Intel News Archives


2,917 Intel open-source and Linux related news articles on Phoronix since 2006.

Linux 5.12 Could Support Intel's Proprietary HDR Backlight Interface

It didn't land for Linux 5.11 but it looks like Linux 5.12 could end up supporting Intel's "HDR Backlight Interface" for helping newer Intel laptops with their backlight controls where they don't comply with VESA specifications but rather catering to Intel's proprietary interface.

28 December 2020 - HDR Backlight Interface - 7 Comments
Intel Sends Out Latest AMX Support For The Linux Kernel

Of all the new Linux 5.11 features and all the enablement work Intel has already completed for Xeon "Sapphire Rapids" hardware, one big feature not yet mainlined is the Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX) support.

28 December 2020 - Advanced Matrix Extensions - 1 Comment
Intel Pursuing AVX-512 Optimized Crypto Algorithms For The Linux Kernel

Intel engineers have posted the initial Linux kernel patches providing AVX-512 optimized versions of common crypto algorithms. The AVX-512 optimized versions do pan out and promise to offer huge speed-ups but are disabled by default at this stage over the negative CPU frequency/performance impact that running AVX-512 can have on CPU cores / shared threads.

21 December 2020 - AVX-512 Crypto - 13 Comments
The xf86-video-intel Zombie Driver Finally Flips On TearFree To Avoid Tearing

It's been seven years since Intel last provided a stable release of their "xf86-video-intel" X.Org driver and nearly six years to the day since they even provided their last development snapshot of what was to be xf86-video-intel 3.0. But there still are the occasional commits to this Intel DDX driver such as this week enabling the "TearFree" functionality by default.

18 December 2020 - xf86-video-intel - 13 Comments
Intel Key Locker Support For The Linux Kernel Being Prepared

For the past several months we've seen Intel Key Locker support being worked on for Linux as a new feature coming to future processors for better securing AES keys. That initial Key Locker support was initially focused on the open-source compilers with the new instructions while now the Linux kernel patches have been published in preliminary form.

17 December 2020 - Key Locker - 1 Comment
Intel "IGEN6" Driver Comes To Linux 5.11 For In-Band ECC (IBECC)

Initially found with "Elkhart Lake" SoCs and likely to be found on further future Intel client SoCs is the integrated memory controller supporting in-band ECC (IBECC). Coming with Linux 5.11 is the "IGEN6" EDAC driver for handling this error detection and correction on Intel SoCs sporting IBECC.

15 December 2020 - Intel IGEN6 - 2 Comments
Intel Xe MAX Needs Two Linux Kernels For Now - Meaning You Need To Use A GPU-Accelerated VM
Intel Xe MAX Needs Two Linux Kernels For Now - Meaning You Need To Use A GPU-Accelerated VM

Back in October Intel announced Iris Xe MAX as discrete graphics for laptops. The overall Linux state for Xe MAX hasn't been too clear and we haven't had any hardware access to this Intel laptop discrete graphics hardware to report our own findings, but their developers have now cleared up the situation. The good news is the Xe MAX graphics can be used for a GPU-accelerated Linux virtual machine. The bad news is the Xe MAX support doesn't yet allow for dGPU usage by the host outside of a virtual machine context as it needs "two different [Linux] kernels" for operation in conjunction with the integrated graphics.

14 December 2020 - Xe MAX - 20 Comments
Intel AMX Programming Model Lands In LLVM Compiler

One of the big features to look forward to with Intel's Xeon "Sapphire Rapids" is the introduction of AMX as the Advanced Matrix Extensions. While Sapphire Rapids looks to be at least one year out still, the company's open-source compiler engineers have already been hard at work on the software infrastructure support.

10 December 2020 - Advanced Matrix Extensions - 4 Comments
A Look At Linux 5.10 + Mesa 21.0-dev On Intel "Tiger Lake" Xe Graphics

For those that may find their hands on an Intel Tiger Lake laptop this holiday season with the "Gen12" Xe Graphics, here are some Linux OpenGL/Vulkan benchmarks in varying driver configurations if you are left wondering whether it makes sense upgrading your kernel or Mesa for better performance.

7 December 2020 - Xe Graphics Driver Comparison - 1 Comment
Intel's Habana Labs AI Driver With Linux 5.11 Begins Prepping For Future ASICs

Well before Intel bought out AI startup Habana Labs this company with their compelling AI training and inference accelerators has been maintaining an open-source kernel driver in the Linux kernel. That has fortunately continued under Intel's ownership to no surprise and coming up with the Linux 5.11 cycle are more improvements to this accelerator driver for both the Gaudi AI Training and Goya AI Inference products.

