SatyrSack

We’re happy to share that we started our mass production ramp of Framework Laptop 16 this week. We received quantities of the final CPU heatsink (after a brief pause sitting in Taiwan Customs), which was the last gating item for getting the manufacturing line moving. Lunar New Year means that both our factory and our fulfillment warehouse will be closed from Feb 8th through Feb 14th, so we’re working on producing and fulfilling as many units as we can ahead of that. For those of you in Batch 1, we’re also sending out the Batch 1 preparation email tomorrow. We’ll be sequencing through the remaining batches as quickly as we can. We’ll continue on additional update emails to keep each of you who have pending pre-orders up to date on production, though we may not stick to the two week email cadence now that we’re up and running.

You’ve probably also seen press reviews go live earlier this week. We flagged in the last email that press units came from an earlier build with some issues that we’ve since fixed. We wanted to share the full set of changes and improvements we’ve made for all customer units for your reference:

1. High frequency noise from Mainboard - We identified an incorrect capacitor value that results in a high pitched noise during high load while using a 28V or 36V power adapter. This is resolved on customer units.
2. Buzzing noise from Graphics Module - We identified a scenario where the inductors on the Graphics Module can buzz under high variations in load. We’ve updated the Graphics Module inductor assembly on customer units to resolve this.
3. CPU thermal module performance - Our thermal module supplier improved their vapor chamber soldering process, which reduced thermal resistance. While this was only intended to improve manufacturing yield, it actually ended up improving thermal performance too. All press units passed the same pass/fail criteria that we use for CPU performance on customer units though, so we consider press unit CPU benchmarking to be a fair representation of what customers will receive.
4. Liquid metal barrier adjustments - We made some adjustments to the liquid metal application process to prevent any leakage risk on customer units.
5. Cold GPU performance - For GPU benchmarks, on a cold first run the scores may have been lower than subsequent warm runs. We resolved this through a BIOS update that we provided to reviewers partway through the review cycle. Some reviewers may have benchmarked ahead of that time. We know that LTT was on the newer BIOS in their benchmarking.
6. DPC_Watchdog_Violation blue screen - There was a system stability issue that occurred primarily when scrolling the touchpad that could result in a blue screen. This was an issue that The Verge ran into, and we’ve since resolved it in the BIOS that is on customer systems.
7. Speaker attenuated on left or right channel - There was a bug in the smart amp DSP driver in which the left or right channel may be attenuated at certain times. We saw a reviewer specifically call out that audio sounded shifted. We found the root cause of this and resolved it in the driver on customer systems.
8. Touchpad Module sliding friction - The mechanical structure that the Touchpad Module slides into is slightly deformed on some press units, resulting in higher sliding friction. This is resolved on customer systems.
9. Display alignment - On some press units, the display was slightly misaligned in a way that resulted in the bezel covering the edge of the active area. We bypassed screening for this during press unit manufacturing, but are checking for this during production of all customer units.
10. Display color gamut - In the Windows OS image that was on press units, we did not have the color profile necessary for wide color gamut. We have since added this in the Driver Bundle. Note that the initial batches of pre-built systems also have a Windows image that will not have the color profile pre-loaded, but installing the Driver Bundle loads it.
11. Minor fit and finish in the Input Modules - There are some mechanical refinements in customer systems that improve the alignment of the pins in the Mid Plate to the holes in the Input Modules, as well as reduce visible gaps along the top edges of Spacer Modules. There are also minor improvements in the flatness of the Touchpad Module and Touchpad Spacers in customer systems. 

There are also a few issues that we are still tracking, but which we aren’t holding production for: 

1. Keyboard deflection - We’ve seen largely positive feedback on the input deck feel, but also specifically saw LTT’s video in which they flagged keyboard deflection and the workaround they applied. We’re investigating whether there could have been either an issue on that unit or a scenario that can result in the mid plate not being flat. In either case, if we find that there is an improvement we can apply on this, we will do so and ship out any parts necessary for that to customers whose units have already shipped.
2. Secondary SSD may disappear - We found that the secondary SSD (the M.2 2230 SSD) may not be visible on some boots or may rarely disappear during sleep. We’ve debugged this issue with AMD, who have traced it back to a bug in the platform firmware. They are releasing the fix to us, which we will include in a BIOS update. We’ll share BIOS updaters for Windows and Linux when this is ready, as well as roll the BIOS into the factory for new system production.
3. Display frozen after smart MUX switching - We’ve seen instances where after closing a graphics-heavy application, the display will freeze as the display switches from the discrete GPU to integrated graphics on the APU. AMD has root caused this issue, and is preparing a driver update that resolves it. We believe there are reviewers who have also seen this issue, potentially including The Verge. Once AMD provides us the driver, we’ll package it up as part of a Driver Bundle.

We’ll keep you up to date as we go.

Again, the best part first:

We’re happy to share that we’ve started mass production manufacturing this week, with the first units leaving the factory before the end of January. These will go directly to our fulfillment warehouse in Taiwan and then out to Batch 1 customers. Pre-orders are still open, and we expect to fulfill all current batches before the end of the first half of this year.

Full email below:

The first press reviews of Framework Laptop 16 are now live. Check out some of the early feedback:

"Framework 16 truly feels like someone brought my personal hardware wishlist to reality. I’m not only impressed by the extreme modularity, but also the thought and care put into this premium feeling device."

