Linux 5.18 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.18 release arm risc-v mips

Linux 5.18 is out! Linus Torvalds has just announced the release on lkml: No unexpected nasty surprises this last week, so here we go with the 5.18 release right on schedule. That obviously means that the merge window for 5.19 will open tomorrow, and I already have a few pull requests pending. Thank you everybody. I’d still like people to run boring old plain 5.18 just to check, before we start with the excitement of all the new features for the merge window. The full shortlog for the last week is below, and nothing really odd stands out. The diffstat looks a bit funny – unusually we have parsic architecture patches being a big part of it due to some last-minute cache flushing fixes, but that is probably more indicative of everything else being pretty small. So outside of the parisc fixes, there’s random driver updates (mellanox mlx5 stands out, […]

MediaTek unveils Genio 1200 premium AIoT processor with 4.8 TOPS NPU

MediaTek Genio 1200

MediaTek has introduced the Genio platform for AIoT devices, and unveiled the first chip of the Genio family with the Genio 1200 Octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 processor with a 4.8 TOPS NPU, 4K video support, and designed for premium AIoT products. The chip is manufactured with a 6nm processor, is said to consume less than 8W, supports dual 4Kp60 video output and up to 48MP @ 30 fps video capture, and  WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 and 5G connectivity can be added through add-in chips. Targets applications include Smart Home appliances, HMI, industrial IoT, robotics, and more. MediaTek Genio 1200 key features and specifications: CPU – Octa-core processor with four Cortex-A78 cores @ up to 2.2 GHz, four Cortex-A55 cores GPU – Arm Mali-G57 MC5 GPU VPU Encoding up to 4Kp60 with H.265/HEVC Decoding up to 4Kp90, AV1, VP9, HEVC, H.264 codecs supported AI accelerator – Dual-core Mediatek AI processor (APU) with INT8, INT16, […]

Linux 5.17 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.17 changelog

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 5.17: So we had an extra week of at the end of this release cycle, and I’m happy to report that it was very calm indeed. We could probably have skipped it with not a lot of downside, but we did get a few last-minute reverts and fixes in and avoid some brown-paper bugs that would otherwise have been stable fodder, so it’s all good. And that calm last week can very much be seen from the appended shortlog – there really aren’t a lot of commits in here, and it’s all pretty small. Most of it is in drivers (net, usb, drm), with some core networking, and some tooling updates too. It really is small enough that you can just scroll through the details below, and the one-liner summaries will give a good flavor of what happened last week. Of course, this means […]

MediaTek Dimensity 8000/8100 Cortex-A78/A55 processor to power premium 5G smartphones

MediaTek Dimensity 8000 & 8100

MediaTek Dimensity 8000/8100 Arm Cortex-A78 processors for 5G premium smartphones bring many of the features of the flagship Dimensity 9000 Armv9 processor announced last December, but at a more affordable price point. Designed for gamers, the Dimensity 8100 integrates four Arm Cortex-A78 cores with speeds reaching 2.85GHz instead of 2.75GHz for the Dimenssity 8000, and boosts GPU and AI engine’s frequencies to 20% and 25% respectively. MediaTek Dimensity 8000/8100 specifications: Octa-core CPU subsystem 4x Arm Cortex-A78 up to 2.75 GHz (Dimensity 8000) / 2.85 GHz (Dimensity 8100) 4x Arm Cortex-A55 up to 2.0 GHz 4MB L3 cache GPU – Arm Mali-G610 MC6 GPU (Dimensity 8100 with 20% frequency boost) with MediaTek HyperEngine 5.0 gaming technologies AI Accelerator – 5th generation MediaTek APU 580  (Dimensity 8100 with 25% frequency boost) Memory I/IF – LPDDR5 6400 Mbps Storage I/F – UFS 3.1 Display Dimensity 8000 – 168Hz Full HD+ Dimensity 8100 – 120Hz […]

MediaTek Kompanio 1380 Cortex-A78/55 processor is designed for premium Chromebooks

