Intel News Archives

As covered last month on Phoronix, Intel has been experimenting with Energy Aware Scheduling (EAS) for the Intel P-State driver with a goal of enhancing the power efficiency of Core Ultra "Lunar Lake" processors. Recently a second iteration of that work was posted for review ahead of possible inclusion in a future version of the Linux kernel.

Intel's open-source Linux graphics driver engineers are busy working to further refine the Xe2 graphics performance for Lunar Lake integrated graphics and the newly-launched Battlemage discrete graphics. Landing in Mesa 25.0-devel this Friday afternoon is a new "Round Robin Strict" optimization to benefit both their OpenGL and Vulkan drivers on Linux with Xe2 hardware.

The SPIR-V target within the LLVM compiler for outputting to this common IR used across different accelerator/device types, different APIs from Vulkan and SYCL to GLSL / OpenCL / HLSL, and adapted for a variety of innovative use-cases could soon become an official target within LLVM.

Intel engineer and Linux power management subsystem maintainer Rafael Wysocki queued up several power management related patches this week for Intel's upcoming Core Ultra "Panther Lake" processors as well as the next-gen Xeon Clearwater Forest processors.

While the Linux 6.13 merge window only recently ended and that kernel won't be out until around the end of January followed by the start of the Linux 6.14 merge window, Intel software engineers on Wednesday sent out their first two pull requests to DRM-Next of new kernel graphics driver features they are readying for this next version of the Linux kernel.

One of the interesting Intel Xe Linux kernel graphics driver patches that was volleyed for discussion last month is working on user-mode driver (UMD) direct submission support for allowing work to be directly submitted from user-space to the GPU hardware and avoiding some of the overhead of the kernel driver interactions.

The DRM Panic infrastructure has been in the Linux kernel for several releases now and allows for a kernel-based experience similar to Windows' "Blue Screen of Death as well as more recently allowing QR code kernel error messages and other features. The Intel kernel DRM driver has seen some patches for enabling DRM Panic support.

The Intel Compute Runtime 24.45.31740.9 is out as the newest monthly-ish update to this open-source GPU compute stack used on Linux and Windows for the OpenCL and Level Zero support. This Compute Runtime 24.45.31740.9 is also the last update ahead of next week's Battlemage availability with the Arc B580 graphics card.

Merged for Mesa 25.0 yesterday to the Intel "ANV" open-source Vulkan Linux driver is enabling more storage compression on Tigerlake graphics hardware and newer.

While Intel has been under much financial difficulties and as they pursue their build out of new fabs to better compete with TSMC, to much surprise Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has retired effective today.

The turbostat utility that lives within the Linux kernel source tree for reporting CPU frequency/idle statistics and other metrics is gaining some new capabilities as part of the Linux 6.13 cycle.

The Intel Graphics Compiler (IGC) that is used by the Intel Compute Runtime for Level Zero and OpenCL GPU compute support as well as being depended upon by the Windows 3D driver stack has now removed platform support up to and including Ice Lake.

There are some new improvements in Linux 6.13 for the Intel TDX code for Trust Domain Extensions in providing hardware-based security protections for virtual machines on recent Xeon processors.

Version 1.4 of the Intel NPU Acceleration Library was released today as the Python library for use on Windows and Linux for interacting with the Intel Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for AI offloading on recent Intel Core Ultra processors.

Intel's open-source software developers released today OpenVINO 2024.5 as the newest major feature release for this cross-platform AI toolkit.

A few weeks back I wrote about Intel engineers preparing SNC6 support with Linux for six nodes per L3 cache. That was the first time hearing of SNC6 with SNC 1/2/3/4 sub-NUMA clustering modes being more common. That support is now ready for merging with the Linux 6.13 kernel cycle.

A patch queued yesterday ino the Linux power management subsystem's "linux-next" branch ahead of the upcoming Linux 6.13 merge window will tune Intel Xeon Granite Rapids processors for better performance out-of-the-box.

The newest Linux driver being developed by Intel is for the Touch Host Controller (THC) as a new high performance input tech for enhancing touch screen, touch pad, and stylus input handling.

