Unlock Enhanced Performance: NVIDIA’s New Rust-Written ‘NOVA’ Driver Submitted Just in Time for Linux 6.15!

Red Hat engineers have been working on a new open-source driver called NOVA, written in Rust. This driver aims to replace the older Nouveau driver, which has seen limited updates lately. Unlike Nouveau, which supports a wide range of NVIDIA GPUs, the NOVA driver focuses specifically on the RTX 20 “Turing” series and newer models. This is because these GPUs come with the NVIDIA GPU System Processor (GSP), making it easier to develop the driver. Recently, the first piece of NOVA code was shared for integration into the upcoming Linux 6.15 release.

If all goes well, Linux 6.15 may be the first version to include the NOVA driver, marking a notable development as the first Rust-based driver in the Direct Rendering Manager to be added to the mainline kernel. However, it’s important to note that this initial release is just a basic framework with no practical application for users yet. The team plans to enhance the driver gradually within the kernel, avoiding the overload of reviewing a complete driver all at once. For now, users will need to stick with either the Nouveau driver or NVIDIA’s official drivers.

Danilo Krummrich from Red Hat announced the NOVA pull request, stating that it includes the basic driver skeleton and some documentation, along with a couple of firmware patches. The initial code comprises about 1,207 lines, with around 700 lines being Rust code and the rest mainly comprising documentation, including a TODO list. Over the next few kernel updates, the NOVA driver will grow, eventually aiming to provide functional open-source support for NVIDIA GPUs alongside the necessary GSP firmware.

It’s an exciting time for the development of this new open-source NVIDIA driver. With time, NOVA hopes to compete effectively with NVIDIA’s official Linux drivers, all while offering a more modern and maintainable codebase than Nouveau.