The RISC-V architecture feature updates were merged on Friday for the Linux 6.16 merge window that is set to end on Sunday with the Linux 6.16-rc1 release.
Notable with the RISC-V updates for Linux 6.16 are adding support for the Supervisor Binary Interface (SBI) Firmware Features (FWFT) extension. The Firmware Features extension is part of the SBI 3.0 specification and will be needed for supporting newer SBI and RISC-V ISA extensions.
The SBI Firmware Features Extension is used for managing and controlling specific hardware capabilities and SBI implementation features. Details can be found via the FWFT extension doc and the RISC-V SBI specification.
Also on the new RISC-V capability side is support for new SiFive RISC-V vendor extensions.
The RISC-V updates for Linux 6.16 also include support for the MSEAL system call and supporting getrandom in the vDSO. There is also optimized routines for RAID6 syndrome and recovery calculations.
“- Support for the FWFT SBI extension, which is part of SBI 3.0 and a dependency for many new SBI and ISA extensions
– Support for getrandom() in the VDSO
– Support for mseal
– Optimized routines for raid6 syndrome and recovery calculations
– kexec_file() supports loading Image-formatted kernel binaries
– Improvements to the instruction patching framework to allow for atomic instruction patching, along with rules as to how systems need to behave in order to function correctly
– Support for a handful of new ISA extensions: Svinval, Zicbop, Zabha, some SiFive vendor extensions
– Various fixes and cleanups, including: misaligned access handling, perf symbol mangling, module loading, PUD THPs, and improved uaccess routines”
More details for those interested via this merge.
