amd
- 128k context is the floor, and prefill is the wall
A 128k context fits easily in 128 GB of unified memory. Filling it took gpt-oss-120b 29 minutes, and one model's 64k prefill hit a GPU ring timeout.
- The download that contaminated the benchmark
A model download bent one row of a long-context benchmark. The queue built to stop that got deleted by systemd at boot, then met a real power cut.
- No BIOS image, so I diffed the NVRAM
No BIOS file to download, flashrom segfaults. So: change one setting, diff AmdSetup from efivarfs. The 85W preset turned out to do nothing.
- 120 GiB for the GPU, set in the kernel, not the BIOS
On a 128 GB Strix Halo box the BIOS's 96 G GPU setting leaves Linux 31 GiB. The minimum plus two TTM parameters gives the GPU 120 GiB.
- Installing Fedora on a computer that hadn't shipped yet
Fedora 45 was installed, Secure-Boot-tested and debugged in a container and QEMU before the A9 Mega first ran Linux. Then the hardware brought its own bugs.