Initiator and Lead Developer Linus Torvalds has released the first release candidate of the upcoming Linux 6.1 kernel system, which, among other things, is the free programming language Oxide next C as a second language on Linux and will support new features and hardware.
Rust, AMD P-State and new hardware
Scheduled for release in early to mid-December, Linux 6.1, whose two-week submission window Linus Torvalds opened about two weeks ago with the release of Linux 6.0, is receiving its first official release (RC-1) today. After the current kernel focused on expanded support for AMD Ryzen 7000 (test), Core-i-13000 (“Intel Raptor Lake”), and first generation Arc (“Alchemist”) graphics cards, developers are implementing the following new Some Features in Linux 6.1.
- New AMD P-State drivers (“Patch V5”)
- The driver is said to offer better power efficiency than the generic ACPI CPUFreq driver and is designed for Zen 2, Zen 3, Zen 3+, and Zen 4.
- Among other things, Precision Boost and performance under low to medium loads are said to have been improved.
- Integration of the open source programming language Rust
- The free programming language Rust is introduced together with C as a second language in Linux
- AMD Platform Management Framework (PMF) Integration
- AMD PMF Cool and Quiet Framework Integration
- Integration of Multi-Gen LRU (MGLRU) in the kernel
- Patches for Raphael, Raptor Lake and Alchemist
Like Linus Torvalds in The Officer Announcing Linux 6.1 RC-1 Linux 6.1 development reportedly received more than 11,000 submissions during the two-week window. This time it is a medium-sized release.
Actually, this isn’t shaping up to be a particularly big release: we “only” have 11.5k unmerged commits during this merge window, compared to 13.5k last time. So it’s not exactly small, but smaller than the latest releases. At least in number of confirmations.
That said, we do have some foundational things that have been brewing for a long time, most notably the multi-generation LRU VM series and the initial Rust scaffolding (no actual Rust code in the kernel yet, but the infrastructure is there).
Linus Torvalds
Additionally, manufacturers and developers have started working on support for Intel Meteor Lake and Ponte Vecchio, as well as RDNA 3 for Radeon RX 7000.
Release as LTS kernel on December 4th or 11th
Linux 6.1 will be out on December 4th or 11th, depending on the number of release candidates and the known kernel developer. Greg Kroah Hartman appear as an LTS version with corresponding long-term support. Linux 6.1 will be the system’s last new kernel in 2022 before the next regular branch, Linux 6.2, follows in early 2023.
The web specialized in Linux and Open Source offers more information Foronyx.
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