Linux drivers confirm the existence of xgmi, the new technology from amd

The new AMD Vega 20 graphics core was expected to introduce XGMI as a high-speed GPU interconnect alternative to PCI Express, something that was finally confirmed thanks to a new set of AMDGPU driver patches for Linux.

XGMI is the alternative to NVLink

XGMI is a point-to-point high-speed interconnect based on Infinity Fabric. XGMI is basically AMD's alternative to Nvidia's NVLink to interconnect GPUs in the same system in a very efficient way.

We recommend reading our post about AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Review in Spanish

The previously leaked slides indicated that XGMI would be compatible with Vega 20 along with PCI Express 4.0. Today we have leaked a set of patches that connect XGMI support to AMDGPU Direct Rendering Manager driver, and that explicitly enable functionality for Vega 20. The next AMD AMD server architecture is also expected to support XGMI.

This is the first time we have seen XGMI patches for the AMDGPU Linux driver. For now, they can be found in the amd-gfx list, but they will likely be queued up below for introduction to the Linux 4.20 ~ 5.0 kernel, as part of their latest Vega 20 enablement job.

Overall, support for the Vega 20 open source Linux driver seems to be fine-tuning in time for this kernel built at 7nm which is expected to launch by the end of 2018. Details are still sparse, but open source patches have confirmed it's a discreet card, add new deep learning instructions etc. With the next kernel cycle known as Linux 4.20 or 5.0, Vega 20 driver support is no longer experimental. For now it is not known if XGMI will end up reaching the gaming market.

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