Intel News Archives

While it was busy on the hardware side of the house with Intel talking up all of their forthcoming hardware, Intel's open-source software engineers remain very busy working not only to enable their next-generation hardware but other open-source efforts they've invested in like the iNet wireless daemon.

While Intel is normally very punctual in providing support for major new CPU features under Linux and often landing them well in advance of general hardware availability, their work around Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET) has taken a long longer than normal and is still going through new rounds of code review to get accepted into the mainline Linux kernel.

It looks like 2022 is when we will start seeing DisplayPort 2.0 hardware broadly available... It was just earlier this week I wrote about AMD working on DisplayPort 2.0 for their open-source Radeon Linux driver and now coincidentally today Intel has begun their open-source Linux graphics driver enablement for DP 2.0.

Intel just announced the new brand they will use for their forthcoming high performance discrete graphics solutions.

As I have covered in many Phoronix articles over the past number of months, it's been a lengthy road bringing up the DG1 graphics support on Linux with the Intel open-source engineers having to re-architect their "i915" kernel graphics driver to support device local memory, getting the GuC support into good shape, scheduler changes, beginning to make use of TTM for memory management, user-space API changes, and a ton of other changes in expanding the driver's scope from just catering to integrated graphics. But now it looks like the DG1 Linux support is about to be officially advertised.

The latest patch series from Intel engineers worth noting for the Linux kernel is around implementing support for on-demand "unaccepted memory". Unaccepted memory is supported by the latest-generation AMD EPYC processors but not yet supported under Linux for on-demand/as-needed handling while Intel is preparing the kernel support for their next-gen Xeon CPUs having this capability.

Intel has another big batch of open-source kernel graphics driver updates it sent out to DRM-Next for queuing ahead of the upcoming Linux 5.15 cycle. The DG2 graphics card is getting wired up while this pull request does also finally remove the Cannon Lake "Gen 10" graphics that never materialized in commercial products.

Intel's Graphics Compiler "IGC" that is used by their Windows driver as well as the Intel Compute Runtime for OpenCL / Level Zero support (and potentially the Mesa drivers in the future) has now landed Alder Lake P enablement.

Intel's next-generation C/C++ compilers are fully leveraging the LLVM compiler stack in place of their former proprietary compiler code-base. Intel has "complete[d] adoption" of LLVM moving forward for their C/C++ compiler needs.

Intel engineers on Friday submitted a big batch of kernel graphics driver improvements to DRM-Next for queuing ahead of the Linux 5.15 merge window.

Intel security researchers have been working on implementing toolchain-optimized fine-grained Control Flow Integrity (CFI) support on top of Intel's hardware-based Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET). By leveraging Intel CET, the Control-Flow Integrity overhead is much lower than the otherwise pure software/compiler-based approach. This Linux security improvement is being worked on under the name of FineIBT.

As part of their work around Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) support for Linux, Intel engineers are proposing a driver filter option for Linux to be able to set allow or deny lists of driver(s) that can or cannot be loaded by the booted kernel.

Intel's Compute-Runtime stack for providing open-source OpenCL and Level Zero compute for their graphics hardware under Linux is out with a new release.

Intel's open-source "Iris" Gallium3D driver for providing modern OpenGL driver support on their graphics hardware from Broadwell through all current Gen12 / Xe Graphics era hardware has been in great shape for some time and works wonderfully. But Intel's not done furthering this Linux OpenGL driver and today they now have threaded shader compilation merged.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is back with another webcast following his update in March that focused on the new Intel Foundry Services, new US fabs, and more. Today's event is "Intel Accelerated" and offering an update on the company's IDM 2.0 process and packaging.

Intel "Cannon Lake" processors were rare in the first place with being limited to the Core i3 8121U but given that no production SKU ever materialized with the "Gen10" graphics enabled, Intel's Linux engineers are finally moving ahead in eliminating the rest of the Cannon Lake / Gen10 graphics support code.

The Intel-led open-source Cloud Hypervisor project on Thursday issued its v17.0 release with more big improvements to this Rust-based VMM for running modern cloud workloads.

More details are coming to light on "Thunder Bay" as a forthcoming Intel SoC now that the open-source Linux driver enablement patches have begun.

Back in March I wrote about Intel open-source engineers already beginning Linux bring-up for "Lunar Lake" as a future client platform not due out until 2023 at least. That work began with enabling Lunar Lake within the existing e1000e network driver and that hardware enablment work will finally be mainlined this autumn with Linux 5.15.

For those that may have upgraded to an Intel Tiger Lake notebook and making use of the Gen12 Xe Graphics while running a distribution like Ubuntu 21.04, if you are wondering whether upgrading the kernel or Mesa are worthwhile here are some benchmarks.

The latest surprise news under Intel's new leadership is that they are reported to be exploring a deal to acquire GlobalFoundries, the company ultimately formed when AMD decided in 2008 to spin off their semiconductor manufacturing business.

Now that the DG1 graphics support is beginning to get squared away and with Linux 5.15 will likely be able to boot to an accelerated desktop, bring-up on the DG2 graphics card has begun along with the Xe_HP software development vehicle.

One of the patch series I have been looking forward to see land going back to 2018 has been the per-process GPU load statistics or as it's known officially the "per client engine busyness" series. The work didn't land for Linux 5.14 but at least this week the latest revision was posted.

Mesa's independent Crocus Gallium3D driver providing a modern OpenGL driver alternative for Haswell and older graphics hardware continues seeing improvements following its recent mainlining.

Intel open-source engineers are back around with a new take on introducing a PECI subsystem for the Linux kernel to ultimately make their Xeon servers more attractive and friendly for OpenBMC usage.

