Intel & AMD Power Management Driver Improvements Ready For Linux 7.3
Linux power management subsystem maintainer Rafael Wysocki of Intel submitted all the power management, ACPI, and thermal control code for Linux 7.3. Intel and AMD driver updates dominate the power management changes for Linux 7.3.
Intelligence analysis by Llama
The power management changes for Linux 7.3 include Intel P-State CPU frequency scaling driver updates, AMD P-State driver updates, and thermal control updates. The changes aim to improve power management and thermal control for Linux 7.3.
Imagine you have a computer that can adjust its power usage to save energy. The power management system in Linux is like a thermostat that helps the computer use the right amount of power. The updates for Linux 7.3 are like fine-tuning the thermostat to make sure the computer uses the right amount of power and stays cool.
Analysis
Intel P-State Driver Updates
The Intel P-State CPU frequency scaling driver has seen several updates for Linux 7.3. These updates include properly passing the maximum performance value, improved handling in the performance policy mode, cleaning up frequency value calculations, and even some improved hardware p-state (HWP) handling for aging Intel Broadwell processors. The Intel Idle driver with Linux 7.3 is also now avoiding deep idle states during driver initialization to workaround some device handling issues. There is also now ACPI "_LPI" low power idle object support added to the Intel Idle driver along with Intel driver fixes.
AMD P-State Driver Updates
The AMD P-State driver has also seen several updates for Linux 7.3. These updates include dynamic EPP with per-core granularity, setting the minimum limit frequency based on the BIOS minimum performance value, fixes some initialization issues, and other updates. The AMD P-State driver now sets the minimum limit frequency based on the BIOS minimum performance value, fixes some initialization issues, and other updates.
Thermal Control Updates
The thermal control updates for Linux 7.3 include support for directed package-level thermal interrupts on Intel CPUs. This efficiency improvement allows one CPU core to handle the package-level thermal interrupts rather than broadcasting to all the CPU cores. The thermal control updates also include other changes such as Rust binding updates and other changes as outlined in the pull request.
Key points
- Intel P-State CPU frequency scaling driver updates
- AMD P-State driver updates
- Thermal control updates
- Directed package-level thermal interrupts on Intel CPUs
- Rust binding updates
If the power management changes for Linux 7.3 are successful, it could lead to improved performance and efficiency for Linux users. This could also lead to better thermal control and power management for Linux systems.
If the power management changes for Linux 7.3 are not successful, it could lead to issues with thermal control and power management for Linux systems. This could also lead to performance problems for Linux users.
