Wow thanks for sharing this - looks great! Completely missed this. I wonder how far out Linux support for the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 chipset is and how it runs?
Edit:
The reviewer gets on Geekbench 32GB ram: 1118, 5776
My i7 Framework gets on Geekbench, 32GB ram: 1683, 5382
So it’s not that far behind on synthetic scores and is technically ahead on multi-core!
Ooh those scores are pretty interesting. Although this doesn’t really play to x86’s advantage if I’m correct which is having dedicated instruction sets to speed up certain workloads!
I was thinking if we go ARM, why not something like Khadas VIM4, Rock Pi or Banana Pi? Or even better, something like the HoneyComb LX2. Then again, ARM released the Cortex X3 recently, so perhaps we will see ARM based laptops in 2-3 years time as the platform begins to mature.
I’d totally buy an ARM or an OpenPOWER board. I dunno about RISC-V, the fragmentation and blob issues are offputting to me, personally (less the fact that it the implementations of it that anyone cares about because they have access to nodes below 180nm and extensions to the ISA that give it critical functionality and much faster execution or more work per cycle has have blobs [and themselves aren’t open at all] and more that despite that, it still markets itself as super open, freedom loving hardware) but I suppose even then, more architectures is better than fewer.
As long as people are realistic about RISC-V and don’t like it for reasons that may be less inherently true and more marketing inflating things, then I’m fine with it. Certainly interesting, while I’d have loved for MIPS to be still around, RISC-V is at least pretty similar to it. It might even be cool to have in a case reminiscent of an SGI workstation.
Windows NT should be portable to RISC-V easily, since the x86 and amd64 versions of it are themselves ports from the i860, and in the past has had ports to MIPS, DEC Alpha, and PowerPC. It at least was originally specifically designed for easy portability, but who knows how long it’s been since the code has really been easily portable.
There’s the ThinkPad X13s Snapdragon…has anyone tried it?
Somewhat on sale from Lenovo Canada on via eBay with their 15% off coupon. from their website.
For example (CAD):
Really like this rather old ThinkPad promo video. I hope Framework will make a similar or better video to show the tests and decisions made over the products they make:
That thing boots up real fast back then (with NT4).
The X13s/ 8cx Gen3 arm that @stillinbeta posted should be supported by the Linux 5.20 aka Linux 6.0 kernel!
i wonder what the status would be, of the rest of the components of the architecture of that laptop? i have no idea about how ARM devices work but i assume that BIOS + secure boot and all that stuff might be a bit problematic on linux?
ARM doesn’t use bios or anything like that. IIRC it has a hardcoded boot sequence that looks for a bootloader at a specific location on a specific device.
Which Linus uses the M2 MacBook Air? - YouTube
Linus Torvalds Now Using a 64-bit Arm Laptop - Ditches x86 While on the Road - YouTube
I just saw news that Pine64 is shipping their laptops again. Maybe Framework could work with Pine64 so that Pine64 can develop a board that fits into the Framework.
No need for a direct support from Framework but maybe ideas of a 3rd party alternative mainboard for Framework that can use expansion cards (maybe).
What’s more, Pine64 had a hard time finding screens for their systems, so maybe this could work too.
Future is never certain 
the US congres is now pushing more the right to repair like in Europe. Apple hzs been forced to create a page explaining how to repaire their stuff. I am not a max fan at all… But always happy to see industry moving in the right direction. Tmif the guys who invented the disposal trash are finally forced to stop it that s great.
Concerning arm laptop why not… But as open source projetct on the side. Some opensource guys using rasberyes or pine64 mayne adapting a board.
.
I was also thinking of the possibility to just plug my phone on usb 4 and take control of the screen and keyboard with my phone
From what I am looking at the repair program, it seems to be making it look a lot more tedious and daunting that it really is.
I was thinking since Pine64 had issues sourcing for screens, maybe they could have adapted their RK3369 SOC to fit into the Framework. I was initially tempted to buy a PineBook Pro now that they are in stock, but after realising that it can’t even compete with like an old Toshiba Z930 with a gen 3 i7, even with more core counts, I hope the next RockChip would be loads better.
There is battery life. And what you do with it in real life 
i mean productivity. It seems that macbook m1 has a lot of the missing software from itd ecosystem…even thought they have the iphone arm world before. Which windows don t have…dince death of their smartphone os.
Reading the thinkpad review all is not perfect. And many software will not work or just lag like video games.
If you are using mostely the web it s an alternative.
Now paying 1500€ for it is a little expensive.
Risc V is even more far behind than arm.
