Intel Begins Sorting Out SR-IOV Support For The Xe Kernel Graphics Driver

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel Begins Sorting Out SR-IOV Support For The Xe Kernel Graphics Driver

One of the great aspects of Intel integrated and discrete graphics is the broad support for Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV). Intel "Gen12" graphics back to Tigerlake can handle SR-IOV when there aren't any firmware woes or other issues at play. There is SR-IOV support currently with the i915 kernel driver but Intel engineers are working to architect optimal SR-IOV integration into their forthcoming Xe DRM kernel driver...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Xe-Driver-SR-IOV-Plans

[Kjell]

If only AMD added SR-IOV for Radeon cards.. Imagine the possibilities for homelab users

[Quackdoc]

it's a shame this doesnt seem to be comming for the DG2 gaming cards. Intel had a large chance to really stand out here. This is a really big shame they didn't enable it there (maybe they will in the future?) I guess ill wait for workarounds to come out like nvidia then.

+SR-IOV Capability
+=================
+
+Due to SR-IOV complexity and required co-operation between hardware, firmware
+and kernel drivers, not all Xe architecture platforms might have SR-IOV enabled
+or fully functional.
+
+To control at the driver level which platform will provide support for SR-IOV,
+as we can't just rely on the PCI configuration data exposed by the hardware,
+we will introduce "has_sriov" flag to the struct xe_device_desc that describes
+a device capabilities that driver checks during the probe.
+
+Initially this flag will be set to disabled even on platforms that we plan to
+support. We will enable this flag only once we finish merging all required
+changes to the driver and related validated firmwares are also made available.
+
+
+SR-IOV Platforms
+================
+
+Initially we plan to add SR-IOV functionality to the following SDV platforms
+already supported by the Xe driver:
+
+ - TGL (up to 7 VFs)
+ - ADL (up to 7 VFs)
+ - MTL (up to 7 VFs)
+ - ATSM (up to 31 VFs)
+ - PVC (up to 63 VFs)
+
+Newer platforms will be supported later, but we hope that enabling will be
+much faster, as majority of the driver changes are either platform agnostic
+or are similar between earlier platforms (hence we start with SDVs).
+

[timofonic]

If only AMD added SR-IOV for Radeon cards.. Imagine the possibilities for homelab users

I agree!

If Intel someday supports SR-IOV on consumer hardware and especially GPUs, I'll say goodbye to AMD.

If AMD does add SR-IOV dor consumer hardware, everything will be AMD at home and work.

[Kjell]

I agree!

If Intel someday supports SR-IOV on consumer hardware and especially GPUs, I'll say goodbye to AMD.

If AMD does add SR-IOV dor consumer hardware, everything will be AMD at home and work.

Yepp

I switched from Intel to AMD at work and home and I'm happy to return to Intel if they can match the performance of AMD AND offer SR-IOV. I've got no reason to leave AMD if they implement it too.

NVIDIA is clearly out of the picture with their anti-consumer/anti-Linux approach.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

it's a shame this doesnt seem to be comming for the DG2 gaming cards. Intel had a large chance to really stand out here. This is a really big shame they didn't enable it there (maybe they will in the future?) I guess ill wait for workarounds to come out like nvidia then.

Indeed. The 16GB A770 could have been really interesting with SR-IOV.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

Can someone who follows this more closely share the current state and any definitive plan for getting to a single driver that supports all the important features for DG2 discreet cards? I.e. is Xe getting HuC support for the media block or is i915 getting sparse support in a way that's going to work and be performant?

[Quackdoc]

Can someone who follows this more closely share the current state and any definitive plan for getting to a single driver that supports all the important features for DG2 discreet cards? I.e. is Xe getting HuC support for the media block or is i915 getting sparse support in a way that's going to work and be performant?

i915 is getting sparse support. https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/...requests/25512

[CommunityMember]

Indeed. The 16GB A770 could have been really interesting with SR-IOV.

I expect that market segmentation will continue to be a thing for all discrete GPU manufacturers, with consumer priced products not offering the same capabilities as data center priced products.

I seem to recall a rumor that the A770 might be able to be flashed to support at least some of the capabilities of a Flex 170 (which supports SR-IOV), but no details (capabilities, limitations, how-to, etc.) were ever publicly shared that I am aware of. For all I know the rumor was planted simply to increase page views.

[Quackdoc]

I expect that market segmentation will continue to be a thing for all discrete GPU manufacturers, with consumer priced products not offering the same capabilities as data center priced products.

I seem to recall a rumor that the A770 might be able to be flashed to support at least some of the capabilities of a Flex 170 (which supports SR-IOV), but no details (capabilities, limitations, how-to, etc.) were ever publicly shared that I am aware of. For all I know the rumor was planted simply to increase page views.

it was confirmed by wendel from level1techs, so IMO the rumor is as good as legit as they have a very good history https://forum.level1techs.com/t/inte...ov-hack/200804