6 ms·

Seems like a great starting point to get a GPU driver in the kernel and be off to the races with an ARM laptop for Linux. Maybe vendors like System76 are watch

Seems like a great starting point to get a GPU driver in the kernel and be off to the races with an ARM laptop for Linux. Maybe vendors like System76 are watching and waiting for opportunities to test the market with a product like this.

zinekeller 6y ago
Oh, Microsoft will be also interested on this one (especially that Qualcomm is... well a little bit like Intel).
- wyldfire 6y ago
  Intel has a super good open source reputation, AFAIK.
  - zinekeller 6y ago
    Yeah, forgot about that (obviously I meant about how innovative they are in the current market or lack thereof).
  - bayindirh 6y ago
    They had a series of blunders in the last year but, the drivers (GPU, Ethernet) got stabilized back, it seems. I've been burned by them, so I experienced the blunders first hand.
  - p_l 6y ago
    I'm obviously biased due to dealing with their crap drivers, but intel's reputation always felt to me to be based entirely on "they open sourced and up streamed the code, so we won't talk about how bad it is"
    - bserge 6y ago
      They don't even provide drivers for older devices. Really, can't spare 30MB of storage space to support a perfectly fine product? Thank God for third party websites. I have a Centrino 6235 Wifi N/Bluetooth adapter, it works just fine except it needs Intel drivers for the Bluetooth part. Their answer seems to be "just upgrade it, lol", suggesting some newer Wifi AC adapters. Higher speeds, they say. Well, first of all, I won't get anywhere near those speeds for various reasons, and second, why do I have to throw away a perfectly functioning piece of hardware? Ridiculous.
      - sandworm101 6y ago
        >> why do I have to throw away a perfectly functioning piece of hardware? Lol. A hardware manufacturer doing things that results in consumers buy more hardware? That's like a software company discontinuing sales of an old OS in order to sell its latest abomination. Intel and MS deserve each others. Toss apple on that pile too imho. Synergy between AMD and linux/foss is a good thing, consumer-friendly behavior that should be encouraged.
        bserge 6y ago
        Ah, good point. Though this is an adapter that Intel sells to OEMs, in this case HP... And HP does not let you install just any card, it needs to be one that's on their whitelist (embedded in the BIOS).... yeah, all of these companies are pretty bad.
        bobthebuilders 6y ago
        I love bios mods. Replaced a crappy N chip in my Lenovo Yoga with an AC chip.
        pjmlp 6y ago
        Thankfully Linux never removes support for old hardware, oh wait.
    - awalton 6y ago
      And they released the documentation for the hardware so you can feel free to join in and make the drivers better any time you like. Which is about all we can ask of companies doing open source work. And it's still vastly more than most are doing.
  - pjmlp 6y ago
    And a bad reputation among game developers regarding their GPUs quality.
    - wyldfire 6y ago
      'Quality' referring to things like stability? Or performance? If the latter, I don't think it's fair to compare intel GPUs with other manufacturers'. Until very recently, intel didn't really compete with AMD/NVIDIA. And if I had to guess, their discrete GPU probably still doesn't have leading performance.
      - pjmlp 6y ago
        Everything that is relevant for game developers.
ksec 6y ago
> GPU driver in the kernel and be off to the races with an ARM laptop for Linux. Not sure I am reading this correctly. AMD already has GPU RDNA drivers in Linux kernel. So It doesn't need Samsung to kick start this. The partnership with Samsung ARM and AMD RDNA GPU SoC only goes for Phone and Tablet, or any market that AMD silicon currently does not currently operate in.
- whizzter 6y ago
  > AMD already has GPU RDNA drivers in Linux kernel. So It doesn't need Samsung to kick start this. I think that was the GP's point, ie Samsung wouldn't need to invest in writing new drivers but should rather be able to do relatively easy adaptations to existing ones to get things off the ground.
MisterTea 6y ago
Back when AMD was jumping into the Arm server fray, I started fantasizing about an AMD Arm APU that was targeted at low power, embedded and mobile use. I say fantasy because at the time, aside from computer geeks, who would care about an Arm APU? Now Apple is doing just that. AMD has an interesting portfolio of processors, gpus and now fpgas. So here's another fantasy: Amd Risc-V APU. AMD hasn't had a totally unique architecture since the am29000 (29k). So it would be interesting to see them build their own CPU arch using an open instruction set with their GPU. Start with a nice quad core that can handle a laptop or mini desktop a la NUC. Another fantasy would be an AMD Zynq.

