✧✦Catherine✦✧so i got a steam deck (i wanted one for a while & the threat of them running out of DRAM because of AI demand is looming)
it's... it's really nice. someone actually gave a shit while designing this PC hardware and software. rare and pleasant
i'm going to install Vivado on it
now for the real test of steam deck's utility: how fast can it pnr
despite having only 88 GB/s of memory bandwidth (https://glauca.space/@r/116126575467566538) it seems to be... okay? oddly it appears much slower to do synthesis than pnr on their or1200 demo project, which is not the way it usually goes
/usr/local/goth @ home@whitequark the thing I love about my steam deck is they're like "hey there's a full ass desktop environment and it's Linux so your hardware do what you want"
I respect that design choice
@ladytel yeah it's excellent
Krutonium://@whitequark FWIW: The memory is slightly underclocked by default; You can speed it up quite a bit with some firmware tweaking, which amounts to loading an alternative GUI to change the CMOS settings.
IIRC it runs slower because some early on models of the Deck were unstable at the higher clocks and they never adjusted it back up.
@krutonium ty, how do i do that?
@whitequark https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/1144w09/guide_for_ram_overclock/
Your Mileage may Vary, if you mess it up you're on your own.
Worst case scenario you should be able to fix it by clearing the CMOS though, unless you go wild with voltage settings or somthing.
R@whitequark according to one benchmark, it has some strange CPU memory bandwidth issues ( https://chipsandcheese.com/p/van-gogh-amds-steam-deck-apu )
but overall still performs quite well for the "ultra-mobile" (do they still use that term?) device class. doesn't throttle for no reason, for one
Nicolas Dandrimont@whitequark don't forget the FPS (Flipflops Per Second) overlay
Pxl Phile@whitequark I have no idea what pnr means besides Place'n'Route. What's the meaning in your case?
@ppxl exactly that
@whitequark ooooooooh now I got it. 🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️
I thought of doing hardware preparation like solder screening, not computational multi objective NP hard calculations. I am obviously not smart
@whitequark no we did quite a few already (might be the first with vivado tho)
hey it's faster than qemu on M1
lomn@whitequark I know it's not hehe.
A friend uses he's as a laptop and installed he's work toolchain for the sake of it. Told me that was unusable though.
I also installed ghidra on the same device for a ctf where that was the only computer I could get re was eye stressing to say the least...
A friend uses he's as a laptop and installed he's work toolchain for the sake of it. Told me that was unusable though.
I also installed ghidra on the same device for a ctf where that was the only computer I could get re was eye stressing to say the least...
Tony Garnock-Jones@whitequark The first bitsteam (I can't help myself, it started when I had a kid, I'm so sorry)
@tonyg amazing
Complexity of systems 🏳️⚧️@whitequark probably at worst you're probably within the first dozen (unless there was some internal dev version of the steam deck that had an FPGA built in for some reason)
julius@whitequark Downloading Vivado via Steam must be a huge improvement. Do they have DLCs?
Olivia@whitequark I don't think a single soul thought you were joking
implr@whitequark "return to gaming mode" wdym gaben vivado *is* gaming
prom™️@whitequark “certain cats do it all the time”, “it’s fine as long as you don’t vibecode”, “isn’t it export-controlled now?”
@promovicz it is in fact export-controlled and has been for as long as i've been using it
Glyph@whitequark I would never
Andrew Zonenberg@whitequark i feel like you should start a YouTube series called "will it FPGA" as you try to synthesize, P&R, and JTAG an FPGA from increasingly exotic platforms.
Start with easy peasy: Android phone, steam deck, Windows 98 laptop, etc. then step it up... Nintendo 3ds? Smith-Corona PWP-80?
Craig Bishop@azonenberg @whitequark Vivado on a car infotainment system could be nice — take long running P&R jobs with you! 😝
@azonenberg @whitequark how many LUTs could a smart fridge route in a hard day’s work?
Ben
Trammell Hudson@azonenberg @whitequark an Underwood Portable might work if you can fix the C compiler
Fritz Adalis
Je ne suis pas goth@whitequark … of ... Of course you are.
@whitequark (tbh I was secretly hoping you were going to install Vivado on a toaster.)
@whitequark works
it comes with distrobox for your convenience
@whitequark the software stack has some amount of Gamer Jank (especially if you want to actually play games), but the bulk of the advantage seems to come directly from "not being gratuitously dgaf terrible"
@r yeah this is like most of what was driving my decisions. i don't even know if i'll like the form factor! but if i don't, it's put together well enough that i should have zero issues reselling it
@whitequark fwiw we quite like it, but we also think the form factor is being *very* underutilized (as far as we understand it, due to limitations of the Gamer™️ middleware ecosystem)
notably: trackpad ~= mouse, *not* thumbsticks! (this *used* to be a huge part of valve marketing materials, but they've been repeating it less and less)
we're also a heavy user of "flick stick + gyro", but that one might be divisive
on the "platform" level, it's a rare x86 device that supports USB DRD, if you enjoy cursedness (also top example of giving a shit: all the kernel support is enabled and shipped even though this function isn't used by the rest of the software stack)
mei@whitequark
> cat gets electronics tooling? installs games on it of course.
> cat gets a gaming machine? well EDA is really the obvious option isn't it
> cat gets electronics tooling? installs games on it of course.
> cat gets a gaming machine? well EDA is really the obvious option isn't it
@mei exactly
F4GRX Sébastien@whitequark @mei EDA is a maze game.
unnick@mei @whitequark waiting to see you post about playing doom on a Palladium
Henning Paul DC4HP
ftg
AMS
David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)Installing Vivado is the end boss for the Steam Deck.
Using Vivado is the end boss if you turn the difficulty down a bit.
@david_chisnall tbh i would expect the main problem to be "Vivado is enormous" but i did get the 1 TB version for exactly this contingency
@whitequark My install seems to be 'only' 79 GB.
Mind you, I run Vivado in a Docker container on macOS with Rosetta2, which turned out to be easier than installing it on Windows.
@david_chisnall yeah so you need at least twice that amount unless you're installing it through the 'online' installer (i usually don't)
i think the latest version is closer to 120 GB
@whitequark I think I used the online installer.
It's a bit of a blur, I tried repeatedly to install it on a Windows machine and failed before I went to Docker on the Mac.
Their export control thing is the worst UI I have seen in a long time.
@david_chisnall it's quite absurdly bad, yes.
Ian Douglas Scott@whitequark
@david_chisnall Which is not all that unusual a size for a game these days... I guess the Steam Deck is a suitable enough device for it.
I have my Steam Deck upgraded to 2 TB with a 1 TB SD (SanDisk now has a 1.5 TB card too). Gotta have as much space as possible to buy games on sale, install them, and not play them.
@ids1024 @david_chisnall i am in the UK which has real internet (1 Gbps down) so i don't worry too much about downloading every game possible
@whitequark @david_chisnall Yeah, until the fiber company decides to grace this side street with their benevolence, I can't really start a download on a modern game and expect to be running the game on the same day.
We have stone age infrastructure here in... err... the San Francisco Bay Area. Presumably all the money is going to AI instead.
TheZoq2@whitequark Catherine NO!
@thezoq2 too late :p