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Intel's new Clover Trail chip will support Android, Linux
By Thom Holwerda, submitted by lemur2 on 2012-09-19 21:44:37
Clover Trail will get Linux and Android support after all. "Intel has plans for another version of this platform directed at Linux/Android; however we are not commenting on the platform specifics or market segments at this time. Stay tuned," Intel told ZDBet.
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Read Comments: 1-10 -- 11-20 -- 21-30 -- 31-32
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RE[4]: Comment by Gusar
By 0brad0 on 2012-09-20 18:39:06
> Linux is just a kernel, which also happens to be used in Android.

Doesn't change what I said.
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RE[3]: Comment by Gusar
By fithisux on 2012-09-20 19:00:21
> There is nothing inherently technically wrong with BLOB based drivers. I have no problems using NVidia drivers, they work great, and they're well maintained with current kernel versions.


The problem is that BLOB drivers increase the maintainance cost and in order to minimize it, they leave platforms out. Moreover BLOB drivers pose restrictions. But I have no problem providing full documentation on their product and BLOB drivers for the MacOSX and Windows. then the problem would be moral only. but now, their approach is detrimental to the user. The same holds if they shipped only Linux BLOB drivers. They restrict the user to use the HW in their way and so they void the typical purchase. You do not own the HW but you rent it to be used under their conditions. And if it is not clear in 2012 after so much scientific advancement and availability of knowledge then we are doomed or more politely fscked and we are in grave danger to return to the caves or to the cotton plantations.

Edited 2012-09-20 19:02 UTC
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RE: Comment by Gusar
By bassbeast on 2012-09-20 20:42:42
Why would you want Atom after Intel has kept going with PowerVR? For low power X86 frankly the Bobcat is a better chip, dual out of order X86 chips with support for virtualization, unlike Intel they don't hamstring their chips on memory so you can go up to 8Gb on most models and 4gb on ALL models, usually cheaper than Atom and now that Intel has wiped out ION frankly its the only one that has a real GPU. Finally AMD has been opening their specs and docs as fast as they can and the next gen Bobcats are gonna have quad core out soon that fits into the same power envelope.

So I really don't know why you'd want an Atom, Intel cripples the chip too much trying to upsell you on a Celeron or Pentium. The bobcats have all the features of their big brothers, great performance, and you can buy an E350 in a nice HTPC case with PSU for $125 off of NewEgg. Just a better way to go if you want to run Linux IMHO. OpenELEC even has an XBMC build designed for Fusion OOTB, so you can just slap it on and go, easy peasy.
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RE[2]: Comment by Gusar
By Gusar on 2012-09-20 23:15:46
> Why would you want Atom after Intel has kept going with PowerVR?
Did you read what I wrote about ValleyView having a gen7 GPU that is totally Intel's (no PowerVR there)?

> So I really don't know why you'd want an Atom
Did you read what I wrote about ValleyView being the first out-of-order execution Atom?

The answer to both questions seems to be "no".

Basically, what you wrote is a rant that is only possible because you ignored the two main points about ValleyView - the CPU is out-of-order (eliminating the weakness that is the in-order-ness of the current Atoms), and the GPU has a fully featured open-source driver (check the changelogs of the recent kernels, you'll find plenty of ValleyView commits in there).

The AMD machines you mention are missing two quite big things in the open-source driver, because AMD has *not* released specs for them - power management and hardware video decode. ValleyView will provide both. And that is why I want one.

And trust me, I'm very aware of the limitations of the current Atoms. The machine I'm typing this comment on is Diamondville (Atom N270 CPU, GMA950 GPU).

Edited 2012-09-20 23:16 UTC
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RE[3]: Comment by Gusar
By 0brad0 on 2012-09-21 00:35:23
> > Why would you want Atom after Intel has kept going with PowerVR?
Did you read what I wrote about ValleyView having a gen7 GPU that is totally Intel's (no PowerVR there)?

> So I really don't know why you'd want an Atom
Did you read what I wrote about ValleyView being the first out-of-order execution Atom?

The answer to both questions seems to be "no".


The Intel GPUs even Gen7 leave a lot to be desired (their GPUs still suck).

