Avijit/18.1-rc0

[avijit-nervana]

This is patch release for changes since 18.0

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[avijit-nervana]

@googlebot I consent.

[XWangIntel]

@googlebot I consent

[googlebot]

CLAs look good, thanks!

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[shresthamalik]

Probably needs a merge with master to get cpu-variables pipeline running. Not seeing an option to update the branch

[sindhu-nervana]

@shresthamalik This PR is branched off r0.18

[shresthamalik]

So the only way to get the pipeline running on this PR is by cherrypicking the commit