In order to deliver 128mb/6s blocks, we need to increase our validator's hardware requirements. These requirements are mainly for CPU, which should support GFNI instructions and optionally support SHA_NI instructions.

These requirements are not necessary for 32mb/6s, but it would be good to have validators think about upgrading their hardware beforehand.

Intel CPUs that support GFNI

Most new CPUs from intel, starting from Ice lake support GFNI. However, some series don't, so node operators need to run the check below to double check.

AMD CPUs that support GFNI

AMD CPUs support GFNI starting Zen4.

How to check

In order to check whether the CPU supports GFNI or SHA_NI, on linux, you can run:

grep -o -E 'sha_ni|gfni' /proc/cpuinfo

And if the CPU supports them, they will be printed:

sha_ni
gfni