Linus Torvalds switched to AMD processor for the first time in 15 years

For a long time, Linus Torvalds has been using Intel processors. In the recent Linux Kernel 5.7-rc7 announcement, Torvalds revealed that he upgraded his computer configuration and switched his main equipment to AMD Threadripper.

In fact, the biggest excitement this week for me was just that I upgraded my main machine, and for the first time in about 15 years, my desktop isn’t Intel-based. No, I didn’t switch to ARM yet, but I’m now rocking an AMD Threadripper 3970x. My ‘allmodconfig’ test builds are now three times faster than they used to be, which doesn’t atter so much right now during the calming down period, but I will most definitely notice the upgrade during the next merge window.

Torvalds has started using AMD-powered systems. So far, he has a good impression of how the Threadripper 3970x-powered system works.

The data shows that AMD Threadripper 3970X is a 32-core 64-thread CPU, based on the new 7nm process, Zen 2 architecture, the price is nearly $ 2,000. The basic frequency is 3.7GHz, the acceleration frequency is up to 4.5GHz, the third-level cache is 128MB, PCIe4.0 is natively supported, and the thermal design power consumption is 280W.