Latest Linux Hardware Reviews, Open-Source News & Benchmarks

AMD XDNA Linux Driver Updated As It Nears The Upstream Kernel
AMD XDNA Linux Driver Updated As It Nears The Upstream Kernel
3 Hours Ago - AMD - AMDXDNA - Add A Comment

Back in January AMD published an open-source XDNA Linux kernel driver for supporting their Ryzen AI NPUs. But it wasn't until July that the formal review process for the AMD XDNA driver began as the necessary prerequisite for getting picked up into the mainline Linux kernel. On Friday the fourth iteration of those patches for review were published as it hopefully is closing in on landing within the mainline kernel.

11 October

AMD To Integrate "Project Caliptra" Into Products Beginning In 2026
AMD To Integrate "Project Caliptra" Into Products Beginning In 2026
11 October 08:50 PM EDT - AMD - AMD + Caliptra - 7 Comments

As another interesting AMD announcement this week following their Advancing AI event yesterday where they launched the EPYC 9005 series and other new hardware, they've continued with a few more soft announcements in the lead-up to the OCP Global Summit happening next week. The latest interesting tid-bit is their plans to incorporate Project Caliptra into their products beginning in 2026.

Arm Exploring IO_uring For Graphics Drivers For Better Performance & Synchronization
Arm Exploring IO_uring For Graphics Drivers For Better Performance & Synchronization
11 October 01:45 PM EDT - Linux Kernel - DRM Drivers + IO_uring - 13 Comments

The IO_uring asynchronous I/O API for Linux is quite novel and has proven performance benefits. With time IO_uring has been adapted to other areas of the kernel like networking and now with a proposal raised by an Arm graphics driver engineer, it could potentially be adapted for use by Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) kernel graphics drivers.

AVX-512 Performance With 256-bit vs. 512-bit Data Path For AMD EPYC 9005 CPUs
AVX-512 Performance With 256-bit vs. 512-bit Data Path For AMD EPYC 9005 CPUs
11 October 10:40 AM EDT - Processors - 15 Comments

Now past the launch day for the AMD EPYC 9005 series server processors and having delivered initial AMD EPYC Zen 5 benchmarks for the EPYC 9575F / EPYC 9755 / EPYC 9965 SKUs, it's onto one of my favorite areas of testing and that is the more focused benchmarks looking at different specific changes/features of new processors. Today under the benchmarking microscope is looking at the new AVX-512 512-bit data path capabilities of 5th Gen AMD EPYC compared to using a 256-bit data path or disabling AVX-512 entirely.

Intel Xe2 Ultra Joiner, GPU Temperature Reporting & Another Arrow Lake ID For Linux 6.13
Intel Xe2 Ultra Joiner, GPU Temperature Reporting & Another Arrow Lake ID For Linux 6.13
11 October 09:28 AM EDT - Intel - Intel DRM Next - 3 Comments

The drm-xe-next pull request earlier this week began preparing open-source driver support for Intel Xe3 graphics to premiere with Panther Lake processors. That code is beginning to queue for the upcoming Linux 6.13 cycle. Today a drm-intel-next pull request was sent out to prepare for more Intel Linux kernel graphics driver changes for Linux 6.13.

AMD AOCC 5.0 Compiler Released With Zen 5 Support, New Optimizations
AMD AOCC 5.0 Compiler Released With Zen 5 Support, New Optimizations
11 October 06:57 AM EDT - AMD - AMD AOCC 5.0 - 6 Comments

With 5th Gen AMD EPYC "Turin" processors now launched, AMD provided a same-day release of their updated AMD Optimizing C/C++ Compiler "AOCC". This is AMD's downstream version of LLVM/Clang/Flang where they provide optimized AMD processor support with code that hasn't yet worked its way up into LLVM proper.

AMD Announces Commitment To "Open Security Technologies"
AMD Announces Commitment To "Open Security Technologies"
11 October 06:15 AM EDT - AMD - AMD Open Security - 5 Comments

After the AMD Advancing AI Event yesterday where they launched AMD 5th Gen EPYC processors, Instinct product updates, and new high-end networking gear, they also put out a blog post to affirm their "commitment to open security technologies in the data center."

