Qualcomm Adreno 540 Support Prepped For Open-Source Linux Kernel Graphics Driver

Support for Qualcomm's Adreno 540 series display/graphics could potentially be on the table for the Linux 5.3 kernel series. Patches are at least being reviewed for this A540 open-source support.

Jeffrey Hugo of the Qualcomm-aligned Code Aurora posted on Wednesday their latest patches on A540 enablement as found in the MSM8998 SoC. These patches are enough to get the MSM DRM/KMS driver lighting up for the Adreno 540 hardware though some user-space bits for the Mesa Freedreno/Turnip drivers might still be needed.

These A540 patches are currently on dri-devel and if all goes well will presumably end up in the weeks ahead in DRM-Next for mainlining with Linux 5.3. It's great to see the continued Qualcomm/CodeAurora contributions to this open-source Adreno stack for Linux that originally started as a community, reverse-engineered project but has grown to attract Qualcomm itself as well as the likes of Google for usage to extent on some newer devices.

The Adreno 540 is used by the Snapdragon 835 (MSM8998) used on the likes of the Samsung Galaxy 8+, LG V30, OnePlus 5, Nokia 8, Sony Xperia XZ1, Razer Phone, and others. Of course, Freedreno/MSM also already has A600 series support.