Graphics: Intel and AMD Developments

• Intel Has Quietly Been Working On A New Gallium3D Driver Being Called "Iris"

  After resisting Gallium3D for the past decade with a preference on continuing to maintain their "i965" Mesa classic driver and all they've invested into its compiler stack and more, it seems times are changing as the open-source Intel team has been starting up development of a modern Gallium3D driver. This is not to be confused with the former i915g or i965g efforts from about a decade ago that were the experiments of Tungsten/LunarG for driver research/experimentation purposes or in the case of i915g to handle some features with LLVM in software, but this is a modern Gallium3D driver targeting their current hardware.

• AMDGPU-PRO 18.30 Linux Graphics Driver Released with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and RHEL / CentOS Support

  The long awaited AMDGPU-PRO 18.30 driver update for the AMD Linux graphics driver package has finally been released, with a driver installation option for both “all open” and closed / proprietary driver modules. What is great about this driver package update is that it is supported on the latest Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS as well as Ubuntu 16.04.5, and RHEL / CentOS 6.10 and 7.5 respectively for their Enterprise Linux support targets.

• AMDGPU-PRO 18.30 Released With Ubuntu 18.04.1 Support & WattMan-Like Functionality

  AMDGPU-PRO 18.30 is now available as the long desired update to this official AMD Linux graphics driver package that consists of the driver installation option for both the "all-open" and closed/proprietary driver modules. Notable to the AMDGPU-PRO 18.30 release is that Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS is now supported as well as Ubuntu 16.04.5. Additionally, RHEL/CentOS 6.10 and 7.5 release series round out their enterprise Linux support targets.

Wine 3.14 Released

• Wine Announcement

  The Wine development release 3.14 is now available.

• Wine 3.14 Adds DXTn Texture Decompression, Other Improvements

  Due to the summer holidays it's been four weeks since Wine 3.13 but it has now been succeeded by Wine 3.14 as the newest feature release. Wine 3.14 adds support for DXTn texture decompression, deferral support for MSI install actions, Japanese keyboard support within DirectInput, improvements to the standard task dialog, more Shell32 icons, and a total of 36 bug fixes. Those bug fixes range from Adobe CS4 issues to problems with Wargaming, Chromium, Guild Wars, Civilization V, Chaos League, and other software.

• Grab a glass as Wine 3.14 is out today with DXTn texture decompression support and plenty of fixes

  The latest and greatest in fine Wine [Official Site] is out today with Wine 3.14 filled with features and the usual bug fixes including support for DXTn texture decompression

Android Leftovers

• OnePlus X, OnePlus 2, & OnePlus 3/3T get AOSP Android Pie ports

• The OnePlus 6T will launch in October – on T-Mobile

• Android Messages Gets Dark Mode, Revamped Interface, and Smart Reply Feature

• Google Voice for Android gets updated w/ new icon and slight visual refresh

• Google adds Gmail Confidential Mode to Android

• Apple is rethinking the hearing aid -- and now Android is, too

• 3 ways Android apps make Chromebooks more like Windows PCs

• Sony made a pretty infographic to explain why Android updates can be so slow

• Android Circuit: New Galaxy S10 Secrets, OnePlus 6T Exposed, Google's Massive Pixel 3XL Leak

Zephyr Project Embraces RISC-V with New Members and Expanded Board Support

The Linux Foundation’s Zephyr Project, which is developing the open source Zephyr real-time operating system (RTOS) for microcontrollers, announced six new members, including RISC-V members Antmicro and SiFive. The project also announced expanded support for developer boards. Zephyr is now certified to run 100 boards spanning ARM, x86, ARC, NIOS II, XTENSA, and RISCV32 architectures. Antmicro, SiFive, and DeviceTone, which makes IoT-savvy smart clients, have signed up as Silver members, joining Oticon, runtime.io, Synopsys, and Texas Instruments. The other three new members -- Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, The Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS), and Northeastern University – have joined the Vancouver Hack Space as Associate members.