Ampere Altra SMpro Hardware Monitoring Set For Linux 6.2

Ampere Computing is mainlining a Linux kernel driver for accessing the sensors of their SMpro co-processor found with their current line of Ampere Altra server processors.

Picked up yesterday by hwmon-next ahead of the Linux 6.2 cycle is the "smpro-hwmon" driver for providing sensor monitoring support for this SMpro co-processor with Ampere's Altra AArch64 server processors.

SMpro is one of the system control processors found with Ampere Altra and Ampere Altra Max. The Linux kernel has various SMpro driver support already but has lacked the sensor reporting from this co-processor up until now. Temperature, power, voltages, and current information is now set to be exposed via the hardware monitoring subsystem's sysfs interface with this driver when enabled using the "SENSORS_SMPRO" Kconfig option.

We are moving closer to the AmpereOne launch as their next-generation AArch64 server processors while hopefully they will be able to quickly extend this support to their next-generation CPUs for more timely sensors support.

Look for this new driver to premiere in Linux 6.2 that will see the merge window open in December and then the stable kernel release in early 2023.