EVOLUTION-MANAGER

Edit File: RELEASE_NOTES.intel-ucode

Intel Processor Microcode Package for Linux CPU microcode is a mechanism to correct certain errata in existing systems. The normal preferred method to apply microcode updates is using the system BIOS, but for a subset of Intel's processors this can be done at runtime using the operating system. This package contains those processors that support OS loading of microcode updates. The target user for this package are OS vendors such as Linux distributions for inclusion in their OS releases. Intel recommends getting the microcode using the OS vendor update mechanism. Expert users can of course update their microcode directly outside the OS vendor mechanism. This method is complex and thus could be error prone. Microcode is best loaded from the BIOS. Certain microcode must only be applied from the BIOS. Such processor microcode updates are never packaged in this package since they are not appropriate for OS distribution. An OEM may receive microcode packages that might be a superset of what is contained in this package. OS vendors may choose to also update microcode that kernel can consume for early loading. For e.g. Linux can update processor microcode very early in the kernel boot sequence. In situations when the BIOS update isn't available, early loading is the next best alternative to updating processor microcode. Microcode states are reset on a power reset, hence its required to be updated everytime during boot process. Loading microcode using the initrd method is recommended so that the microcode is loaded at the earliest time for best coverage. Systems that cannot tolerate downtime may use the late reload method to update a running system without a reboot. == About Processor Signature, Family, Model, Stepping and Platform ID == Processor signature is a number identifying the model and version of a Intel processor. It can be obtained using the CPUID instruction, and can also be obtained via the command lscpu or from the content of /proc/cpuinfo. It's usually presented as 3 fields: Family, Model and Stepping (In the table of updates below, they are shorten as F, MO and S). The width of Family/Model/Stepping is 12/8/4bit, but when arranged in the 32bit processor signature raw data is like 0FFM0FMS, hexadecimal. e.g. if a processor signature is 0x000906eb, it means Family=0x006, Model=0x9e and Stepping=0xb A processor product can be implemented for multiple types of platforms, So in MSR(17H), Intel processors have a 3bit Platform ID field, that can specify a platform type from at most 8 types. A microcode file for a specified processor model can support multiple platforms, so the Platform ID of a microcode (shorten as PI in the table) is a 8bit mask, each set bit indicates a platform type that it supports. One can find the platform ID on Linux using rdmsr from msr-tools. == Microcode update instructions == -- intel-ucode/ -- intel-ucode directory contains binary microcode files named in family-model-stepping pattern. The file is supported in most modern Linux distributions. It's generally located in the /lib/firmware directory, and can be updated through the microcode reload interface. To update early loading initrd, consult your distribution on how to package microcode files for early loading. Some distros use update-initramfs or dracut. As recommended above, please use the OS vendors are recommended method to ensure microcode file is updated for early loading before attempting the late-load procedure below. To update the intel-ucode package to the system, one need: 1. Ensure the existence of /sys/devices/system/cpu/microcode/reload 2. Copy intel-ucode directory to /lib/firmware, overwrite the files in /lib/firmware/intel-ucode/ 3. Write the reload interface to 1 to reload the microcode files, e.g. echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/microcode/reload If you are using the OS vendor method to update microcode, the above steps may have been done automatically during the update process. == 20190507 Release == -- Updates upon 20190312 release -- Processor Identifier Version Products Model Stepping F-MO-S/PI Old->New ---- new platforms ---------------------------------------- CLX-SP B1 6-55-7/bf 05000021 Xeon Scalable Gen2 ---- updated platforms ------------------------------------ SNB D2/G1/Q0 6-2a-7/12 0000002e->0000002f Core Gen2 IVB E1/L1 6-3a-9/12 00000020->00000021 Core Gen3 HSW C0 6-3c-3/32 00000025->00000027 Core Gen4 BDW-U/Y E0/F0 6-3d-4/c0 0000002b->0000002d Core Gen5 IVB-E/EP C1/M1/S1 6-3e-4/ed 0000042e->0000042f Core Gen3 X Series; Xeon E5 v2 IVB-EX D1 6-3e-7/ed 00000714->00000715 Xeon E7 v2 HSX-E/EP Cx/M1 6-3f-2/6f 00000041->00000043 Core Gen4 X series; Xeon E5 v3 HSX-EX E0 6-3f-4/80 00000013->00000014 Xeon E7 v3 HSW-U C0/D0 6-45-1/72 00000024->00000025 Core Gen4 HSW-H C0 6-46-1/32 0000001a->0000001b Core Gen4 BDW-H/E3 E0/G0 6-47-1/22 0000001e->00000020 Core Gen5 SKL-U/Y D0/K1 6-4e-3/c0 000000c6->000000cc Core Gen6 SKX-SP H0/M0/U0 6-55-4/b7 0200005a->0000005e Xeon Scalable SKX-D M1 6-55-4/b7 0200005a->0000005e Xeon D-21xx BDX-DE V1 6-56-2/10 00000019->0000001a Xeon D-1520/40 BDX-DE V2/3 6-56-3/10 07000016->07000017 Xeon D-1518/19/21/27/28/31/33/37/41/48, Pentium D1507/08/09/17/19 BDX-DE Y0 6-56-4/10 0f000014->0f000015 Xeon D-1557/59/67/71/77/81/87 BDX-NS A0 6-56-5/10 0e00000c->0e00000d Xeon D-1513N/23/33/43/53 APL D0 6-5c-9/03 00000036->00000038 Pentium N/J4xxx, Celeron N/J3xxx, Atom x5/7-E39xx SKL-H/S R0/N0 6-5e-3/36 000000c6->000000cc Core Gen6; Xeon E3 v5 DNV B0 6-5f-1/01 00000024->0000002e Atom Processor C Series GLK B0 6-7a-1/01 0000002c->0000002e Pentium Silver N/J5xxx, Celeron N/J4xxx AML-Y22 H0 6-8e-9/10 0000009e->000000b4 Core Gen8 Mobile KBL-U/Y H0 6-8e-9/c0 0000009a->000000b4 Core Gen7 Mobile CFL-U43e D0 6-8e-a/c0 0000009e->000000b4 Core Gen8 Mobile WHL-U W0 6-8e-b/d0 000000a4->000000b8 Core Gen8 Mobile WHL-U V0 6-8e-d/94 000000b2->000000b8 Core Gen8 Mobile KBL-G/H/S/E3 B0 6-9e-9/2a 0000009a->000000b4 Core Gen7; Xeon E3 v6 CFL-H/S/E3 U0 6-9e-a/22 000000aa->000000b4 Core Gen8 Desktop, Mobile, Xeon E CFL-S B0 6-9e-b/02 000000aa->000000b4 Core Gen8 CFL-H/S P0 6-9e-c/22 000000a2->000000ae Core Gen9 CFL-H R0 6-9e-d/22 000000b0->000000b8 Core Gen9 Mobile