Hardware

Hardware compatibility

Outcome: Choose the Linux or LexiKernel boot entry using measured evidence, not the mere presence of a driver in the source tree. The development USB image targets x86-64 UEFI hardware, a bootable USB device of 8 GB or more and a supported network path.

Inference GPU evidence

GPU	Engine lane	Evidence and boundary
Radeon RX 7900 XTX	Vulkan	Primary measured card. On a Linux 7.3 benchmark host with a 291 W cap, Qwen3.8 27B results are in Benchmarks. Also used on LexiOS from USB for the 1.7B test.
GeForce RTX 2060	CUDA	Supported engine lane; not re-measured on the November 2026 benchmark commit.
Intel UHD 630 / Gen9	Vulkan	Engine runs using the Intel ANV Vulkan implementation; no claimed contemporary performance table.

The engine also has a CPU lane (and Metal on macOS builds), but CPU speed and available GPU memory will vary with model and system. Device capability probing and model-fit planning are available in Instances, Power and Hardware and Fit Lab. A supported GPU on Linux does not imply a working native LexiKernel GPU driver.

LexiKernel platform prerequisites

• x86-64 hardware with IOMMU enabled and functioning: Intel VT-d or AMD AMD-Vi. LexiKernel refuses to boot without this isolation capability.
• xHCI USB for the boot/storage path. The current boot medium is USB; image installation does not require writing an internal disk.
• A supported connected network adapter; the physical device family and revision matter. No network link means remote Panel access will not succeed.
• Secure Boot, if enabled, requires the LexiSuite development certificate appended to firmware db. Physical Secure Boot boot has not yet been confirmed.

LexiKernel device and driver evidence

Device / driver family	Reported coverage	Validation scope
Intel e1000, e1000e, igb	Ethernet	Virtual-machine tests with Intel and AMD IOMMU modes; load tested.
Intel I219	Ethernet	Physical ThinkPad P71, network brought up and Panel served (Nov 3, 2026).
Intel I225 (igc)	Ethernet	Written, not run on hardware.
Virtio network / block	Virtual I/O	VM tested with both IOMMU types.
USB CDC ECM / NCM Ethernet	USB networking	ECM tested with emulated USB network device; NCM not hardware-tested.
Realtek RTL8125B 2.5G, RTL8168/8169	Ethernet	RTL8125B on a physical MSI X570 board (11/12/2026): address over DHCP, Panel served to another machine, ping answered. RTL8168/8169: emulated/unit tests only. RTL8125B rejects unsupported chip revisions.
xHCI and USB mass storage	USB host / media	Physical ThinkPad P71 boot and storage test (Nov 3, 2026).
NVMe / AHCI	Storage	NVMe 1.2 and later. Two NVMe 1.3 drives bound on a physical Ryzen desktop (11/12/2026), read-only until approved; otherwise VM tested. No broad physical-device compatibility claim.
Native AMD Navi 31 (RDNA3) GPU	Firmware, power, memory hubs, scheduler firmware, queues, interrupts, render-node components	Physical RX 7900 XTX passed through to LexiKernel (11/11/2026): firmware loaded, power controller up, scheduler firmware maps a compute queue, a command buffer from a user address space completes with an interrupt. No shader, no native Vulkan yet; GPU work still uses a Linux driver-domain guest.
Native NVIDIA Turing GPU	GSP firmware path, resource-manager objects, card memory, command channel	Physical RTX 2060 passed through to LexiKernel (11/12/2026): the firmware-security image, booter and GSP firmware run; the firmware identifies the card and lists its ten engines; the instance-memory window works; a host-owned GPU address space and a command channel on a copy engine are accepted; one copy-engine job copies a 4 KiB page correctly. Bring-up builds only (boot option, vendor firmware not in the release image). No graphics or compute context, no shader, no model work yet.

The ThinkPad P71 is a specific tested machine, not a guarantee that all laptops of its generation or all NIC revisions work. A boot with Secure Boot verified by a physical PC's firmware remains open.

AMD Ryzen desktops

LexiKernel was first started on an MSI X570 board with a Ryzen 9 5900X on 11/08/2026. Three problems found there were fixed and are covered by the VM qualification, and on 11/12/2026 image 3db31f8 and its predecessors of the same day were booted on that PC:

• The CPU reports INVPCID without PCID: LexiKernel now runs address spaces untagged on such CPUs.
• Every USB controller and the network card sit behind PCIe ports, which LexiKernel left closed to DMA, so USB storage was never found. Ports on a device's path are now opened when that device starts DMA.
• When the PC does not verify the stick, a development image now asks before starting unverified (see Secure Boot).

On 11/12/2026 that PC (24 CPUs, AMD IOMMU, RTL8125B, two NVMe drives) boots LexiKernel to the local console:

• Both NVMe drives bind (the driver had refused NVMe 1.3; it needs nothing newer than 1.2).
• The RTL8125B binds, takes its address over DHCP, serves the Panel to another machine and answers ping. Two faults were found on the chip and fixed: its registers read as all ones because firmware had left memory decoding off, and receive stopped after 64 frames because the chip overwrites a descriptor's buffer address.
• The USB keyboard works on the local console: type a letter and Enter. N, U and Y answer on the screen; R and P ask for a typed confirmation. The other actions are done from the Panel.

Boot decision and inventory

1. Prefer 2 LexiOS on Linux 7.4 for first contact, GPU support and wider operating-system services; the current image uses 7.4-rc2. Earlier testing media had Linux 7.3.
2. For 1 LexiKernel, check IOMMU and supported USB/networking in firmware and local device documentation before boot. If the kernel refuses unsupported hardware, do not disable protection simply to reach the Panel.
3. After boot, consult System / Hardware and Power for available telemetry; compare selected GPU and memory against the intended GGUF and context. Fit Lab can estimate whether a quantization fits.
4. Record successful kernel, device model/revision, engine lane and any unavailable status when reporting a compatibility problem. A missing telemetry counter is not a zero reading.

Device controls

Choice / control	Consequence
Firmware VT-d / AMD-Vi	Enables DMA translation required by LexiKernel; lack of it blocks boot.
Kernel choice: Linux 7.4 / LexiKernel	Changes driver and system service coverage without changing hardware.
Instance device selector	Assigns CPU, a specific GPU or a supported multi-device configuration to that instance.
Power / Hardware telemetry	Displays supported counters; an unsupported LexiKernel readout must not be treated as measured data.
Model fit / quantization planner	Estimates memory needs; it does not prove real-hardware stability or quality.

See Kernels, Benchmarks, Troubleshooting and Release Notes.