Why Linus Torvalds Switched to a Powerful Ampere AArch64 Workstation for Linux Kernel Development

Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel and Git, has been using an AMD Ryzen Threadripper workstation as his primary system, a fact that recently spread in the industry.

Previously he used Intel hardware for many years and spent several years testing ARM64 processors with an Apple Silicon MacBook, which he often used to compile new ARM64 Linux kernel versions.

Recently his ARM64 Linux testing increased because he switched to a more powerful AArch64 system to supplement his daily work.

In Linux kernel version 6.9, Linus Torvalds announced a change on the mailing list that merits a dedicated article and forum discussion.

“I now have a more powerful arm64 machine (thanks to Ampere), so last week the number of arm64 builds I performed was almost the same as on my x86‑64 machine. Clearly this should continue during the upcoming merge window.”

My M2 laptop is more of a “weekly test” rather than a “continuous” build; it’s not that I expect it to reveal any issues, but I’m happier to have broader coverage.

In short, keep testing. This clearly means the merge window for 6.10 will open tomorrow, and I already have dozens of pull requests waiting. I’m grateful to the early birds.

Now Torvalds has a workstation equipped with multiple Armv8 cores from Ampere. This is good news for ensuring ARM64 kernel quality, as the AArch64 kernel can now undergo stricter review and verification by Torvalds himself.

Torvalds did not disclose the exact configuration of his Ampere system, but given the limited availability of AmpereOne, it is likely some variant of the Ampere Altra (Max) platform. From mini‑ATX boards to AI/GPU‑focused Ampere servers, the Altra line performs well and faces little competition in high‑end ARM64 servers outside the hyperscale cloud providers.

In the Linux 6.9 changelog Torvalds wrote: “Huge thanks to Ampere for providing a powerful arm64 machine; now I compile arm64 almost as often as x86‑64. My M2 laptop is more of a ‘weekly test build’ rather than a ‘continuous build’.”

So, how long until a more powerful RISC‑V system catches Torvalds’ interest?