10 October

AMD EPYC 9755 / 9575F / 9965 Benchmarks Show Dominating Performance
AMD EPYC 9755 / 9575F / 9965 Benchmarks Show Dominating Performance
10 October 02:00 PM EDT - Processors - 37 Comments

Last month Intel introduced their Xeon 6 "Granite Rapids" processors with up to 128 P cores, MRDIMM support, and other improvements as a big step-up in performance and power efficiency for their server processors. The Xeon 6900P series showed they could tango with the AMD EPYC 9004 Genoa/Bergamo processors in a number of areas, but Genoa has been around since November 2022... With today's AMD 5th Gen EPYC "Turin" launch, Zen 5 is coming to servers and delivers stunning performance and power efficiency. The new top-end AMD EPYC Turin processor performance can obliterate the competition in most workloads and delivers a great generational leap in performance and power efficiency. Here are our first 5th Gen AMD EPYC Turin benchmarks in looking at the EPYC 9575F, EPYC 9755, and EPYC 9965 processors across many workloads and testing in both single and dual socket configurations.

AMD EPYC 9965 "Turin Dense" Delivers Better Performance/Power Efficiency vs. AmpereOne 192-Core ARM CPU
AMD EPYC 9965 "Turin Dense" Delivers Better Performance/Power Efficiency vs. AmpereOne 192-Core ARM CPU
10 October 02:00 PM EDT - Processors - 17 Comments

Complementing the AMD EPYC 9575F / 9755 / 9965 performance benchmarks article looking at those Turin processors up against prior AMD EPYC CPUs and the Intel Xeon competition, this article is looking squarely at the 192-core EPYC 9965 "Turin Dense" processor compared to Ampere Computing's AmpereOne A192-32X flagship processor. It's an x86_64 vs. AArch64 battle at the leading 192 core count for performance and CPU power efficiency.

AMD Launches EPYC 9005 "Turin" Server Processors
AMD Launches EPYC 9005 "Turin" Server Processors
10 October 02:00 PM EDT - Processors - 2 Comments

AMD is using their Advancing AI event today to announce 5th Gen EPYC "Turin" processors. With up to 192 cores / 384 threads per socket, 17% IPC uplift, AVX-512 with a full 512-bit data path, and the Zen 5 architectural improvements, these new EPYC 9005 processors deliver a significant generational improvement over the EPYC 9004 Genoa and Bergamo processors.

Intel Announces Core Ultra 200S Arrow Lake CPUs
Intel Announces Core Ultra 200S Arrow Lake CPUs
10 October 11:00 AM EDT - Computers - 24 Comments

As part of a busy day in the CPU world, Intel has lifted the embargo on the Core Ultra 200S "Arrow Lake" desktop processors. This isn't the review embargo but just an overview on this new generation succeeding 14th Gen "Raptor Lake Refresh" on the desktop.

AMD 3D V-Cache Performance Optimizer Driver Posted For Linux
AMD 3D V-Cache Performance Optimizer Driver Posted For Linux
10 October 06:38 AM EDT - AMD - AMD 3D V-Cache Performance Optimizer - 30 Comments

AMD today quietly posted a new open-source Linux kernel driver for review... the AMD 3D V-Cache Performance Optimizer Driver. This AMD 3D V-Cache Performance Optimizer Driver for Linux is intended to help optimize performance on systems sporting 3D V-Cache such as the AMD Ryzen "X3D" parts and the EPYC "X" processors.

Intel Begins Working On Next-Gen Xe3 Graphics With Linux 6.13
Intel Begins Working On Next-Gen Xe3 Graphics With Linux 6.13
10 October 06:25 AM EDT - Intel - Intel Xe3 Graphics - 4 Comments

While Intel Xe2 graphics have just debuted with Lunar Lake and we are awaiting Battlemage discrete GPUs with Xe2, Intel's open-source Linux driver engineers have begun work enabling Xe3 graphics! Xe3 driver work is now underway for next-generation Intel graphics.

