MICROCODE_CTL(8)                                                                                                MICROCODE_CTL(8)



NAME
       microcode_ctl - microcode utility for Intel IA32 processors

SYNOPSIS
       microcode_ctl [-h] [-u [-q]] [-Q] [-f microcode]

DESCRIPTION
       The   microcode_ctl   utility   is   a   companion   to   the   IA32   microcode   driver   written  by  Tigran  Aivazian
       <tigranATaivazian.uk>. The utility has two uses:

       a) it decodes and sends new microcode to the kernel driver to be uploaded to Intel IA32 processors.  (Pentium  Pro,  PII,
       Celeron, PIII, Xeon, Pentium 4 etc)

       b)  it  signals  the kernel driver to release the buffers containing the copy of microcode data actually applied to given
       CPU, linear array of 2048 bytes per CPU, see struct microcode in include/asm/processor.h for information on the layout of
       chunks buffers may hold

       The  microcode  update  is  volatile and needs to be uploaded on each system boot i.e. it doesn't reflash your cpu perma-
       nently, reboot and it reverts back to the old microcode.

       -h     display usage and exit

       -u     upload microcode (from default filename)

       -f     upload microcode from named Intel formatted file

       -q     run silently when successful

       -Q     run silently even on failure

EXAMPLE
       microcode_ctl -u
              Upload microcode using defaults

FILES
       /etc/microcode.dat
              The default microcode location

AUTHOR
       Microcode utility written by Simon Trimmer
       Linux Kernel driver written by Tigran Aivazian.

REPORTING BUGS
       Report bugs to either Simon Trimmer <simonATurbanmyth.org> or Tigran Aivazian <tigranATaivazian.uk>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2000 VERITAS Software
       This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FIT-
       NESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

SPECIAL THANKS
       Thanks to the Intel Corporation, for supplying microcode update data and publishing the specifications that enabled us to
       write microcode driver for Linux.

SEE ALSO
       The brave are recommended to view the driver source code located in  the  Linux  Kernel  source  tree  in  arch/i386/ker-
       nel/microcode.c

       Visit http://www.urbanmyth.org/microcode/ for more information and microcode updates.



microcode_ctl                                           19 September 2006                                       MICROCODE_CTL(8)