Intel Lists 36 Variants Of Haswell Graphics

Thanks to patches surfacing on public mailing lists on Monday that continue work on the open-source enablement of Intel Haswell graphics under Linux, we have a look at the different variants of Haswell. Somewhat surprising is that there's 36 different IDs representing the next-generation Haswell products with different flavors of integrated graphics.

Having 36 different PCI IDs for Haswell graphics processors is much greater than what was seen for any previous generation. Within the open-source Intel Linux graphics driver right now are just six for Ivy Bridge: GT1 and GT2 variants for mobile, desktop, and server CPUs. Sandy Bridge had a few more with the GT2+ variant for mobile and desktop CPUs. With Haswell though, it looks like there will be more flavors.

Here's a rundown of the PCI IDs that were made public on Monday through Intel's open-source Linux driver.

Intel Haswell Desktop (GT1): 0x0402
Intel Haswell Desktop (GT2): 0x0412
Intel Haswell Desktop (GT2+): 0x0422
Intel Haswell Mobile (GT1): 0x0406
Intel Haswell Mobile (GT2): 0x0416
Intel Haswell Mobile (GT2+): 0x0426
Intel Haswell Server (GT1): 0x040A
Intel Haswell Server (GT2): 0x041A
Intel Haswell Server (GT2+): 0x042A
Intel Haswell SDV Desktop (GT1): 0x0C02
Intel Haswell SDV Desktop (GT2): 0x0C12
Intel Haswell SDV Desktop (GT2+): 0x0C22
Intel Haswell SDV Mobile (GT1): 0x0C06
Intel Haswell SDV Mobile (GT2): 0x0C16
Intel Haswell SDV Mobile (GT2+): 0x0C26
Intel Haswell SDV Server (GT1): 0x0C0A
Intel Haswell SDV Server (GT2): 0x0C1A
Intel Haswell SDV Server (GT2+): 0x0C2A
Intel Haswell ULT Desktop (GT1): 0x0A02
Intel Haswell ULT Desktop (GT2): 0x0A12
Intel Haswell ULT Desktop (GT2+): 0x0A22
Intel Haswell ULT Mobile (GT1): 0x0A06
Intel Haswell ULT Mobile (GT2): 0x0A16
Intel Haswell ULT Mobile (GT2+): 0x0A26
Intel Haswell ULT Server (GT1): 0x0A0A
Intel Haswell ULT Server (GT2): 0x0A1A
Intel Haswell ULT Server (GT2+): 0x0A2A
Intel Haswell CRW Desktop (GT1): 0x0D12
Intel Haswell CRW Desktop (GT2): 0x0D22
Intel Haswell CRW Desktop (GT2+): 0x0D32
Intel Haswell CRW Mobile (GT1): 0x0D16
Intel Haswell CRW Mobile (GT2): 0x0D26
Intel Haswell CRW Mobile (GT2+): 0x0D36
Intel Haswell CRW Server (GT1): 0x0D1A
Intel Haswell CRW Server (GT2): 0x0D2A
Intel Haswell CRW Server (GT2+): 0x0D3A

It looks like for desktop, server, and mobile CPUs for the graphics processor flavors for each of them there will be GT1, GT2, and GT2+ varieties. However, beyond that there's then SDV, ULT, and CRW varieties for each of the desktop/server/mobile segments with GT1/GT2/GT2+ graphics.

This official Intel Linux kernel patch deviates from what was reportedly previously of Haswell having GT1, GT2, and GT3 models, with it being a likely naming discrepancy between GT2+ and GT3.

The SDV is likely for Software Development Vehicle -- Intel's early development hardware for their developers and partners. The SDV models aren't for retail consumers. Having separate PCI IDs now for Intel SDV models is useful for determining development vs. production hardware and separating any quirks out there.

ULT one would assume is for Ultrabooks or Ultra. This might be their low-power spin of Haswell for Ultrabooks or on the server front for any low-power Haswell-based Xeon processors with ultra efficiency.

Lastly, there is CRW, but that's not ringing any bells right now -- I'll update if that name comes to mind, perhaps after more coffee this morning or getting ahold of some sources. Within the Intel Linux driver stack was never previous any CRW model.

The PCI IDs were obtained from this mailing list post plus there was matching ID lists for the libdrm and Intel Linux kernel DRM driver as well. The patch comes from Paulo Zanoni of Intel's Open-Source Technology Center and has been reviewed by others on the OTC crew as well.

In a pull request on Tuesday morning containing driver fixes -- including these new Haswell IDs -- Daniel Vetter of Intel writes, "tons of hsw pci ids - this one is a bit late because internal approval sometimes takes a while, but ppl in charge finally agreed that world+dog already knows about ult and crw haswell variants ;-)"

Intel Haswell processors are expected to succeed Ivy Bridge in Q2'2013. Haswell will be manufactured on a 22nm process with the 3D tri-gate transistors while being designed around new CPU sockets, ship with AVX2 (Advanced Vector Extensions 2), Intel Transaction Synchronization Extensions, DDR4 support on the high-end, and improved graphics support. The Haswell graphics performance is more competitive thanks to higher clocks, the stacked memory that will be as much as 128MB I've heard from reliable developers, and other improvements.

While Ivy Bridge is only a few months old and is doing great on Linux, I'm already very excited about Haswell coming next year. The Haswell processor and graphics performance should both be splendid. (Speaking of Ivy Bridge Linux, the next Phoronix benchmarks there coming out include HD 2500 IVB testing from an Intel Core i5 3470 and then Ivy Bridge benchmark results from an Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display.)

Intel's open-source developers have been publicly working on the Haswell graphics driver enablement for months and so far it appears to be in great shape -- in large part thanks to the great work of the late
Eugeni Dodonov. The Haswell Linux graphics support should already be at parity to the Ivy Bridge Linux support. Separate Intel teams have also been working on other areas such as compiler optimizations for Haswell. Intel Valley View is also coming together nicely.

Exciting times are ahead for Linux on Intel hardware!