Eric Biggers of Google who has pursued countless CPU optimizations within the Linux kernel’s crypto subsystem over the years has some noteworthy optimizations coming for AMD processors with the upcoming Linux 6.14 kernel cycle.
Over the weekend several x86 AES-XTS and AES-GCM patches made it into the crypto subsystem’s development Git code ahead of the upcoming Linux 6.14 kernel cycle.
One of the patches better tunes AES-GCM for AMD CPUs. That brings around a 2% performance boost for both AMD Zen 4 and Zen 5 processors while the Intel performance is about the same.
Over on the AES-XTS side there is additional optimizations yielding another 3% improvement found with AMD Zen 5 processors. Intel performance there also remaining the same or about a 0.1% bump for Ice Lake.
Plus the patches bring various code size improvements and other enhancements.
While just single-digit gains this round, they add up especially with Biggers having delivered some massive triple digit improvements in recent kernel cycles. The Linux AES performance with modern x86_64 processors is a heck of a lot faster than before on older kernels. And given from these newly queued patches, it looks like his optimization game isn’t over.
The Linux 6.14 merge window will kick off in late January while the stable kernel should be out by the end of March and will be found in the likes of Ubuntu 25.04 and Fedora 42.
