Open-Source Support For AMD "Richland" APUs

[zanny]

Won't be launch-day support, because it wont work on the upcoming Ubuntu 13.04.
So we'll have to wait until Ubuntu 13.10.

Intel on the other hand, already has pushed Haswell patches long time ago, so when Haswell is coming, it will really have launch-day support for real.

Same thing happened last year - I built a 5800k HTPC, and needed to run Ubuntu 12.10 on it (though now I'd just throw on Tumbleweed Suse...) since the 12.04 kernel at the time didn't support Trinity.

[Soul_keeper]

I heard AMD is supposed to have a news event on the 19th concerning richland.
I can't remember where I saw that.

[madbiologist]

I heard AMD is supposed to have a news event on the 19th concerning richland.
I can't remember where I saw that.

You probably previously read the same TH article that Ofen linked. They were either a week out with their date or they are referring to the launch date of the desktop Richland parts. We will know in a few days.

[madbiologist]

- worse performance/price
- 5400 rpm HDDs when there is no SSD (except in high-end laptops)

How much performance do you think you need to check email, run a LibreOffice Impress presentation and watch a movie?

- nerfed CPUs/GPUs (can a GTX 680M beat a GTX 660? Nope.)

In power saving and longer battery life, probably yes.

- keyboard sucks, often

Not always, as you say. If the keyboard does suck it is easy enough to keep a couple of USB/Bluetooth keyboards at home and at the office. Even your clients will probably have a spare keyboard that you can use if you want. And thanks to GSoC, you can now use your Android mobile phone as a remote control for your Impress presentation.

Building your own desktop also allows you to get a computer without pre-installed Windows.

HP supply notebooks pre-installed with SLED and fully certified by Novell. Are Dell still shipping notebooks pre-installed with Ubuntu?

[AJSB]

What i really want is a mini-itx mobo with the new Kabini A6-5200 APU:

http://www.cpu-world.com/news_2013/2...bile_APUs.html

If "specs" are right and we can expect that improvement increase, it's all i need to play all my games (...if there is no bottlenecks that spoil it)....and all that with a extreme low power drain and very small form factor.

[Adarion]

I'd be so much more happy if finally the chipsets would be refreshed. These nuts at Asus just seemed to bring a new ITX mainboard out, upclocked CPU and GPU but no more passive cooling but then - and this is worst - with a chipset (A50M) that was recent years ago. Did they buy 10 billions of them and have to get rid of them? Why all the new CPUs but totally outdated chipsets? And selling these outdated thing still at full price.
Having release day support is of course great (thumbs up) but as it seems the GPU is actually a generation older. (Still good for free driver support which is way better than for GCN a.t.m.)

[duby229]

I'd be so much more happy if finally the chipsets would be refreshed. These nuts at Asus just seemed to bring a new ITX mainboard out, upclocked CPU and GPU but no more passive cooling but then - and this is worst - with a chipset (A50M) that was recent years ago. Did they buy 10 billions of them and have to get rid of them? Why all the new CPUs but totally outdated chipsets? And selling these outdated thing still at full price.
Having release day support is of course great (thumbs up) but as it seems the GPU is actually a generation older. (Still good for free driver support which is way better than for GCN a.t.m.)

I can only see one good reason for a company to release new chipsets, and that is if new hardware specs get released... New USB specs get released. You need to support USBv3 so you release a new chipset with that ability. New SATA specs get released/ You need to support SATA6 so you release a new chipset with that ability. etc, etc, etc....

If no new capability is available then why release a new chipset?

[curaga]

How about:
- chipset has a hardware bug (see Intel recently, twice)
- product differentiation (ie this one has 20 sata ports but uses twice the power)

[Adarion]

The chipsets are already there, but nobody uses them on mainboards. A68M (aka Brazos 2.0) is perfect for little machines since it ought to use less power (less SATA ports and such) but brings you native USB 3. On the normal desktop ATX with socketed chip side you'll find all sorts of combinations now, from recent A85X down to even 7xx (from 2008) series. But all those little mini-ITX things still use A50M (besides one but that lacks passive cooling). Oh well, there might be a few unaffordable hard to find industrial mainboards around, well, and laptops but this is no use for me.

It is not that A50M was bad, but it is by now a bit dusted and lacks native USB3. I just wonder why I don't see its successor(s) around.

[AJSB]

The chipsets are already there, but nobody uses them on mainboards. A68M (aka Brazos 2.0) is perfect for little machines since it ought to use less power (less SATA ports and such) but brings you native USB 3. On the normal desktop ATX with socketed chip side you'll find all sorts of combinations now, from recent A85X down to even 7xx (from 2008) series. But all those little mini-ITX things still use A50M (besides one but that lacks passive cooling). Oh well, there might be a few unaffordable hard to find industrial mainboards around, well, and laptops but this is no use for me.

It is not that A50M was bad, but it is by now a bit dusted and lacks native USB3. I just wonder why I don't see its successor(s) around.

...maybe because majority of ITX mobo owners don't need USB3 anyway ?

There are ITX mobos with USB3....even the ones with AMD E-350...

Personally i preferred to get a mini-itx E-350 with 4 USB2 + Parellel + Serial (besides HDMI and Sub-D...Sub-D is still a must_have in Europe) than to have USB3...."native" Parallel + Serial is a must have for me.

It's not a fanless mobo but it uses a 80mm fan (IIRC) and it's quite quiet....even when working as an HTPC...