Lightning mountain, a mysterious intel soc appears in the linux kernel

Intel has begun development of the Linux kernel for what appears to be a new family of Atom SoC processors, codenamed Lightning Mountain. It will reportedly be a network processor based on the 14nm Airmont architecture.

Intel's Lightning Mountain SoC would be based on Airmont chips

Phoronix reported today on recent Linux kernel patch notes. They state, "An upcoming product uses a new variant of the Atom Airmont CPU model."

Another note from August 21 explicitly mentions the name of Lightning Mountain SoC. Intel currently does not have product families based on the Mountain suffix, so this would be a new line of chips.

Code references call it a "network processor, " but Phoronix reported that it will be used for other applications as well. No other details are known at this point, such as why Intel resides in Airmont's relatively old architecture, which has since been replaced by Goldmont and Goldmont Plus at 14nm and Tremont at 10nm. Initial support for Lightning Mountain is expected to reach the next Linux 5.4 kernel and it is a complete mystery what this SoC would do and what Intel's strategy is.

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Recall that Intel earlier this year announced another network SoC, Snow Ridge, for 5G base stations. So this new SoC would have a different destination. We will keep you informed about all the news from Intel and its chips.

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