zinekeller 6y ago

Oh, Microsoft will be also interested on this one (especially that Qualcomm is... well a little bit like Intel).

wyldfire 6y ago
Intel has a super good open source reputation, AFAIK.
- zinekeller 6y ago
  Yeah, forgot about that (obviously I meant about how innovative they are in the current market or lack thereof).
- bayindirh 6y ago
  They had a series of blunders in the last year but, the drivers (GPU, Ethernet) got stabilized back, it seems. I've been burned by them, so I experienced the blunders first hand.
- p_l 6y ago
  I'm obviously biased due to dealing with their crap drivers, but intel's reputation always felt to me to be based entirely on "they open sourced and up streamed the code, so we won't talk about how bad it is"
  - bserge 6y ago
    They don't even provide drivers for older devices. Really, can't spare 30MB of storage space to support a perfectly fine product? Thank God for third party websites. I have a Centrino 6235 Wifi N/Bluetooth adapter, it works just fine except it needs Intel drivers for the Bluetooth part. Their answer seems to be "just upgrade it, lol", suggesting some newer Wifi AC adapters. Higher speeds, they say. Well, first of all, I won't get anywhere near those speeds for various reasons, and second, why do I have to throw away a perfectly functioning piece of hardware? Ridiculous.
    - sandworm101 6y ago
      >> why do I have to throw away a perfectly functioning piece of hardware? Lol. A hardware manufacturer doing things that results in consumers buy more hardware? That's like a software company discontinuing sales of an old OS in order to sell its latest abomination. Intel and MS deserve each others. Toss apple on that pile too imho. Synergy between AMD and linux/foss is a good thing, consumer-friendly behavior that should be encouraged.
      - bserge 6y ago
        Ah, good point. Though this is an adapter that Intel sells to OEMs, in this case HP... And HP does not let you install just any card, it needs to be one that's on their whitelist (embedded in the BIOS).... yeah, all of these companies are pretty bad.
        bobthebuilders 6y ago
        I love bios mods. Replaced a crappy N chip in my Lenovo Yoga with an AC chip.
      - pjmlp 6y ago
        Thankfully Linux never removes support for old hardware, oh wait.
  - awalton 6y ago
    And they released the documentation for the hardware so you can feel free to join in and make the drivers better any time you like. Which is about all we can ask of companies doing open source work. And it's still vastly more than most are doing.
- pjmlp 6y ago
  And a bad reputation among game developers regarding their GPUs quality.
  - wyldfire 6y ago
    'Quality' referring to things like stability? Or performance? If the latter, I don't think it's fair to compare intel GPUs with other manufacturers'. Until very recently, intel didn't really compete with AMD/NVIDIA. And if I had to guess, their discrete GPU probably still doesn't have leading performance.
    - pjmlp 6y ago
      Everything that is relevant for game developers.

ksec 6y ago

> GPU driver in the kernel and be off to the races with an ARM laptop for Linux. Not sure I am reading this correctly. AMD already has GPU RDNA drivers in Linux kernel. So It doesn't need Samsung to kick start this. The partnership with Samsung ARM and AMD RDNA GPU SoC only goes for Phone and Tablet, or any market that AMD silicon currently does not currently operate in.

whizzter 6y ago
> AMD already has GPU RDNA drivers in Linux kernel. So It doesn't need Samsung to kick start this. I think that was the GP's point, ie Samsung wouldn't need to invest in writing new drivers but should rather be able to do relatively easy adaptations to existing ones to get things off the ground.

MisterTea 6y ago

Back when AMD was jumping into the Arm server fray, I started fantasizing about an AMD Arm APU that was targeted at low power, embedded and mobile use. I say fantasy because at the time, aside from computer geeks, who would care about an Arm APU? Now Apple is doing just that. AMD has an interesting portfolio of processors, gpus and now fpgas. So here's another fantasy: Amd Risc-V APU. AMD hasn't had a totally unique architecture since the am29000 (29k). So it would be interesting to see them build their own CPU arch using an open instruction set with their GPU. Start with a nice quad core that can handle a laptop or mini desktop a la NUC. Another fantasy would be an AMD Zynq.