Driver Lifecycle#
Driver Branches#
Starting in 2019, NVIDIA has introduced a new enterprise software lifecycle for data center GPU drivers.
New Feature Branch#
Major feature release, indicated by a new branch X number. This is targeted towards early adopters who want to evaluate new features (for example, new CUDA APIs). Note that these drivers may also be shipped along with CUDA Toolkit installer packages in some cases.
Release cadence: New driver branch is released approximately every quarter.
Production Branch#
Branch that is qualified for use in production for enterprise/data center GPUs. Bug fixes and security updates are provided for up to 1 year.
Release cadence: Two driver branches are released per year (approximately every six months)
Note that during the lifetime of a production branch, quarterly bug fixes and security updates are released.
Long Term Support Branch#
A production branch that will be supported and maintained for a much longer time than a normal production branch is supported. Every LTSB is a production branch, but not every production branch is an LTSB.
Customers who are looking for a longer cycle of support from their deployed branch will gain that support through LTSB releases. LTSB releases will receive bug updates and critical security updates, on a reasonable effort basis, through minor releases during the 3 years that they are supported.
Figure 2 Taxonomy of NVIDIA Driver Branches (for illustration purposes only–see note below)#
Comparison of Driver Branches#
The following table summarizes the differences between the various driver branches.
New Feature Branch (NFB) |
Production Branch (PB) |
Long Term Support Branch (LTSB) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
Target Customers |
Early adopters who want to evaluate new features |
Use in production for enterprise/data center GPUs |
Use in production for enterprise/data center GPUs and for customers looking for a longer cycle of support. |
Major Release Cadence |
At least once every 3 months |
Twice a year [1] |
At least once per hardware architecture [1] |
Length of support |
N/A |
1 year |
3 years |
Minor release (bug updates and critical security updates) |
N/A |
Yes. Quarterly bug and security releases for 1 year |
Yes. Quarterly bug and security releases for 1 year |