System76 Begins Publishing "Virgo" Laptop PCB Design Specs, Confirms Intel Raptor Lake

[phoronix]

Phoronix: System76 Begins Publishing "Virgo" Laptop PCB Design Specs, Confirms Intel Raptor Lake

For months Linux hardware vendor System76 has been teasing their in-house designed and manufactured "Virgo" laptop to be built at their facility in Denver. They are hoping to develop the quietest yet most performant Linux laptop. Today they published the initial open-source design files for their custom motherboard PCB in this laptop...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/System76-Virgo-PCB-Design

[ayumu]

Not AMD, not under consideration.

[andyprough]

Not AMD, not under consideration.

Unfortunately AMD doesn't do any of the coreboot work required to get its chips on a system like this. So it would appear to be AMD that's not under consideration, not the other way around.

[N0dens]

I guess we each have to choose what we think is the lesser evil...
The article doesn't tell us much about the laptop other than it is supposed to be "the quietest yet most performant Linux laptop".
In my mind, "quiet" and "performant" for a laptop means power efficiency.
However these days, power efficiency means anything but an intel processor... so they don't appear to be very serious with that goal.
I am hoping to be surprised ... but I won't hold my breath.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

I guess we each have to choose what we think is the lesser evil...
The article doesn't tell us much about the laptop other than it is supposed to be "the quietest yet most performant Linux laptop".
In my mind, "quiet" and "performant" for a laptop means power efficiency.
However these days, power efficiency means anything but an intel processor... so they don't appear to be very serious with that goal.
I am hoping to be surprised ... but I won't hold my breath.

As stated in the article and a response above, it sounds like coreboot support was a requirement for their overall design goals of making this thing as open as they could.

[scottishduck]

Not AMD, not under consideration.

AMD don’t support coreboot, they’re not even a possible choice.

[sarmad]

Does these files have any more details about the specs? Will it have a dGPU? They said it'll be the "quietest most performant" laptop, but I wouldn't call a laptop performant without a dGPU. Hopefully they'll at least include an Arc dGPU in it.

[andyprough]

I guess we each have to choose what we think is the lesser evil...
The article doesn't tell us much about the laptop other than it is supposed to be "the quietest yet most performant Linux laptop".
In my mind, "quiet" and "performant" for a laptop means power efficiency.
However these days, power efficiency means anything but an intel processor... so they don't appear to be very serious with that goal.
I am hoping to be surprised ... but I won't hold my breath.

I'm assuming they just mean that it will be quieter and faster than their previous Clevo laptops. Faster by using the newer CPU. Quieter by designing the chassis and cooling system for more quietness. Probably won't be that hard to achieve.

[dreamcat4]

AMD don’t support coreboot, they’re not even a possible choice.

I understand that AMD might have been rules out of consideration here for system76 guys. But just speaking in more general broader terms... how does the new AMD openSIL fit into the picture here? I mean in regards to which boot time component(s), be it the AGESA part, or UEFI part, or a coreboot?

Because isn't it supposed to be that openSIL will eventuall replace the AGESA? (closed source). Which then forms a subset / sub component that the UEFI bios interacts with?

So [in theoretical terms]... once OpenSIL can support CONSUMER level (AM4 / AM5) level cpus, then can it be worked upon for support in coreboot? [at some later date]?

Or are the AMD policies specifically prohibitive of such a future outcome? (these questions being more-or-less being regardless of whatever system76 is doing with this specific current laptop).

[scottishduck]

I understand that AMD might have been rules out of consideration here for system76 guys. But just speaking in more general broader terms... how does the new AMD openSIL fit into the picture here? I mean in regards to which boot time component(s), be it the AGESA part, or UEFI part, or a coreboot?

Because isn't it supposed to be that openSIL will eventuall replace the AGESA? (closed source). Which then forms a subset / sub component that the UEFI bios interacts with?

So [in theoretical terms]... once OpenSIL can support CONSUMER level (AM4 / AM5) level cpus, then can it be worked upon for support in coreboot? [at some later date]?

Or are the AMD policies specifically prohibitive of such a future outcome? (these questions being more-or-less being regardless of whatever system76 is doing with this specific current laptop).

It’s pretty much a guarantee that openSIL will not port backwards and it’s also currently just words in a press release and nothing more.

Intel has done the work and continues to do the work, I’ll take that over promises.