Linux 6.8 To Support Next-Gen Intel Accelerators (QAT 420xx): More Engines, More Algos
Linux 6.8 is to introduce a new "qat_420xx" Linux kernel driver for supporting upcoming Intel QAT 420xx series hardware, an upgrade over existing Intel QAT 4xxx series accelerators.
New with the Intel QAT 420xx hardware and supported by this new device driver is supporting now up to 16 service engines and one administration engine. In addition to the 17 engines is also adding support for the wireless cipher algorithms ZUC and Snow 3G. QAT support on Linux has been in good shape and has proven useful with better software adoption than some of the other Intel Xeon Scalable accelerator blocks found since Sapphire Rapids. Boasting more engines and the additional wireless cipher algorithms should be useful for telco/edge deployments and more.
The Intel patches introducing the new Intel QAT 420xx driver support don't outline what products will have the new accelerator capabilities, but given the timing it wouldn't be surprising if QAT 4200xx accelerators will be found in Intel Granite Rapids processors later this year.
The qat_420xx driver is currently living within the cryptodev-2.6.git codebase until the Linux 6.8 merge window opens next week.
The Intel QAT driver code is also seeing support in Linux 6.8 added for device telemetry support. This QAT device telemetry will allow for exposing metrics around accelerator performance and utilization. The telemetry data is exposed via DebugFS and is just about allowing this data to be accessed by users/administrators and isn't about any remote telemetry or other nefarious uses that sometimes raise concerns by Linux users especially when hearing of "telemetry".
Linux 6.8 is shaping up to be another exciting kernel cycle and the stable release should be out in March.
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