Linux Foundation Welcomes Newton: The Next Open Physics Engine for Robotics

3 weeks ago
by George Whittaker Introduction

Simulating physics is central to robotics: before a robot ever moves in the real world, much of its learning, testing, and control happens in a virtual environment. But traditional simulators often struggle to match real-world physical complexity, especially where contact, friction, deformable materials, and unpredictable surfaces are involved. That discrepancy is known as the sim-to-real gap, and it’s one of the biggest hurdles in robotics and embodied AI.

On September 29th, the Linux Foundation announced that it is contributing Newton, a next-generation, GPU-accelerated physics engine, as a fully open, community-governed project. This move aims to accelerate robotics research, reduce barriers to entry, and ensure long-term sustainability under neutral governance.

In this article, we’ll unpack what Newton is, how its architecture stands out, the role the Linux Foundation will play, early use cases and challenges, and what this could mean for the future of robotics and simulation.

What Is Newton?

Newton is a physics simulation engine designed specifically for roboticists and simulation researchers who want high fidelity, performance, and extensibility. It was conceived through collaboration among Disney Research, Google DeepMind, and NVIDIA. The recent contribution to the Linux Foundation transforms Newton into an open governance project, inviting broader community collaboration.

Design Goals & Key Features
  • GPU-accelerated simulation: Newton leverages NVIDIA Warp as its compute backbone, enabling physics computations on GPUs for much higher throughput than traditional CPU-based simulators.

  • Differentiable physics: Newton allows gradients to be propagated through simulation steps, making it possible to integrate physics into learning pipelines (e.g. backpropagation through control parameters).

  • Extensible and multi-solver architecture: Users or researchers can plug in custom solvers, mix models (rigid bodies, soft bodies, cloth), and tailor functionality for domain-specific needs.

  • Interoperability via OpenUSD: Newton builds on OpenUSD (Universal Scene Description) to allow flexible data modeling of robots and environments, and easier integration with asset pipelines.

  • Compatibility with MuJoCo-Warp: As part of the Newton project, the MuJoCo backbone is adapted (MuJoCo-Warp) for high-performance simulation within Newton’s framework.

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George Whittaker

The Open Source Opportunity for AI Adoption in Africa, the Middle East, and Türkiye

3 weeks 1 day ago

In this second report in our series on the economic value of open source AI, we reviewed the technology’s impact in Africa, the Middle East, and Türkiye (AMET). Drawing on evidence from industry and academia, the study reveals strong adoption and investment trends, enormous economic potential, and transformational workforce and sector impacts. Many of the themes from our global study ring true in AMET as well, alongside some findings that are unique to this region. 

Anna Hermansen

[Testing Update] 2025-09-29 - Kernel 6.17, Deepin, Yoshimi, Haskell, Python

3 weeks 1 day ago

Hello community, here we have another set of package updates. Welcome to our new development cycle of Manjaro 25.1.0, code-named ‘Anh-Linh’. It is not sure yet if we will focus on Plasma 6.4 series or adopt 6.5 series early on. For sure we will introduce GNOME 49 and maybe Cosmic 1.0 (Beta).

Current Promotions Recent News Valkey to replace Redis in the [extra] Repository (click for more details) Previous News Finding information easier about Manjaro (click for more details) Notable Package Updates
  • Some Kernels got updated
  • Updates to Deepin
  • Yoshimi 2.3.5
  • Haskell and Python updates
Additional Info Python 3.13 info (click for more details) Info about AUR packages (click for more details)

Get our latest daily developer images now from Github: Plasma, GNOME, XFCE. You can get the latest stable releases of Manjaro from CDN77.

Our current supported kernels
  • linux54 5.4.299
  • linux510 5.10.244
  • linux515 5.15.193
  • linux61 6.1.154
  • linux66 6.6.108
  • linux612 6.12.49
  • linux616 6.16.9
  • linux617 6.17.0
  • linux61-rt 6.1.151_rt54
  • linux66-rt 6.6.106_rt61
  • linux612-rt 6.12.49_rt13
  • linux615-rt 6.15.0_rt2
  • linux616-rt 6.16.0_rt3

Package Changes (Mon Sep 29 07:42:36 CEST 2025)

  • testing core x86_64: 6 new and 6 removed package(s)
  • testing extra x86_64: 1175 new and 1173 removed package(s)
  • testing multilib x86_64: 6 new and 6 removed package(s)

A list of all changes can be found here.

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philm

[Testing Update] 2025-09-27 - Kernels, Plasma 6.4.5, GNOME 49.0, Cosmic 1.0b1

3 weeks 3 days ago

Hello community, here we have another set of package updates. Welcome to our new development cycle of Manjaro 25.1.0, code-named ‘Anh-Linh’. It is not sure yet if we will focus on Plasma 6.4 series or adopt 6.5 series early on. For sure we will introduce GNOME 49 and maybe Cosmic 1.0 (Beta).

Current Promotions Recent News Valkey to replace Redis in the [extra] Repository (click for more details) Previous News Finding information easier about Manjaro (click for more details) Notable Package Updates Additional Info Python 3.13 info (click for more details) Info about AUR packages (click for more details)

Get our latest daily developer images now from Github: Plasma, GNOME, XFCE. You can get the latest stable releases of Manjaro from CDN77.

