Version History/Revision History

These are the main releases of Intel® TCC Tools:

Customer Support

Contact your Intel representative for support or submit an issue to Intel® Premier Support.

Introduction

Intel® TCC Tools is a collection of C language APIs, tools, sample applications, and supporting documentation that enable you to take advantage of real-time features on selected Intel® processors.

This document provides system requirements, installation instructions, issues and limitations, and legal information.

To learn more about this product, see:

• Features listed in the Features in This Release section below.

• Reference documentation listed in the Integrating Cache Reservation Library section below.

• Installation instructions are in the Get Started Guide for UEFI BIOS or the Get Started Guide for Slim Bootloader.

Features in This Release

New Features in 2022.2.0

• Added support for 12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors with two firmware types: UEFI BIOS and Slim bootloader, for all Intel® TCC Tools features, except real-time communication demo and “Profile Applications with VTune™ Profiler” tutorial.

• Added support for Intel® Xeon® D-2700T and D-1700T Series Processors:

  • Data streams optimizer

  • Cache configurator

  • Cache allocation library and sample

  • Real-time readiness checker

  • Measurement library and samples

• Added support for Linux* kernel version 5.15

Updates to existing features

• Data streams optimizer: for Intel Atom® x6000E Series Processors, root port for the producer on Bus:Device.Function (BDF) 02:00.0 issues were fixed.

Unsupported or Discontinued Features

• The TCC Tools 2022.2 release will be the final release supporting data streams optimizer and cache configurator tools. After this release, no new functionality or support for new platforms will be added for those tools. Maintenance updates of these tools will be produced as needed.

Fixed Issues

• On 12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors, fixed an issue where calling tcc_setup_ssram.sh disable --verify displays an incorrect message about system configuration.

• Time-Aware GPIO:

  • On Intel Atom® x6000E Series Processors with Slim Bootloader, fixed an issue with Software GPIO which now enables use of the Advanced Time-Aware GPIO (TGPIO) Sample. This sample does a comparison of software GPIO vs Time-Aware GPIO.

• Ethernet Timestamps Sample

  • On 12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors, fixed the issue where starting the Ethernet Timestamps Sample stops the synchronization script tcc_ethernet_sample_start_synchronization and that after restarting the synchronization script, ph2sys shows very big offsets.

Known Issues

• The system may hang when using the Write Cache (WRC) on 11th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors and Intel® Xeon® W-11000E Series Processors.

• The system may hang when Intel® TCC Mode and Real-Time Configuration Manager (RTCM) are disabled on Intel® Xeon® W-11000E Series Processors.

• After using the tcc_setup.py script to install files on the target system, the /usr/share/tcc_tools/tools directory has only write permissions for Group and Other owners. You can only access the files in this folder with the account that was used to run the tcc_setup.py script.

• Data streams optimizer:

  • In rare cases, the tcc_data_streams_optimizer_preprod tool may not be able to write files into the output directory. Change the umask to 0755 or set the permission to the output directory manually.

  • On 11th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors, the system may freeze intermittently when running the reboot command. If the system detects hardware errors, the Functional Safety (FuSa) feature, PCIe* Interrupt Error Handling (IEH), may attempt an additional system reset that can get stuck with POST error code 0x0b7f. Perform a hard reset to regain control of the system. Temporary resolution for system freezing after reboot: Disable IEH in the BIOS menu: Intel Advanced Menu/PCH-IO Configuration/IEH Mode = Bypass Mode.

  • On the Intel Atom® x6000E Series Processors SKU10, enabling Intel® TCC feature using SBL while booting Yocto Project*-based OS from the USB may lead to a boot failure. The temporary solution is to use the M.2 form factor for Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) hardware interface to boot up the Yocto Project-based OS to avoid timing issues.

  • The Intel® Xeon® D-1700T Series Processors have missing configurations for BDF address 0:14:0:0. As a workaround, provide supported BDF in the requirement file. Tuning will work as expected because the tuning is not related to the BDF.

