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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/x86/early-microcode.txt')
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diff --git a/Documentation/x86/early-microcode.txt b/Documentation/x86/early-microcode.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 07749e7f3d50..000000000000 --- a/Documentation/x86/early-microcode.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,70 +0,0 @@ -Early load microcode -==================== -By Fenghua Yu <fenghua.yu@intel.com> - -Kernel can update microcode in early phase of boot time. Loading microcode early -can fix CPU issues before they are observed during kernel boot time. - -Microcode is stored in an initrd file. The microcode is read from the initrd -file and loaded to CPUs during boot time. - -The format of the combined initrd image is microcode in cpio format followed by -the initrd image (maybe compressed). Kernel parses the combined initrd image -during boot time. The microcode file in cpio name space is: -on Intel: kernel/x86/microcode/GenuineIntel.bin -on AMD : kernel/x86/microcode/AuthenticAMD.bin - -During BSP boot (before SMP starts), if the kernel finds the microcode file in -the initrd file, it parses the microcode and saves matching microcode in memory. -If matching microcode is found, it will be uploaded in BSP and later on in all -APs. - -The cached microcode patch is applied when CPUs resume from a sleep state. - -There are two legacy user space interfaces to load microcode, either through -/dev/cpu/microcode or through /sys/devices/system/cpu/microcode/reload file -in sysfs. - -In addition to these two legacy methods, the early loading method described -here is the third method with which microcode can be uploaded to a system's -CPUs. - -The following example script shows how to generate a new combined initrd file in -/boot/initrd-3.5.0.ucode.img with original microcode microcode.bin and -original initrd image /boot/initrd-3.5.0.img. - -mkdir initrd -cd initrd -mkdir -p kernel/x86/microcode -cp ../microcode.bin kernel/x86/microcode/GenuineIntel.bin (or AuthenticAMD.bin) -find . | cpio -o -H newc >../ucode.cpio -cd .. -cat ucode.cpio /boot/initrd-3.5.0.img >/boot/initrd-3.5.0.ucode.img - -Builtin microcode -================= - -We can also load builtin microcode supplied through the regular firmware -builtin method CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL. Only 64-bit is currently -supported. - -Here's an example: - -CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL=y -CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE="intel-ucode/06-3a-09 amd-ucode/microcode_amd_fam15h.bin" -CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE_DIR="/lib/firmware" - -This basically means, you have the following tree structure locally: - -/lib/firmware/ -|-- amd-ucode -... -| |-- microcode_amd_fam15h.bin -... -|-- intel-ucode -... -| |-- 06-3a-09 -... - -so that the build system can find those files and integrate them into -the final kernel image. The early loader finds them and applies them. |