Linux 6.19 Features: LUO, PCIe Link Encryption, ASUS Armoury, DRM Color Pipeline API & More - Phoronix

Linux 6.19 features at a glance
Linux 6.19-rc1 is out, closing the merge window. Weekly release candidates will lead up to the stable release expected in early February. Here’s what’s new and noteworthy.

Headline additions

• Live Update Orchestrator (LUO) for coordinated runtime updates
• PCIe link encryption and device authentication groundwork, plus initial AMD SEV-TIO (Trusted I/O) enablement
• New drivers, including ASUS Armoury and support for Uniwill laptops
• DRM Color Pipeline API merged to advance HDR and color management
• New console font
• AMD GCN 1.0/1.1 GPUs now default to the AMDGPU driver (RADV Vulkan out-of-the-box, better performance)
• Initial Tenstorrent Blackhole SoC support
• Early Intel Xe3P graphics enablement for Nova Lake iGPU and Crescent Island AI inference card
• Ongoing Rust-in-kernel work and continued Apple Silicon support improvements
• Microsoft C Extensions enabled by default in kernel builds
• Intel Xe VFIO driver merged

CPU and architecture highlights

• Tenstorrent Blackhole and Black Sesame C1200 SoC bring-ups
• KVM x2AVIC for AMD SVM raises vCPU support to 4,096 (from 512)
• Intel TDX KVM locking overhaul; more Nova Lake enablement (including audio) and Wildcat Lake IDs
• LoongArch32 port begins (32-bit variant alongside LoongArch64)
• RISC-V gains parallel CPU hot-plug and ratified Zalasr ISA support
• New cache statistics in Turbostat
• Arm MPAM upstreamed (akin to Intel RDT)
• NUMA improvements, including a fix for thundering herd on big servers and optimized distances for Granite Rapids/Clearwater Forest
• Scoped user access to reduce speculation barriers and their overhead
• AES-GCM crypto optimizations, notably for AMD Zen 3 and AVX-512 CPUs
• Intel LASS (Linear Address Space Separation) upstreamed
• Updated Intel microcode handling for larger binaries; SGX EUPDATESVN support
• New imh_edac driver for Xeon Diamond Rapids memory controller
• AMD Zen 6 RAS prep; AMD SDCI support for EPYC Turin
• Overhaul of RSEQ and CID management for meaningful performance gains

Graphics and accelerators

• DRM Color Pipeline API lands (AMDGPU, VKMS, and Intel support), a key step for Linux HDR and gaming
• AMD GCN 1.0/1.1 default to AMDGPU, improving features and performance
• Intel Xe3P enablement for Nova Lake and Crescent Island; Intel CASF adaptive sharpening upstreamed (Lunar Lake feature)
• Nova driver groundwork targeting future NVIDIA GPUs
• MSM DRM adds support for Snapdragon X2 Elite and Adreno X2-85 GPUs
• Nouveau gains larger page support and compression
• Arm Ethos NPU driver upstreamed under the DRM accelerator subsystem
• Intel graphics color management support and the new Xe VFIO driver merged late in the cycle

Performance and tooling

• Early benchmarking shows a mix of gains and regressions; more data is forthcoming
• Broader kernel performance work through RSEQ/CID changes, NUMA fixes, and crypto speedups

Release timing

• Weekly RCs continue until Linux 6.19 stable, expected in early February.

Source: https://www.phoronix.com/review/linux-619-features-changes