AMD Begins Sending "Family 26" Linux Patches For Apparent Zen 5 CPUs

It looks like the first patches have dropped today for early AMD bring-up around their next-generation "Zen 5" processors.

A set of patches were posted today for beginning to work on Linux kernel support around AMD "Family 1Ah" based processors. This is the first time we're seeing AMD Linux patches around Family 1Ah... Or in decimal notation, Family 26.

It was just a few weeks ago that there were reports of a possible Zen 5 sighting with a reported AMD Family 26, Model 64 for an 8-core CPU model. The Linux kernel patches from AMD today being Family 26 (1Ah) seem to lead credence to all this being Zen 5 -- short of some other unexpected surprise. After all, the Zen 4 Linux support across laptop, desktop, and servers has been in order and quite mature for some time.

The three patches sent out minutes ago add the new PCI IDs for AMD Family 1Ah processor models as well as adding initial thermal support to the k10temp driver and the EDAC AMD64 driver (Error Detection and Correction) driver. In AMD Family 1Ah, models 00h to 1Fh and 20h are added.

These amd64_edac and k10temp driver additions are trivial with just being namely the new IDs but otherwise following the same code paths as Zen 4. The AMD64 EDAC enablement though does indicate that the Zen 5 server CPUs would still top out at 12 channels like with the EPYC 9004 series and would indicate that Models 0 to 31 are the next-gen EPYC server chips while 40 to 79 are the desktop/laptop Ryzen parts.

So while today's patch series is just the start of the AMD "Family 26" enablement push, it's great to see the patches flowing out already... It was just a few years ago where the AMD k10temp monitoring would generally be late, post-launch added and not necessarily being enabled by AMD engineers but left to community members. But thankfully AMD has continued improving on their Linux support greatly in recent years not only for EPYC server processors but also making measurable strides in further enhancing their Ryzen Linux support from the desktop down through custom hardware designs such as for the Steam Deck and Tesla in-vehicle infotainment systems.

Stay tuned for more on Phoronix around the AMD "Family 26" Linux enablement as new patches materialize on the public mailing lists under my close eye.