9 October

GCC 15 Un-Deprecates Itanium IA-64 Linux Support
GCC 15 Un-Deprecates Itanium IA-64 Linux Support
9 October 06:14 AM EDT - GNU - Itanium Sticking Around - 29 Comments

The GCC 14 compiler marked Itanium IA-64 support as obsolete with plans to remove that Intel architecture in GCC 15. But for now at least the Itanium Linux compiler support has seen some reprieve with it being un-deprecated.

8 October

Intel Xeon 6980P 1S Performance With DDR5-6400/MRDIMM-8800
8 October 10:40 AM EDT - Processors - 7 Comments

With the Xeon 6980P Granite Rapids benchmarking at Phoronix the past few weeks it's been in a dual socket (2S / 2P) configuration. For those curious about the Intel Xeon 6980P 128-core server performance for a single socket (1S) configuration, here are those complementary results out today and for both DDR5-6400 and MRDIMM-8800 memory configurations. Thus a well-rounded look at the single Xeon 6980P performance compared to other single and dual socket Intel Xeon and AMD EPYC server processors.

Intel's Rendering Toolkit Turns To More Open, Community-Welcoming Development Model
8 October 09:51 AM EDT - Intel - oneAPI Rendering Toolkit - 4 Comments

Intel's oneAPI Rendering Toolkit with the likes of OSPRay, Embree, OpenVKL, Open Image Denoise, and others has been open-source for years. But it's not been exactly an open-source development model with making it easy for independent contributors to propose code changes. But Intel has now decided to make these projects more like traditional open-source projects and welcoming community contributions -- including from different hardware vendors.

LunarG Exploring Vulkan To Metal Translation With Mesa
8 October 06:19 AM EDT - Mesa - Vulkan To Apple Metal - 18 Comments

While there is the open-source MoltenVK project that implements the Vulkan API atop Apple's Metal graphics drivers on iOS/macOS, the 3D graphics consulting firm LunarG is exploring the possibility of implementing Vulkan to Metal translation using Mesa.

7 October

GNOME Foundation Announces Cost Cutting Measures Due To Budget Woes
7 October 09:00 PM EDT - GNOME - Reducing Travels + More - 141 Comments

While the recently-departed GNOME Foundation Executive Director in the summer statement was described as "drafting a bold five-year strategic plan for the Foundation, securing two important fiscal sponsorship agreements with GIMP and Black Python Devs, writing our first funding proposal that will now enable the Foundation to apply for more grants, vastly improving our financial operations, and implementing a break-even budget to preserve our financial reserves." It turns out that wasn't enough. The GNOME Foundation today announced some new cost-cutting measures for the project overseeing the open-source GNOME desktop.

FEX 2410 Released With New JIT Optimizations
7 October 04:09 PM EDT - Linux Gaming - FEX 2410 - 9 Comments

FEX 2410 is out as the newest monthly update to this open-source emulator that allows running Linux x86/x86_64 binaries on Linux AArch64 (ARM 64-bit) systems, including for games and software like Steam. With FEX 2410 there are yet more fixes as well as some new JIT optimizations.

NVGRACE-GPU VFIO Driver Preparing For NVIDIA Grace Blackwell
7 October 06:39 AM EDT - NVIDIA - NVIDIA Grace Blackwell VFIO Support - Add A Comment

The NVGRACE-GPU VFIO driver was introduced for handling Virtual Function I/O support with the NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchip so that the GPU device could be assigned to guests using KVM/QEMU and similar for virtualization. The NVGRACE-GPU driver is now being extended for supporting the forthcoming NVIDIA Grace Blackwell "GB" designs.

Linux Thermal/Power Platform Profile Support Coming For Alienware Systems
7 October 06:23 AM EDT - Hardware - dell-wmi-awcc - Add A Comment

Following work last month for extending the Dell WMI sysman Linux driver to handle Alienware systems for managing the system BIOS within the confines of Linux, another separate improvement is on the way for enhancing Alienware hardware support under Linux. This newest effort is introducing the "dell-wmi-awcc" driver for handling functionality found under Windows with the Alienware Command Center.

Past 30 Days Of News | Articles & Reviews | News Archives | RSS Feed