Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 x86-64-v3 feature

Advancing Performance and Compatibility with x86–64-v3 in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10

January 21, 2024

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Introduction to x86–64-v3 in RHEL 10

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9, Red Hat upgraded the instruction set architecture (ISA) baseline to the x86–64-v2 microarchitecture level. For RHEL 10, Red Hat is exploring an advancement to the x86–64-v3 level, potentially bringing significant performance benefits to various applications, particularly in data science and numerical computing domains.

New CPU Capabilities in x86–64-v3

x86–64-v3 offers substantial improvements over its predecessor:

Enhanced vector register width in AVX and AVX2 instruction sets from 128 bits to 256 bits, adding new vector operations.
Support for the fused multiply-add (FMA) instruction, enabling more precise and efficient computations.
VEX encoding to improve instruction variants and reduce code redundancy, enhancing code density and reducing instruction cache pressure.
Additional bit manipulation operations for scalar registers, aiding in efficient data processing.

Compatibility Impact

The x86–64-v3 architecture first appeared in Intel’s Haswell CPUs (2013) and AMD’s Excavator microarchitecture (2015). However, adopting x86–64-v3 in RHEL 10 may exclude some systems without these capabilities, similar to the transition to x86–64-v2 in RHEL 9.

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Verifying Performance Improvements

The CentOS ISA SIG has conducted experiments by rebuilding CentOS 9 with x86–64-v2 and x86–64-v3 baselines using GCC 12. These efforts aim to demonstrate performance enhancements for key packages and workloads, thereby validating the transition to x86–64-v3.

Considerations for x86–64-v4

Given its limited support across CPU generations and architectures, Red Hat does not find x86–64-v4 suitable for a general-purpose operating system. Our focus remains on achieving a balance between performance enhancement and broad compatibility.

Conclusion

While further analysis is ongoing, the transition to x86–64-v3 for RHEL 10 looks promising. Developers can start testing their software with the x86–64-v3 architecture to prepare for potential changes and improvements. Feedback from these tests is highly encouraged.

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