The x86/cpu changes have been merged for the Linux 7.2 kernel with an interesting span of changes covering 36 years from the Intel 486 days up to adding the new "rugged" Panther Lake variant.

In Linux 7.1 the Intel 486 CPU support was retired and began to see the code removed. That removal process is continuing for Linux 7.2 with AMD Elan drivers being removed alongside various other Intel/AMD i486 code remnants in the kernel. The x86/cpu changes for Linux 7.2 now make Time Stamp Counter (TSC) support unconditional, CX8 support is now also unconditional, dropping the "no387" boot option, and other old i486 code is also removed.

In addition to clearing out the old i486 code, the x86/cpu pull for Linux 6.2 introduces a new centralized CPUID parser for the kernel and a centralized CPUID data model.

This pull request also includes Panther Lake R as the new "rugged" version of Panther Lake as first reported on Phoronix last month. That CPU model ID is now in place for Linux 7.2 and beyond that no other kernel changes were needed over the base Panther Lake support.

The full list of x86/cpu changes for Linux 7.2 can be found via this pull that is already merged to Linux Git.