6 December 2020 - AI Training + Inference Accelerators - Add A Comment
Intel Begins Upstreaming Work For Their Vision Processing Unit On Linux

While Intel engineers over the course of the year began upstreaming various elements of the Keem Bay SoC support, the actual Vision Processing Unit (VPU) enabling hasn't been sent out for review until now. Intel has sent out their initial patches for bringing up the Vision Processing Unit on the open-source Linux kernel.

2 December 2020 - Intel Vision Processing Unit - Add A Comment
Intel Begins Preparing Linux Graphics Driver Support For Xe HP As "Gen12.5"

Xe HP is Intel's discrete GPU aiming to compete against the latest-generation AMD and NVIDIA compute accelerators. Xe HP isn't scheduled to reach general availability until well into 2021 while now as they begin ramping up their sampling of Xe HP to potential customers, the Linux open-source driver support is preparing to roll-out.

1 December 2020 - Gen 12.5 - 2 Comments
Intel IWD 1.10 With DHCP v6 Support

Version 1.10 of Intel's IWD "iNet Wireless Daemon" has been released as the increasingly useful alternative to the likes of WPA_Supplicant for Linux systems.

30 November 2020 - IWD 1.10 - 3 Comments
Intel: AMD Weak On Battery-Powered Laptop Performance - But DPTF On Linux Still Sucks
Intel: AMD Weak On Battery-Powered Laptop Performance - But DPTF On Linux Still Sucks

Intel held a virtual event last week to basically plead their case that AMD Ryzen laptops are coming up short on battery-powered performance compared to their own offerings. It was all Windows focused, but at least given their emphasis now on battery performance gave me another opportunity to prod over the lackluster state of Intel DPTF support on Linux with it not being pleasant out-of-the-box and one of the few areas encumbered by blobs or lack of public documentation.

23 November 2020 - Intel - Add A Comment
Intel C for Metal Compiler 1.0.20 Released

Within Intel's vast open-source software ecosystem and much of the attention being on oneAPI as their preferred programming model for developers these days and there being multiple different open-source Intel graphics compiler back-ends, one that is often forgotten about is the Intel C for Metal Compiler that on Friday saw a new release.

21 November 2020 - Intel C for Metal Compiler - 8 Comments
Intel Tidies Up CET While Waiting For It To Land In The Linux Kernel

Intel's SGX enclaves support patches for the Linux kernel have been through 40+ rounds of review at this point over the past many months as they try to get this security feature into the mainline Linux kernel. But SGX isn't the only Intel security feature that's been having a long process for mainlining: Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET) is in a similar boat.

17 November 2020 - Control-Flow Enforcement Technology - 2 Comments
Linux Might Wipe Out The Notorious Intel Poulsbo/Moorestown 2D Acceleration
Linux Might Wipe Out The Notorious Intel Poulsbo/Moorestown 2D Acceleration

Longtime Linux users still likely cringe when hearing "Poulsbo" as Intel's first-generation Atom processors that featured "GMA 500" graphics that were based on Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX IP. The Linux driver support was just awful and now as we prepare for 2021 the Intel Linux kernel driver might just drop its 2D acceleration support for Poulsbo and the short-lived Moorestown platform.

16 November 2020 - Kill Poulsbo - 17 Comments
Intel "coIOMMU" Can Help With Performance For VMs When Using Direct I/O Access
Intel "coIOMMU" Can Help With Performance For VMs When Using Direct I/O Access

Currently when directly assigning I/O devices to virtual machines the guest memory needs to be statically pinned unless using a vIOMMU setup in which case it does not but there are performance implications there as well. Intel engineers though have been working on a virtual IOMMU implementation with DMA buffer tracking to overcome these limitations.

8 November 2020 - coIOMMU - 9 Comments
Running Intel Tiger Lake On The Linux 5.10 Kernel

Given Intel's very fresh Tiger Lake platform, our latest benchmarking with the Core i7-1165G7 within the Dell XPS 9310 is seeing if running the in-development Linux 5.10 kernel means any performance or power changes for this latest-generation Intel mobile CPU with Xe/Gen12 graphics.

3 November 2020 - Linux 5.10 With Tiger Lake - 2 Comments
Intel Bus Lock Detection For The Linux Kernel Proceeding

Earlier this year the Linux kernel landed split lock detection for being able to detect and optionally kill processes leading to a split lock since it can cause measurable performance issues and even possible unprivileged denial of service.

1 November 2020 - Linux Kernel Bus Lock Detection - 6 Comments

2917 Intel news articles published on Phoronix.