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Making a Keyboard: The System76 Approach

We like knocking down the garden wall wherever we can. Your technology is your technology after all; you should be able to change it in any way that suits your needs. That’s why we’re making a keyboard. Everyone uses their keyboard differently due to ergonomics, convenience, or to account for a dominant hand, and it’s time we created a keyboard to accommodate that.

CEO Carl Richell sat down for an interview with us at a CDC-approved distance to discuss plans for System76’s latest project: The Launch Configurable Keyboard.

What were the most important things you wanted to address when designing a keyboard?

Most keyboards that we’ve studied were derived from what already existed. Instead we’re thinking about hands and fingers and how we use keyboards to interface with operating systems—a keyboard is a tool first. In our research, we found that spacebars typically, for example, are way too long, which means your strongest digit, your thumb, isn’t very useful. Most of the time you use your pinkie because useful keys are out at the extremities of the keyboard—so we wanted to change that. We wanted a better layout.

The second piece is configurability. A lot of our customers are experts in their field and they have their own unique shortcuts and tools—making a keyboard programmable for specific tools makes it a better interface for using that tool. Easy configurability—we made all the keys only 3 sizes so you can swap them. And we’re building software that makes it easy to change your configuration and add function layers to suit your needs.

Did you have any outside inspiration for the design?

Yes. Since we went about this project from a “tool first” design, we drew inspiration from other specialty tools in adjacent industries. For example, John Grano, our mechanical engineer, has a mouse which has 360-degree movement that’s specific to CAD work, but even for a novice, it makes things easier. Another example is the Davinci Resolve panels which make editing videos easier for that specific task. We wanted to apply those types of ideas to make a keyboard more useful for everyone.

So we made a tool that works with Pop!_OS to make your tools better and problem-solve easier and more efficiently.

What’s been the biggest challenge in the project?

Well, because we always take an iterative approach to everything we do, it hasn’t been extremely difficult to develop. We’re also a company full of keyboard geeks so we had a lot of existing knowledge to pull from. We started with theories and ideas, we found some of them worked very well, and some things didn’t (like the 1-unit right shift key), and we moved forward from there, repeating the process as necessary. So it wasn’t really a challenge, but the natural part of developing a product: You conduct research, make assumptions, test, iterate, then do it all again.

Has System76 ever tried to make a keyboard before?

Nope, this is the first time around on this particular project!

What are you most proud of with this project?

The harmony between physical hardware and the operating system. For example, auto tiling in our upcoming Pop!_OS 20.04 release is designed to work extremely well with this keyboard, and I think that people are going to really respond to it—it’s going to be a completely new and amazing experience, and I think that folks are going to start to really see why we’ve decided to bring all of the different silos, from hardware to manufacturing to OS, all in-house under one roof.

What about a total beginner, what would they get out of it?

It doesn’t necessarily have to feel like something different—you can plug it in and use it like any other keyboard. But you’re going to have less strain on your hands, because instead of using your pinkies, you’ll use your thumbs for common keystrokes and key combinations. Or instead of having to reach very far, keys like backspace can be very easy to reach now.

Another thing that we found with our research is that most people use either their right or left thumb for the spacebar, but rarely both. So we split the spacebar so that you can assign one button to another task if you are one of those people, like shift or backspace.

Also, because the keyboard lacks a number pad, your mouse will be much closer so you won’t need to reach as far when you need to go to the mouse.

When will it be available?

Late summer is when we’re hoping to bring it to market.

What else have I not asked that you want to tell people about this keyboard?

The harmony between our System76 hardware and our Pop!_OS software is really going to be key for this particular project.

histonestudio

I'm a Pop!_OS user and keyboard geek. I really really looking forward to get this keyboard.

#pop! os #linux #keyboard

"MG34 team" all sculpted / painted with ZBrush

"MG34 TEAM" Military Miniature Conceptual Art Sculpted, polypainted, rendered with ZBrush.

Here's my woke a while ago, "WW2 MG34 team". Everything here is done by using only ZBrush. Many "done with ZBrush" works are always with a bit of lie, most of them are done with other programs, such as Keyshot, Maya, Substance Painter etc for texturing and rendering. This is NOT one of them, literary "all done with ZBrush". I mentioned it to show what I can achieve with only in ZBrush. hope you like it. :)

#zbrush sculpt #zbrush #military #ww2 #german soldier

system76

Gaming on Linux: Guide to Graphics

GPUs are in short supply across the board due to delays brought by COVID-19, but don’t fret! Now is the perfect time to plan out your dream machine. If questions surrounding your graphics preferences render you confused, we’ve compiled some useful info below on NVIDIA GPUs and AMD GPUs, as well as suggestions for how much power you may desire.

Don’t I just need a GPU?

For games that require less rendering, any GPU will run just fine, like the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 that’s served you well over the years. However, if you want newer games to run like smooth butter at their maximum settings, your old GPU puts a technical limitation on which ones you can add to your library.

Comparing generations of NVIDIA GPUs

NVIDIA’s GTX 10-series GPUs run the older Pascal architecture, referring to the design of the GPU’s main silicon chip. While the Pascal line is fast, the Turing architecture in the RTX 20-series cards is up to six times faster. This has to do with both upgrades to the physical hardware and new features engineered by NVIDIA. The Ampere architecture then improved on these features alongside additional hardware upgrades for RTX 30-series GPUs.

How the hardware differs

The number of cores in a GPU determines how many calculations it can perform at once. The Pascal architecture is fit with up to 3,584 computing cores, which ultimately limits its capacity.

Turing architecture has far more cores than Pascal, including Tensor Cores for complex calculations specific to machine learning. It also has faster memory at nearly double the speed (14 Gbps vs 8 Gbps). Turing architecture also introduced NVIDIA’s new RT Cores, which are responsible for something called ray tracing. The ray tracing feature renders light and simulates its interaction with virtual objects in games, though the feature still has limited games it supports.

