Arm Scalable Matrix Extension 2 "SME2" Support Lands In GNU Binutils

Toward the end of last year Arm detailed Scalable Matrix Extension 2 (SME2) for adding more capabilities to Armv9-A around speedy matrix processing. Merged this morning is initial support for SME2 within Binutils as part of the GNU compiler toolchain for the GNU Assembler.

A number of patches were merged to the GNU Binutils repository for working on the toolchain support around SME2. Over on the kernel side, Linux 6.3 brings its initial SME2 and SME2.1 support. Scalable Matrix Extension 2 add a new 512-bit architectural register (ZT0) register and new architectural state over SME Version 1 that is already supported by the mainline kernel since Linux 5.19.

The +sme2 Gas option was added following by many patches with the rest of the SME2 bring-up in Binutils for the GNU Assembler (Gas). So far no SME2 support has been merged to the GNU Compiler Collection and with the GCC 13 release happening in mere weeks, the Scalable Matrix Extension 2 compiler support might not surface until GCC 14 next year.