Intel Thunder Bay Is Formally Canceled, Linux Driver Code To Be Eliminated
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I hadn’t heard any mentions of Intel’s Thunder Bay in fairly some time moreover the occasional Linux kernel patch whereas now it has been formally confirmed as a cancelled Intel product and the Linux driver code being labored on the previous 2+ years is on the chopping block.
Thunder Bay was a SoC initially rumored as that includes a mixture of Intel (Xeon) CPU cores and Movidius VPU cores. Intel acquired Movidius again in 2016 for his or her low-power laptop imaginative and prescient (CV) processor designs. The Movidius IP wound up in Intel’s Neural Compute Stick, Intel drones, the Intel RealSense Monitoring Digital camera, and most lately is the Intel Movidius 3700VC VPU.
Thunder Bay help started showing within the mainline Linux kernel in 2021 and have work continued to be upstreamed by means of mid-2022.
There wasn’t a lot official data on Thunder Bay the previous ~3 years however the Linux patches over this time helped shed some gentle on it. Whereas it was rumored as a mixture of Intel x86 cores with Movidius VPU cores, the precise Linux patches to materialize indicated it as Arm Cortex A53 cores with the Movidius VPU.
Intel Keem Bay
The Linux patches made it seem extra as a successor to the Keem Bay add-in accelerator card fairly than some Intel x86 SoC/CPU with VPU capabilities.
In any occasion, Thunder Bay is useless. Revealed yesterday have been a set of patches starting to take away the Thunder Bay code from the Linux kernel. The Thunder Bay removing began with the eMMC patches whereas presumably will comply with to different areas as properly. The patches clarify:
“Take away Thunder Bay particular code because the product obtained cancelled and there aren’t any finish prospects or customers.”
So lengthy, Thunder Bay.