Intel Patches Finally Exposing NPU Frequency Under Linux
For those looking into some insight around the Intel neural processing unit (NPU) utilization with modern Core Ultra systems, pending Linux patches will finally introduce the ability for user-space to obtain the current NPU frequency.
A set of patches posted on Tuesday for the Intel IVPU accelerator kernel driver allow for reporting the NPU frequency to user-space. This is wired up for current Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake Core Ultra laptops/systems.
With these patches from Intel, there is a new sysfs "npu_current_frequency_mhz" file for reporting the current NPU frequency in MHz. Additionally, there is a "npu_max_frequency_mhz" sysfs file added for obtaining the maximum frequency capable of the NPU. Thus for Linux users this provides some insight over the current NPU frequency/utilization and whether it's ramped up to its peak frequency or not, etc.
These Intel IVPU kernel driver patches are currently out for review with this patch series. Hopefully these Intel NPU frequency patches will be queued up in time for the Linux v6.16 cycle this summer.
A set of patches posted on Tuesday for the Intel IVPU accelerator kernel driver allow for reporting the NPU frequency to user-space. This is wired up for current Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake Core Ultra laptops/systems.
With these patches from Intel, there is a new sysfs "npu_current_frequency_mhz" file for reporting the current NPU frequency in MHz. Additionally, there is a "npu_max_frequency_mhz" sysfs file added for obtaining the maximum frequency capable of the NPU. Thus for Linux users this provides some insight over the current NPU frequency/utilization and whether it's ramped up to its peak frequency or not, etc.
These Intel IVPU kernel driver patches are currently out for review with this patch series. Hopefully these Intel NPU frequency patches will be queued up in time for the Linux v6.16 cycle this summer.