Linux kernel 6.5 with initial support USB4 Version 2.0 is out

Version 6.5 of the Linux kernel has been released. This kernel release will include improved support for AMD Ryzen CPUs and initial support for USB4 V2. The kernel will be used in Ubuntu 23.10 upon release.

Linux kernel 6.5 is now available, writes Linus Torvalds in the Linux mailing list. In the new kernel release, the AMD P-state EPP driver is used by default. That feature was previously available, but the ACPI CPUFreq driver was the default option. With the updated driver, Linux gets better support for P-states on AMD Zen 2 CPUs and newer. The kernel can thus manage the power consumption and performance of the cores more efficiently. Intel CPUs with a hybrid architecture, such as the Alder Lake and Raptor Lake series, also get better load balancing between P-cores and E-cores.

The USB4 Version 2.0 standard, which supports speeds of up to 80Gbit/s, will also receive initial support, although this standard is not yet fully supported. More support for Wi-Fi 7 has also been released. Furthermore, the kernel can now boot CPUs in parallel. This should shorten the boot times of servers with multiple sockets. Linux 6.5 will be rolled out to Linux distros in the near future. For example, this version of the kernel is used in Ubuntu 23.10when that distro releases in October.