MIDI 2.0 Support, Intel Lunar Lake Audio & AMD SoundWire Additions For Linux 6.5

The sound subsystem updates were sent in today for the in-development Linux 6.5 kernel merge window.

Notable with the sound updates is MIDI 2.0 support. There is initial support for MIDI 2.0 devices with the raw MIDI driver and sequencer API being extended to support the new Universal MIDI Packet (UMP) protocol. The USB audio driver has also been extended with MIDI 2.0 interface support.

The MIDI 2.0 Linux kernel driver patches were initially published in May and now ready to go mainline for Linux 6.5.

Meanwhile updated MIDI 2.0 specifications have been published this month and with that the MIDI 2.0 specifications are no longer under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). The MIDI 2.0 specifications are public over on MIDI.org.

"MIDI 2.0 is an extension of MIDI 1.0. It does not replace MIDI 1.0 but builds on the core principles, architecture, and semantics of MIDI 1.0.

A foundational architecture for MIDI 2.0 expansion is defined by the MIDI Capability Inquiry (MIDI-CI) specification. MIDI-CI allows Devices with bidirectional communication to agree to use extended MIDI capabilities beyond those already defined in MIDI 1.0, while carefully protecting backward compatibility."

Last week on the Microsoft blog is a post around the MIDI 2.0 specifications going public and the implications for them.

In addition to adding MIDI 2.0 support, Linux 6.5 is also adding AMD SoundWire, various codec additions for Intel systems, Loongson platform support for LoongArch systems, and a variety of other improvements. Some additional devices now supported include Ingenic X1000, Maxim MAX98388, Mediatek MT8188, Nuvoton NAU8825C, NXP platforms with NAU8822, Qualcomm WSA884x, StarFive JH7110, and Texas Instruments TAS2781.

Last cycle for Linux 6.4 saw the AMD SoundWire manager and other initial code in place. For Linux 6.5 the AMD SoundWire DMA driver has been added along with other SoundWire integration around the AMD Audio Co-Processor (ACP).

On the Intel side are also initial audio code around their Lunar Lake platform.

The Linux 6.5 sound updates also include an audio quirk for the ASUS ROG Ally gaming handheld. For more details on that interesting Ryzen Z1 Extreme powered device via Running Linux On The ASUS ROG Ally Gaming Handheld and Windows 11 vs. Linux Gaming Performance On The ASUS ROG Ally. More ROG Ally Linux benchmarks coming in the days ahead.

The full list of sound updates for Linux 6.5 can be found via this pull request.