TL;DR: Framework is switching its audio codec from Realtek ALC295 to Tempo 92HD95B.
While I don’t own a Framework I welcome this change and find it quite interesting, partly because it seems like every laptop and PC maker these days are putting an ALC chip on their boards. You also don’t see computer companies announcing “we’re ditching chip X for chip Y” often and this is very informative transparency.
It feels like Realtek puts a lot of red tape around its chips. Most notably, it’s very hard to look up a datasheet for an ALC chip unless it’s a very popular part. Realtek also seem to only provide stock and support to their biggest customers like Dell and Gigabyte, because it sounds like Framework struggled to secure stock, probably from a one-off source, for their first batches and couldn’t get in touch with Realtek to implement the Smart DSP feature.
The Tempo chip on their other hand is much more open. The datasheet is right on the product page, and the chip has first-class Linux support. In the integrated sound card market where Realtek is to codec as Clorox is to bleach, I welcome attempts to diversify the market share.
If anyone is looking for a hardware startup idea, there are a ton of "essential" chips in laptops, desktops, and servers that there are effectively only one or two suppliers for. None of these are ones that need particularly advanced IP or process technology. After what every OEM and ODM has experienced in 2020 and 2021 (and going into 2022), we're all looking for a diversified set of chip partners. Even when back-end fabs constraints will be the same, better partners to work with would be wonderful.
Wrt. to letting them being designed and produced by TSCM and similar, yes.
But if you wan to do production "from scratch" it's a complete different matter, even if the chip is "simple" you still need a proper chip production method, which is never simple.
There is a reason why we only have very few fabs today, even through there is a lot of demand for chips using "older" production methods (>28nm). It's often still not profitable to produce them even for companies which have all the necessary patents, know-how and even some older existing machinery. A thing the care industry was hit hard by.
I'm especially excited for this as Realtek codec support, at least from looking at the Linux driver, has a substantial quirks layer. The datasheet right there on the page makes it quite likely that if it doesn't work out of the box with the generic codec driver in Haiku, much more likely to get it working.
I do hope they don't switch back to the Realtek codec in the future.
Given that the Tempo codec works great as a feature parity replacement (which the Framework team anticipates), it’s quite likely they will stick with it.
The Tempo do lack the ALC’s smart features but they couldn’t get the latter to work anyway...
Tempo points to Mouser Electronics for "less than minimum order quantities," and they in turn list 980 for $4.43 ea. as the largest quantity without a quote (2500 for $4.29 ea. on a reel instead of a tray, whatever that means), so... probably less than that?
I have no idea how expensive the Realtek chip is or anything else to put that in context, though.
I’ve gathered from reading Bunnie’s blog that there are reels, tubes, tapes, trays, and possibly other kinds of feeder mechanism for surface mount parts, and which one you use depends on what your pick and place machine is equipped/designed to use, as well as what the schematic was designed for, as different feeder types for the same chip have different pin lengths and other variables which prevent swapping out chips like for like due to physical properties and constraints. There are also speed and reliability considerations with regard to feeder mechanisms, while some larger or irregularly shaped parts may need special handling which dictates the feeder and the type of placement hardware.
(I probably am using some or all of the technical words above incorrectly, but I am going mostly from memory and hope to be corrected as I don’t know much about hardware design or manufacturing.)
>I have no idea how expensive the Realtek chip is or anything else to put that in context, though.
Thanks. If those 2500 for $4.29 are "current" rate. ( Chip Shortage ) Then it should be cheaper than current Realtek. But in terms of normal pricing that is quite a bit more.
While I don’t own a Framework I welcome this change and find it quite interesting, partly because it seems like every laptop and PC maker these days are putting an ALC chip on their boards. You also don’t see computer companies announcing “we’re ditching chip X for chip Y” often and this is very informative transparency.
It feels like Realtek puts a lot of red tape around its chips. Most notably, it’s very hard to look up a datasheet for an ALC chip unless it’s a very popular part. Realtek also seem to only provide stock and support to their biggest customers like Dell and Gigabyte, because it sounds like Framework struggled to secure stock, probably from a one-off source, for their first batches and couldn’t get in touch with Realtek to implement the Smart DSP feature.
The Tempo chip on their other hand is much more open. The datasheet is right on the product page, and the chip has first-class Linux support. In the integrated sound card market where Realtek is to codec as Clorox is to bleach, I welcome attempts to diversify the market share.