Intel Introduces New Gaudi "2D" Product Support To Their Linux Driver

It was just a few months back that Intel introduced a Gaudi "2C" variant of Gaudi2 to their open-source Linux driver. This variant might be for some export model or otherwise a hyperscaler/customer-specific revision or something along those lines. Now appearing within new Habana Labs driver patches for the upcoming Linux 6.11 kernel are patches for a new Gaudi 2D variant.

With Intel having announced Gaudi 3 back in April, I've been eager to see Linux driver support appearing for that next-gen AI accelerator. Sadly there isn't any Gaudi 3 enablement patches to talk about yet, but coming for Linux 6.11 is adding support for the Gaudi2D revision.

Stylized in the pull request as "Gaudi2-D", it's not clear who or what this new Gaudi2 variant is intended for. The Linux driver support just now recognizes this new revision and is otherwise taking the same code paths as existing Gaudi 2 AI accelerators. Presumably it's a revision for some specific customer(s) or export models but no further information on Gaudi 2D has been shared for now.

The Gaudi2-D support was part of this driver pull request of changes slated for the Linux 6.11 kernel. The Habana Labs accelerator driver also has lowered the Gaudi2 MSI-X interrupt count, various firmware-related changes, and different bug fixes. With this set of changes, Ofir Bitton is also now listed as the formal driver maintainer following the former driver maintainer leaving Intel.