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The Framework Laptop 13

frame.work

191–200 of 335 posts

Re: The Framework Laptop 13

#191
post #77

There's a "Ryzen AI" on these AMD cores that is really a modest sized fpga, supposedly. Linux has been landing some support for interfacing with this- calling it XDNA (on a new "CDX" bus) - but no signs yet that users can program it. Would be a fun thing to get exposed to users. Fingers crossed that actually happens; I could definitely see this being very vendored up, that it ends up only really running a couple pred…

Having fpgas on-board feels like something that would have been a game-changer even pre-ai. Imagine if your Ryzen chip could do hardware encode/decode of h266 the moment the spec was finalized.

I can't find evidence it really made it out to consumers, & even less evidence there was any followup, but Intel did have a Xeon + Arria 10 GX FPGA chip, back in 2018: Xeon Gold 6138P with Arria 10 FPGA. https://www.anandtech.com/show/12773/intel-shows-xeon-scalab...

At the hyperscaler level there's been a lot of adoption of SmartNICs, which are often FPGA based. That makes me feel like there's a pretty big market here already for integrated FPGAs. I think the other requirement is that these FPGAs need to be made broadly available if we're going to see a real shift. Selling a couple many-thousand-dollar high end chips isn't going to create new audiences clamboring for these things, which is required for the tech to actually get interesting & well adopted, instead of existing only in a small but important niche.

Re: The Framework Laptop 13

#194
post #151
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Expect the unexpected. It doesn't have to be a rational known ask. We are Hackers. We want to be ready for whatever. That day when there's a 4 screen display wall? Ready. Connecting to a thunderbolt NAS, a display, a desktop, and our friends laptop? Ready. "What is the use case" is the deadening soul sucking most un Hackerly thing to ask. Computers are amazing general purpose machines & we celebrate their flexible ut…

Any reason why you can't hook up that 4 screen display wall and that NAS at the same time by chaining DisplayPort and/or using a USB4 hub? To me, being hackers means finding ways of circumventing limits, rather than expecting all kinds of connectivity to just be handed to you the easiest possible way. > Edit: based on the voting, I guess only some of us on HN are Hackers! I also have example use cases too, to be cons…

I wasn't being super fair nor nice, but I very much felt like I was trying to combat gatekeeping. I was advocating for open & possible, against someone who was trying to shut people down.

Intel has 160 Gbps of throughput available for connectivity. You might be able to physically get data to all the same devices with AMD, but at much reduced bandwidth, and the job wont be as easy. And you won't be able to use thunderbolt peripherals like external GPUs, if those are available.

Re: The Framework Laptop 13

#195
post #120
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is this for hackers or not? A real hacker uses blank keys.

We've got that one covered: https://frame.work/products/input-cover-kit-blank?v=FRANFC00...

Well there you go.. bonus: you can paint/apply your own Dvorak layout labels in whatever font you choose.

Re: The Framework Laptop 13

#196
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, all of their openness kind of falls flat when you realize it's just another locked-in laptop ecosystem... It's great that they publish their specs, but that doesn't mean anything to me if they're the only ones making them.

But they’re not locking you in, while other vendors clearly and deliberately are. Definitely the lesser evil. So even a utilitarian like you would choose Framework, provided all else is equal. They even promote 3rd party enclosures for the mainboard in this post so you can’t even say they’re not fostering the ecosystem when they can. It’s not incumbent upon Framework to actually provide competition. That’s a competit…

I don't think you're getting my point. I can't do anything with the specs Framework publishes, I can't fab my own parts. So for me, either as an individual or a person buying equipment for my business, when comparing Framework with Dell or Lenovo, it's the same outcome: they're the sole supplier of parts for their devices. Thus, I don't really get a benefit with using Framework vs one of the other providers, especially when I could buy a new laptop (on sale or whatever) for the cost of a mainboard upgrade. I won't buy Framework devices.

Re: The Framework Laptop 13

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A "hacker" is someone who makes something do what it wasn't intended to do. Plugging a high-end laptop into the correct number of monitors is not hacking. Maybe stick to Intel chipsets if you must have 4 screens. Or maybe cover over the 4th port, and pretend you have 3 fully-functional ports?

That's a pretty good definition. It think there's more an element of being able to pull off the not forseen. A good code hacker isn't exactly defying computer architecture to extract their wins; they're finding brilliant solutions & cobbling together interesting systems that happen to meet the needs. I think AMD needs the pressure. 4x Thunderbolt 4 is amazing. AMD offering 2x USB 4 is such a massive downgrade. Just a…

IIRC, USB4 Full is pretty much TB3 plus some extensions... So probably shouldn't really be a deal breaker. You can still use a TB dock and an eGPU. USB4 can support 20-40gbps, TB3 is 16, and TB4 is 36.

Re: The Framework Laptop 13

#198
"We haven’t opened ordering in your region yet, but we’re looking forward to getting there!"

...I've been waiting for two years with money in hand. Please let me pay you, please? Printing a set of keycaps for Scandinavian layouts can't be _that_ expensive?

Re: The Framework Laptop 13

#199
post #2

I still hope to see a non-x86 version. The less bloat the better.

There should be at least two RISC-V microarchitectures next year that could potentially be used in this manner.

Ventana Veyron, TBA before end of year, and Tenstorrent's Ascalon, TBA 2024, competitive with Zen5.

Re: The Framework Laptop 13

#200
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The (quite cheap) Lenovo Ideapads are quite good. I've upgraded my S540 with 32 GB of RAM (instead of the base 8) myself, it can receive a second M.2 SSD, and the first one is also upgradeable. The only small problem is with the keyboard : the most used keys are completely blank after 3 years of use :)

> The only small problem is with the keyboard : the most used keys are completely blank after 3 years of use :) After 3 years of use you should have be used to the keymap and not have to look at the keys anyway.

Oh I don't look at the keys, but first it's ugly, and second at some point there will be holes in the key caps :)
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