[Voyage-linux] RE: Alix1/3 VGA support (lxfb) vs. Intel Atom D945GCLF

[Michael Grollman]

As I understand it, the first release this month is a single core with the
D945GCLF board from Intel
(http://green-pcs.co.uk/2008/05/18/intel-atom-d945gclf-ready/), but I think
this Winter some dual core Atom stuff will also hit, plus clearly a ton of
the mini-ITX board houses will be switching to this chip.

To a casual observer, it would seem Via is dead meat, at $80 for this thing,
with a real Intel chip set on all fronts.

-----Original Message-----
From: Kim-man 'Punky' TSE [mailto:punkytse at punknix.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 7:17 PM
To: mgrollman at cox.net
Cc: voyage-linux at voyage.hk; Dario Finardi
Subject: Re: Alix1/3 VGA support (lxfb) vs. Intel Atom D945GCLF

Hi Michael,

Is Atom dual core or SMT?  To support it, it is better to install the stock
Debian kernel on top of Voyage. 

Regards,
Punky

mgrollman wrote:
>
>
> We do a lot of video encode stuff with Voyage (not so much playback), 
> so we try and track what is out there that works well and it low cost 
> for hardware.  It would appear that the  Intel Atom D945GCLF is 
> shipping now, at around $80 USD qty 1, with a 1.6GHz CPU and a much 
> more potent grahaics engine GMA 950 than Alix, as well as much better 
> RAM upgradeable, it would seem that it could handler a video playback 
> application like what you describe below much better than Alix could 
> (much as it saddens me to say it) even withg frame buffer, and that a 
> it would not take much to get Voyage to run well on this platform, 
> since it is based on venervcal Intel 82945G (ICH7).  This board, I 
> think, will take over many many application  niches where Via and 
> Geode are hot today.
> Cheers,
>
> - Michael
>
>
> --------------------------------
> Kim-man 'Punky' TSE wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> If you are using XFree86, I think you may need framebuffer driver.  
>> With XOrg, it will have a native geodelx video driver.  My question 
>> is, if XOrg on Etch does not support geode lx, will adding 
>> framebuffer support help?
>>
>> Next 0.6 release will base on lenny, and will be available at around 
>> summer time.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Punky
>>
>>
>> Dario Finardi wrote:
>>> Yes, you're correct.
>>>
>>> I'm investigating about the way to use such cheap and low power 
>>> consumption boards (alix pcengines and soekris) to build embedded 
>>> devices with the ability to drive display not charging the cpu with 
>>> the heavy X11 infrastructure.
>>>
>>> About X11: I see the Geode support was introduced in X11 starting 
>>> from Debian 4.0 Lenny and Sid.
>>> Etch hasn't such a driver yet.
>>>
>>> Have you some roadmap timing to port Voyage from Etch to Lenny yet?
>>>
>>> NOTE: I tested X11 without any specific video driver. Geode is 
>>> driven only as a plain VGA with really poor performances and 
>>> supporting few resolutions/color depth.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> dario
>>> -----Messaggio originale-----
>>> Da: Kim-man 'Punky' TSE [mailto:punkytse at punknix.com] Inviato: 
>>> mercoledì 21 maggio 2008 3.37
>>> A: Dario Finardi
>>> Cc: voyage-linux at voyage.hk
>>> Oggetto: Re: [Voyage-linux] Alix1/3 VGA support (lxfb)
>>>
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> I am not convinced why a geode lx driver is needed.  As far as I 
>>> read from http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Hardware_Drivers and kernel 
>>> documentation, framebuffer is for provide graphical support on 
>>> kernel console.  Correct me if i am wrong.  Any other strong reason 
>>> than that?
>>> Regards,
>>> Punky
>>>
>>>
>>> Dario Finardi wrote:
>>>  
>>>> I was looking for the lxfb module to have optimized support of the 
>>>> Geode framebuffer.
>>>> I made an hand-check, then installed module-assistant too.
>>>> I see the lxfb module ins't available in the Voyage mainstream 
>>>> distribution.
>>>>
>>>> Someone with a solution?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Voyage-linux mailing list
>>>> Voyage-linux at list.voyage.hk
>>>> http://list.voyage.hk/mailman/listinfo/voyage-linux
>>>>       
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Regards,
>>> Punky
>>>
>>> Voyage Solutions (http://solution.voyage.hk)
>>> * Embedded Solutions and Systems
>>>   - Mesh Networking, Captive Portal, IP Surveillance, VoIP/PBX
>>>   - Network Engineering, Development Platform and Consultation
>>>      
>>>   
>>
>>


--
Regards,
Punky

Voyage Solutions (http://solution.voyage.hk)
* Embedded Solutions and Systems
  - Mesh Networking, Captive Portal, IP Surveillance, VoIP/PBX
  - Network Engineering, Development Platform and Consultation