AMD Linux engineers continue to be quite busy working on enabling next-generation [1]Zen 6 processors that will begin shipping next year. The newest patch working its way to the Linux kernel is expanding the range of Zen 6 CPU models detected by the kernel.

The past few months [2]AMD has begun preparing the Linux kernel for Zen 6 like [3]confirming 16 channel memory for 6th Gen AMD EPYC "Venice" processors and [4]recognizing the new CPU cores with more to come.

Zen 6 is using Family 1Ah like Zen 5 while the range of model IDs being flagged as Zen 6 was 0x50 to 0x5f, 0x90 to 0xaf, and 0xc0 to 0xcf. But with a new patch this week to the Linux kernel, the range is expanded. Instead of 0x90 to 0xaf, it is now 0x80 to 0xaf. Or 16 more model IDs now being being marked as Zen 6 compared to before. Granted, not all the model IDs are necessarily used for released products but sometimes reserved for potential future expansion, custom SKUs, etc.

The patch extending the Zen 6 model range was queued today into the [5]tip/tip.git's x86/urgent branch . With it being in a TIP urgent branch, it should be submitted to the mainline Linux 6.18 Git kernel this week ahead of Sunday's Linux 6.18-rc4 release.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/search/Zen+6

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-Zen-6-Linux-Kernel-Start

[3] https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-Zen-6-Venice-16c-RAM

[4] https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-Zen-6-Flag-Linux-6.15

[5] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip.git/commit/?id=847ebc4476714f81d7dea73e5ea69448d7fe9d3a