Intel has issued a mountain of patches for the Intel Linux graphics driver, precursor to discrete GPU support on the open source Linux kernel. The 42 patches and 4,000 lines of code implement local memory support, a crucial step towards offering full Linux driver support for Intel Xe arriving in 2020.

Last year Intel announced its ambitious goal to not only build a discrete graphics product but turn the whole project around by 2020. Since hiring some of the best boffins in the biz – such as ex-AMD and Apple Raja Koduri – the company has been slowly teasing its upcoming product. And so far it’s all looking rather positive for the open source community, with Intel announcing extensive Linux driver support and VESA Adaptive Sync (the basis for AMD FreeSync) support.

“Local memory implementation is the first of many steps toward robust Linux support for our future discrete graphics solutions,” a tweet from Intel Graphics says. Until this point, Intel’s integrated graphics silicon, regardless of its various on-chip configurations, has not required this functionality.