AMD's future microprocessors could increase their microcode size by over two times compared to existing AMD CPUs, according to a new Linux patch spotted by Phoronix. The increased microcode size may suggest that AMD's upcoming processors based on the Zen 5 microarchitecture and its successors will support more complex instructions or will be able to add new features after release — or maybe AMD just wants to ensure that it can update microcodes in a more thorough manner.
The maximum microcode patch size for AMD CPUs that the Linux kernel currently supports is 12KB (three times the Linux kernel page size of 4096 bytes). The latest patch released by AMD for future CPUs (most likely those based on Zen 5, or perhaps its successors) indicates that microcode size could increase all the way to 32KB — or eight times the Linux kernel page size.
