This simple AMD fix can make Linux much faster

Date:
Wed, 28 Sep 2022 21:34:33 +0000

Description:
Many processors have been causing Linux to be slow for 20 years - heres the fix we didnt know we needed.

FULL STORY ======================================================================

Linux machines have been plagued by Windows-centric hardware management since 2002, but this could be about to change.

Sophisticated interfaces between a machines operating system and its
hardware, such as the chips that have been slowing down your Linux machine, have long been required in order to ensure that processors with billions of transistors maintain efficiency.

Although the latest ACPI standard replaced the outgoing APM standard in 1996, however even more than a quarter of a century ago, it still had one key flaw. Slower performance

Computer engineers carry out most of their testing on the industry-standard operating system, which for a long time has been Windows, which leaves Linux distros and macOS mostly unthought-for when they use third-party chips like AMD processors.

With the introduction of its own silicon, Apple has found one way to boost performance all-round with the processors it uses in its computers. The companys M-series chips are now in their second generation, though this is a costly solution that is simply out of reach for the Linux Foundation. Linux poor performance

The report continues to reminisce about Linux creator Linus Torvalds thoughts when it came to the updated ACPI standard, when in 2003 he said:

ACPI is a complete design disaster in every way. But we're kind of stuck with it. If any Intel people are listening to this and you had anything to do with ACPI, shoot yourself now, before you reproduce. Read more

Here's our pick of the best Linux laptops

Linux 6.0 should be with us very soon

The most popular AMD Ryzen CPUs are finally getting optimized Linux support

The problem came to light when troubled machines were taking a while to respond to STPCLK# signals, which determine whether a core should idle. This saw power efficiency reduce, which saw some dummy I/O instructions introduced as a workaround.

While this is no longer a problem, AMD engineer K Prateek Nayak found that Linux machines are still following the dummy instructions on his companys processors. In the meantime, The Register reports a hasty patch by Intels
Dave Hansen, which limits the workaround to only be present on Intel chips, which will be unaffected owing to the different method they use for idling a core. As a result, minimum throughput is said to have increased by around 14 times, and the mean throughput is also said to have increased by just over half.

Ultimately, even as we move into the 2020s, much of the third-party hardware we see on the market continues to be developed primarily with Windows in
mind, and its likely that tweaks from eagle-eyed engineers will continue to drive improvements for less popular operating systems as time progresses. These are the best Linux distros for small businesses

Via The Register



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/this-simple-amd-fix-can-make-linux-much-faster/


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)