A Few More Linux Kernel Patches Floated This Week For AMD Family 19h (Zen 3)

Going back to the start of 2020 we've been seeing a few patches here and there around AMD Family 19h, almost certainly Zen 3. That patch work has continued with a few more bits out this week while hopefully more bring-up is on the horizon ahead of the Linux 5.7 merge window opening in just over one month's time.

Like the earlier Family 19h EDAC bring-up, this week's work isn't too juicy besides it being refreshing to see AMD punctually getting out Linux kernel patches for forthcoming hardware. The patches this week involve a few additions to AMD's perf subsystem code around the uncore bits. No enticing details of Family 19h are revealed but just shifting code around for supporting the L3 thread mask for the forthcoming CPUs and also the L3 PMU.

This is good to see the perf support bring-up but not important for end-users. With not seeing any radical patches yet for Family 19h, it gives us hope the Linux kernel is already in good shape for AMD Zen 3 CPUs coming later this year. Following the MCE issue with Threadripper 3, the RdRand issue with the initial Zen 2 CPUs, and other past launch gotchas, it would be quite refreshing to see the Linux kernel already fit and good to go for reliable Zen 3 support on launch day without any brown paper bag issues. In any case, we'll let you know when the launch comes how the Linux support stacks up but so far we're optimistic that AMD has formed a good Linux rhythm that will only be improved moving forward.

We will in particular be closely monitoring to see what other AMD Family 19h patches may be dropping over the next month with the Linux 5.7 merge window likely happening around the start of April and thus an important target for any enablement that needs to get out there early so it has time to work its way into various Linux distributions, etc.