by George Whittaker Intel’s open-source Linux graphics stack has taken another step forward with hardware-accelerated AV1 encoding through Vulkan Video. New code merged for Mesa’s ANV Vulkan driver enables the VK_KHR_video_encode_av1 extension on Intel’s DG2/Alchemist graphics hardware, including Arc A-Series GPUs. The development expands Intel’s Vulkan Video capabilities on Linux and gives applications another standardized way to access the dedicated video encoding hardware found in modern Intel GPUs. AV1 Encoding Arrives in Intel ANV The key change is support for the Vulkan extension VK_KHR_video_encode_av1 in Mesa’s open-source Intel ANV driver. The extension was finalized by the Khronos Group in 2024 and provides a standardized Vulkan interface for hardware-accelerated AV1 encoding. It complements Vulkan Video’s existing AV1 decoding support and means Vulkan can provide both encoding and decoding interfaces for AV1, H.264, and H.265. Intel had previously stated that its Arc graphic