From: Nitin A Kamble <[email protected]> Starting a new documentation file to describe the layer specific hardware features. At this point the intel-ucode machine feature is described here. In the future more such features will be described in this file.
Signed-off-by: Nitin A Kamble <[email protected]> --- README.hardware | 88 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 88 insertions(+) create mode 100644 README.hardware diff --git a/README.hardware b/README.hardware new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e27fb33 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.hardware @@ -0,0 +1,88 @@ + meta-intel Layer Hardware README + ================================ + +This file gives details about using the meta-intel layer with the machines +supported in the layer. A full list of supported reference target machines +can be found by looking in the following directories: + + conf/machine/ + meta-*/conf/machine/ + meta-isg/meta-*/conf/machine/ + +The information in this file is also applicable to machines such as as minnow +which are defined in separate layers and utilize the meta-intel layer. + + +Machine Features in the meta-intel layer +======================================== + +Many machine features are available in the oecore/poky layer for BSP use. +The meta-intel layer makes some additional machine features available for BSPs +using the meta-intel layer. + +Requirements +------------ + +The additional machine features are only available when the meta-intel layer +is included in the build config, and the meta-intel.inc file is included in +the machine configuration of the interested BSP. + +To make these features available for your machine, you will need to: + +1. have a configuration line as seen below in the bblayers.conf + BBLAYERS += "<local path>/meta-intel.git" +2. have the following line in the machine configuration + require conf/machine/include/meta-intel.inc + +Once the above requirements are met, then the machine features provided by +the meta-intel layer will be available for the BSP use. + +Available Machine Features +-------------------------- + +As of now the meta-intel layer provides the following list of machine features. +In the future, more machine features may be available in this list. + +* intel-ucode + +These machine features can be included by listing them in the MACHINE_FEATURES +variable in the machine configuration file. + +Details of the Machine Features +------------------------------- + +* intel-ucode: This feature provides microcode updating support for Intel + processors. With the intel-ucode feature, images get complete support for + updating the microcode on Intel processors. This feature enables microcode + updating at early boot time by placing the microcode data files in the + initrd image. It also puts the user land microcode updating tool iucode_tool + and the microcode data file in the target images. + + Q. Why to enable this microcode feature? + A. Intel releases microcode updates to correct processor behavior as + documented in the respective processor specification updates. While + the regular approach to getting this microcode update is via a BIOS + upgrade, this can be an administrative hassle and not always possible + in the field. The intel-ucode feature enables the microcode update + capability from the Linux OS. It provides an easy path for upgrading + processor microcode without need of changing BIOS. Once the feature + is enabled, it is also possible to update the existing images with + newer microcode update in the future. + + Q. How to bundle only specific microcodes in the target image? + A. The Intel microcode data file released by Intel contains microcode + updates for multiple processors. If the BSP image will be running only + on a certain kind of processors, then the number of microcodes bundled in + the target image can be filtered by specifying the UCODE_FILTER_SIGNATURES + variable. A sequence of iucode-tool parameters are listed in the + UCODE_FILTER_SIGNATURES variable to filter the microcodes from the + microcode data file. For more information on these parameters refer to + the iucode-tool manual page, which can be seen over here: + http://manned.org/iucode-tool + + Q. When to not enable this microcode feature? + A. The microcode datafile and the associated tools take small (few KB) + space on the target image. The BSPs which are highly sensitive to the + target image size, which are not experiencing any microcode related issues, + may consider not enabling this feature to save the target image foot print. + -- 1.8.1.4 -- _______________________________________________ meta-intel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.yoctoproject.org/listinfo/meta-intel