  • On the Intel® Xeon® D-2700T and D-1700T Series Processors, you would not see the demonstrated performance because the Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology) is enabled. As a workaround, reboot your system after applying the capsule. Let the system warm up for at least 10 minutes after rebooting, to disable Intel® HT Technology so that you can see a better performance. To see a better performance difference with MMIO-Read Latency (MRL) Sample, run stress-ng on all cores except performance (on which MRL Sample will be run) with the command stress-ng --taskset <core_list> --memthrash 1 --memthrash-method all.

• Measurement library: Applications using the measurement library may not read all collected values from the shared memory.

• Cache allocation:

  • The cache configurator and cache allocation library work incorrectly with Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology enabled. The cache configurator may generate the wrong content for BIOS capsules. The resulting configuration may be different from expectation or may cause unexpected system issues.

  • On 11th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors and Intel Atom® x6000E Series Processors, VTune™ Profiler may cause the system to freeze during the cache allocation sample measurement when RTCM is enabled.

• Real-time communication demo:

  • Running in SISO-single or basic mode sometimes does not correctly configure IP addresses during the setup phase. Best-effort traffic is not generated.

  • At least one message is always lost.

• Certain features can detect the processor model of the target system. These features may report errors when they detect processors that have CPUID 0000.

  • If the real-time readiness checker reports NON_RT_READY in this case, you can proceed with using Intel® TCC Tools.

  • If tcc_setup_ssram.sh reports an error, specify the platform in the command line.

  • If data streams optimizer reports an error, specify the platform in the environment file. Cache configurator is unsupported in this case.

• Time-Aware GPIO:

  • On 12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors, Software GPIO is unavailable because of new kernel restrictions for sysfs, which blocks the Advanced Time-Aware GPIO (TGPIO) Sample (comparison of software GPIO vs Time-Aware GPIO).

Limitations

• The cache configurator requires binary compatibility with real-time configuration data (RTCD) at the BIOS level. If a BIOS update changes the RTCD binary structure, it may cause issues with the cache configurator. For a list of supported BIOS versions, see BIOS/Firmware Version.

• If an application accesses the L2 software SRAM buffer and is subsequently migrated to a different core which does not share the same L2 cache, and continues to access the L2 software SRAM buffer, the performance of the software SRAM may diminish.

Integrating Cache Reservation Library

Integrating the Cache Reservation Library (CRL) is necessary to enable Software SRAM on your Intel® platform. For information on which version of the Cache Reservation Library (CRL) you need for your Intel® platform, see Cache Reservation Library (CRL) Integration for Intel® Platforms to Enable Intel® TCC.

Related Documentation

Online documentation:

• Get Started Guide for UEFI BIOS

• Get Started Guide for Slim Bootloader

• Developer Guide

The Intel® TCC Tools package also contains documentation in the following directories:

• API reference: /usr/share/tcc_tools/documentation/api/index.html

• Sample sources: /usr/share/tcc_tools/samples

• Sample binaries: /usr/bin

Where to Find the Release

You can find the release on the product page.

Release Content

The following table lists revision numbers of components of the Intel® TCC Tools release.

Hardware and Software Compatibility

This release is compatible with the following hardware:

• Intel® Xeon® D-2700T and D-1700T Series Processors reference validation platform with a supported processor:

  • Intel® Xeon® D-2752TER Processor

  • Intel® Xeon® D-1746TER Processor

  • Intel® Xeon® D-1715TER Processor

  • Intel® Xeon® D-1735TR Processor

  • Intel® Xeon® D-1712TR Processor

• Intel® Xeon® W-11000E Series Processors reference validation platform with a supported processor:

  • Intel® Xeon® W-11865MRE Processor

  • Intel® Xeon® W-11865MLE Processor

  • Intel® Xeon® W-11555MRE Processor

  • Intel® Xeon® W-11555MLE Processor

  • Intel® Xeon® W-11155MRE Processor

  • Intel® Xeon® W-11155MLE Processor

• 12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors reference validation platform with a supported processor when it is paired with Intel® R680E Platform Controller Hub (PCH):

