[tomek@vz]

Intel's open-source graphics driver engineers are ending out 2025 with a bang. Sent out today was the final drm-xe-next pull request of the year of new feature material ready for the next version of the Linux kernel. Today's pull adds support for SR-IOV scheduler groups as well as multi-device Shared Virtual Memory (SVM) support.

The DRM-Xe-Next pull request is on its way to DRM-Next as code to queue in advance of the next kernel cycle, which will be known as either Linux 6.20 or more than likely Linux 7.0. This next kernel has added importance as it's expected to be the default kernel of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.

With this updated Xe driver code the next version of the Linux kernel will support multi-device SVM for Shared Virtual Memory across Intel graphics cards. This is important for multi-device AI and GPU compute workloads with Level Zero or OpenCL. Over the past year Intel Xe SVM support got into shape and now multi-device support is working too as important for their Project Battlematrix initiative with multiple Arc Pro B-Series cards or the upcoming Crescent Island AI inference accelerator cards.

> Intel's Xe Linux Driver Ready With Multi-Device SVM To End Out 2025

Despite its innovations, X has always been controversial for its size and performance, with even workstations of the '80s and early '90s struggling to run it at an acceptable speed.



Improvements in hardware technology and the arrival of the GNOME and KDE Plasma desktops made X11 the standard on Linux systems, but X started showing its age as Linux developers and users angled to compete with Windows. Over the years, X11 had taken on more extensions, including 3D acceleration, but was largely unchanged since 1987.
The Wayland project was founded to create a leaner, meaner graphics system on Linux that could help it compete in the increasingly performance-oriented culture on the PC, and attempt to help it steal market share from Windows, especially in important markets like gaming.

> X11 is going away on Linux. Here's how to prepare for Wayland