AMD's Linux team has finally released further patches that enable next-generation RDNA4 GPUs, preparing the company ahead of the product's official launch. AMD seems to have suddenly changed its tune on Linux, as the company has been slow to make next-generation support compared to its competitors. However, with the upcoming RDNA4 GPU lineup (labeled GFX12), AMD plans to catch up, and we have seen hints of the architecture in multiple databases, most recently a variant that appeared in the LLVM project notes.
Phoronix reports that AMD has released several new patch series for AMDGPU cores, which are likely to support the RDNA4 architecture. The development team has released new "IP blocks" that include basic routines, ATHUB4.1, LSDMA7.0, IH7.0 and HDP7.0, which are designed to make data management and internal communications smoother.
The new patch doesn't include anything exciting but legacy support, and unfortunately the new additions don't tell us anything about the new lineup of RDNA4 GPUs. The release of RDNA4 is still far away, and we will have enough time to analyze the regular changes of AMDGPU driver on Linux, which may reveal decisive information.
The new patch is expected to be merged with the kernel when Linux 6.9 is released, which is similar to our expected release of RDNA 4. Overall, AMD has the idea to take a step forward on future architecture this time to ensure seamless support at launch.