Intel Icelake Bringing New MIPI DSI Controller, Linux Driver Patches Posted

While Intel Icelake hardware is quite a ways out from making its debut, the open-source Intel Linux developers working on the hardware enablement for its "Gen 11" graphics continue working dilligently on this hardware enablement.

Preparations for Intel Icelake support began with the Linux 4.17 kernel, have continued with the current 4.18 development cycle, and will continue for the next several cycles as all of the support gets squared away, just not for the graphics hardware.

The latest Icelake patches to be published indicate that with Icelake and moving forward, there is a new MIPI DSI controller that is integrated into the GPU/display engine. For Icelake this DSI controller supports MIPI DSI v1.3 and DPHY v1.2.

Display Serial Interface (DSI) is the high-speed serial-based bus used for displays on some laptops as well as tablets, smartphones, automotive in-vehicle systems, and more. Intel hardware has already supported MIPI DSI while with Icelake is this new integrated controller. As such, a new DSI driver was developed and is embedded within the Linux kernel's i915 DRM driver code. The initial patches can be found here while more related work is said to be open-sourcing in the days ahead.