  • 12th Generation Intel® Core™ i9-12900E Processor

  • 12th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-12700E Processor

  • 12th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-12500E Processor

  • 12th Generation Intel® Core™ i3-12100E Processor

• 11th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors DDR4 customer reference board with a supported processor:

  • 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-1185GRE Processor

  • 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-1145GRE Processor

  • 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i3-1115GRE Processor

• Intel Atom® x6000E Series Processors reference validation platform with a supported processor:

  • Intel Atom® x6200FE Processor

  • Intel Atom® x6212RE Processor

  • Intel Atom® x6414RE Processor

  • Intel Atom® x6425RE Processor

  • Intel Atom® x6427FE Processor

To acquire these boards, contact your Intel representative.

For additional requirements, see the following documents:

• Get Started Guide for UEFI BIOS

• Get Started Guide for Slim Bootloader

BIOS/Firmware Version

• For Intel® Xeon® D-2700TER Processor, Intel has validated this release with version IDVICRB1.SBT.0024.D26.2211041831. IFWI version: 0024.D26

• For Intel® Xeon® D-1700T Series Processors, Intel has validated this release with version IDVICRB1.SBT.0024.D26.2211041831. IFWI version: 0024.D26

• For Intel® Xeon® W-11000E Series Processors, Intel has validated this release with version TGLIFUI1.R00.5143.A02.2206301258. IFWI version: v5285_01

• For 12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors, Intel has validated this release with version ADLSFWI1.R00.3381.B00.2209130710. IFWI version: v3381_00

• For 11th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors, Intel has validated this release with version TGLIFUI1.R00.5345.A01.2210311134. IFWI version: v5455_01

• For Intel Atom® x6000E Series Processors, Intel has validated this release with version EHLSFWI1.R00.4305.A01.2207220720. IFWI version: v4326_00

SBL IFWI

• For Intel® Xeon® W-11000E Series Processors, Intel has validated this release with version SB_TGL.001.001.000.001.006.00008.D-22411F413FE600E5-dirty.

• For 12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors, Intel has validated this release with version SB_ADL.001.001.000.001.003.00022.D-E0C6D86112C91A18-dirty.

• For 11th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors, Intel has validated this release with version SB_TGL.001.001.000.001.006.00008.D-22411F413FE600E5-dirty.

• For Intel Atom® x6000E Series Processors, Intel has validated this release with version SB_EHL.001.001.000.001.005.00009.D-7D0D711BF7318BEE-dirty.

Supported Operating Systems

This release supports the Linux* operating systems.

Validated operating systems:

• Host: Ubuntu* 20.04 LTS

• Target: Yocto Project*-based board support package releases:

  • Intel® Xeon® D-2700TER Processor MR1 release

  • Intel® Xeon® D-1700T Series Processors MR1 release

  • Intel® Xeon® W-11000E Series Processors MR5 release

  • 12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors MR3 release

  • 11th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors MR7 release

  • Intel Atom® x6000E Series Processors MR5 release

• Target: Windows* 10 OS for data streams optimizer (DSO) only.

Notices and Disclaimers

See backup for configuration details. For more complete information about performance and be​nchmark results, visit www.intel.com/benchmarks

Intel technologies may require enabled hardware, software or service activation.

No product or component can be absolutely secure.

All product plans and roadmaps are subject to change without notice.

Includes the effect of Intel Thermal Velocity Boost, a feature that opportunistically and automatically increases clock frequency above single-core and multi-core Intel Turbo Boost Technology frequencies based on how much the processor is operating below its maximum temperature and whether turbo power budget is available. The frequency gain and duration is dependent on the workload, capabilities of the processor and the processor cooling solution.

Statements in this document that refer to future plans or expectations are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and involve many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. For more information on the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, see our most recent earnings release and SEC filings at www.intc.com.

Copies of documents which have an order number and are referenced in this document may be obtained by calling 1-800-548-4725 or visiting www.intel.com/design/literature.htm.

Customer is responsible for safety of the overall system, including compliance with applicable safety-related requirements or standards.

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