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 . 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 sys-
       tem  boot  i.e. it doesn't reflash your cpu permanently, 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    or  Tigran
       Aivazian 

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 FITNESS FOR A PARTICU-
       LAR 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/kernel/microcode.c

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



microcode_ctl		       19 January 2006		     MICROCODE_CTL(8)

UNIX/Linux commands referenced on this page:

1. reboot
2. display
3. free
4. write
5. view
6. more