At the start of October we mentioned a kernel optimization that can help IO_uring performance . Now as we approach the end of the month, Linux 5.11 is poised to land the optimization that especially helps out with threaded workloads.

The change to task_work to use TIF_NOTIFY_SIGNAL when available is queued as part of the tip.git core/entry code ahead of the Linux 5.11 merge window opening in December. Currently TIF_NOTIFY_SIGNAL is wired up for x

When Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) initially debuted there were a few different steps that needed to be carried out for setting up this Linux binary compatibility layer atop Windows. But now with the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview builds it's becoming increasingly trivial to get going with WSL.

As of Windows 10 Insiders Preview Build 20246, there is automatic distribution install support added to work with the wsl --install command.

The wsl --install command by itself will install Ubuntu but Debian

Last week we were first to report on a PCI ID being added for a Navi 1 "Blockchain" graphics card without display outputs and seemingly focused on cryptocurrency mining. This card wasn't talked about at yesterday's Radeon RX 6000 series launch but that support is now on the way to the Linux 5.10 kernel.

The code sent out last week added the new Navi 10 PCI ID and disabled DCN/VCN support for that ID with this card not having video acceleration or display

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3 is out today as the latest release of the RHEL8 platform.

The latest stable release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, RHEL 8.3, is focused on expanded Red Hat System Roles support, updates to Tuned, new SCAP profiles, updated Application Streams, and other enterprise-minded stability enhancements. Some specific changes to note with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3 include:

- RHEL 8.3 is now disabling Intel Transactional Synchronization Extensions (TSX) by default. Disabling

While 11th Gen "Rocket Lake" desktop processors aren't expected to be released until the end of Q1'2021, given the interest building around AMD Ryzen 5000 "Zen 3" processors, Intel revealed a few more details today about their next-generation wares.

Intel reiterated that Rocket Lake S is on track for Q1'2021 and will combine Cypress Cove cores with Gen12 Xe Graphics. Nothing new and was already expected based on prior

Timed with today's (limited) availability of the GeForce RTX 3070 graphics cards, the NVIDIA Unix driver team has released the 455.38 Linux driver with support for this new Ampere graphics card plus tucking in a few new features and fixes too.

With this being another NVIDIA 455 series driver, the 455.38 driver update isn't all that huge and headlined by having the official GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card that is shipping today at

As we roll into 2021 the Free Software Foundation is looking to update its high priority free software projects list. These are the software projects that should be incorporating "the most important threats, and most critical opportunities, that free software faces in the modern computing landscape." For now the FSF is looking for help deciding what to include.

The FSF high priority projects list is what once included PowerVR reverse engineering as being very important albeit never happened prior to PowerVR graphics becoming less common. In fact, many

As we hit the end of October AMD has issued their second open-source Vulkan driver code drop of the quarter with the AMDVLK 2020.Q4.2 availability.

Listed with this morning's AMDVLK 2020.Q4.2 update is just updating against Vulkan API 1.2.157 and fixing a GPU hang that can occur with DOOM Eternal running under Steam Play. That's it as far as the listed changes go for today's update.

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