AMDGPU For Linux 5.14 To Report Throttler Status, Many Fixes Sent Out

Last week marked the end of feature work for the AMDGPU driver (and other DRM drivers) for the upcoming Linux 5.14 cycle. Sent out today though were the first set of AMDGPU fixes targeting Linux 5.14 that does include a recently talked about throttler status feature.

Prior feature pull requests to DRM-Next for the AMD Radeon kernel graphics driver for Linux 5.14 included the introduction of Beige Goby and Yellow Carp GPU support, HMM SVM, more Aldebaran accelerator work, PCI Express ASPM being enabled by default, GPU hot unplug support, AMD Smart Shift support for laptops, 16 bpc support, and various other changes. Linux 5.14 will be another exciting cycle for AMD Radeon open-source driver users particularly if running newer GPUs.

While the focus has now turned to fixes for Linux 5.14 with this kernel merge window pulling in quickly, with this initial round of fixes is the previously talked about AMDGPU throttler status reporting. This is the work about reporting the throttling status as part of the exposed GPU metrics. This reporting for newer GPUs can indicate if a graphics processor is being throttled for power, current, or thermal reasons. With Linux 5.14 the kernel driver will now report this information obtained from the GPU's firmware.

This throttler status reporting is available via the gpu_metrics file exposed via sysfs.

The rest of the "amd-drm-next-5.14-2021-06-16" material is focused on fixes from Aldebaran to fixes around the Smart Shift functionality that's new to Linux, Bus Active Chip Off (BACO) fixes for Navi 1x, RAS fixes for Sienna Cichlid, and a variety of other random fixes. The full list of changes can be found via this pull request.