Fedora Developers Discuss Raising Base Requirement To AVX2 CPU Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Fedora Developers Discuss Raising Base Requirement To AVX2 CPU Support

An early change being talked about for Fedora 32, due out in the spring of next year, is raising the x86_64 CPU requirements for running Fedora Linux. When initially hearing of this plan, the goal is even more ambitious than I was initially thinking: AVX2...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Fedora-31-Possible-AVX2-Require

[SkyWarrior]

I think you meant Haswell/Ryzen and newer..

[Templar82]

I'm a big fan of changes like this, we don't need every distro to support every processor from the last 20 years.

[tildearrow]

I'm a big fan of changes like this, we don't need every distro to support every processor from the last 20 years.

I'm a big hater of changes like this. I still have 5 AVX2-less computers in my house.

[tildearrow]

Wait. Michael! Did you cut your finger?

[Templar82]

I'm a big hater of changes like this. I still have 5 AVX2-less computers in my house.

Do they really need to run the latest version of Fedora?

[Guest]

Do they really need to run the latest version of Fedora?

Debian, or end-user-focused Ubuntu, is also an option.

Anyway, don't low power, and/or low-tier, devices and CPU(s) come without AVX2 support, even if they based on a new architecture?

[smitty3268]

I'd be a big fan of having an additional "modern cpu" spin of Fedora, where most of the attention was going and keeping another version where everything is just recompiled for older cpus. But it's a bit soon to just drop support for them entirely, IMHO.

[Teggs]

CPUs with AVX2

• Intel
  • Haswell processor (only Core branded), Q2 2013
  • Haswell E processor (only Core branded), Q3 2014
  • Broadwell processor (only Core branded), Q4 2014
  • Broadwell E processor (only Core branded), Q3 2016
  • Skylake processor (only Core branded), Q3 2015
  • Kaby Lake processor (only Core branded), Q3 2016(ULV mobile)/Q1 2017(desktop/mobile)
  • Skylake-X processor (only Core branded), Q2 2017
  • Coffee Lake processor (only Core branded), Q4 2017
  • Cannon Lake processor, Q2 2018
  • Cascade Lake processor, Q4 2019
  • Ice Lake processor, expected in 2019
• AMD
  • Excavator processor and newer, Q2 2015
  • Zen processor, Q1 2017
  • Zen+ processor, Q2 2018
  • Zen 2 processor, Q3 2019

Ouch. In its own way, this seems as drastic as ending 32-bit multilib support. 7-year-old Intel CPU? Go fly. Bulldozer or Kaveri? Go fly.

I understand ending support for ancient hardware with new OS releases, or telling Intel Atom customers that buying a 32-bit CPU was short-sighted, but Sandy Bridge and Bulldozer are still in wide use and capable of performing many modern tasks at acceptable speeds. And how many times have I heard people mention their Kaveri APU laptop? These are decent, functional builds, not antiques that are lucky to still be operational.

I don't use Fedora, but I this would be a mistake on their part.

[zxy_thf]

This is a VERY ambitious goal.
AVX (not AVX2) requirement eliminates:
ALL Atom processors including Atom x7 lines
ALL Celeron processors except 725C, 4305U
ALL Pentium processors (including Coffee Lake Pentiums) except 1405, 1405v2, B915C, and a few D15xx

AVX2 will further remove all pre-Haswell processors from the support list.

And more importantly, the performance benefits are still unclear.

(Although this move won't hurt me since I don't have any pre-haswell systems anymore.)