Intel Z6xx Moorestown Graphics Still Disappoint

[Adarion]

OMG.

Wrong again!

Why, oh why didn't they learn from the poulsbo desaster? Yes, ImgTec is building chips for ARM and other embedded stuff, using not much power but providing some fair GPU features and power. The problem is that they suck when it comes to drivers and FOSS support.
I can't believe intel was stupid enough again.

What use is a possibly nice machine when you can't use it due to nasty drivers, or not having drivers at all?

Can AMD please start making chips for the embedded systems?!

[Hephasteus]

Oh no Intel shits the bed on open source. Never saw that one coming.

[Recluse]

From what I know the graphics guys at Intel had to get something working within a very short timeframe. Using 3rd party IP gets you really fast on track there, and that's what they did in the end. Intel is, afterall, a business and having open source drivers is but one small requirement in the whole list.

The embedded GPU market is pretty much completely closed source nowadays, it's not only ImgTech behaving like this. Personally, I'm not happy with this situation, but what can you do (aside of reverse engineering the stuff like the Nouveau guys did)?

[MaestroMaus]

*Sneaks off with his AMD CPU + GPU (and documentation)...

Who? Intel? Never heard off. It probably isn't any good. You should buy something else...

[Kano]

The article about Z600 plattform is definitely incomplete. It is very unlikely that you will ever see a "standard" distribution running on it as those usually rely on BIOS functions to boot. Of course there will be optimized Linux/Android versions out there when you can actually buy those devices otherwise nobody will buy em. You can certainly run x86 Linux binaries on it as soon as you have got a Linux distribution installed, but basically you do not gain much more against an ARM based system. As soon as Flash will be available for ARM (which will come soon at least for Android) then things will change. It will be also interesting to see if vaapi (which is used by Intel) or vdpau will be used first for Flash, not fully sure about the Tegra plattform but my guess is that there you can use vdpau too. As it is 100% clear that no Win will run on that plattform you can be sure that there will be Linux/Android drivers for it - and for the target market optimized Flash support is a very high priority. For mobile video players you also need good drivers. I could never test GMA500 myself but i don't think that AMD is better in any way for that. Then i definitely would prefer Tegra 2.

[Adarion]

I could never test GMA500 myself but i don't think that AMD is better in any way for that. Then i definitely would prefer Tegra 2.

Ah. You don't know it but it surely can't be any good (cause it is from AMD) so you prefer nv's closed stuff.
Huh?

Good that I first check the stuff before I rant about it. Yes, some years ago situation was horrible but then AMD bought ATI, some time
So now I have working graphics with free drivers. Thanks to AMD.
And good that AMD provides the world with nice stuff that actually works no matter how much YOU hate them.
And one day nvidia will turn its back on the chips and there will be no binary drivers anymore. Yes, AMD's chips also have a limited life span when it comes to official support but at least there will be specs, docs and free drivers that will still build with recent xorgs, kernels, mesa and so on. So why don't you trust AMD?

[Kano]

As long as xvba is so much behind other solutions it will never be first choice for portable LINUX solutions - you must be lucky when it works with Win. Look at the Catalyst 10-4 changelog - years after NV they fixed h264 l5.1 playback - for Win! Atom Z600 competiton is definitely ARM based most likely with Android or later this year maybe Google OS or a combination of both.

[V!NCENT]

Always do your homework before buying something when it costs more than the amount of money that you would care to lose.

Now is Intel the only player in the netbook field? Sadly there's only Ion (closed!) and VIA (closed!).

It is time AMD shows up with that GPU+CPU thing, underclock it like hell and sell it for nothing.

Oh wait... that is not going to happen...

Well... this leads me to not upgrading my old netbook (the first EEE, but with a larger screen) any time soon. And the fun part is that due to AMD's awesomeness I only buy Intel where I can't buy AMD. So that means that now that Intel lost me on the netbook market, they completely lost me as a customer *waves goodbye*

[Chad Page]

The majority of netbooks (Atom Nxxx) use 945(-style) graphics, even the N450 which has the northbridge on the processor die - so no worries.

Last year there was talk of Pineview (N450) having Poulsbo graphics - it's possible Z500 was the original plan for all Atoms, but intel decided to make a chip with 945 graphics as well...

[droidhacker]

It is very unlikely that you will ever see a "standard" distribution running on it as those usually rely on BIOS functions to boot.

I totally disagree with you.
MEEGO ***IS*** a standard-ish linux distro. RPM+xserver1.8, etc. There's nothing particularly special about it or the z6xx platform that will restrict them to each other. You ***WILL*** see fedora/ubuntu/etc running on z6xx devices.