IBM Begins Work On Power11 Enablement For Upcoming Linux 6.9

The first "Power11" patches were queued today into the PowerPC's "next" Git branch ahead of the upcoming Linux 6.9 kernel cycle.

The first of many IBM Power11 processor/platform enablement patches are beginning to flow out for the Linux kernel for enabling the next-generation Power processors. This shouldn't be too surprising given that a few months ago IBM began posting "PowerPC Future" patches for the GCC compiler with speculating at the time it was for Power11 just as IBM previously called their "future" CPU target in GCC for Power10 prior to those processors officially debuting.

The first two Power11 patches to make it into PowerPC's next branch today are for introducing the Power11 architected and raw mode as well as introducing the performance monitoring support to the Linux "perf" subsystem.

This patch outlines the Power11 architected and raw mode that are largely similar to Power10. This patch adds the Power11 performance monitoring support that is largely carried over from Power10.

Expect more Power11 patches to begin flowing out to the Linux kernel over the coming weeks now that these initial patches have made it out and "Power11" is out of the bag. This Git search can be used for tracking Power11 patches via PowerPC's "next" branch.

Power10 was announced in August 2020 and reached GA a year later. We'll likely learn more about Power11 later this year from IBM. There's also hope that Power11 will be more open like POWER9 than Power10 was... Ideally leading to new open hardware Raptor designs with the likes of the Raptor Computing Blackbird and Talos designs still relying on POWER9 in part due to closed-source firmware bits with Power10.