The Linux 6.3 Merge Window To Bring Many Exciting Features

The Linux 6.2 kernel is expected to be released in the next few hours and in turn will then formally kick-off the start of the two week long merge window for what will become Linux 6.3. Here's a look ahead at some of the kernel changes expected in this next kernel cycle.

In case you missed it see the Linux 6.2 feature list for a look at what's coming to the stable kernel release today. The Linux 6.3 merge window will formally start following that while the actual Linux 6.3 stable release won't be out until around the end of April.

This weekend I already provided a look at the AMD CPU and GPU driver changes coming with Linux 6.3 as well as earlier today looking at all the new Intel hardware support with Linux 6.3. Below is a look at some of the other Linux 6.3 changes expected based on pull requests submitted early and other material queuing via the different "-next" branches.

- More Rust code is going into Linux 6.3 ahead of the first drivers/modules being merged.

- Dropping obsolete DRM drivers like the ATI Rage 128, 3Dfx, S3 Savage, Intel 810, and others.

- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 support.

- Various audio driver updates including sound support for the Samsung-based Tesla Full Self Driving (FSD) SoC.

- Etnaviv is enabling VeriSilicon NPU cores for OpenCL use.

- Support for more Aquacomputer devices.

- Arm Scalable Matrix Extension 2 support (SME2) as far as the kernel-side changes go.

- Support for newer Qualcomm SoCs with the MSM DRM driver.

- CXL RAM regions.

- Support for the IT87952E super I/O controller found in some newer desktop motherboards.

- Analog TV support improvements.

- Continued HWMON sensor support improvements.

- Restartable Sequences (RSEQ) improvements.

- An MGLRU performance regression fix.

- Sony DualShock 4 controller support is removed from hid-sony now that it's found in the hid-playstation driver.

- NVIDIA BlueField 3 DPU Ethernet driver support to go along with other ongoing NVIDIA BlueField 3 upstream work.

- AVX2 and AVX-512 versions of the ARIA cipher.

- Dropping some old Arm boards and machine support.

Stay tuned for an exciting Linux 6.3 merge window followed by the start of my Linux 6.3 performance testing / benchmarks.