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Is it possible to use the NPU as "another" CPU? (self.linux4noobs)

submitted 1 month ago by GustavoM to c/linux4noobs

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Title. In other words, to make the system redirect workload to the NPU -first- and then to the CPU when it reaches 100% usage? Like both NPU and CPU were a single, huge CPU instead of being separated?

Thanks in advance.

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[–] GustavoM 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Well, then -- how about making the NPU process zram workloads (only)? I'd even ask "how about making it behave like a GPU instead of a NPU" but eh, I don't think it'd top or even have a similar performance than... any GPU available in the market?

why you would want to do that.

Because apparently everyone and their mother wants to stick a NPU on every PC, and I'm not planning on using AI ever, so... why not give it another purpose instead of letting it collect dust?

-EDIT- Oh, how about making the NPU behave like a CPU but it (only) process "low-process-demanding" applications like video editors, window managers, etc? If anything, freeing up a few extra %'s might be a good idea for a few PCs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

To be clear, I'm not saying your idea is bad, just that I don't see practical benefits to making use of it, other than "it's there doing nothing." That might just as easily be my lack of imagination.

If anything, freeing up a few extra %'s might be a good idea for a few PCs.

I like the way you think, and perhaps there's a use case there. I have to wonder how much of a performance bump you'd get by doing something like that; min/maxing doesn't really interest me, so I'll wait to see benchmarks of anyone who actually tries something like this.