Arm Lands Mali Gen10 "Panthor" Firmware Blob In Linux-Firmware.Git

As the first of Arm Mali firmware to be added to the linux-firmware.git repository, the Gen10 Mali "Panthor" firmware has been added as part of the effort on the new open-source Panthor DRM kernel driver currently working its way upstream.

As with most modern GPUs, the Arm Mali "Panthor" hardware requires a binary firmware blob for full utilization. In particular, with Panthor there is now a Command Stream Frontend "CSF" that is a firmware-based command stream queue for dealing with job submission.

Arm has provided the Mali "CSFFW" firmware for the 10th Gen Mali hardware so that it can work with the upcoming Panthor DRM open-source driver. The commit notes:

"Arm Mali GPUs that belong to the 10th generation of the hardware architecture need a binary firmware to implement the full specification.

For the panthor kernel driver to be able to execute jobs on the GPU it needs this firmware."

The new Mali Panthor DRM kernel driver will potentially be ready for upstreaming in the Linux v6.9 cycle.