Work carried out under the openSUSE Innovator initiative brings the next generation of Intel’s Artificial Intelligence stack to Tumbleweed, Leap 16.0, and Leap 16.1, while also resulting in an upstream contribution to the Intel NPU driver.

As an Intel Innovator and a member of the openSUSE Innovator initiative, I remain committed to bringing the openSUSE ecosystem closer to the latest technologies in Artificial Intelligence and heterogeneous computing.

In this latest work cycle, Intel Linux NPU Driver 1.35.0 has been made available for openSUSE Tumbleweed, openSUSE Leap 16.0, and openSUSE Leap 16.1. This gives users of these versions access to the infrastructure needed to utilize the NPU found in the new generations of Intel® Core™ Ultra processors.

However, this time, the work didn’t stop at packaging. While testing the Intel NPU 1.35.0 driver on openSUSE, I identified an issue that prevented the NPU from initializing correctly in certain Linux environments. The problem occurred within the ResourceCleaner—an internal thread of the NPU’s Level Zero driver—causing the process to terminate with a SIGABRT during startup.

Consequently, as an openSUSE member, I submitted a fix directly to the official intel/linux-npu-driver project via Pull Request #142 as an upstream contribution to Intel’s driver. This demonstrates something I consider essential in the open-source ecosystem: it is not just about using a technology or creating a package for a distribution, but also about investigating issues, identifying their root causes, and contributing the solution back to the original project so the entire community can benefit. ## OpenVINO 2026.3.1 Comes to openSUSE

Alongside work on the NPU driver, I also updated OpenVINO to version 2026.3.1, making packages available for openSUSE Tumbleweed, Leap 16.0, and Leap 16.1. OpenVINO is a cornerstone of Intel’s Artificial Intelligence strategy. It enables the development and execution of inference applications using various computing resources available on the machine, including CPU, GPU, and NPU.

For openSUSE, this means providing developers with a modern stack for building applications involving LLMs, multimodal models, computer vision, speech recognition, embeddings, quantized models, and local generative AI.

For more information, go to linux-npu-driver or openvino!

on the water photography hat dem Pool ein Foto hinzugefügt:

The TOTO Museum (TOTO ミュージアム, Tōtō Museum) in Kitakyushu was opened on the occasion of the company's 100th anniversary and showcases the evolution of the business and its products. The elegant two-story building stands on the grounds of the company headquarters, has a showroom on the first floor and the museum on the second floor.

The museum leads visitors through the history of TOTO, beginning with the first ceramic flush toilet seat developed in 1914 and the company's formal establishment in 1917 as a pioneer player in the ceramic sanitation industry at a time when most of Japan was still without a sewerage system. Old toilet seats are on display, as well as exquisite porcelain tableware that the company used to produce as a side business in the past.


Old toilet bowls in the museum gallery
The exhibition moves on to washlets, arguably TOTO's most famous product today. Not only do modern washlets simply wash and dry toilet users, they also come with heated seats and automated flushing capabilities, play sounds to mask toilet noises, and automatically open and close lids. Another exhibition room is dedicated to the pioneers in the business and how their ideas and contributions led the company to where it is today.

One of the museum's highlights is the gallery showing the evolution of toilets and other TOTO products over the decades. These include toilet bowls, washlets, urinals, bath tubs and fittings. The last gallery displays bathroom units sold overseas, tailored to suit the different regions.

Source: Japan-guide website

The TOTO Museum ... was designed by Azusa Sekkei to reflect the corporate philosophy of "Lush Earth and a Drop of Water".

Architectural and Eco-Friendly Features

Concept Form: The building features a pure white, rounded shape that symbolizes sanitary ware and a droplet of water set against a backdrop of extensive greenery.

Sustainable Design: Designed with over 100 eco-friendly initiatives, it incorporates high-insulation architecture, solar panels, and solar chimneys for natural ventilation and energy efficiency.

Material Recycling: Pavement and exterior elements creatively utilize recycled ceramic shards and scraps sourced directly from TOTO’s manufacturing process.

Natural Lighting: Large windows maximize daylight penetration throughout the interior spaces, reducing daytime artificial lighting needs.