Check pine64 and the upcoming rk3588 for arm.
https://pine64.com/product/14″-pinebook-pro-linux-laptop-ansi-us-keyboard/
I am almost certain pine64 will release aswell a risc V as soon as they madter their new risc V PCB
All in all, i think there is a big difference between making a consumer product likr FW and a tinkerer device…like pine64. Pine64 phone took 3 years to be kind of usable, and still its slow like a 2007 phone.
If this is done on the side by external companies like pine64 that woule be great
14″ PINEBOOK Pro LINUX LAPTOP (ANSI. US Keyboard) - PINE STORE
This is limited quantity production due to a severe global electronic components shortage. Please do not order the Pinebook Pro if you’re seeking a substitute for your X86 laptop, or are just curious and you’re ordering it with an intent to file a return/refund return request. These pre-orders are meant for enthusiasts familiar with the Arm architecture and interested in the PineBook Pro for this specific reason. Thank you.
I think the note on the Pine64 website is really sincere. I like it.
Regarding this, I wonder if we could find a way to fit the Honeycomb LX2 by Solidrun into the Framework, I would think outside of Apple Silicon and perhaps Snapdragons, this is the closest we can get to a modern computing system . It even has PCIe lanes and socketed DDR4 RAM SODIMMs for use. Perhaps the only concern is the GPU.
Are there any plans to introduce ARM CPUs to the framework line up? Would love the opportunity to create a framework laptop with an ARM processor setup
This may come as kinda janky but I saw a few posts recently and these just linked up:
We get a RK3588S Single board computer (we need a low profile one or even a Banana Pi/Orange Pi core board) with some kind of cooler fan (not sure passive cooling works).
The reason for it is because it comes with a decent GPU for graphical acceleration yet probably a somewhat powerful enough ARM CPU chip that I think is easier to find, the other spectrum would be Snapdragons and Apple ARM but I remember the latter would definitely be more powerful but kinda closed and very expensive.
Then a PCB to connect the keyboard and touchpad to the SBC:
We connect the Framework display to the SBC via this PCB:
These two solutions seems reasonably low profile enough to fit into the Framework chassis.
So currently, what we are missing is:
One idea for the SBC is we could crowdfund Firefly/Solidrun/Khadas/Radxa/Mekotronics/Pine64 (I am not sure if Orange/Banana Pi and other makers would) to make one for us but I have no idea how much that would cost. The bootloader support is another question. Though if we have to make a custom board, we might as well, make a whole new mainboard that is compatible with the current Framework chassis with socketed DDR4 sodimms.
Another way would be to custom make some kind of carrier mainboard like the Nexdock that connects to Framework’s components while connecting to a core board module.
Maybe someone with more technical expertise would give more input here?
There aren’t premade options for these, but electrically they’re less complex than you might expect. The hardware side would be… pretty smooth? To make a bunch of break-out boards.
The audio board is just a jack that takes analog audio plus the hall effect sensor to see if the screen is closed. Just get analog audio out of your SBC in your preferred way, even just wire up the SBC’s jack.
The webcam is USB 2.0 (but with 3.3V power instead of 5V), just pull the right signals out of the cable. Microphone looks to be i2s audio, and the automatic light sensor seems to be i2c with extra pin for interrupt.
Once you have the signal lanes for PCIe exposed, I think it’s just as simple as providing power to the NVMe drive and hooking up the PCIe lines (and maybe the i2c sideband?). It gets more complex if you want to support SATA but this is complex enough already, thanks. If your chosen board doesn’t have PCIe exposed, you’re plum out of luck unless you use a USB adapter, or just boot off the eMMC, that stuff’s pretty decent actually.
USB extensions can be as simple as a cable, althought you’d need to be able to fit it through the USB-C sized holes in the laptop chassis to dummy-proof it. Alternatively, you could just specify that Only This Module Goes In That Slot for each of the slots.
Battery though, that’s a bit rough. Not impossible by any means, but battery management has to be customized to the battery it’s managing and the connector the battery uses. And then having the SBC be aware of the battery? An entirely separate problem that goes deep into the software side of things.
My concern regarding the PCIe NVMe was that eMMC is kinda slower (I used a laptop that used eMMC) and lower durability, not to mention I don’t remember it was swappable. The ability to boot off would probably require a workaround or BIOS mod.
Yea, it wouldn’t be off the shelf boards, so one way I hypothesized above is that if there is sufficient interest, we could get a huge custom designed daughter board PCB to fit the SBC.
The batttery could potentially require a secondary controller too.
Just throwing out ideas to make it a reality.
