Framework 16, New AMD Launches & More Made For An Exciting January
Below is a look at the most popular content on Phoronix during the last month. As always if you enjoy all of this original and unique content consider joining Phoronix Premium to make it possible or at the very least to disengage any ad-blocker when viewing this website. In June will mark the 20th birthday since I started Phoronix for focusing on Linux hardware reviews.
The most popular news for January included:
A 2024 Discussion Whether To Convert The Linux Kernel From C To Modern C++
A six year old Linux kernel mailing list discussion has been reignited over the prospects of converting the Linux kernel to supporting modern C++ code.
Linux 6.8 Network Optimizations Can Boost TCP Performance For Many Concurrent Connections By ~40%
Beyond the usual new wired/wireless network hardware support and the other routine churn in the big Linux networking subsystem, the Linux 6.8 kernel is bringing some key improvements to the core networking code that can yield up to a ~40% improvement for TCP performance when encountering many concurrent network connections.
Rust-Written Linux Scheduler Showing Promising Results For Gaming Performance
A Canonical engineer has been experimenting with implementing a Linux scheduler within the Rust programming language. His early results are interesting and hopeful around the potential of a Rust-based scheduler that works via sched_ext for implementing a scheduler using eBPF that can be loaded during run-time.
Ubuntu Looking At Discontinuing Its Source ISOs
Ubuntu's install media (ISO) generation recently broke the assembly of source ISOs. These are the ISOs containing all of the source code packages to Ubuntu Linux with the original motivation of helping GPL license compliance and ensuring the code is easily accessible. But the usefulness in practice is limited and now instead Ubuntu developers are considering the discontinuing of source ISOs.
Linus Torvalds Hits Nasty Performance Regression With Early Linux 6.8 Code
It's not too often hearing Linus Torvalds himself raising the alarm bells over performance regressions of the Linux kernel, but that happened this evening with the ongoing Linux 6.8 merge window. Torvalds' AMD Ryzen Threadripper system suddenly was suffering from much longer build times at least as a result of new code for this kernel.
AMD Publishes XDNA Linux Driver: Support For Ryzen AI On Linux
With the AMD Ryzen 7040 series "Ryzen AI" was introduced as leveraging Xilinx IP onboard the new Zen 4 mobile processors. Ryzen AI is beginning to work its way out to more processors while it hasn't been supported on Linux. Then in October was AMD wanting to hear from customer requests around Ryzen AI Linux support. Well, today they did their first public code drop of the XDNA Linux driver for providing open-source support for Ryzen AI.
~5 Minutes Of Coding Yields A 6%+ Boost To Linux I/O Performance
IO_uring creator and Linux block subsystem maintainer Jens Axboe spent about five minutes working on two patches to implement caching for issue-side time querying in the block layer and can yield 6% or more better I/O performance.
Windows NT Sync Driver Proposed For The Linux Kernel - Better Wine Performance
Following discussions from last year's Linux Plumbers Conference, a Windows NT synchronization primitive driver has been proposed for the Linux kernel. This driver would expose /dev/ntsync as a new character device for implementing some of the Windows NT synchronization primitives directly within the Linux kernel. In turn this would help the performance of some Windows games/applications running on Linux via Wine and in some cases would mean significantly better performance.
AMD Proposes An FPGA Subsystem User-Space Interface For Linux
AMD engineers are proposing an FPGA Subsystem User-Space Interface to overcome current limitations of the Linux kernel's FPGA manager subsystem.
Linux Gains An Open File Server Implementation For Tractors & Agriculture Machinery
Pengutronix a short time ago on the Linux kernel mailing list announced the Open ISOBUS FileServer (FS) and Client Implementation... Piquing my interest, I looked up this ISO 11783-13 standard that this file server aims to implement, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting.
Ubuntu Looking At Applying Low-Latency Optimizations To Its Generic Kernel
Ubuntu has long provided a "low-latency" kernel build intended for industrial embedded systems and other latency sensitive environments. Ahead of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Canonical is looking at applying those low-latency optimizations to their generic kernel build.
Hans Reiser Apologies For Social Mistakes, Comments On ReiserFS Deprecation From Prison
ReiserFS file-system creator Hans Reiser who is currently remains imprisoned in California for murdering his wife in 2006 has commented on the Linux kernel mailing list by way of a letter exchange from prison.
Linus Torvalds On Linux 6.8 DRM: "Testing Is Seriously Lacking"
While the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) kernel graphics/display driver updates for Linux 6.8 excitingly include the new Intel "Xe" DRM and PowerVR Imagination drivers, AMD color management properties in experimental form, Raspberry Pi 5 graphics support, and more, Linus Torvalds isn't happy with some of the new Intel Xe driver code.
Zed Code Editor Now Open-Source
The Zed code editor being led by the creators of the Atom editor and Tree-sitter syntax parsing framework have announced today that the Zed editor is being open-sourced.
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Will Aim To Ship With The Linux 6.8 Kernel
As some terrific news, Canonical laid out their kernel plans for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and they are being ambitious with plans to ship the in-development Linux 6.8 kernel as their default kernel on this next long-term support Ubuntu desktop/server distribution.
GNOME Merges RDP Graphical Remote Login Support
After the merge request was open since August of 2022, merged today is support within the GNOME Remote Desktop code for handling graphical remote log-ins.
Canonical To Work On Improving Snap Support Across Linux Distributions
It looks like 2024 could bring improved support for the Snap app sandboxing/packaging format across Linux distributions to better the overall experience of this Flatpak alternative outside the confines of Ubuntu.
