasn't publicly talked much about PXP but their Linux support remains ongoing.

With the version four patches of Intel PXP sent out today, the PXP code is actually set to be disabled by default. The Kconfig build-time switch for the PXP code is defaulting to off, so interested users if running a stock kernel will need to rebuild their kernel or we'll see how many distributions end up changing the default setting. The updated Intel PXP code also re-bases to the latest create_ext ioctl and has other code improvements.

Those wanting to dig more into the Protected Xe Path code can find the v4 patch series on the mailing list. The Protected Xe Path works with all Gen12 graphics including the integrated graphics found in Tiger Lake and Rocket Lake, though we'll see if there ends up being much interest or end-users leveraging PXP in such scenarios.