Apple Video Decode Driver Posted For Upstream Linux Kernel Review
Sofus Forstreuter has submitted a set of 14 patches to the Linux kernel mailing list to introduce an open-source driver for Apple's Video Decoder. This reverse-engineered driver enables hardware-accelerated video playback on Apple M1, M2, and M3 Macs, supporting codecs such as H.264, H.265, VP9, and AV1. The driver is expected to be extended to support future Apple Silicon generations, including M4 and beyond, as part of the ongoing Asahi Linux project.
- ▪The AVD driver supports H.264, H.265, and VP9 codecs on M1 and M2 chips, with AV1 support added for M3 and newer models.
- ▪The driver implements the Video 4 Linux 2 (V4L2) M2M stateless decoder API and was developed through years of reverse engineering.
- ▪Apple's Video Decoder is programmed via a single register, requiring the driver to manage instruction segments to match hardware processing speeds.
- ▪A Cortex-M3 co-processor is used to handle decode status interrupts, with future plans to extend its role to reduce power consumption.
- ▪The patches are currently under review for inclusion in a future Linux kernel version via the media subsystem tree.
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| Original publisher | Phoronix |
| Canonical URL | https://www.phoronix.com/news/Apple-Video-Decode-AVD-Linux |
| Publication time | Fri, 18 Sep 2026 11:52:30 -0400 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-09-18T15:58:45.323Z |
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Apple Video Decode Driver Posted For Upstream Linux Kernel Review Written by Michael Larabel in Apple on 18 September 2026 at 11:52 AM EDT. Add A Comment The latest Apple Silicon enablement code working its way from the Asahi Linux project toward the upstream Linux kernel is the AVD driver used for accelerated video playback across Apple M1 / M2 / M3 SoCs. Sofus Forstreuter posted the set of 14 patches today to the Linux kernel mailing list for review in introducing the AVD driver for the Apple Video Decoder. This reverse-engineered, open-source driver gets hardware video decoding to work on the Apple M1, M2, and M3 Macs. The Apple Video Decoder supports H.264, H.265, and VP9. For Apple M3 and newer there is also AV1 support.
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