✧✦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