Our current supported kernels
  • linux54 5.4.299
  • linux510 5.10.244
  • linux515 5.15.193
  • linux61 6.1.154
  • linux66 6.6.108
  • linux612 6.12.49
  • linux616 6.16.9
  • linux617 6.17.0-rc7
  • linux61-rt 6.1.151_rt54
  • linux66-rt 6.6.106_rt61
  • linux612-rt 6.12.43_rt12
  • linux615-rt 6.15.0_rt2
  • linux616-rt 6.16.0_rt3

Package Changes (Sat Sep 27 09:30:09 CEST 2025)

  • testing core x86_64: 26 new and 28 removed package(s)
  • testing extra x86_64: 2234 new and 2301 removed package(s)
  • testing multilib x86_64: 13 new and 13 removed package(s)

A list of all changes can be found here.

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philm

[Stable Update] 2025-09-26 - Kernels, NVIDIA, Systemd, LibreOffice, KDE Software

3 weeks 4 days ago

Hello community, here we have another set of package updates. This will be most likely our last update to the Zetar release cycle. Let us know if there are any issues left.

Current Promotions Recent News Valkey to replace Redis in the [extra] Repository (click for more details) Previous News Finding information easier about Manjaro (click for more details) Notable Package Updates Additional Info Python 3.13 info (click for more details) Info about AUR packages (click for more details)

Get our latest daily developer images now from Github: Plasma, GNOME, XFCE. You can get the latest stable releases of Manjaro from CDN77.

Also help testing upcoming stable release ISOs, which include this update: Help testing 25.0.9 Release

Our current supported kernels
  • linux54 5.4.299
  • linux510 5.10.244
  • linux515 5.15.193
  • linux61 6.1.153
  • linux66 6.6.107
  • linux612 6.12.48
  • linux615 6.15.11 [EOL]
  • linux616 6.16.8
  • linux617 6.17.0-rc7
  • linux61-rt 6.1.151_rt54
  • linux66-rt 6.6.106_rt61
  • linux612-rt 6.12.43_rt12
  • linux615-rt 6.15.0_rt2
  • linux616-rt 6.16.0_rt3

Package Changes (Sat Sep 20 09:38:35 CEST 2025)

  • stable core x86_64: 84 new and 84 removed package(s)
  • stable extra x86_64: 3956 new and 3988 removed package(s)
  • stable multilib x86_64: 57 new and 50 removed package(s)

A list of all changes can be found here.

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philm

Kernel 6.15.4 Performance Tuned, Networking Polished, Stability Reinforced

3 weeks 5 days ago
by George Whittaker Introduction

In the life cycle of any kernel branch, patch releases, those minor “.x” updates, play a vital role in refining performance, patching regressions, and ironing out rough edges. Kernel 6.15.4 is one such release: it doesn’t bring headline features, but focuses squarely on stabilizing and optimizing the 6.15 series with targeted fixes in performance and networking.

While version 6.15 already introduced several ambitious changes (filesystem improvements, networking enhancements, Rust driver infrastructure, etc.), the 6.15.4 update doubles down on making those changes more robust and efficient. In this article, we'll walk through the most significant improvements, what they mean for systems running 6.15.*, and how to approach updating.

Release Highlights

The official announcement of Kernel 6.15.4 surfaced around late June 2025. The release includes:

  • A full source tarball (linux-6.15.4.tar.xz) and patches.

  • Signature verification via PGP for integrity.

  • A changelog/diff summary comparing 6.15.3 → 6.15.4.

This update is not a major feature expansion; it’s a refinement release targeting performance regressions, network subsystem reliability, and bug fixes that emerged in prior 6.15.* builds.

Performance Enhancements

Because 6.15 already brought several ambitious changes to memory, I/O, scheduler, and mount semantics, many of the improvements in 6.15.4 are about smoothing interactions, avoiding regressions, and reclaiming performance in corner cases. While not all patches are publicly detailed in summaries, we can infer patterns based on what 6.15 introduced and what “performance patches” generally target.

Memory & TLB Optimizations

One often-painful cost in high-performance workloads is flushing translation lookaside buffers (TLBs) too aggressively. Kernel 6.15 had already begun to optimize broadcast TLB invalidation using AMD’s INVLPGB (for remote CPUs) to reduce overhead in multi-CPU environments. In 6.15.4, fixes likely target edge cases or regressions in those mechanisms, ensuring TLB invalidation is more efficient and consistent.

Additionally, various memory management cleanups, object reuse, and page handling improvements tend to appear in patch releases. While not explicitly documented in the public summaries, such fixes help reduce fragmentation, locking contention, and latency in memory allocation.

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George Whittaker

Meet the Coolest (and Most Expensive) Raspberry Pi Yet

3 weeks 5 days ago

Raspberry Pi today unveiled the new Raspberry Pi 500+ — a ‘premium’ version of its compact keyboard PC that uses mechanical switches, RGB backlighting and is pre-fitted with an SSD. “Raspberry Pi 500+ puts the power of Raspberry Pi 5’s quad-core 64-bit Arm processor and RP1 I/O controller into an ergonomic and tactile mechanical keyboard, combining uncompromising performance with 16GB RAM and 256GB NVMe storage,” they say. Those who dig the idea of the your keyboard being the PC — as someone old enough to have owned an Amstrad CPC 464, I do — but are too discerning to the quality of key clacking […]

You're reading Meet the Coolest (and Most Expensive) Raspberry Pi Yet, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Joey Sneddon