Linux 5.12 phases out support for outdated Intel MID
More than ten years ago, Intel had high hopes for MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) as mobile Internet devices and their early launch of Menlow and Moorestown platforms. But looking back, Intel’s MID was ultimately unsuccessful, and the concepts and functions proposed by MID eventually evolved into today’s smartphones and tablets. Starting in 2021, support for Intel MID will be gradually removed from the Linux kernel.
Last month, there were reports that Linux is preparing to remove Moorestown and Medfield support, which no longer retains the code, and now there are no users running a newer version of Linux on this hardware. Initially, it was just clearing some code, but now it has evolved to clear more Intel MID platform support. Linux will gradually remove more outdated MID platform support codes from version 5.12 with Intel’s support.
In the pull request last Friday, before the Linux 5.12 merge window this month, the Linux kernel cleared nearly three thousand lines of code. This includes removing the old Intel MID power button and thermal driver, removing code that is not needed now from the GMA500 Poulsbo driver, removing the GPIO code, removing the RTC driver, and removing some code that Intel MID supports.
At present, Intel’s open-source engineers are still busy optimizing the Sapphire Rapids CPU micro-architecture designed for servers, as well as the development of Alder Lake, Gen 12.5 graphics cards, and other next-generation platforms.
