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

[mgrollman]

Dario, I also am big fan of  PCEngines and Alix, and use this board for some of our mobile sensor projects.  But it has trouble keeping up with certain video efforts -- just not enough gas in the tank, sometimes. Atom CPU at 1.6GHz will draw around 2.2watt, still very lean and mean. I agree that mini-pci slot is lacking in D945GCLF, but I would expect to see boards out there with mini-PCI soon using ATOM.  Also, the Alix has a better power setup than this Intel board does.  But, the combination of this very low power ATOM chip, super low price, and a native Intel chip set, it is very sexy, especially in video world. - Michael Dario Finardi wrote: Thankyou Michael, we are using Geode based board for some reasons: - small size - very low power consumption ([EMAIL PROTECTED] is <0.9watt and the board is <5watt) - quite expandable (2 minipci slots + come gpio) - the producer of the board we've choosen (PCEngines) make a little modification based upon our request for a small order (100pcs). Thankyou again. dario -----Messaggio originale----- Da: mgrollman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Inviato: giovedì 22 maggio 2008 17.39 A: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Kim-man 'Punky' TSE; Dario Finardi Oggetto: Alix1/3 VGA support (lxfb) vs. Intel Atom D945GCLF 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:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Inviato: mercoledì 21 maggio 2008 3.37 A: Dario Finardi Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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@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

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