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> which GPU manufacturer they went with The beauty of this is they don't have to choose. The GPU can be anything that communicates over Thunderbolt and fits in
by tuukkah 4y ago
> which GPU manufacturer they went with
The beauty of this is they don't have to choose. The GPU can be anything that communicates over Thunderbolt and fits in the physical module specs.
- wmf 4y agoanything that communicates over Thunderbolt and fits in the physical module specs In other words, only the GPU modules that Framework chooses to make.
- tuukkah 4y agoPlus any that anyone else chooses to make.
- ncallaway 4y agoYea, that’s true in a world where no other company is capable of manufacturing a GPU enclosure with the physical specs they’ve defined. Thankfully, I’m pretty skeptical we live in that world. If the framework laptop grows in market size that there’s enough demand for it, then anyone could manufacture and sell those components, which is kind of the point.
- nrp 4y agoWe’ve opened the specs specifically to avoid this scenario! The information we have up on GitHub today is enough to get started on module development, and we’ll share any additional information that is useful to enable third party board makers.
- wmf 4y agoMy concern is more about business than technical factors. The NRE for such a module is going to be significant so the addressable market needs to be pretty big to justify it. Third-party modules could also get killed off by first-party ones that come later.
- CameronNemo 4y agoThird-party modules could also get killed off by first-party ones I think it is pretty clear that Framework intends to allow you to buy the most barebones laptop you can. I mean they let you buy 0 of the little cartridge modules, I assume they won't force people to buy one of these PCIex8 modules.
- wmf 4y agoI mean if some company is selling, say, a Radeon 7600 module and then Framework comes out with their own "official" 7600 module then the third-party company is toast.
- modderation 4y agoAlternatively, that means Framework doesn't need to spend resources building their own version, or acquiring a company that makes one. It's to Framework's benefit that they don't compete with module vendors. They just need to let the vendor list them in the official marketplace and promote them as a success story for the modular laptop concept. With this in mind, trampling module vendors doesn't seem like a great idea. What's the point of creating an ecosystem if there's nobody around to participate?