The upcoming Linux 6.14 kernel cycle is set to introduce support for the Blaize BLZP1600 SoC series that is powering various PCIe add-in-card and M.2 adapters for local AI edge processing.
The Blaize BLZP1600 is designed for AI edge computing with claims by the vendor of offering up to 60x higher system-level efficiency compared to traditional CPUs or GPUs. The Blaize Xplorer X1600E EDSFF accelerator offers up to 16 TOPs in an M.2 form factor, the Blaize Xplorer X1600P PCIe accelerator also offers up to 16 TOPs in a PCIe Gen 3.0 form factor, and the X1600P-Q accelerator card offers 64 to 80 TOPs. There is also a Blaize Pathfinder P1600 embedded system on module.
The Blaize BLZP1600 SoC family support slated for Linux 6.14 is initially focused on the BLZP1600 system-on-module and carrier board 2 development board.
“Add device tree bindings for the Blaize BLZP1600 CB2 development board (carrier board). This board integrates a Blaize BLZP1600 SoM (System on Module) which is based on the Blaize BLZP1600 SoC.
The Blaize BLZP1600 SoC integrates a dual core ARM Cortex A53 cluster and a Blaize Graph Streaming Processor for AI and ML workloads, plus a suite of connectivity and other peripherals.”
Mostly so far it’s various various ARM DeviceTree updates around the BLZP1600 SoC support. So far nothing around the Blaize Graph Stream Processor “GSP” cores for the AI/ML workloads. In any case an interesting start and the first of Blaize hardware seeing mainline Linux kernel support. The initial Blaize BLZP1600 Linux patches are also coming from Blaize engineers directly rather than the open-source community or other third party.
Those wanting to track the progress on the Blaize SoC support for the mainline Linux kernel can see this SoC.git for-next search with those first patches slated to arrive with Linux 6.14 in the new year.