The AMD SoC's you can buy now. The Intel SoC's you cannot and won't be able to for upwards of a year from now.
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RE[4]: Comment by Gusar
By aftermath on 2012-09-21 01:34:27
Your description is blurry. Even though this isn't what you explicitly said, I think that a lot of people believe that "Android is Linux", and your comment is insufficiently worded to account or correct for such misapprehension.

It's true that Android is "Linux-based", but that's a little misleading and useless because technically every distribution of GNU/Linux is "Linux-based". Fortunately, most people get that Android isn't a distribution of Linux, but of the many reasons why this is true, the most important is the fact that Android's kernel is not the the Linux kernel. Android's kernel is a modified fork of Linux. Beyond that, Android as an operating diverges substantially from actual distributions of Linux with its goofy application framework, middleware, and other such hackish nonsense (the worst thing that can happen to Android will be Wayland 1.0).

I'd encourage people to check out Jeff Hoogland's well-considered article "Six Signs that Android really isn't Linux", especially people who mislead themselves by thinking that: in using Android they are using Linux, that the popularity of Android is somehow beneficial to Linux, that Android is a sufficient alternative to a proper distribution of Linux, or that Android is even a valid open source project that is legitimate for the FOSS crowd to support as either users or developers.
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RE[5]: Comment by Gusar
By juzzlin on 2012-09-21 07:25:12
http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/...
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RE[4]: Comment by Gusar
By ilovebeer on 2012-09-22 05:14:06
> The problem is that BLOB drivers increase the maintainance cost and in order to minimize it, they leave platforms out. Moreover BLOB drivers pose restrictions. But I have no problem providing full documentation on their product and BLOB drivers for the MacOSX and Windows. then the problem would be moral only.
BLOBs aren't going anywhere, as they shouldn't (for any company not exactly wanting to hand their car keys over to their competitors).

> but now, their approach is detrimental to the user. The same holds if they shipped only Linux BLOB drivers. They restrict the user to use the HW in their way and so they void the typical purchase. You do not own the HW but you rent it to be used under their conditions. And if it is not clear in 2012 after so much scientific advancement and availability of knowledge then we are doomed or more politely fscked and we are in grave danger to return to the caves or to the cotton plantations.
Ok, so first, wrong. You do not "rent" your HW, you own it. HW having limitations or restrictions doesn't change that fact. If you don't like how HW is designed and/or supported, buy different HW.

Second, we aren't in grave danger of anything. Closed systems are not devolving society. To say otherwise is just acting like a drama queen.
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RE[3]: Comment by Gusar
By bassbeast on 2012-09-22 09:34:50
Check out OpenELEC, seems to be working just fine. i built a couple of E350s and everything played nice and smooth in both 720 and 1080, no hassle. And I'm sorry but Intel GPUs still sucketh, they just aren't very good and are still several generations behind what Nvidia and AMD have coming out.

Finally you still ignored the elephant in the room which is Intel STILL cripples the chips, no support for decent amounts of RAM (last specs I saw was still limited to 2gb, AMD has minimum 4Gb and most support 8Gb) and things like GPU turbo again missing.

So if you wanna pay more for a weaker hamstringed chip that is your business, but I have NO doubt that the Bobcat II is gonna curbstomp it. Oh and you can buy Bobcat one NOW at just $125 with a nice case and PSU, look at the Intel offerings, they charge more for less.
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RE[4]: Comment by Gusar
By Gusar on 2012-09-22 10:39:05
I'm only interested in netbooks, while you're talking about HTPC. Different use cases. You don't really need to care about power management for example, while on a netbook it's very important for battery life.

Also, for a netbook even a gen7 GPU is plenty. My current netbook has a GMA950 (gen3)! Not to mention with Intel I don't have hassles with either an incomplete open driver or a problematic closed one, as would be the case with AMD graphics.

And I know ValleyView is still quite a long way away. But it was clear from my first post that I have no problem waiting for it. So saying that Bobcat is available now is a non-argument, it's irrelevant for my specific case.

The other stuff you mention, like RAM, also not relevant for me. I have only 2GB even in my desktop, it's plenty enough. And my current netbook chugs along with just 1GB.
Finally, price: When I look at netbooks, current Intel offerings are cheaper or same price compared to AMD. Yeah they have PowerVR GPUs, so out of the question for me, but still.

Edited 2012-09-22 10:52 UTC
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