MICROCODE_CTL(8)					      System Manager's Manual						  MICROCODE_CTL(8)

NAME

       microcode_ctl - microcode utility for Intel IA32 processors

SYNOPSIS

       microcode_ctl [-h] [-i] [-u [-q]] [-Q] [-f microcode]

DESCRIPTION

       The  microcode_ctl utility is a companion to the IA32 microcode driver written by Tigran Aivazian <tigran@veritas.com>. The utility has two
       uses:

       a) it decodes and sends new microcode to the kernel driver to be uploaded to Intel IA32 processors. (Pentium Pro, PII, Celeron, PIII, Xeon,
       Pentium 4 etc)

       b) it signals the kernel driver to release the buffers containing the copy of microcode data actually applied to given CPU, linear array of
       2048 bytes per CPU, see struct microcode in include/asm/processor.h for information on the layout of chunks buffers may hold

       The microcode update is volatile and needs to be uploaded on each system boot i.e. it doesn't reflash your cpu permanently, reboot  and	it
       reverts back to the old microcode.

       -h     display usage and exit

       -i     release any buffers held in microcode driver

       -u     upload microcode (from default filename)

       -f     upload microcode from named Intel formatted file

       -q     run silently when successful

       -Q     run silently even on failure

EXAMPLE

       microcode_ctl -iu
	      Upload and free kernel buffers

FILES

       /etc/microcode.dat
	      The default microcode location

AUTHOR

       Microcode utility written by Simon Trimmer
       Linux Kernel driver written by Tigran Aivazian.

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs to either Simon Trimmer <simon@veritas.com> or Tigran Aivazian <tigran@veritas.com>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2000 VERITAS Software
       This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICU-
       LAR PURPOSE.

SPECIAL THANKS

       Thanks to the Intel Corporation, for supplying microcode update data and publishing the specifications that enabled us to  write  microcode
       driver for Linux.

SEE ALSO

       The brave are recommended to view the driver source code located in the Linux Kernel source tree in arch/i386/kernel/microcode.c

       Visit http://www.urbanmyth.org/microcode/ for more information and microcode updates.

microcode_ctl							  17 January 2001						  MICROCODE_CTL(8)