While there have been many Linux kernel patches being worked on for months now for Intel’s upcoming Panther Lake SoCs, only seeing the first Linux kernel patches today is their Wildcat Lake platform.
Wildcat Lake is rumored to be the successor for the Alder Lake N processors. If Wildcat Lake is indeed the next in the N-Series, Wildcat Lake is for mini PCs, Chromebooks, and other lightweight and low-power laptop designs. Some rumors have suggest Wildcat Lake will feature Xe3 integrated graphics but with only up to six CPU core designs. Wildcat Lake is rumored to be launching in the second half of the year but that timing is rather quick with seeing the very first Linux patches specific to Wildcat Lake “WCL” being posted today.
These first Intel Wildcat Lake Linux driver patches to break cover is this patch series enabling audio support for Wildcat Lake. These open-source driver patches confirm that the audio IP found with Wildcat Lake is nearly identical to Panther Lake but with differences around the DSP cores (three cores rather than five with Panther Lake), memory, and clocking but using the same ACE3 architecture.
These are just the first of the Intel Wildcat Lake patches for Linux. Even if largely similar to Panther Lake, new device ID additions are still needed for WCL. The timing of these patches put the H2’2025 launch of Wildcat Lake into question: either it’s not accurate or these Linux driver patches are coming rather tardy… The Linux 6.16 cycle is coming up later this month while now only the Wildcat Lake patches are beginning to break cover and will be an up-hill battle if Intel is trying to get all of the Linux support squared away ahead of launch in a few month and in stark contrast to their traditionally very punctual upstreaming cadence ahead of product launches.
