While we are approaching the end of the Linux 6.14 merge window with Linux 6.14-rc1 expected on Sunday, the fun isn't over quite yet... Among other last minute pull requests today were a set of patches to work on better optimizing the TLB flushing scalability for modern Intel and AMD x86_64 processors...

As another last minute change for GNOME 48 ahead of its feature freeze this weekend, the default font of the GNOME desktop has changed...

Back in October following the launch of the EPYC 9005 "Turin" processors I ran an AVX-512 performance comparison for the EPYC 9755 with 512-bit data path vs. 256-bit data path vs. AVX-512 disabled. That was interesting for showing the benefits of Zen 5's full 512-bit data path support compared to the "double pumped" approach with Zen 4 or optionally used via a BIOS option on Zen 5. AVX-512 continues to prove to be very performant and power efficient with AMD Zen 5 processors unlike with the early generations of AVX-512 on Intel processors. Here is a fresh look at the AVX-512 performance on a Supermicro server with an AMD EPYC 9655 processor.

The Servo open-source browser engine written in Rust has published some of their development statistics and other figures for 2025. Additionally they have shared their planned roadmap for 2025...

Along with other Intel TDX changes and AMD SEV updates separately sent out for thei n-development Linux 6.14 kernel, there is the usual hearty batch of Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) virtualization updates too...

One of the important pieces of open-source software still working toward proper Wayland support is the Chromium Embedded Framework "CEF" that in turn is depended upon by software like Steam, OBS Studio, Spotify, and many other software packages for having an in-app browser-type experience. The good news is there has been some recent progress on native Wayland support for CEF...

The FUSE code within the Linux kernel for enabling file-systems in user-space has a new performance capability up its sleeve with now supporting IO_uring communication between kernel and user-space...

All of the Virtual Function I/O (VFIO) driver updates were merged this week as we reach the end of the Linux 6.14 merge window...

Mesa 25.0 feature development is now over with the code having been branched from Mesa Git and the Mesa 25.0-rc1 release candidate issued. Mesa 25.0 is to be the next quarterly feature release for these open-source 3D graphics drivers and will hopefully see its stable debut before the end of February. In turn Mesa 25.0 will be found with the likes of Fedora 42 and Ubuntu 25.04 for providing the newest open-source OpenGL and Vulkan driver support, including for upcoming AMD RDNA4 graphics...

GParted as the GNOME Partition Editor as one of the most robust solutions for GUI-driven partition and file-system management on Linux is out with a new feature release...

Intel Co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus announced during their Q4 earnings call this evening that they will not be bringing their "Falcon Shores" AI / HPC chip to market. Falcon Shores was to be their next-gen GPU accelerator to effectively succeed their Gaudi AI chips. Instead Falcon Shores will be used as an internal test vehicle while preparing the hardware/software ecosystem for Jaguar Shores as its successor...

Over the past week I have published a number of GeForce RTX 5090 Linux compute benchmarks as well as the GeForce RTX 5080 on Linux. With that early NVIDIA R570 Linux driver build as part of the CUDA 12.8 package I was asked to wait on Linux gaming benchmarks until the proper RTX 50 Linux driver is released. Well, it was released this morning with the NVIDIA 570.86.16 Linux beta availability and have in turn been pushing the GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 through a number of Linux gaming/graphics benchmarks.

Last week saw the big set of Bcachefs updates merged for the Linux 6.14 kernel that included the last anticipated big on-disk format change as well as scalability improvements. It was a particularly big pull after Bcachefs missed out on any changes being upstreamed for Linux 6.13. This week a set of follow-on fixes/improvements have been merged for this experimental copy-on-write file-system...

One of the details not too widely talked about with Intel's newest Core Ultra Series 2 processors is the introduction of the Partner Security Engine, which is a new dedicated security engine on the SOC that is capable of running the Microsoft Pluton firmware and software. Intel today published more details around their Partner Security Engine...

Just ahead of the GNOME 48 feature freeze this weekend, gdctl has been merged into GNOME's Mutter as the GNOME Display Control Utility...

Internet tech company Yandex announced the open-source release today of Perforator as a tool to help identify and evaluate code inefficiencies at scale. They say Perforator can lead to businesses saving "billions of dollars a year on server infrastructure."..

Days after a DRM driver developer orphaned his drivers due to health reasons in stepping down, the sole maintainer at large of the Linux wireless (WiFi) drivers is stepping down and without any immediate replacement...

The NVIDIA 570.86.16 beta Linux driver was just published in time for the GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 graphics cards hitting store shelves this morning...

In addition to the AMDXDNA driver being merged for Linux 6.14 for enabling the Ryzen AI NPUs, this next kernel version is introducing another new AMD kernel driver that hasn't been previously covered on Phoronix: AMD AE4DMA...

The open-source Intel Linux Mesa graphics driver code has merged support for a "major improvement" found with next-gen Xe3 graphics... Variable Register Thread (VRT) as one of the nifty features that will help with Intel integrated and discrete graphics performance...

All of the MIPI SoundWire related updates have been submitted for the in-development Linux 6.14 kernel. SoundWire as a reminder is the standard interface for modern, small audio peripherals...

The Compute Express Link (CXL) updates have been sent out and merged for the in-development Linux 6.14 kernel...

Now that the full-functioning NTSYNC driver is ready for Linux 6.14 for better emulating the Windows NT synchronization primitives on Linux, the merge request has been opened for upstream Wine to land the NTSYNC integration on its side for in-process synchronization...

AMD today announced two new software projects to better enhance their software support for Instinct accelerators / graphics deployments within the data center: AMD GPU Operator and AMD Metrics Exporter...