2 .TH MICROCODE_CTL "8" "19 January 2006" "microcode_ctl"
4 microcode_ctl \- microcode utility for Intel IA32 processors
7 [\fI\-h\fR] [\fI\-u\fR [\fI\-q\fR]] [\fI\-Q\fR] [\fI\-f microcode\fR]
10 ." Add any additional description here
12 The microcode_ctl utility is a companion to the IA32 microcode driver written
13 by Tigran Aivazian <tigran@veritas.com>. The utility has two uses:
16 \fBa)\fR it decodes and sends new microcode to the kernel driver to be
17 uploaded to Intel IA32 processors. (Pentium Pro, PII, Celeron, PIII,
20 \fBb)\fR it signals the kernel driver to release the buffers containing the
21 copy of microcode data actually applied to given CPU, linear array of 2048
22 bytes per CPU, see struct microcode in include/asm/processor.h for
23 information on the layout of chunks buffers may hold
26 The microcode update is volatile and needs to be uploaded on each system
27 boot i.e. it doesn't reflash your cpu permanently, reboot and it reverts
28 back to the old microcode.
32 display usage and exit
35 upload microcode (from default filename)
38 upload microcode from named Intel formatted file
41 run silently when successful
44 run silently even on failure
49 Upload microcode using defaults
53 The default microcode location
56 Microcode utility written by Simon Trimmer
58 Linux Kernel driver written by Tigran Aivazian.
60 Report bugs to either Simon Trimmer <simon@urbanmyth.org> or
61 Tigran Aivazian <tigran@veritas.com>
63 Copyright \(co 2000 VERITAS Software
65 This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
66 warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
68 Thanks to the Intel Corporation, for supplying microcode update data and
69 publishing the specifications that enabled us to write microcode driver for
73 The brave are recommended to view the driver source code located in the
74 Linux Kernel source tree in arch/i386/kernel/microcode.c
76 Visit http://www.urbanmyth.org/microcode/ for more information
77 and microcode updates.