Re: Guix on the MNT Reform

[Vagrant Cascadian]

On 2020-05-08, Christopher Lemmer Webber wrote:
> I'm very excited to see the MNT Reform launch:
>
>   https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/reform
>   https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/reform/updates/the-campaign-is-live
...
> Most important specs:
>
>     CPU: NXP/Freescale i.MX8MQ with 4x ARM Cortex-A53 cores (1.5 GHz),
>       1x Cortex-M4F core. CPU and RAM are on exchangeable SO-DIMM sized
>       module.

The A53 cores are going to seem quite slow for guix, I would guess.
I've run guix on a pinebook and pine64+ which also have quad-core A53
(although from a different vendor and less RAM) and the CPU was quite
slow...

On the plus side, the A53 cores are immune to most spectre/meltdown
attacks!


>     RAM: 4GB LPDDR4 memory
>     GPU: Vivante GC7000Lite GPU with mainline Linux drivers and OpenGL
>       2.1, ES 2.0
>
> (My other main worry is: that's pretty light on RAM these days...!
> But hey, maybe incentive for me to cut the fat in the programs I use a
> bit more...)

4GB is fairly useable with guix on the Pinebook Pro, though it has some
faster CPU cores as well.


> I am thinking of getting one and running Guix on it.  It would be nice
> to know that I wouldn't be alone. :)  Anyone else planning to get one
> and joing me on the journey on maybe the most hacker-oriented laptop
> ever?

It's very tempting, but I have too many barely working experimental
laptops already... and the price tag is a bit high. That the various
parts are upgradable, at least in theory, is quite nice!

I'd be curious what the power consumption profile is like at idle and
full load...


live well,
  vagrant

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