What Does The Latest Linux Kernel Have to Offer Its Users?

After launching Linux 5.17 in the market last month, Linus Torvalds introduced its users to the first release of Linux 5.18. Although this new version of Linux looks like a regular update to some users, it has a lot of new features to offer. From the latest processors, GPUs, SoCs, and patches for the Tesla chip, we are going to discuss everything in this blog. So, if you want to know about its features in detail, dig deeper into it.

New Features Of Linux Kernel 5.18 RC1

Processors (CPU and SoC)

Intel’s Alder Lake and SoCs work on the Kernel version of Linux. The upcoming low-power and lower-end devices like Chromebook need to work very efficiently. RISC-V (the open-source implementation of ARM) supports a good set of architectures to land on.  

Some of the crucial changes are as follows:

• The latest version of Linux has improved PolarFire SoC support and MEMMOVE and even supports Restartable Sequences now.
• It also supports kernel options like CURRENT_STACK_POINT to debug additional stacks around the hardened-user copy code.
• RISC-V has default configuration files that select “CONFIG_PROFILING,” which is enabled automatically.
• It uses the new SBI (Supervisor Binary Interface) extension to support CPU Idle.

The latest Kernel includes the Atmel microchip csi2dc driver, Mediatek MT8192 support in the MTK-V Codec driver, new sensor drivers, etc. The Kernel 5.18 also constitutes the NVIDIA Tegra Video Decode Driver. Users will also witness one of the most interesting changes in the Kernel. It is going to support Tesla’s complete self-driving SoC (FSD). Learning about this feature, you might be wondering the reason for it to maintain Tesla’s chip support.

The answer is very straightforward. Tesla encompasses a few benchmarks of the development environment that constitutes Linux. Therefore, it is significant for them to do some testing and work on their chips. It also helps in minimizing stand-point maintainability because of its buildable nature. Thinking about the well-being of the community, they have opened sources of some of their patches.

Storage and Virtualizations

The 64-bit architecture of Linux KVM made significant improvements in Microsoft Hyper-V, AMD AVIC supports, and Intel IPI (Initial Support). This way, AMD can effortlessly support 511 CPUs in the Linux systems. Another interesting change is made to exFat by enabling it to support paths with trailing dots. It also does not remove VolumeDirtyin write back any longer. It helps in preventing the life of storage devices from getting reduced.

The Kernel has even added up the initial Apple NVMe open-source driver for Linux systems. This addition has been made keeping the point that Apple’s NVMe design in M1 Macs is not connected to the PCIe bus for data transfer in mind. The EXT4 file system has improved commit latency with bug fixes and even sorted data mode. EROFS read-only Linux has slightly improved working with Meta buffer.

This kernel release demonstrates the PECI interface between the CPU and the baseboard management controller (BMC) and other platform management devices on Intel server platforms. Also, the ReiserFS file system has been deprecated since this kernel release. The decision is made taking into account that no one is using it.