Intel's Turbostat Adds Skylake Support In Linux 4.1

Turbostat, the open-source Intel program for reporting processor frequency and idle statistics along with other Intel-specific CPU information, will see a few improvements with Linux 4.1.

Among the changes for the Turbostat utility -- which is distributed as part of the Linux kernel source tree -- are DRAM RAPL unit corrections for recent Xeon processors, simplifying the output of the turbostat tool, automatically loading the msr kernel module when needed, and other changes. The big feature addition to Turbostat distributed with Linux 4.1 is the initial support for Intel's upcoming Skylake processors.

Intel's Open-Source Technology Center has been working on Skylake Linux hardware enablement for quite some time now and it looks like Linux 4.1~4.2 will be the ideal launch spot for Intel "SKL" CPUs with delivering nice out-of-the-box support, though expect further optimizations and improvements over the next few kernel releases.

Skylake processors are expected to start surfacing in the second half of this year as the successor to Broadwell. More Turbostat Linux 4.1 details via Len Brown's pull request.