Linux Kernel Space and Graphics Stack

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Mar 14, 2024

• LWN ☛ Formalizing policy zones for memory

  The kernel's memory-management subsystem is built on the concept of "zones", which were initially added to describe the physical characteristics of the memory pages contained within them. Over time, zones have taken on more of a policy-related role as well. With a patch set called THP allocator optimizations, Yu Zhao has set out to better define the role of policy-related zones on the path toward adding two more of them, with the ultimate purpose of improving the kernel's support for transparent huge pages (THPs).

• WCCF Tech ☛ AMD Adds Performance Monitoring Patches For Zen 5 CPU Enablement on Linux

  AMD's approach to bringing Zen 5 CPU architecture support on Linux has been steady and very progressive, deviating from the usual trend where AMD decided to push out patches only months before the official launch.

• Graphics Stack

  • PCGamesN ☛ This open source Nvidia driver update just boosted Linux game support

    This new Nvidia driver update announcement relates to the Mesa 3D graphics library, a project that looks to create open source alternatives to proprietary graphics drivers. This enables otherwise unsupported software or hardware to use AMD, Intel, and Nvidia GPUs even despite a lack of direct support from the companies.

    The ongoing project to provide access to the features of the best graphics cards has just reached a major milestone as the NVK Vulkan driver for Nvidia graphics cards has just added sparse memory support. What does that mean? Well, many more modern games need sparse memory support so its implementation into the latest 24.1 release of Mesa means many more games can potentially be played using the driver.

  • Mike Blumenkrantz: Post Interfaces

    I’ve had a few things I was going to blog about over the past month, but then news sites picked them up and I lost motivation because there’s only so many hours in a day that anyone wants to spend reading things that aren’t specification texts. Yeah, that’s my life now.

    Anyway, a lot’s happened, and I’d try to enumerate it all but I’ve forgotten / lost track / don’t care. git log me if you’re interested. Some highlights: [...]