5 ms·
Couple of ways to take this: 1) Microsoft has exerted leverage over Intel and got them to go down the preferred supplier route. Possible, and not overly surpri
by nicholassmith 14y ago
Couple of ways to take this:
1) Microsoft has exerted leverage over Intel and got them to go down the preferred supplier route. Possible, and not overly surprising.
2) Intel is trying to carve a niche out and thinks its best bet is with the old hound.
3) The boring technical reason that there's loads of implementation and they can't be bothered making the changes to the Linux packages.
It sounds like it'll run but with none of the fancy features to shut down cores under low use, but Linux developers have been adding missing functionality for years so it's not exactly unusual.
- eckyptang 14y agoOption 3. It's probably not that they can't but more that they won't because they aren't going to make any cash out of it with Linux. It's also because they are scared of ARM getting a head start on Win8 tablets. If they do this with a Core 2 and an IGP, then I'll start worrying.
- anonymous 14y agoI'd bet on 3, too. Sounds like they slapped the only good-enough gfx core they are sure will work on an Atom, so they'd have something that at least works well with Windows 8 at launch. The next-gen Atom cores will use the same gfx core as their Ivy Bridge processors, but that won't be ready for some time.
- mtgx 14y agoIt probably means Windows 8 is the only OS it supports. Even Windows 7 might not work on it.
- pmjordan 14y agoMuch like the Medfield SoC it derives from, I suspect Clover Trail doesn't use a BIOS or various basic I/O lines and conventions that have been standard in the PC world for decades. So yeah, I wouldn't expect a stock Win7 to run at all.
- lwhi 14y agoNo cash with Linux? Seriously? Why does the idea that Linux is incompatible with profit still persevere? It's especially ridiculous considering the rise of Android.
- eckyptang 14y agoNot for this product. Their desktop and server propositions are where the cash is with Linux. Android is pretty much all over ARM. They aren't going to get a look in there easily. Windows 8 is a great opportunity as it's a fresh platform.
- joedoe55555 14y agoAndroid has made Nokia nearly bankrupt already, Siemens/BenQ has stopped making mobile phones while Android existed. Windows CE/Mobile/whatever seems to have no chance on the market anymore, eventhough they seem technical superior! Palm completely failed with its WebOS. In fact Blackberry is the last survivor of the old cellphone world. (EDIT: And Samsung of course, but they are just copying Apple stuff and get sued for it.) The only ones having profit from Android are Google and HTC. Google because they created the system and run the App Store. HTC because they manufacture the reference devices and because they are cheaper than the rest. Wake up mates, open source destroys the old business models.
- sbarlster 14y agoI thought that MS made a stack of cash from Android via patent extortion methods?
- joedoe55555 14y agoYou have any evidence for that?
- berntb 14y agoGoogle something like: Microsoft makes more from Android than windows phone 7 (It has been a repeated news story the last year.)
- werpon 14y agoOption 3 has no basis since Intel doesn't need to write a single line of code to get their new chip supported under Linux, they just need to release the specs. Which brings us to: 4) Just like many graphics chips, this processor does some black magic to boost performance and Intel doesn't want to give any clues to competitors by releasing specs and/or open drivers.
- jrabone 14y agoMost likely not performance as in rendering performance, but as in power saving; wasn't this also NVIDIA's reason for not releasing specs to Linux developers? I actually have some sympathy with a hardware company in this position; if all your competitive advantage is in actually in software, open source is a tricky proposition. Nobody cares about the driver interface to the rendering pipeline any more - I imagine it's heavily dictated by the need to make open standards fast (eg. OpenGL). Power saving? That's a whole different ballgame. It's a real pain that there are no useful standards for power saving - I've had to disable almost all of the cool processor features on my DAW (C-states, core parking, EIST) because they completely wreck real-time audio latencies, and cause clicks and glitches in DAW software (using external FireWire audio hardware). I notice that Cubase on Windows 7 dynamically installs a different power saving profile on startup, but presumably that means running it as Administrator, and we're back to the bad old days of running as root everywhere.
- rjsw 14y agoIntel don't own the design of the GPU, they can't release the specs. This is a non-story, Atom versions following this one will be able to run Linux fine.