Linux 5.16 Graphics Drivers: Alder Lake S Is Stable, Initial DG2, AMD DP 2.0 + USB4

All of the DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) kernel graphics/display driver updates were submitted and already merged for the very exciting Linux 5.16 kernel cycle. There is a lot of good stuff this round especially when it comes to the open-source Intel and AMD Radeon drivers.

We have covered most of this work individually back the many different patch series were initially published, but among the many kernel graphics driver changes with Linux 5.16 are:

- Initial support for AMDGPU DisplayPort 2.0. This is in preparation for next-generation GPUs having DP 2.0 capabilities.

- USB4 display tunneling support in preparation for Yellow Carp / Rembrandt APUs bringing USB4 connectivity.

- Other continued driver enablement work for Yellow Carp.

- Continued bring-up around AMD Aldebaran "CDNA2" Instinct accelerator support.

- Display support for Cyan Skillfish along with other enablement work for that Navi 1.x APU.

- The AMDGPU driver for Vega and Navi is now using its new overhauled approach to device enumeration.

- The panel-edp driver for hopefully moving to less hard-coded Embedded DisplayPort panel configurations.

- Intel DG1 PCI IDs are finally present along with having more local video memory code now in place... DG1 support appears to be about ironed out with Linux 5.16. DG1 GuC submission is also now enabled by default.

- Initial bring-up has begun for DG2/Alchemist graphics ahead of next year's Intel Arc graphics cards launching.

- Intel Alder Lake S graphics are now considered stable and no longer hidden behind the experimental support flag. It's tardy but at least it finally is happening for Linux 5.16 with ADL-S. There are also Alder Lake P fixes and improvements in Linux 5.16.

- Protected Xe Path (PXP) encrypted support for Gen12 graphics has finally landed.

- Intel's graphics driver is also preparing for DisplayPort 2.0 connectivity ahead of next-gen hardware.

- Various other Intel graphics driver improvements, particularly around its memory management code.

- The Qualcomm MSM DRM driver adds support for the MSM8x53, SDM450, and SDM632 hardware.

- The obsolete ZTE DRM driver has been removed.

- VirtIO "context types" feature for opening up this DRM kernel driver to supporting more (and interesting) use-cases.

- DRM scheduler fixes and improvements.

The DRM changes are very heavy this cycle. Sadly, nothing new to report on the open-source NVIDIA (Nouveau) driver front this kernel round with it continuing to rot for the moment.

Linux 5.16 benchmarks looking at any graphics performance changes for Intel and Radeon hardware will begin shortly on Phoronix.