AMD for months has already been working on heterogeneous core topology optimizations for Linux within the AMD P-State CPUFreq driver and other heterogeneous CPU topology improvements for dealing with Ryzen systems sporting a mix of “classic” (full) cores with the denser “C” cores. Today though they’ve announced a brand new “Heterogeneous Core Driver” for further enhancing Linux support for AMD platforms sporting a combination of core types.
The AMD Heterogeneous Core Driver makes use of the Hardware Feedback Interface to provide for more detailed knowledge to the kernel about the core performance/power capabilities to help better with deciding where a thread (task) should be placed. Intel similarly makes use of the Hardware Feedback Interface (HFI) as part of their P vs. E core handling on Linux.
With today’s first patch series presenting this open-source AMD Heterogeneous Core Driver for Linux, the patch cover letter explains …
