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by iknowstuff 56 days ago
They write their own software. And firmware. Other OEMs can just beg their tier 1/2 suppliers to get their shit together and put components to sleep properly by making windows, drivers, and firmware work well together.

Also things like lpddr5x, ssd controller built into the SoC with cache in unified ram (instead of running a whole ass separate computer with its own ram on an m2 stick) etc
3 comments
cogman10 56 days ago
This is it.

Sleep is such a finicky thing which requires all parts of the system to do it right.

My desktop lost the ability to sleep because I guess the nvidia drivers have decided that you are wrong to want to put things to sleep.

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trelane 56 days ago
Exactly. This is precisely why I stopped buying Windows computers and started buying System76. Well that and the support.

Looks like Framework has started heading this direction too, which is nice to see.

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jeffbee 56 days ago
Great point about the storage. That is another place where the repairability meme is really not helping. Moving the storage controller up into the host SoC is a good idea and the PC world should adopt it.

Apple's storage controller is not even a PCIe peripheral internally, so it's saving power and latency cutting out that interface, even when it's active.

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Plasmoid2000ad 55 days ago
I'm having a tough time wrapping my head around how this could work for PCs today.

I'm guessing Intel/AMD could integrate a single SSD controller that OEMs could use for a specially socketed SSD?

I'm not familiar enough with SSD controllers - but what limits would this introduce. I'm thinking they can't be totally generic - with any NAND chips, any layout, 1-4 chips and TLC or QLC NAND - any capacity etc. It strikes me it would be limiting - you would become restricted to a a small subset of SSDs, maybe not forwards compatible with newer NAND chips etc.

I'd think only the minority of PC Laptops would make sense to have this - ones with soldered SSDs - and I don't know many of these. So Intel/AMD would need a big push to integrate any controller. Maybe Windows ARM laptops, if the controller makes a big enough difference, will do this. I'm curious now if any Snapdragon devices are doing this already.

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