microcode_ctl(8) [redhat man page]

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)

Check Out this Related Man Page

CPUCTL(8)						    BSD System Manager's Manual 						 CPUCTL(8)

NAME

     cpuctl -- program to control CPUs

SYNOPSIS

     cpuctl command [arguments]

DESCRIPTION

     The cpuctl command can be used to control and inspect the state of CPUs in the system.

     The first argument, command, specifies the action to take.  Valid commands are:

     identify cpu     Output information on the specified CPU's features and capabilities.  Not available on all architectures.

     list	      For each CPU in the system, display the current state and time of the last state change.

     offline cpuno    Set the specified CPU off line.

		      Unbound LWPs (lightweight processes) will not be executed on the CPU while it is off line.  Bound LWPs will continue to be
		      executed on the CPU, and device interrupts routed to the CPU will continue to be handled.  A future release of the system
		      may allow device interrupts to be re-routed away from individual CPUs.

		      At least one CPU in the system must remain on line.

     online cpuno     Set the specified CPU on line, making it available to run unbound LWPs.

     ucode [file]     This applies the microcode patch on all CPUs.  The default filename is used if no filename is specified.	The identify com-
		      mand prints the installed version on that CPU.  On success the identify command show different ucode versions before and
		      after this command.

FILES

     /dev/cpuctl  control device
     /libdata/firmware/x86/amd/
		  The directory to install the microcode file for AMD CPUs into.  The default filename is microcode_amd.bin for CPU families 0x10
		  to 0x14.  The default filename is microcode_amd_famXXh.bin where XX is the CPU family starting with 15 (hex).  Get it from
		  http://www.amd64.org/support/microcode.html

EXAMPLES

     Run
	   cpuctl identify 0
     and you should see something like this:

	   cpu0: UCode version: 0x1000080

     After applying the microcode patch with
	   cpuctl ucode
     you can see with
	   cpuctl identify 0
     that the patch got applied:

	   cpu0: UCode version: 0x1000083

SEE ALSO

     psrset(8), schedctl(8)

HISTORY

     The cpuctl command first appeared in NetBSD 5.0.

BSD
								 January 13, 2012							       BSD

Linux and UNIX Man Pages

microcode_ctl(8) [redhat man page]

Check Out this Related Man Page