Sound Open Firmware 2.2 Preparing More Optimizations, More Zephyr Usage

It was just back in April that Sound Open Firmware 2.1 released as the newest version of the open-source audio DSP firmware stack started by Intel and also even being used by other select hardware vendors as well. Sound Open Firmware 2.2 is on the way as the newest feature release for Intel's "SOF" project.

Sound Open Firmware 2.2-rc1 was released yesterday as the first public milestone towards this next sound firmware feature release. With Sound Open Firmware 2.1 they began transitioning some platforms from running XTOS to instead using the Zephyr real-time OS. With Sound Open Firmware 2.2 that Zephyr RTOS adoption continues. The release notes mention that more native API integration around Zephyr continues and by Sound Open Firmware 2.3 they hope to be "fully Zephyr native."

In addition to expanded Zephyr support, Sound Open Firmware 2.2 brings a variety of performance optimizations. There is also a new up-mix/down-mix module with support for HiFi4, improvements to the Windows code so other vendors can leverage it without modifications, IPC4 additions, and a variety of other changes.

Source downloads and more details on all of the changes so far as of the Sound Open Firmware 2.2 release candidate can be found via GitHub.

Besides Intel starting the project, under the Linux Foundation's stewardship other vendors to get involved with this open-source sound firmware include AMD, Google, MediaTek, NXP, Realtek, and others. Learn more about the initiative at SOFProject.org.