While there is the AMDXDNA accelerator driver that was upstreamed to the mainline kernel earlier this year with Linux 6.14 for supporting the AMD Ryzen AI NPUs and also their AIE Plugin for IREE user-space components, it seems something more is on the way.
AMD was late in getting their Ryzen AI NPU support out for Linux but for a few months now the kernel accelerator driver is in the mainline kernel and the associated user-space software/toolchain is publicly available via GitHub. Thus coming as a surprise three weeks ago was an announcement of a Linux runtime stack “preview” now being available:
“A preview version of the Linux runtime stack is now available on the Ryzen AI SW Early Access Secure Site. People interested in testing the flow can request access here: https://account.amd.com/en/member/ryzenai-sw-ea.html”
The mentioned URL just takes users to a sign-on page. I have sought clarification from AMD about this Linux runtime stack preview for Ryzen AI, but alas no response on the matter. I’d have to guess that it’s just a packaged-up DKMS version of the Ryzen AI AMDXDNA kernel driver for use on enterprise Linux distributions with older kernel versions and similarly a build of their iree-amd-aie user-space bits.
In any event any improvements to their AMD Ryzen AI NPU stack for Linux is much welcome in making it more useful and practical for Linux customers. We are also still waiting to hear anything more on their Unified AI Software Stack plans.