MediaTek Kompanio 1380

MediaTek Kompanio 1380 is a 6nm octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 processor clocked at up to 3.0 GHz designed for premium Chromebooks such as the new Acer Chromebook Spin 513 (CP513-2H), which will compete against the company’s Snapdragon 7c based Chromebook Spin 513 (CP513-1H). The processor supports LPDDR4x memory, UFS and eMMC storage, up to three displays, for example, the main display plus two external HDMI displays, WiFI 6/6E, and offers high-performance interfaces such as PCIe Gen 3 and USB 3.2 Gen 1. MediaTek Kompanio 1380 (MT8195T) processor specifications: Octa-core CPU 4x Arm Cortex-A78 cores @ up to 3.0 GHz 4x Arm Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G57 MC5 AI accelerator – MediaTek APU 3.0 up to 4 TOPS VPU Video Playback – 4K HDR H.264, H.265 / HEVC, VP9, AV1 Video Encoding – 4K HDR H.264, H.265 / HEVC Memory – LPDDR4x @ 2133 MHz Storage – […]

WiFi 7 (802.11be) will support up to 40 Gbps links, real-time applications

Key features of WiFi 7 (802.11be)

I still don’t own a WiFi 6 router, but MediaTek has already started to demonstrate WiFi 7 (802.11be) to customers with solutions based on upcoming Filogic 802.11be processors which deliver “super-fast speeds and low latency transmission” and provide a “true wireline/Ethernet replacement for super high-bandwidth applications”. The company goes on to explain that Wi-Fi 7 relies on the same 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz frequencies as WiFi 6/6E, but can still provide 2.4x higher speeds than Wi-Fi 6, even with the same number of antennas, since WiFi 7 can utilize 320Mhz channels and support 4K QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) technology.   There’s limited information about MediaTek Filogic 802.11be WiFi 7 processors since it will take a few more years before becoming available, but we can find more details in a document entitled “Current Status and Directions of IEEE 802.11be, the Future Wi-Fi 7” from IEEE Xplore. Here are some of the […]

Dimensity 9000 – MediaTek’s 4nm, 3 GHz octa-core Armv9 processor for flagship 5G smartphones

MediaTek Dimensity 9000

MediaTek is the top mobile SoC vendor in terms of unit shipped, well ahead of the competition, but the company’s processors were mostly found in entry-level, mid-range, and “premium” smartphones, while flagship smartphones usually feature application processors from  Qualcomm, Samsung, or Apple. But MediaTek has upped the ante with the introduction of the Dimensity 9000 smartphone processor featuring an octa-core Armv9 CPU subsystem, including one Cortex-X2 core clocked at up to 3.05 GHz, a Mali-G710 MC10 GPU, 5G connectivity, and manufactured with the bleeding edge 4nm TSMC manufacturing process. Dimensity 9000 specifications: Octa-core CPU subsystem 1x Arm Cortex-X2 “Ultra Core” at 3.05 GHz 3x Arm Cortex-A710 “Super Cores” at up to 2.85 GHz 4x Arm Cortex-A510 “Efficiency Cores” up to 1.80GHz 8MB L3 cache GPU – Mali-G710 MC10 @ 850 MHz with support for Vulkan, (software) raytracing AI Accelerator – 5th generation APU (AI processing unit) with up to 4x […]

MediaTek unveils Filogic 830 & Filogic 630 WiFi 6/6E chips

MediaTek Filogic 830

MediaTek has recently introduced the Filogic connectivity family with two parts, namely the Filogic 830 Wi-Fi 6/6E system-on-chip (SoC), and the Filogic 630 Wi-Fi 6E network interface card (NIC) solutions. The WiFi 6/6E tri-band (2.4, 5, and 6 GHz) chips are Wi-Fi Alliance EasyMesh certified, and designed for home, business, and enterprise router and repeater devices, home automation bridges, IoT gateways, as well as consumer devices such as laptops, TVs, IP cameras, etc… The MediaTek Filogic 830 is a complete 12nm SoC with a quad-core Cortex-A53 processor clocked at up to 2 GHz per core delivering over 18,000 DMIPs, hardware acceleration engines for Wi-Fi offloading and networking, dual 4×4 Wi-Fi 6/6E for up to 6Gbps connectivity, two 2.5Gbps Ethernet interfaces, and various other peripheral interfaces, but MediaTek did not provide any details about those. The company also says the chip includes FastPath low latency technology for gaming and AR/VR applications. […]

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