Git Developers Discuss The Possibility Of Beginning To Use Rust Code
The latest open-source project eyeing the possibility of beginning to allow the Rust programming language to be used within its codebase is the Git project.
GNOME 46 Alpha Released With Many Improvements
If you happen to be impacted by snow storms today or otherwise have extra time on your hands this weekend, GNOME 46 Alpha is now available for testing this latest desktop environment that will be going head-to-head with KDE Plasma 6.0 later this quarter.
Linux 6.8 Merge Window On Hiatus Due To Winter Storm
Linus Torvalds just announced he's had to put the Linux 6.8 merge window on hold due to a brutal winter storm knocking the Pacific Northwest.
And the most popular reviews for January 2024:
Framework Laptop 16 Delivers Great Linux Support & Performance, Excellent Customizability
The review embargo has now expired on the Framework Laptop 16, the latest innovative and upgradeable laptop from this company that has made quite a name for itself with modular and user-upgradeable laptop designs for both AMD and Intel. The new Framework Laptop 16 offers even more customizability around the keyboard/touchpad and other options including over using a Radeon RX 7700S graphics module and more. Besides the immense customizability options and upgrades available with the Framework Laptop 16, the new model employs the AMD Ryzen 7040HS processor for even greater performance over the AMD Ryzen 7040U found with the latest Framework 13 model.
The Incredible Performance & Power Efficiency Of AMD Zen 1 vs. Zen 4C
While we are beginning to see AMD Zen 4C cores in client systems, these smaller cores have already proven themselves very interesting and capable with the AMD EPYC Bergamo high core count server processors and the extremely power efficient EPYC 8004 "Siena" processors. For showing how far Zen has come in power efficiency, I thought it would be fun to show how the original flagship EPYC 7601 "Zen 1" processor with 32-cores / 64-threads compared to Zen 4C with the EPYC 8324P(N) 32-core processors. But as that isn't even the top-end Siena part, I also tossed in the 64-core EPYC 8534PN too for a top of stack look for the current EPYC 8004 line-up.
AMD Ryzen 7 8700G Linux Performance
Today the review embargo lifts on the new AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G desktop APUs. Announced back during CES, the Ryzen 8000G series pairs Zen 4 CPU cores with RDNA3 graphics and now also boasting Ryzen AI support too. Today's launch article is focusing on the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G Linux performance.
AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT Linux Performance
AMD announced back during CES the Radeon RX 7600 XT as a $329 USD graphics card for 1080p/1440p gaming. Today that card goes on sale and the review embargo has lifted. Here is an initial look at the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT performance under Linux with AMD's open-source driver stack.
Intel Core Ultra 7 Meteor Lake vs. AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme Performance
In recent days there have been leaks about an MSI "CLAW" gaming handheld device set to be announced this coming week at CES in Las Vegas. Making this gaming handheld device interesting is that unlike the Valve Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally or Legion Go, it's expected to be the first handheld featuring an Intel Meteor Lake SoC. In particular, the recently launched Intel Core Ultra 7 155H. For those curious about what the performance is likely to roughly be in comparison to the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, here are some benchmarks looking at the performance of these competing SoCs.
System76 Thelio Major Powered By AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series
For those in the market for a high-end Linux workstation for carrying out a lot of code compilation, AI workloads, or other creator or HPC tasks, the new System76 Thelio Major goes on sale today and it's a real winner. I've been trying out the new System76 Thelio Major powered by the new AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7900 series processors and it delivers excellent Linux performance and all comes nicely working out-of-the-box with their Pop!_OS Linux distribution.
AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS Linux Performance With The TUXEDO Pulse 14 Gen 3
When it comes to AMD Zen 4 laptop testing to date I've done a lot of testing with the Ryzen 7 7840U as well as the Ryzen 7 PRO 7840U which have proved to be very capable 8-core / 16-thread laptop processors with performant integrated graphics and running great on Linux -- besides the current lack of Ryzen AI. Recently TUXEDO Computer sent over their newly announced Pulse 14 Gen 3 Linux laptop featuring the Ryzen 7 7840HS part, which is the focus of today's testing.
GCC vs. Clang Compiler Performance On Intel Meteor Lake
Last week I posted a number of fresh GCC vs. LLVM Clang compiler performance benchmarks using an AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WX (Zen 4) system using the HP Z6 G5 A workstation running Ubuntu Linux. For those wondering about the performance of GCC vs. Clang generated binaries on something much more modest, here are some benchmarks when testing on a Meteor Lake laptop with the Core Ultra 7 155H.
Intel 5th Gen Xeon "Emerald Rapids" AVX-512 Performance
With Intel's 5th Gen Xeon Scalable "Emerald Rapids" processors that were released last month, in addition to the power efficiency improvements, faster DDR5 memory support, and other enhancements, one of the other notable enhancements talked up by Intel was improved AVX-512 support. Here are some benchmarks using the flagship Intel Xeon Platinum 8592+ looking at the performance and thermal/clock/power metrics when toggling AVX-512 support.
35-Way Linux GPU Graphics Comparison, Initial NVIDIA RTX 40 SUPER Linux Benchmarks
Here's a fresh look at the AMD Radeon versus NVIDIA GeForce Linux graphics/gaming performance across a variety of workloads as well as our first look at the GeForce RTX 4070 series and RTX 4080 SUPER performance. With recently receiving the rest of the GeForce RTX 40 series line-up currently released, we're now able to share a comprehensive look at how the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series versus AMD Radeon RX 7000 series performance is under Linux.
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