Ampere architecture doubles the maximum memory available in the GPU (11GB vs 24GB) as well as the memory speeds compared to Turing. It also doubles its CUDA Core count, vastly increasing the GPU’s multitasking capabilities. To sum up - it’s very, very fast.

NVIDIA GPU features explained

Features added in the Turing architecture and improved on in the Ampere architecture serve to boost your GPU’s performance during complex image rendering.

Deep Learning Super-Sampling (DLSS) mimics the appearance of high resolutions in games by running them at a reduced resolution, and then uses artificial intelligence to upscale (add additional pixels to) these images. Using this technique boosts the performance of your GPU by about 30% when mimicking a 4K resolution.

Turing shaders are used to render games faster. The shaders direct the GPU’s resources towards rendering the more detailed objects in a game so the GPU isn’t wasting resources on rendering simpler objects. While there is a slight loss in resolution similar to with DLSS, this technique of prioritizing complex objects increases performance by about 15-20 frames per second.

As mentioned before, the ray tracing algorithm creates lifelike lighting, shadows, reflections, and refractions, among other lighting effects, in real time. Since its release, NVIDIA has updated its drivers to allow for ray tracing on GTX 10- and 16-series GPUs. However, because Pascal hardware lacks dedicated RT Cores, ray tracing processing is split between the CPU and the GPU, causing your system to take a sizable hit in performance as a result on GPUs with this type of older architecture.

Comparing generations of AMD GPUs

AMD GPUs now run two architectures: the older GCN (on RX 500 and RX Vega Series GPUs) and the newer RDNA (on RX 5000 and RX 6000 GPUs). GPUs with the RDNA architecture can process four times more instructions per cycle (IPS) than on GCN. RDNA also improved on single-threaded performance, and tends to run cooler than its predecessor.

The newest AMD RX 6000 Series GPUs are the company’s fastest yet, performing twice as fast as the previous generation while gaming in 4K. This is in part due to the GPU’s new Infinity Cache, which improves efficiency and performance by increasing memory bandwidth by up to 3.25 times the previous bandwidth.

AMD GPU features explained

Radeon Image Sharpening (RIS) uses a similar technique as NVIDIA’s DLSS, allowing players to use a lower resolution for better performance while receiving virtually the same image quality.

Radeon Chill keeps your system cool by telling the GPU to use its resources only when it needs to. In cases where there’s no motion on your screen, the GPU will automatically reduce the frames per second rendered in order to save power consumption.

Radeon Boost reduces latency (the delay between an instruction to transfer data and its actual transfer) by lowering resolution in frames where your in-game character is in motion. This is especially helpful for online multiplayer games, where the advantage goes to the player with the least amount of latency in their button presses. (It’s worth noting that NVIDIA Reflex reduces latency using a different method that improves communication between the CPU and GPU—a method which has been found to yield better reaction times from players.)

Graphics Drivers

Like the drivers for your printer, graphics drivers are required to ensure your computer knows how to communicate with your GPU. The open source AMDGPU driver is included in the Linux kernel, while non-System76 customers can download the ISO of Pop!_OS with NVIDIA here. An open source NVIDIA driver, called Nouveau, is also included in the Linux kernel. However, due to the discrete (pun always intended) nature of proprietary technology, the project is still working to achieve comparable performance with the proprietary NVIDIA driver. For now, users who prefer open source drivers should look to AMD for the best performance possible.

What GPU is right for me?

Well, that depends. What kinds of games will you be playing the most? By breaking down games into tiers based on graphical intensity, we can recommend what GPU series would be sufficient for smooth-as-silk gaming.

Static or 2D: Intel or AMD Integrated graphics

Not every game requires a dedicated GPU to run smoothly. Games (usually 2D) with limited animations and polygons run perfectly fine on integrated graphics. Depending on your hardware, you may run into higher fan speeds or warmer temperatures, so you may look to upgrade your CPU for a more comfortable experience.

Low-Poly 3D: GTX 16-Series or low-end AMD RX Vega

While the 3D space is more intensive, the use of simpler models and less detailed textures reduces the computing power necessary to make any derpy shapeman game run beautifully.

AAA: RTX 20-Series or AMD RX 5000 Series

AAA games tend to be backed by high budgets and large development teams. As a result, these graphically-heavy games require a GPU capable of making (let’s see… add that, carry the 1...) A LOT more calculations. Look to the higher end if you plan to use ray tracing, as it takes many a math to keep up these glowing appearances.

AAA 4K: RTX 30-Series or AMD 6000 Series

AMD claims that the Radeon RX 6700 XT GPU is the pick for gaming in 1440p, so keep that in mind if your heart is set on a 4K gaming rig. Compared to 1080p, a 4K resolution quadruples the number of pixels that your GPU needs to render. That requires a high-end GPU capable of doing four times the work. If budget is a concern, consider going with the more cost-effective AMD 6000-Series or a higher-end RTX 20-Series GPU.

Online Multiplayer: Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 CPU w/ 16GB RAM

Though games tend to be graphics-intensive, the CPU and RAM still play their role. The CPU is responsible for sending tasks to the GPU to process. Meanwhile, the RAM stores the runtime of your game, and works alongside the GPU to render that data around your player. It also keeps track of your player’s in-game location in relation to the floor, structures, and other players. In some games 8GB RAM is enough, but 16GB is the standard recommendation for gamers looking for the smoothest experience out there.

histonestudio

I'm a Linux user, and Pop!_OS my my daily driver. Doing all of my 3DCG work on Pop!_OS workstation. This article is really a great reference not only for gamers but also all who's concerned with graphics.

#Linux #Pop_OS #3DCG #Graphics