New Linux Support for Zen 6 "Low Power" Cores Lines Up with Previous PS6 Handheld Rumour

It's rumoured that Sony is working on both a handheld and a home console for the upcoming PlayStation 6 generation, so it was with considerable interest that tech outlet Guru3D spotted a new kernel patch detailing support for low power AMD CPU cores that could be used in the PlayStation 6 handheld.

Current-generation AMD Ryzen CPUs can feature full-fat Zen 5 cores or compact Zen 5c cores, the latter of which are denser designs in aid of power efficiency, frequency and die area. These are termed "power" and "efficiency" cores in the Linux kernel, following the Intel naming conventions, so the addition of a third "low power" core in the Extended CPU Topology interface is notable.

The kernel description states that "minimise power consumption during background or idle workloads", thereby increasing efficiency in power-limited scenarios.

This series expands the x86 topology cpu_type classification to support a low-power core type in addition to the existing performance and efficiency types. AMD heterogeneous processors report their core type via CPUID Fn0x80000026 EBX [31:28] (Extended CPU Topology, Core Type). A value of 2 indicates a low-power core designed to minimize power consumption during background or idle workloads.

While the Linux kernel often adds support for hardware well in advance of release, this particular addition is interesting as it lines up with a claim from leak reporter Moore's Law Is Dead alleging that the Canis PS6 handheld APU would feature four Zen 6c cores and two Zen 6 low power cores. The kernel change is no guarantee of the entire handheld rumour's legitimacy of course, but it is an interesting development nonetheless.

It's interesting to consider whether these low power cores would be used in desktop silicon as well - or whether they would be only featured in mobile and handheld processors where they are a more obvious inclusion.

For now, it's too early to tell, but with Zen 6 expected to arrive sometime around early 2027 and the PlayStation 6 sometime in the following two years, it's likely that the rumour mill will only gather speed as we approach the end of the year.

What do you make of the rumour? Let me know in the comments below.