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Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

qualcomm.com

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Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#31

Post by klausa »

viraptor wrote: post #28
DeathArrow wrote: post #21

Qualcomm hyped these CPUs since years showing results in benchmarks. We still don't have laptops with Snapdragon X Elite but meanwhile competition is releasing improved chips, see M4. I wonder if it won't be a little late when the laptops will be finally available to consumers.

They won't be late. There's a significant amount of people who cannot use macs for work. If Qualcomm succeeds with the x86 translation, they'll still be the only real option for that segment, even if they're behind M4. (Also likely for people who don't have $$$ to throw around for hardware)

I think if you expect these to land in budget devices; you're going to be sorely disappointed.

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#32

Post by darthrupert »

prmoustache wrote: post #27
darthrupert wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically they might be fine, but there are geopolitical reasons to avoid chinese products.

I guess you need to avoid using any phone, tablet or laptop then unless all its chips are built in Taiwan. I know Apple Silicon is built there but what about other chips in their hardware?

For some things, we have more options than for others. It makes sense to make more choices where more choices exist.

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#33

Post by [deleted] »

prmoustache wrote: post #27
darthrupert wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically they might be fine, but there are geopolitical reasons to avoid chinese products.

I guess you need to avoid using any phone, tablet or laptop then unless all its chips are built in Taiwan. I know Apple Silicon is built there but what about other chips in their hardware?

[deleted]

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#34

Post by b112 »

prmoustache wrote: post #27
darthrupert wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically they might be fine, but there are geopolitical reasons to avoid chinese products.

I guess you need to avoid using any phone, tablet or laptop then unless all its chips are built in Taiwan. I know Apple Silicon is built there but what about other chips in their hardware?

Some chips are not a concern, but a CPU with its firmware most certainly is. NICs would be too, for obvious reasons.

For example, simple gate chips, or I/O chips are likely not a concern.

Also, many other places in the world than Taiwan make chips, they just make a lot.

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#35

Post by TiredOfLife »

sspiff wrote: post #18
threeseed wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some early benchmarks which put its performance behind iPad: - Snapdragon X Elite (2,574 / 12,562) - iPad M4 (3,630 / 13,060)

What benchmark is this? Geekbench? Geekbench is notoriously inconsistent across platforms. Not saying the iPad chip isn't faster, but I wouldn't judge by Geekbench scores alone...

Do you have a source for Geekbench 6 being inconsistent across platforms?

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#36

Post by rjsw »

sidkshatriya wrote: post #26

I am excited about the prospect of Linux on another powerful aarch64 platform like Snapdragon Elite. But, as far as I can tell from the diagram on the link shared, you will boot into EL1 and not EL2. This means that you cannot run a hardware accelerated VM on KVM (via something like qemu). This makes a Snapdragon Linux laptop not as useful. BTW Asahi Linux on Apple Silicon enters on EL2 which allows qemu+KVM. Enterin…

> "Making our firmware openly available (in Linux-firmware)" is a big one. How are firmware updates currently distributed ?

The "linux-firmware" repo is the standard place to put it, my reading is that Qualcomm are doing this in the right way.

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#37

Post by vbezhenar »

sidkshatriya wrote: post #26

I am excited about the prospect of Linux on another powerful aarch64 platform like Snapdragon Elite. But, as far as I can tell from the diagram on the link shared, you will boot into EL1 and not EL2. This means that you cannot run a hardware accelerated VM on KVM (via something like qemu). This makes a Snapdragon Linux laptop not as useful. BTW Asahi Linux on Apple Silicon enters on EL2 which allows qemu+KVM. Enterin…

I think that for many use-cases containers already replaced VMs even for developers. And you obviously can't run accelerated x86 VMs either way. So probably won't be a big issue.

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#38

Post by viraptor »

klausa wrote: post #31
viraptor wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They won't be late. There's a significant amount of people who cannot use macs for work. If Qualcomm succeeds with the x86 translation, they'll still be the only real option for that segment, even if they're behind M4. (Also likely for people who don't have $$$ to throw around for hardware)

I think if you expect these to land in budget devices; you're going to be sorely disappointed.

I don't expect the first one to do that. But the next ones definitely. And it doesn't have to be "budget" straight away; there's a whole range of "normal" prices between that and Apple.

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#39

Post by _zoltan_ »

geokon wrote: post #15
darthrupert wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't recommend Huawei for anything. Also Lenovo is a chinese company. I think it's best to wait for System76 or someone like Asus to get there.

I used a Huawei laptop and it's great. Huawei's build quality is significantly better than Asus. Not Apple level, but maybe half way there. Lenovo is also pretty good in quality (depending on the model though). Asus laptops are either cheap plastic or extremely thin metal that flexes - even on top end models. They also have a bad track record with support for their Tinkerboards. Not sure how the country of origin mat…

don't forget that ASUS is so bad with warranties that GN not only once but twice now called them out and there are YouTubers who refuse to review ASUS devices.

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#40

Post by viraptor »

lozenge wrote: post #29
threeseed wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some early benchmarks which put its performance behind iPad: - Snapdragon X Elite (2,574 / 12,562) - iPad M4 (3,630 / 13,060)

You can't benchmark a chip. It all depends on how much power and heat dissipation the actual device can provide. When the MacBook Pro comes out it should run circles round the iPad. And there are no Snapdragon X devices yet

Sure you can. Measure performance when not thermally throttled and at the lowest speed / no boost. All real devices will fall in between those numbers.
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