Gentoo ended out last year by beginning to optionally provide binary packages for direct installation. This lowers the barrier for using Gentoo Linux and also works out well for low-end/embedded systems rather than always compiling source packages locally. They’ve now taken their binary position a step further by also offering up x86-64-v3 packages.
Gentoo is joining the likes of Serpent OS, RHEL 10, Ubuntu and other Linux distributions that are optionally providing x86-64-v3 packages or currently exploring the possibilities of doing so or even raising their x86_64 baseline in the future. There’s also some like openSUSE Tumbleweed and Clear Linux that have long been offering various x86-64 micro-architecture feature level optimized packages.
For those making use of Gentoo’s binary packages, the x86-64-v3 ISA packages are now available on supported systems. Users can replace the “x86-64” references in their Portage sync URIs with “x86-64-v3” to obtain the optimized packages.
The x86-64-v3 baseline mandates AVX/AVX2, BMI2, FMA, and various other newer CPU instruction set extensions typically found since Intel Haswell and AMD Excavator processors. For most users running relatively recent systems (sans the likes of Intel Atom), making use of x86-64-v3 packages is an easy means of achieving greater out-of-the-box performance.
More details on Gentoo Linux now offering up x86-64-v3 binary packages via Gentoo.org.
