a reader (a@b.c) on 10/2/09 wrote:
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>>Or you can get a GMA500-based thing, which apparently will
>>not run Windows to satisfaction, and which has a horrible
>>driver situation under Linux.
>
>aren't you the gatekeeper of that sort of stuff?

Undocumented chipsets and 3D graphics drivers? No. The
kernel does some of it (memory management, mode setting
etc), but we need docs for that part too.

And most of the 3D graphics pipeline is in user space OpenGL
libraries, and in X etc.

>linux is not doing well in netbook. don't you kernel guys
>have some levers to pull the get a decent powervr driver?
>it's *widely* used. so might worth the trouble?

Oh, it would be worth some trouble, but it needs to be
done by Intel. Get the docs out and preferably writing
at least reasonable starting-point open source drivers
too. But the OpenVR core isn't even Intel IP, and apparently
they screwed up when licensing it, so they can't do it.

Yet. I'm hoping/assuming that they are working on it.
Intel certainly needs some kind of low-power
graphics solution, and Larrabee isn't it, and they seem
to be talking about shutting down their traditional IGP
work.

We'll see. But as-is, GMA500 just doesn't fly very well.

>>Or you can do the crazy ION thing, which means that more
>>of the money goes to nVidia than Intel, and considering
>>the track record is pretty risky anyway. Right now, any
>>sane person would likely avoid nVidia chips for anything.
>
>why? ION is not a bad platform. won't be shocked if
>it gains market share this Chistmas season.

Well, obviously it will gain market share, since it's just
starting out. And it certainly performs better on a
graphics side than GMA950. But Ion+Atom loses out to any
standard CULV+GMA950 setup (it's not like people are buying
those things for games), so in the end the upside to it is
exactly what again?

And the kinds of things nvidia has been doing the last
few years, I'd suggest that vendors and consumers be a
bit worried. I certainly wouldn't buy their stuff. Not
on the low end (where non-GMA500 intel integrated graphics
is fine) or at the high end (where AMD is spanking them),
or in laptops (where they now have a history of trouble,
and then lying about it to consumers and vendors
alike).

And of course, in the Linux space, nvidia really isn't
much better than GMA500.

Linus