The Intel In-Memory Analytics Accelerator (IAA) found in various Xeon SKUs since Sapphire Rapids can be of big benefit to Linux servers/workstations with a Linux kernel patch series that has been in the works to provide Zswap IAA compress batching.

The "intel_idle" driver provides CPU idle time management for Intel processors on Linux for helping to put the processor into low-power states in conjunction with the MWAIT instruction. With the upcoming Linux 6.13 kernel, the Granite Rapids D support for the Intel Idle driver is set to be merged.

It's the second Tuesday of the month and this Patch Tuesday brings new CPU microcode for mitigating the latest Intel processor security vulnerabilities and updates to some previously disclosed issues.

As another effort for boosting the energy efficiency and behavior of Intel Core platforms with a mix of energy efficient "E" and performance "P" cores, a set of patches were posted Friday night for adapting Energy Aware Scheduling (EAS) to the Intel P-State CPU frequency scaling driver with a focus on providing better energy efficient performance initially for Lunar Lake SoCs.

The Intel Diamond Rapids target has been merged in time for the upcoming GCC 15 compiler release to allow for "-march=diamondrapids" targeting for leveraging the array of new CPU ISA additions found with these next-gen Xeon processors.

A patch is working its way to the mainline Linux kernel for addressing an annoyance affecting new Intel Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" laptops.

Intel's Linux kernel test robot has reported a 3888.9% performance improvement in the mainline Linux kernel as of this past week.

As the latest on the compiler enablement front for Intel's next-gen Xeon "Diamond Rapids processors, LLVM Git has merged support for the AMX-AVX512 instructions for next spring's Clang 20 compiler release.

A patch posted on Thursday by one of Intel's long-time Linux kernel engineers would begin treating outdated Intel CPU microcode as a security vulnerability that would be reported to user-space via the existing sysfs vulnerabilities reporting.

Patches for the Linux kernel over the past week are preparing for an SNC6 sub-NUMA clustering mode. This is the first time I've seen patches or mentions of an SNC6 mode compared to SNC 1/2/3/4 modes with existing processors.

Intel's oneCCL open-source software that is the oneAPI Collective Communications Library focused on providing an efficient implementation of deep learning communication patterns is out with a new release.

Queued up over the past month into DRM-Next ahead of the Linux 6.13 kernel cycle has been initial support for Xe3 graphics to be found with Panther Lake processors. The initial Xe3 graphics driver support patches have been trickling in while the final drm-intel-next pull ahead of the Linux 6.13 merge window has readied support for actually being able to light up a display connected to Xe3 LPD graphics with Panther Lake.

The x86-simd-sort project from Intel has been an interesting open-source software effort for much faster number sorting by using AVX-512. There's been lightning fast number sorting with AVX-512 and AVX2 code paths also added to broaden the appeal in helping CPUs without AVX-512. Projects like Numpy have been making use of this library while today x86-simd-sort 6.0 was released and also comes a few days after PyTorch has begun using this library too.

Intel software engineers have been very busy recently with upstreaming various elements of support into the Linux kernel, open-source compilers and more for the next-generation Xeon Diamond Rapids processors. Following the recent GCC prep patches for Diamond Rapids to work on the ISA additions around AMX-AVX512, AMX-FP8, AMX-FP32, and others, a new patch was posted today for actually exposing the "-march=diamondrapids" compiler target and in turn confirming all of the new ISA capabilities.

Intel compiler engineer Feng Zou has upstreamed AMX-FP8 support into the LLVM compiler stack. This FP8 extension to the Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX) is coming with next-gen Diamond Rapids processors alongside other new ISA extensions.

Intel off their typical second Tuesday of the month patch regiment today posted new CPU microcode just for 13th Gen "Raptor Lake" and 14th Gen "Raptor Lake Refresh" processors for Linux systems. Notable with the updated Raptor Lake CPU microcode is the internal voltage handling fix for that well known problem plaguing many Raptor Lake owners plus two other fixes.

