Intel Is Already Building Linux Audio Drivers For Lunar Lake

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By Aaron Klotz
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Lunar Lake comes out in 2024

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(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Phoronix reports that Intel engineers are already building SoundWire Linux driver support for its upcoming Lunar Lake CPU architecture. Specifically, this update brings with it initial SoundWire Intel ACE2.x support, which will be part of Lunar Lake's future audio capabilities. Intel is developing this new driver well ahead of schedule, with Lunar Lake expected to arrive in 2024.

According to Phoronix, Linux 6.5 will support SoundWire's new ACE2.x generation IP block, which is probably why Intel's engineers are building the new audio drivers right now. Not to mention the fact that Lunar Lake is just around the corner, and is slated to arrive as early as 2024. We don't know much about this new SoundWire revision, but as with all new audio technologies, expect better audio processing and audio quality compared to current SoundWire revisions.

SoundWire is an interface that was ratified in 2015 to transport audio data to integrated audio devices. Basically, it is an "audio operating system" that governs how data is transported to audio devices inside speakers, phones, laptops, automobiles, and other supported audio sources. According to Phoronix, Intel has supported SoundWire for a long time, which explains its early adoption of the latest SoundWire IP blocks.

This is also not the first Linux audio driver Intel has published for Lunar Lake either. Intel has also been busy adding two more audio drivers to Linux supporting Lunar Lake CPUs, including Sound Open Firmware 2.6 and MIDI 2.0 support.

Lunar Lake will be the successor to Meteor Lake, reportedly bringing back the performance per watt crown to Intel. Lunar Lake will share the same multi-tiled technology as Meteor Lake, sporting a CPU tile, graphics tile, SoC tile, and I/O tile, but will be upgraded to Intel's 18A manufacturing process that will offer 10% better efficiency over Meteor Lake's 20A node.

Originally, Lunar Lake was supposed to launch in 2025, but development has gone so well with the 18A process that Intel accelerated its timetable by a full year to 2024.

Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Freelance News Writer

Aaron Klotz is a freelance writer for Tom’s Hardware US, covering news topics related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

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11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Metal Messiah.
    Not to mention the fact that Lunar Lake is just around the corner, and is slated to arrive as early as 2024.
    What are you smoking ? LUNAR arch lineup isn't expected before 2025 at the earliest (regardless of the 18A process' progress).

    After Meteor Lake/MTL we first have ARROW Lake slated for 2024, and then comes Lunar Lake. Intel has NOT changed any plans, nor given any info on an early release of Lunar Lake. It's not coming out before 2025.

    https://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Intel-Meteor-Lake-Arrow-Lake-Lunar-Lake_-Hot-Chips-34_35-1030x579.png
    Reply
  • Metal Messiah.
    By the way, speaking of Arrow Lake-S and Lunar Lake CPU lineup, how did you guys miss this news ? Intel provided an update on instruction support for the next-gen Arrow Lake-S & Lunar Lake lineup.

    According to the "Architecture Instruction Set Extensions and Future Features" doc, upcoming Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake CPU lineups will come with support for new instructions.

    As per this document, we can expect the inclusion of following instruction sets, AVX-VNNI-INT16, LAM, SHA512, SM3, and SM4 instructions focused on artificial intelligence tasks. No sign of AVX-512 support on consumer-grade chips yet though.

    I presume SHA512, SM3, and SM4 instructions will offer secure hashing and encryption since they are cryptographic algorithms. There is support for more instruction sets.

    Intel has highlighted the changes in purple in this chart.

    https://i.imgur.com/pjOLnSc.png
    https://i.imgur.com/GfiYKdR.png
    Reply
  • dehjomz
    Meteor lake is using intel 4, not 20a. It is arrow lake that is said that will use 20a.
    Reply
  • Mpablo87
    Driver support always Useful ! ! ! ! !
    So We Will Wait ! ! ! !
    Reply
  • TechyIT223
    What comes after Lunar Lake though?
    Reply
  • Metal Messiah.
    TechyIT223 said:
    What comes after Lunar Lake though?

    NOVA Lake.

    Nova Lake CPUs would bring forth brand new architectures known as Panther Cove and Darkmont to the table. The lineup is rumored to be the biggest architectural up lift in Intel's history, even bigger than the Core architecture itself which was introduced all the way back in 2006.

    The CPU performance improvement is rumored to be more than 50% over the Lunar Lake chips. However, don't expect these chips to launch till the end of 2025 or even move to Q2 2026 at the earliest.

    This is also the reason why Glenn Hinton returned to INTEL.
    Reply
  • Ogotai
    Metal Messiah. said:
    Nova Lake CPUs would bring forth brand new architectures known as Panther Cove and Darkmont to the table.
    so does that mean it will be Gen 1, or Gen 15/16/17

    if its not Gen 1, then it doesnt sound like it is a brand new architecture, just an up date to the current lineup, like we have had for 12 generations now
    Reply
  • Metal Messiah.
    Ogotai said:
    so does that mean it will be Gen 1, or Gen 15/16/17

    if its not Gen 1, then it doesnt sound like it is a brand new architecture, just an up date to the current lineup, like we have had for 12 generations now

    Most likely it should dubbed as 17th Gen Nova Lake series if we assume Intel follows the same cadence of nomenclature. But nothing is officially confirmed yet. I doubt they will call it GEN 1 though.

    Or maybe they can call the new series entirely something else if the architecture is entirely overhauled.
    Reply
  • TechyIT223
    Metal Messiah. said:
    NOVA Lake.

    Nova Lake CPUs would bring forth brand new architectures known as Panther Cove and Darkmont to the table. The lineup is rumored to be the biggest architectural up lift in Intel's history, even bigger than the Core architecture itself which was introduced all the way back in 2006.

    The CPU performance improvement is rumored to be more than 50% over the Lunar Lake chips. However, don't expect these chips to launch till the end of 2025 or even move to Q2 2026 at the earliest.

    This is also the reason why Glenn Hinton returned to INTEL.
    Thanks for the info. That's good for Intel if they use a new arch from scratch.
    Reply
  • Ogotai
    TechyIT223 said:
    That's good for Intel if they use a new arch from scratch.
    they NEED a new architecture from scratch. the one that have now, is almost at the point where they cant get much more out of it.
    Reply