Intel Mesa driver integrates new patches to make Arc run on non-x86 architecture devices such as AArch64

CTOnews.com Intel today incorporated a new patch into the Mesa 23.0 driver to run Intel OpenGL and Vulkan drivers on non-x86/ x86_64-based devices. The driver was improved to enable the Intel Arc stand-alone to run on AArch64, POWER and RISC-V architecture devices.

Intel has worked hard over the past few months to improve Linux drivers on non-x86 architectures. While previous development efforts focused on kernel drivers, today's consolidated patch provides support for OpenGL and Vulkan open source drivers for non-x86/ x86_64 architectures.

CTOnews.com learned that while most open source Linux graphics drivers work well on different CPU architectures, due to the nature of open source and the Linux community, in the case of Intel's graphics driver stack, they traditionally don't need to care about non-x86 support.

In the era of integrated graphics support, they were clearly tied to their x86 / x86_64 CPUs. But now that they're moving into indie GPU gaming with Arc Graphics and their Ponte Vecchio / Max series, it's a completely different mode.

Since it is possible to install standalone Intel GPUs on ARM64 servers, RISC-V desktops, libre POWER9 desktops, their graphics drivers need to address x86'isms built into their codebase over the years.