Can anyone report success with Intel ArrowLake Ultra 265K / 285K CPUs ?

drsnx60

drsnx60

Shuttle inc. is the process of launching a new barebone https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsDetail?pn=SB860R8&c=xpc-cube
that has the Intel Arrow Lake Ultra 5/7/9 cpus. with the Intel B860 chipset. ( the New CPU with the NPU subprocessor )
I have used three or five generations of these barebone chassies with no compatibility issues for freeBSD.

As the NPU is a new thing , does FreeBSD survive it being present ?
Has anyone at this point ever tried the ARROW LAKE CPU With FreeBSD ?

eg : https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/codename/225837/products-formerly-arrow-lake.html
 
Hello drsnx60!

I don't know about and haven't tried any explicit testing of the Arrow Lake NPU, but it seems that at least one Arrow Lake machine can boot, run, and self-compile FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT. :)

I didn't see any reference to "B860" in the full outputs quoted in part below.

Best wishes!

Tom

Code: 
tom@ultra:~ $ dmesg | cat -n
  [ . . . ]
     6  FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT #2 main-n283310-8352e24d0bc5: Fri Jan 23 02:46:12 UTC 2026
     7      root@ultra.metalvps.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/amd64.amd64/sys/GENERIC amd64
     8  FreeBSD clang version 19.1.7 (https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project.git llvmorg-19.1.7-0-gcd708029e0b2)
     9  WARNING: WITNESS option enabled, expect reduced performance.
    10  sysctl_register_oid: can't re-use a leaf (machdep.hwpstate_pkg_ctrl)!
    11  VT(vga): resolution 640x480
    12  CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 7 265 (2380.80-MHz K8-class CPU)
  [ . . . ]

Code: 
tom@ultra:~ $ pciconf -lv | cat -n 
  [ . . . ]
    25  none0@pci0:0:8:0:       class=0x088000 rev=0x10 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x8086 device=0xae4c subvendor=0x8086 subdevice=0x7270
    26      vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    27      device     = 'Arrow Lake-HX Gauss Newton Algorithm (GNA)'
    28      class      = base peripheral
    29  none1@pci0:0:11:0:      class=0x120000 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x8086 device=0xad1d subvendor=0x8086 subdevice=0x7270
    30      vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    31      device     = 'Arrow Lake NPU'
    32      class      = processing accelerators
    33      subclass   = processing accelerators
  [ . . . ]
 
Not_Oles said:
Hello drsnx60!

I don't know about and haven't tried any explicit testing of the Arrow Lake NPU, but it seems that at least one Arrow Lake machine can boot, run, and self-compile FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT. :)

I didn't see any reference to "B860" in the full outputs quoted in part below.

Best wishes!

Tom

Code: 
tom@ultra:~ $ dmesg | cat -n
  [ . . . ]
     6  FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT #2 main-n283310-8352e24d0bc5: Fri Jan 23 02:46:12 UTC 2026
     7      root@ultra.metalvps.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/amd64.amd64/sys/GENERIC amd64
     8  FreeBSD clang version 19.1.7 (https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project.git llvmorg-19.1.7-0-gcd708029e0b2)
     9  WARNING: WITNESS option enabled, expect reduced performance.
    10  sysctl_register_oid: can't re-use a leaf (machdep.hwpstate_pkg_ctrl)!
    11  VT(vga): resolution 640x480
    12  CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 7 265 (2380.80-MHz K8-class CPU)
  [ . . . ]

Code: 
tom@ultra:~ $ pciconf -lv | cat -n
  [ . . . ]
    25  none0@pci0:0:8:0:       class=0x088000 rev=0x10 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x8086 device=0xae4c subvendor=0x8086 subdevice=0x7270
    26      vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    27      device     = 'Arrow Lake-HX Gauss Newton Algorithm (GNA)'
    28      class      = base peripheral
    29  none1@pci0:0:11:0:      class=0x120000 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x8086 device=0xad1d subvendor=0x8086 subdevice=0x7270
    30      vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    31      device     = 'Arrow Lake NPU'
    32      class      = processing accelerators
    33      subclass   = processing accelerators
  [ . . . ]
Click to expand...
thats promising , thank you for sharing !
 
