Intel IAA 2.0 Accelerator Preparations Coming With Linux 6.4

Introduced with Intel Xeon Scalable 4th Gen "Sapphire Rapids" processors was the In-Memory Analytics Accelerator (IAA) for hardware accelerating data compression/decompression combined with primitive analytics functions for helping to accelerate the likes of RocksDB and ClickHouse. Intel IAA with Sapphire Rapids has already been supported for some time on an open-source stack as laid out in the Intel Sapphire Rapids accelerator setup guide while now Intel engineers are preparing Linux for IAA 2.0.

IAA 2.0 is the apparent next iteration of the In-Memory Analytics Accelerator. Intel hasn't divulged too much about it but given the timing of these kernel patches and Emerald Rapids being rather evolutionary to Sapphire Rapids, my bet would be on IAA 2.0 coming with Granite Rapids next year.

Patches now queued for merging into the Linux 6.4 cycle this summer adds the new General Capabilities Register (GENCAP) of IAA 2.0 as well as a new sysfs attribute for exposing the register to user-space allocations. The IAA 2.0 Linux kernel patches are building atop Data Streaming Accelerator 2.0 (DSA 2.0) patches that also have been worked on by Intel engineers. Again, presumably coming for Granite Rapids.

The latest IAA 2.0 enablement work to the IDXD driver was queued up on Friday via the dmaengine subsystem's "next" branch ahead of the Linux 6.4 merge window opening up in about one month.