| 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. | |
| -- intel-ucode-with-caveats/ -- | |
| This directory holds microcode that might need special handling. | |
| BDX-ML microcode is provided in directory, because it need special commits in | |
| the Linux kernel, otherwise, updating it might result in unexpected system | |
| behavior. | |
| OS vendors must ensure that the late loader patches (provided in | |
| linux-kernel-patches\) are included in the distribution before packaging the | |
| BDX-ML microcode for late-loading. | |
| == 20190312 Release == | |
| -- Updates upon 20180807 release -- | |
| Processor Identifier Version Products | |
| Model Stepping F-MO-S/PI Old->New | |
| ---- new platforms ---------------------------------------- | |
| AML-Y22 H0 6-8e-9/10 0000009e Core Gen8 Mobile | |
| WHL-U W0 6-8e-b/d0 000000a4 Core Gen8 Mobile | |
| WHL-U V0 6-8e-d/94 000000b2 Core Gen8 Mobile | |
| CFL-S P0 6-9e-c/22 000000a2 Core Gen9 Desktop | |
| CFL-H R0 6-9e-d/22 000000b0 Core Gen9 Mobile | |
| ---- updated platforms ------------------------------------ | |
| HSX-E/EP Cx/M1 6-3f-2/6f 0000003d->00000041 Core Gen4 X series; Xeon E5 v3 | |
| HSX-EX E0 6-3f-4/80 00000012->00000013 Xeon E7 v3 | |
| SKX-SP H0/M0/U0 6-55-4/b7 0200004d->0000005a Xeon Scalable | |
| SKX-D M1 6-55-4/b7 0200004d->0000005a Xeon D-21xx | |
| BDX-DE V1 6-56-2/10 00000017->00000019 Xeon D-1520/40 | |
| BDX-DE V2/3 6-56-3/10 07000013->07000016 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 0f000012->0f000014 Xeon D-1557/59/67/71/77/81/87 | |
| BDX-NS A0 6-56-5/10 0e00000a->0e00000c Xeon D-1513N/23/33/43/53 | |
| APL D0 6-5c-9/03 00000032->00000036 Pentium N/J4xxx, Celeron N/J3xxx, Atom x5/7-E39xx | |
| APL E0 6-5c-a/03 0000000c->00000010 Atom x5/7-E39xx | |
| GLK B0 6-7a-1/01 00000028->0000002c Pentium Silver N/J5xxx, Celeron N/J4xxx | |
| KBL-U/Y H0 6-8e-9/c0 0000008e->0000009a Core Gen7 Mobile | |
| CFL-U43e D0 6-8e-a/c0 00000096->0000009e Core Gen8 Mobile | |
| KBL-H/S/E3 B0 6-9e-9/2a 0000008e->0000009a Core Gen7; Xeon E3 v6 | |
| CFL-H/S/E3 U0 6-9e-a/22 00000096->000000aa Core Gen8 Desktop, Mobile, Xeon E | |
| CFL-S B0 6-9e-b/02 0000008e->000000aa Core Gen8 |