Hardware compatibility

Outcome: Choose the Linux or LexiKernel boot entry using measured evidence, not the mere presence of a driver in the source tree. The development USB image targets x86-64 UEFI hardware, a bootable USB device of 8 GB or more and a supported network path.

Inference GPU evidence

GPU	Engine lane	Evidence and boundary
Radeon RX 7900 XTX	Vulkan	Primary measured card. On a Linux 7.3 benchmark host with a 291 W cap, Qwen3.8 27B results are in Benchmarks. Also used on LexiOS from USB for the 1.7B test.
GeForce RTX 2060	CUDA	Supported engine lane; not re-measured on the November 2026 benchmark commit.
Intel UHD 630 / Gen9	Vulkan	Engine runs using the Intel ANV Vulkan implementation; no claimed contemporary performance table.

The engine also has a CPU lane (and Metal on macOS builds), but CPU speed and available GPU memory will vary with model and system. Device capability probing and model-fit planning are available in Instances, Power and Hardware and Fit Lab. A supported GPU on Linux does not imply a working native LexiKernel GPU driver.

LexiKernel platform prerequisites

x86-64 hardware with IOMMU enabled and functioning: Intel VT-d or AMD AMD-Vi. LexiKernel refuses to boot without this isolation capability.
xHCI USB for the boot/storage path. The current boot medium is USB; image installation does not require writing an internal disk.
A supported connected network adapter; the physical device family and revision matter. No network link means remote Panel access will not succeed.
Secure Boot, if enabled, requires the LexiSuite development certificate appended to firmware db. Physical Secure Boot boot has not yet been confirmed.

LexiKernel device and driver evidence

Device / driver family	Reported coverage	Validation scope
Intel e1000, e1000e, igb	Ethernet	Virtual-machine tests with Intel and AMD IOMMU modes; load tested.
Intel I219	Ethernet	Physical ThinkPad P71, network brought up and Panel served (Nov 3, 2026).
Intel I225 (igc)	Ethernet	Written, not run on hardware.
Virtio network / block	Virtual I/O	VM tested with both IOMMU types.
USB CDC ECM / NCM Ethernet	USB networking	ECM tested with emulated USB network device; NCM not hardware-tested.
Realtek RTL8125B 2.5G, RTL8168/8169	Ethernet	RTL8125B on a physical MSI X570 board (11/12/2026): address over DHCP, Panel served to another machine, ping answered. RTL8168/8169: emulated/unit tests only. RTL8125B rejects unsupported chip revisions.
xHCI and USB mass storage	USB host / media	Physical ThinkPad P71 boot and storage test (Nov 3, 2026).
NVMe / AHCI	Storage	NVMe 1.2 and later. Two NVMe 1.3 drives bound on a physical Ryzen desktop (11/12/2026), read-only until approved; otherwise VM tested. No broad physical-device compatibility claim.
Native AMD Navi 31 (RDNA3) GPU	Firmware, power, memory hubs, scheduler firmware, queues, interrupts, render-node components	Physical RX 7900 XTX passed through to LexiKernel (11/11/2026): firmware loaded, power controller up, scheduler firmware maps a compute queue, a command buffer from a user address space completes with an interrupt. No shader, no native Vulkan yet; GPU work still uses a Linux driver-domain guest.
Native NVIDIA Turing GPU	GSP firmware path, resource-manager objects, card memory, command channel	Physical RTX 2060 passed through to LexiKernel (11/12/2026): the firmware-security image, booter and GSP firmware run; the firmware identifies the card and lists its ten engines; the instance-memory window works; a host-owned GPU address space and a command channel on a copy engine are accepted; one copy-engine job copies a 4 KiB page correctly. Bring-up builds only (boot option, vendor firmware not in the release image). No graphics or compute context, no shader, no model work yet.

The ThinkPad P71 is a specific tested machine, not a guarantee that all laptops of its generation or all NIC revisions work. A boot with Secure Boot verified by a physical PC's firmware remains open.

AMD Ryzen desktops

LexiKernel was first started on an MSI X570 board with a Ryzen 9 5900X on 11/08/2026. Three problems found there were fixed and are covered by the VM qualification, and on 11/12/2026 image 3db31f8 and its predecessors of the same day were booted on that PC:

The CPU reports INVPCID without PCID: LexiKernel now runs address spaces untagged on such CPUs.
Every USB controller and the network card sit behind PCIe ports, which LexiKernel left closed to DMA, so USB storage was never found. Ports on a device's path are now opened when that device starts DMA.
When the PC does not verify the stick, a development image now asks before starting unverified (see Secure Boot).

On 11/12/2026 that PC (24 CPUs, AMD IOMMU, RTL8125B, two NVMe drives) boots LexiKernel to the local console:

Both NVMe drives bind (the driver had refused NVMe 1.3; it needs nothing newer than 1.2).
The RTL8125B binds, takes its address over DHCP, serves the Panel to another machine and answers ping. Two faults were found on the chip and fixed: its registers read as all ones because firmware had left memory decoding off, and receive stopped after 64 frames because the chip overwrites a descriptor's buffer address.
The USB keyboard works on the local console: type a letter and Enter. N, U and Y answer on the screen; R and P ask for a typed confirmation. The other actions are done from the Panel.

Boot decision and inventory

Prefer 2 LexiOS on Linux 7.4 for first contact, GPU support and wider operating-system services; the current image uses 7.4-rc2. Earlier testing media had Linux 7.3.
For 1 LexiKernel, check IOMMU and supported USB/networking in firmware and local device documentation before boot. If the kernel refuses unsupported hardware, do not disable protection simply to reach the Panel.
After boot, consult System / Hardware and Power for available telemetry; compare selected GPU and memory against the intended GGUF and context. Fit Lab can estimate whether a quantization fits.
Record successful kernel, device model/revision, engine lane and any unavailable status when reporting a compatibility problem. A missing telemetry counter is not a zero reading.

Device controls

Choice / control	Consequence
Firmware VT-d / AMD-Vi	Enables DMA translation required by LexiKernel; lack of it blocks boot.
Kernel choice: Linux 7.4 / LexiKernel	Changes driver and system service coverage without changing hardware.
Instance device selector	Assigns CPU, a specific GPU or a supported multi-device configuration to that instance.
Power / Hardware telemetry	Displays supported counters; an unsupported LexiKernel readout must not be treated as measured data.
Model fit / quantization planner	Estimates memory needs; it does not prove real-hardware stability or quality.

See Kernels, Benchmarks, Troubleshooting and Release Notes.