[Liverpool] Atom Cedar Trail Linux compatibility

[Sebastian Arcus]

Just a quick note for anybody who is not aware of this yet. The 
(relatively) new Intel Atom Cedar platform - containing the N2800, N2600 
or N2100 CPU's don't have adequate support under Linux. This is not due 
to the processing cores themselves, but due to the graphics chip (which 
is physically integrated on the processor, if memory serves).

The graphics core - which is the GMA3600/GMA3650, is a PowerVR core - 
not a real Intel one. The story is similar to the GMA500 which was 
integrated with the Intel Atom Z6xx series - and never quite got 
anywhere proper in terms of support under Linux - although some people 
have got it to work, of sorts.

Intel seems to have released some drivers for this chip (from what I can 
tell, binary stuff) - and there are some reports of people who have 
gotten them to sort of work - but apparently with a lot of problems. 
I've seen some mentions that there might be a proper driver in 
development in the kernel for these chips - but I wouldn't hold my 
breath as PowerVR have never cooperated in releasing the specs.

I just thought I'd post this here, in case anybody is considering buying 
one of these newer netbooks - as their performance otherwise (compared 
to older models) is rather good.

Here are some links with extra info:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=144445

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1953734&page=2



Sebastian

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