MICROCODE_CTL(8) System Manager's Manual MICROCODE_CTL(8)NAME
microcode_ctl - microcode utility for Intel IA32 processors
SYNOPSIS
microcode_ctl [-h] [-u] [-q] [-Q] [-f microcode]
DESCRIPTION
The microcode_ctl utility is a companion to the IA32 microcode driver written by Tigran Aivazian <tigran@aivazian.fsnet.co.uk>. 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
-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 -u
Upload microcode using defaults
FILES
/usr/share/misc/intel-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@urbanmyth.org> or Tigran Aivazian <tigran@aivazian.fsnet.co.uk>
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 19 September 2006 MICROCODE_CTL(8)
Check Out this Related Man Page
cspctl(1) General Commands Manual cspctl(1)NAME
cspctl - Sound Blaster 16 ASP/CSP control program
SYNOPSIS
cspctl command [-options] <filename>
DESCRIPTION
cspctl is a simple CSP microcode loader for Crative Sound Blaster 16ASP and some Sound Blaster AWE32 sound cards with Creative Signal Pro-
cessor (CSP) chip (CT1748A) installed. cspctl can also be used as a post-install function to snd-sb16-csp module to load default codec at
module installation. If CSP chip is successfully detected and initialized, it will be installed as a hardware dependent device hwC0D2 into
/dev/snd directory. Currently, following codecs can be loaded to CSP device:
wfm0001a.csp QSound decoder
wfm0006a.csp A-law codec
wfm0007a.csp u-law codec
wfm0011a.csp IMA ADPCM codec (distorted output for IMA test files)
wfm0200a.csp Creative ADPCM codec (sounds like Intel/DVI IMA ADPCM compatible)
wfm0202a.csp Fast Speech 8 codec
wfm0203a.csp Fast Speech 10 codec
These codecs are not yet supported by ALSA:
wfm0201a.csp Text2Speech decoder
Qsound microcode file has four functions, each function is a decoder for different sample rate. Rates for QSound functions #1, #2, #3 and
#4 are 44100, 22050, 11025 and 8000Hz respectively. IMA ADPCM and FastSpeech codecs are formed of two functions, the first one is for cap-
ture and the second one is for playback. A-law and u-law codecs have only one function. To load for example function #2 from QSound
microcode file (decoder for 22050Hz), run as follows:
% cspctl load -f 2 -d QSound wfm0001a.csp
After successful loading, /proc/asound/SB16/cspD2 will show:
Creative Signal Processor [v1.0]
State: -x--L
Codec: QSound [func #2]
Sample rates: 22050Hz
QSound decoder disabled
With QSound decoder microcode loaded, all simple PCM file formats can be played with QSound 180 degree positioning applied. QSound element
is dynamically added into mixer structure as 3DEffect1-space element. It will only show if support for CSP has been compiled into ALSA
drivers, CSP chip has been found, and QSound codec is loaded into CSP. When enabled, QSound position can be dynamically changed by mixer
slider, and proc interface should follow the state of CSP chip and its current QSound position:
Creative Signal Processor [v1.0]
State: Qx-RL
Codec: QSound [func #2]
Sample rates: 22050Hz
QSound decoder enabled
Processing 16bit mono PCM samples
Qsound position: left = 0x9, right = 0x9
Driver supports autoloading of u-Law, A-Law and Ima-ADPCM hardware codecs. Autoloading is active only when there is no microcode loaded to
CSP, and there is no need to preload appropriate *.csp files. To unload manually loaded microcode, you should run
% cspctl unload
If hardware codec microcode has been manually loaded, then CSP will support only loaded PCM format and autoloading will be disabled. In
such case, proc interface will show loaded codec properties:
Creative Signal Processor [v1.0]
State: -x--L
Codec: IMA-ADPCM [func #2]
Sample rates: All
PCM format ID: 0x400000 (16bit/-) [mono/stereo] [playback/-]
COMMANDS
load Load microcode from filename to CSP.
unload Unload microcode from CSP.
OPTIONS -h, --help
Display a short help.
-c card
Select a card number. Option defaults to 0.
-f function
Select a function from microcode file. Option defaults to 1.
-d description
Optional microcode description string.
AUTHOR
Uros Bizjak <uros@kss-loka.si>.
April 27, 2000 cspctl(1)