Aw crap - I've read 'NPU' and since NPU has stood for "Network Processing Unit" for at least 20+ years I was already excited that those core-ultra-thingies finally bring proper integrated networking (maybe even >10G) to the desktop like it has been available in the Xeon-D or server Atoms for ages.
Turns out those hipster kids re-used yet another acronym for some AI-related garbage...
 
sko said:
Aw crap - I've read 'NPU' and since NPU has stood for "Network Processing Unit" for at least 20+ years I was already excited that those core-ultra-thingies finally bring proper integrated networking (maybe even >10G) to the desktop like it has been available in the Xeon-D or server Atoms for ages.
Turns out those hipster kids re-used yet another acronym for some AI-related garbage...
Click to expand...
Yeah thats the next challenge , find/invent some software that actually use the processing capabilities of the GNA and the NPU !
otherwise itll be wasted silicone.
I wonder if any compiler produces code today that engages those two specific parts of the Arrow Lake processor.
 
drsnx60 said:
I wonder if any compiler produces code today that engages those two specific parts of the Arrow Lake processor.
Click to expand...
I also wondered. Google suggested, and so I learned about the existence of:
  • Intel oneAPI DPC++/C++ Compiler
  • OpenVINO Toolkit, and
  • Intel NPU Acceleration Library.
Best wishes!
 
Well, i have Z890 chipset, realtek nic.
iGPU does not work with drivers only scfb loaded so no multiple monitors.
NPU , usb and sound not tested yet, ipv6 with my related nic is buggy and i loose connection to my pc if i have ssh connection ( needed to add extra thing to rc.conf to solve it ) also had to use quick and dirty install of FreeBSD - used usb to rj45 nic to get access to internet as no connection found due to missing realtec driver/modules for my specific nic.
Later today i will have fully installed and setup pc and i can help you out with any questions you have .
 
Not_Oles said:
I also wondered. Google suggested, and so I learned about the existence of:
  • Intel oneAPI DPC++/C++ Compiler
  • OpenVINO Toolkit, and
  • Intel NPU Acceleration Library.
Best wishes!
Click to expand...
These parts are for Windows and Linux. Linux has ivpu drivers.
Im wonder if we can pass npu to linux jail or bhyve with linux and use it there or maybe someone from FBSD starts to implement these drivers to FBSD like with drm-kmods. Would be nice.

Im coming from Xeon E5`s - so the way FBSD launches is kinda fast ... blink and you miss it.
 
drsnx60 said:
As the NPU is a new thing , does FreeBSD survive it being present ?
Click to expand...
NPU is using AI with CPU. If i understand correctly it takes separate part of cpu to run things related to AI but like CPU it will take system memory.
So will FreeBSD survive without npu ? yes. will it affect us without npu ? No and with current RAM pricing - is better to have GPU than RAM + NPU.
 
drsnx60 said:
Thanks for all your answers:
I'm planning to acquire this product when it becomes orderable locally.


the shuttle XPC cubes has always been FreeBSD/LINUX/Foss friendly.
I have owned 6 of them from different generations historically.
Click to expand...
iGPU does not work properly at the moment, only with scfb, sound has no crackling trough dp and usb dac ( as in the past this was an issue ).
At the moment you wont be able to utilize your iGPU and FreeBSD on that system unless you ok with 1 screen and scfb and i dont know if you can use iGPU for transcoding ( jellyfin, plex)
I would say better to have intel nic than realtek like mine ( 8125 2.5G) as you have to do few extra steps to get it done but you need extra nic to get freebsd installed unless you use full iso not boot only but then you still have to have drivers for it.
Otherwise - i dont know what else is there wrong but im not that long ago got FreeBSD running with Arrow Lake.
I think B chipset is not worth it as you cant utilize K cpu`s and with K cpu`s and Z chipset you can undervolt and still have better performance than non K cpu. Also, i would wait a bit more until refresh comes in - 265 has 20 cores, 270 will have 24 cores, 285 has 24 and 290 will have - 24 cores they just clocks much higher. 265K is really worth looking at as price is 300 euros
I dont regret a bit getting Arrow Lake also i got RAM before all that AI bubble and 32GB 7200Mhz cost me 120 euros.
 
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