Linux kernel 4.17 was released over the weekend by Linus Torvalds after a standard development cycle consisting of seven RC (Release Candidate) snapshots. It introduces dozens of updated and new drivers for state-of-the-art hardware support, as well as other performance optimizations and cleanups. Highlights of the Linux 4.17 kernel series include support for Intel’s Cannon Lake processor architecture, support for AMD’s upcoming AMD Radeon Vega 12 GPUs, support for Intel’s High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) digital copy protection, and support for the Andes NDS32 hardware architecture.