A set of patches are currently under review on the Linux kernel mailing list for helping to further lower idle power use for Xeon 6 Sierra Forest processors.

While the Linux 6.12 kernel enables Intel Xe2 Battlemage discrete GPU support out-of-the-box as a sign of its maturing state, there are a number of patches for the open-source Battlemage driver support that are ongoing. One of the areas seeing some patches recently are around enhancing the display features with Battlemage's upgraded capabilities. Plus there's ongoing work around next-gen Xe3 graphics too.

Intel has issued their newest quarterly feature release of their FFmpeg Cartwheel, which is their developer staging area of new video acceleration related patches for Intel graphics hardware that they are working to upstream within the widely-used, open-source FFmpeg library.

With Linux 6.13 there is going to be the initial kernel graphics driver support for Xe3 in integrated form to be found with next-gen Panther Lake processors. Merged today for Mesa 24.3 this quarter is the initial OpenGL and Vulkan driver enablement for Xe3 graphics.

For the upcoming Linux 6.13 cycle there is Xe2 Ultra Joiner and GPU temperature monitoring support along with initial Xe3 graphics support for integrated form with Panther Lake among the Intel graphics driver changes expected so far. Another batch of the Xe kernel graphics driver changes were submitted today for modern Intel graphics with this upcoming Linux 6.13 cycle.

Intel today released the Intel Media Driver 2024Q3 release to provide updated Video Acceleration API (VA-API) support for Linux systems along with an updated oneVPL GPU Runtime.

Intel engineers this morning sent out their newest pull request of "drm-intel-gt-next" material to queue in DRM-Next ahead of the upcoming Linux 6.13 merge window. There is a new feature enabled on newer Intel graphics hardware as well as some improvements for very old Intel integrated graphics.

Intel's compiler engineers today posted a number of feature patches for the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) for enabling new ISA features to be found with next-generation Xeon "Diamond Rapids" processors. Excitingly a number of new Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX) features are coming with next-gen Intel Xeon.

Intel Compute Runtime 24.39.31294.12 was released on Monday as the newest update to this open-source Intel integrated/discrete graphics compute stack for providing OpenCL and oneAPI Level Zero support for their hardware on Windows and Linux.

Since purchasing an Intel Core Ultra Series 2 "Lunar Lake" laptop for Linux testing last month, the performance has been coming in below expectations. Among the tests were finding Xe2 graphics on Lunar Lake performing slower that under Windows 11 and in comparison slower than Meteor Lake graphics on Linux. Intel engineers have been able to reproduce my original findings and they uncovered the culprit is a new ASUS laptop feature called AIPT. In turn a patch was posted today for supporting ASUS AIPT controls under Linux to fix this low Lunar Lake Linux performance.

Intel announced earlier this week ahead of the OCP Global Summit that they have partnered with the 9elements consulting firm for getting Coreboot up and running on Intel Xeon 6 "Granite Rapids" platforms.

Following the recent patch work for enabling the Intel 5th Gen NPU premiering with Panther Lake, a new patch series posted today brings a number of improvements for this Intel neural processing unit driver -- including the ability to handle larger workloads.

Earlier this month I wrote about Intel's Linux software engineers posting patches adding 5th Gen NPU support to the IVPU accelerator driver for that updated neural processing unit to be found with next-gen Panther Lake processors. Those 5th Gen NPU driver patches for Panther Lake are now queued for introduction with the upcoming Linux 6.13 kernel cycle.

The open-source Intel Low Power Mode Daemon (LPMD) software is out with a new release for optimizing active idle power on modern Intel Core systems under Linux. The Intel LPMD daemon is able to configure the system depending upon workload, utilization, and other hints for delivering the most power efficient cores and behavior of the processor.

ISPC 1.25 has been released as the newest feature update to the Intel Implicit SPMD Program Compiler as the C language variant for "single program, multiple data" programming to target both Intel's CPUs and GPUs.

Intel and AMD have jointly announced the creation of an x86 ecosystem advisory group to bring together the two companies as well as other industry leaders -- both companies and individuals such as Linux creator Linus Torvalds.