Linux 6.14 RISC-V Kernel Adds Support For T-Head Vector Extensions, GhostWrite

Written by Michael Larabel in RISC-V on 1 February 2025 at 06:44 AM EST. 4 Comments
RISC-V
The RISC-V CPU architecture feature updates have now been submitted and merged for the nearly-over Linux 6.14 merge window.

Most notable this cycle on the RISC-V architecture side is adding support for the T-Head Vector Extensions. The Linux kernel now supports exposing these T-Head Vector Extensions to user-space on systems implementing support for them.

The XuanTie XTheadVector extension is a non-standard, non-conforming extension for adding 32 vector registers and 6 unprivileged CSRs. XTHeadVector is derived from the RISC-V Vector 0.7.1 extension. The patches working out this T-Head Vector Extensions support has been in the works the past number of months but now mainlined.

GhostWrite Kconfig


Linux 6.14 also adds mitigations for the GhostWrite vulnerability... The vulnerability affects the XTHeadVector instruction set. The mitigation is disabling this newly-added support. GhostWrite was announced back in August as one of the first notable RISC-V CPU vulnerabilities.

More details on all of the Linux 6.14 RISC-V changes via this pull.
Related News
About The Author
Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

Popular News This Week