Going back to 2017 was work on firmware-based power management for Intel graphics with its GuC implementation. That work didn't advance with the time but now with Intel renewing their work around GuC and with future hardware may mandate this binary-only firmware, they are again revisiting the GuC power management.

Shortly after OpenCL 3.0 was finalized last year it was enabled for Intel's open-source Compute Runtime stack (and even earlier with their Tiger Lake enablement). But since last year that OpenCL 3.0 support was marked as "beta" while last week was quietly promoted to being "production" grade.

At the end of last year we reported on the possibility of an Intel Command Center / graphics driver control panel for Linux but not set in stone. The latest to report on the matter of an Intel Linux graphics GUI solution is that it's still being evaluated by the company.

As part of our various end-of-Q2/H1'2021 recaps, here is a look back at the most popular Intel Linux/open-source news so far this year.

Last summer I wrote about Intel prototyping their Mesa drivers to use the IGC compiler, which followed Intel transitioning their Windows driver to use this compiler that was originally written for their open-source Linux compute stack. While they were making good progress last year on having their Mesa drivers use the IGC compiler, the project has been pushed back.

Adding to the lengthy list of features for Intel's next-gen Xeon "Sapphire Rapids" processors next year is an admittedly experimental feature called RAR, or Remote Action Requests.

The thermal subsystem updates for the Linux 5.14 kernel include more work on Intel's int340x driver that is used by newer Intel laptops for dealing with their varying thermal control capabilities and exposing more thermal information to user-space for use by Intel's Thermal Daemon (Thermald). This cycle the work includes a new driver that will be used by next-gen Alder Lake SoCs.

Intel has wrapped up a 3+ year effort to overhaul and replace its existing RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) driver. With Linux 5.14 is their shiny new "IRDMA" driver while their former driver is being immediately removed.

Following recent reports Intel has begun seeding the Xe-HPG DG2 graphics card to developers and various reported leaks around the next-gen "DG2" graphics card, Intel's open-source Linux driver engineers have begun publishing patches for enabling the DG2 as well as the Xe_HP SDV.

Bringing up Intel discrete graphics on Linux especially when it comes to accelerated 3D rendering has been a very lengthy process for the DG1 graphics card enablement, but it may soon actually start working.

Besides Sapphire Rapids introducing Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX), new developer documentation has detailed AVX-512 FP16 capabilities coming with the next-generation Xeon processors. Intel has posted initial developer documentation around AVX512FP16 as well as a big set of GCC and LLVM Clang compiler patches for handling the new intrinsics.

In preparing to close out the second quarter, the Intel Media Driver 2021Q2 was released today as the company's open-source stack for supporting GPU-accelerated video encode/decode on Linux.

While Xeon Scalable "Sapphire Rapids" was talked about for launching in late 2021, that was widely expected to be delayed. Intel today proactively confirmed that Sapphire Rapids will now begin production in Q1'2022 with their ramp beginning in Q2'2022.

Intel is going to be disabling Transactional Synchronization Extensions (TSX) by default for various Skylake through Coffee Lake processors with forthcoming microcode updates. Yes, this does mean performance implications for workloads benefiting from TSX. This change has seemingly not been talked about much at all publicly and I just happened to become aware of it when looking through new kernel patches.

Landing in mainline Mesa 21.2 development code last week was the "Crocus" Gallium3D driver for old Intel hardware spanning from the Intel 965 chipset days "Gen4" up through Crocus supporting Haswell "Gen7" graphics. The i965 to Haswell span has been the focus since the official Intel "Iris" Gallium3D driver already in Mesa supports the Broadwell "Gen8" up through all current Intel UHD/Xe Graphics. But now Crocus with the latest Mesa code has added Gen8 support.

Intel-owned Habana Labs has submitted their set of driver updates to char/misc ahead of the upcoming Linux 5.14 merge window.

Even though Vulkan ray-tracing support on Intel graphics hardware isn't coming until Xe HPG avaiability, Intel's Linux graphics driver developers have been preparing since last year. In preparation for the Xe HPG launch, Intel's open-source talent have for many months already been preparing the Vulkan ray-tracing functionality wither another batch of code being merged today.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger continues working on restructuring the company and today announced some new leadership as well as business unit changes.

While in the past we have seen Intel CPU microcode updates lead to measurable performance differences on multiple occasions, this month's CPU microcode update doesn't end up being all that concerning for real-world performance.

Last week Intel shipped a big update to their open-source Intel Graphics Compiler "IGC" that is used currently by their Windows driver, their Linux compute stack, and potentially their Linux graphics drivers moving ahead.

Earlier this month Linux 5.13 disabled Intel's ENQCMD functionality for upcoming Xeon "Sapphire Rapids" processors as the kernel software code around it was deemed "broken beyond repair". More of the recent Intel-submitted patches around reworking kernel code in preparation for upcoming CPU features has been found to be rather hairy after already being mainlined and thus another batch of urgent x86 fixes were sent in this morning.

While this week's landing of the Crocus Gallium3D driver for Intel Gen4 through Gen7 graphics (i965 through Haswell) in Mesa is exciting for Linux users that are still running aging Intel systems, going back even further has been the i915g Gallium3D driver and there this week there happens to be a big improvement too.

Intel's Speed Select Technology introduced since Cascade Lake for providing more granular power/performance controls was done in the name of performance but it turns out an ISST Linux driver inefficiency could lead to a 10%+ performance hit for some HPC benchmarks.

Intel's "Gen12" Xe Graphics should be performing marginally better with next quarter's Mesa 21.2 feature release for its open-source ANV Vulkan driver.

In addition to a lot of movement right now within the Intel kernel graphics driver around memory management handling for local memory / discrete GPUs, another big and ongoing area is improving the job submission and workload scheduling by making proper use of its GuC firmware capabilities and also integrating the DRM scheduler.