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An underpowered phone SOC with a closed GPU requiring binary blobs sure sounds like a great fit for a project whose goal is making an open laptop. I've used mu
by jsnell 12y ago
An underpowered phone SOC with a closed GPU requiring binary blobs sure sounds like a great fit for a project whose goal is making an open laptop.
I've used multiple attempts at ARM-based laptops / two-in-ones. So far they've been all been painfully slow. If they're targeting a x220 chassis, the constraints are going to be completely different from anything a consumer ARM SOC is ever deployed on. The standard battery on that is 63Wh, and it used 35W TDP CPUs. If there's a chip that can get laptop performance rather than phone performance, it makes perfect sense to spend at least a little bit of that massive thermal and power budget on it.
- exDM69 12y agoPerhaps the higher power tablet chips (ie. closer to 5-10 Watts TDP) could be a nice alternative? FWIW, I have used desktop Linux on a ~2012 ARM tablet chip and it wasn't fast but still a decent experience. I'd be more worried about finding any sort of decent graphics chip. The discrete laptop chips tend to be for gamers (ie. high power) because all Intel laptop CPUs have an integrated GPU in them anyway (for mainstream customers). And sourcing discrete GPUs in small numbers is going to be difficult. Add in a requirement for open source drivers and it's even more difficult.
- sharpneli 12y agoWith luck AMD eventually bundles one of these with a small integrated GPU. They have somewhat well working Open Source drivers already.