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OpenZFS Now Supports Reacting To CPU/Memory Hot-Plugging

Phoronix | Dec. 11, 2020, 6:08 a.m. | Original

Following the recent OpenZFS 2.0 release , a new feature that has landed in the latest OpenZFS development code is the ability to respond to CPU and memory hot-plugging.

Up to now OpenZFS hasn't paid attention at all to RAM or CPU cores added/removed from the system. But with the latest Git, logic was added to the ARC so it can support making use of new memory for caching purposes. The new logic will also support dynamically expanding the number of threads allocated to a TaskQ.

This

Intel Adding Interface To Pass Workload Hints To The Linux Kernel For Thermal/Power Purposes

Phoronix | Dec. 11, 2020, 3:28 a.m. | Original

Intel's INT340X thermal code that is used by the likes of the Intel Thermal Daemon "Thermald" for thermal/power management with their modern SoCs will now be able to accept workload hints for making more informed thermal decisions.

With Linux 5.11 the INT340X kernel code is set to see a mailbox driver introduced for handling of workload hints. The intent is to give an indication to the hardware/firmware about what's being run in order to better manage the

Intel's Cloud-Hypervisor 0.12 Released With Better ARM64 Support

Phoronix | Dec. 11, 2020, 12:18 a.m. | Original

The Intel-led, KVM-based, Rust-written Cloud-Hypervisor 0.12 released with continued contributions coming in from Microsoft and Arm.

Cloud-Hypervisor building atop KVM and Rust-VMM while catering to cloud workloads continues making interesting progress with several other hardware and software organizations engaging on this performance-minded, security-focused, thin hypervisor. Cloud-Hypervisor in 2020 has seen Kata Containers support, VFIO device hot-plugging, ARM64 support introduced, IO_uring storage

AMD Provides A HIP-Based CPU Implementation For When Lacking A GPU

Phoronix | Dec. 10, 2020, 3:49 p.m. | Original

AMD's HIP C++ Runtime API / Kernel Language for allowing portable, single-source applications on AMD and NVIDIA GPUs can now run on CPUs too.

For the past several years AMD has been working on HIP for single-source C++ programming that can work on NVIDIA CUDA-enabled GPUs and AMD Radeon graphics. Their "HIPIFY" tool allows automatically converting CUDA code to HIP. To date HIP has just been about GPU programming but now it's becoming a heterogeneous API at the same time

AMD Adding Experimental Video Mode Optimization To FreeSync

Phoronix | Dec. 10, 2020, 2:30 p.m. | Original

At least under Linux AMD is currently working on a new and currently experimental video mode optimization for FreeSync.

Of this experimental feature they describe it as:

This patchset enables freesync video mode usecase where the userspace can request a freesync compatible video mode such that switching to this mode does not trigger blanking.
...
If experimental freesync video mode module parameter is enabled, add few extra display modes into the driver's mode list corresponding to common video frame rates. When userspace sets these modes, no modeset will be performed

Google Comes Up With A Metric For Gauging Critical Open-Source Projects

Phoronix | Dec. 10, 2020, 12:53 p.m. | Original

Google as part of their involvement in the Open-Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) has devised the "Criticality Score" as a means of judging crucial open-source projects.

In order for being able to determine projects in need of support for funding or development assistance, Google with the other OpenSSF parties came up with the "Criticality Score" as a 0 to 1 metric for indicating a project's criticalness.

The Criticality Score is calculated based on the age of the project, the last time it was updated,

A Preliminary Look At Radeon RX 6800 XT Windows Performance vs. Open-Source Linux Drivers

Phoronix | Dec. 10, 2020, 10:10 a.m. | Original

For those wondering how the open-source Radeon Linux graphics drivers compare to the Radeon Software Windows drivers for the recently released Radeon RX 6800 XT, here are some preliminary data points looking at the OpenGL / Vulkan performance between Windows and Linux for RDNA 2.

While working on some extensive Ryzen 9 5900X Windows vs. Linux benchmarks, with the Radeon RX 6800 XT installed I also ran some preliminary GPU performance tests for those curious how well the AMD Linux graphics driver stack is

Open Source LLM

Intel AMX Programming Model Lands In LLVM Compiler

Phoronix | Dec. 10, 2020, 9 a.m. | Original

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.

AMX is Intel's new programming paradigm with a focus on better AI performance both for training and inference. AMX is built around the concept of "tiles" as a set of two-

AMD Has Some Last Minute Updates For The AMDGPU Driver In Linux 5.11

Phoronix | Dec. 10, 2020, 7:49 a.m. | Original

The Linux 5.11 merge window is expected to open next week and while AMD has already queued several rounds of updates into DRM-Next ahead of that period, some last minute items were submitted overnight for this next Linux kernel version and what will be the first major kernel release of 2021.

Previously in anticipation of Linux 5.11 AMD already sent in Van Gogh APU and Dimgrey Cavefish support . There were also more RDNA 2 updates, buffer modifier support going back to GFX9/Vega

PowerPC 40x Support Slated For Removal From The Linux Kernel

Phoronix | Dec. 10, 2020, 6:27 a.m. | Original

Following the original, first-generation PowerPC CPU support being removed in the Linux 5.10 kernel, the original PowerPC 400 series is also looking like it will now be removed as well from the kernel.

Patches were sent out for PowerPC 40x platform removal from the mainline kernel. This is for the early PowerPC 40x series parts but doesn't go as far as removing the newer but still old PowerPC 440 series. The PowerPC 40x platforms of Acadia, Kilauea

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