SOF 2.6 Released: Intel Already Preparing Sound Open Firmware For Lunar Lake

[phoronix]

Phoronix: SOF 2.6 Released: Intel Already Preparing Sound Open Firmware For Lunar Lake

Sound Open Firmware 2.6 was released on Thursday for this Intel-started open-source software project for having a fully open audio DSP firmware stack and related development tooling. While initially limited to Intel hardware support, SOF has since grown and seen support from the likes of Mediatek, Realtek, NXP, and even recent AMD SoCs...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Sound-Open-Firmware-2.6

[StefanBruens]

Not so open, after all:

On PCI devices, the firmware can only be signed by an Intel production key which prevents community users from installing their own firmware. Notable exceptions include Google Chromebooks and Up2/Up-Extreme boards, where the community key is used.
...
SOF is available on Intel PCI devices starting with Gemini Lake, and has since been the only solution provided by Intel for the following platforms: Comet Lake, Ice Lake, and Tiger Lake.

https://thesofproject.github.io/latest/getting_started/intel_debug/introduction.html#user-space-and-filesystem-requirements

I.e. you can modify and create a new FW, and then you throw it into the garbage bin ...

[direc85]

Well, at least you could try to identify and fix an issue, hoping it gets upstreamed and released one day, right?

[uxmkt]

Not so open, after all:[..]I.e. you can modify and create a new FW, and then you throw it into the garbage bin ...

In the old days, you could not practically modify it either, e.g. back when we had like ess1371.

[StefanBruens]

In the old days, you could not practically modify it either, e.g. back when we had like ess1371.

Of course you can't program a fixed function hardware, though everything that was "configurable" was fully accessible.

EMU10kx (e..g SoundBlaster Audigy 1/2) where fully programmable DSPs.

[tildearrow]

Not so open, after all:

https://thesofproject.github.io/latest/getting_started/intel_debug/introduction.html#user-space-and-filesystem-requirements

I.e. you can modify and create a new FW, and then you throw it into the garbage bin ...

On PCI devices, the firmware can only be signed by an Intel production key which prevents community users from installing their own firmware.

Dang it Intel why? What do you think we're gonna do? Build a weapon using a sound card?