– iFixit

"The other new party trick, the bespoke upgradeable removable AMD graphics card is so sick."

– Alex Clark, Linus Tech Tips

"Framework has built on top of something incredible and seems to be the only company that has managed to make modular laptops actually work."

– Joel Loynds, Dexerto

"I was blown away by the additional customizability available with this 16-inch laptop thanks to the larger form factor while the motherboard, I/O ports, and other upgradeable options with prior Framework Laptops remain available."

– Michael Larabel, Phoronix

"I was surprised to find that while this laptop looks big it feels surprisingly light in my hands."

– Alex Wawro, Tom’s Guide

This is the largest batch of review units we’ve ever shipped, and we expect more reviews to trickle in over the next week. For context on our press units, many companies ramp into production, manufacture a large quantity to fill retail channels, and cherry pick some golden units from that as review samples. For us, because we’re entirely direct to consumer, our ramp is extremely fast, and units go to customer hands immediately. That means to get press units out weeks ahead of time to provide a sufficiently long review period, we send out production-intent qualification units. The “intent” part of that is that these are usually functionally identical to what ships to consumers.

With Framework Laptop 16 though, the product is complex enough that we identified issues during manufacturing qualification that we’ve since fixed. Changes and improvements we’ve made on all customer systems include resolving some instances of audible electrical noise in the Mainboard and the Graphics Module, reducing sliding friction on the Touchpad Module, optimizing the thermal resistance of the CPU heatsink, making improvements to the liquid metal application process, fixing a couple of instances where a firmware bug could result in a blue screen on Windows, resolving an issue where the left or right speaker channel could be attenuated in Windows, improving the fan control algorithm on the Graphics Module, and a number of smaller fit and finish refinements related to the Bezel and Input Modules. In retrospect, we would have loved to get these improvements into the units we sent to reviewers, but it's most important that our customers have a system that works smoothly.

Framework Laptop 16 has the largest set of pre-orders we’ve ever had on a product, and we doubled our factory capacity in the second half of 2023 in preparation to work through this as quickly as possible. We’re happy to share that we’ve started mass production manufacturing this week, with the first units leaving the factory before the end of January. These will go directly to our fulfillment warehouse in Taiwan and then out to Batch 1 customers. Pre-orders are still open, and we expect to fulfill all current batches before the end of the first half of this year.

###Framework Laptop 16 resources Whether or not you’ve ordered a Framework Laptop 16, you can now also get your eyes on the setup guides and documentation around the product. We’ve launched a centralized resources page that has links out to all the information and tools you need. This includes beta web and desktop utilities for Windows and Linux for configuring Input Modules like the LED Matrix. We’re trying something new with our step-by-step Quick Start guides as well. Since many of the modular interfaces on Framework Laptop 16 are pretty novel (for example, the hot swappable input devices), the guides have short videos for each step alongside the written instructions. Let us know what you think!

Most important bit for those as eager to get their preorder as I am:

This means that if the final qualification process doesn’t uncover any issues, we’ll send the first “We’re preparing your batch” emails to Batch 1 customers in late January.

In our first four updates, we shared progress as we identified and closed engineering issues and manufactured our production qualification units of Framework Laptop 16. We’ve now shipped a large number of press units, for which reviews will start to appear later this month. Note that the issues we’re calling out below are ones that are present on press review units that are fixed on customer units. This means rather than cherry picking perfect units for press, we’ve ended up with some minor areas where you’ll see improvements beyond what reviewers have.

We’re happy to share that there are no new unresolved issues in this update. The main item gating the mass production schedule remains the CPU heatsink, which we have an update on below. Rather than doing a quick patch to get manufacturing yield above the threshold, Cooler Master spent the last two weeks overhauling their manufacturing process, building new test fixturing, and outputting validation samples. This means we have a complete solution to the original issue, but one which took a bit more time. We have the first production quantities of the final heatsink arriving at our laptop factory the week of January 22nd, and our goal is to output the first set of Batch 1 customer systems from the factory before the end of January, after which they will go to our warehouse to prepare for shipments.

This means that if the final qualification process doesn’t uncover any issues, we’ll send the first “We’re preparing your batch” emails to Batch 1 customers in late January.

New issues

No new unresolved issues!

In progress

1. Yield issues on CPU thermal system - We’ve split this into two line items to go deeper into each. First, on the CPU heatsink, Cooler Master was able to adjust their vapor chamber soldering process to resolve the yield issue, and actually improved the thermal performance overall as a result. They also developed a new production test fixture to screen each manufactured module more thoroughly to ensure it meets the quality spec before shipping out. To vet all of this, Cooler Master is now preparing a small batch of heatsinks using the final mass production manufacturing and test process. These will be completed on 1/12, and to accelerate the system-level test schedule, will be hand carried from Cooler Master’s factory outside Shanghai to our laptop factory in Taoyuan. At that point, we’ll build them into a small number of production qualification laptops to ensure they also pass our system level manufacturing tests. To further pull in the schedule, rather than waiting for the results of the system tests, we’re “risk buying” enough heatsinks to cover Batch 1 and part of Batch 2. This means that Cooler Master is going directly into mass production, with us accepting and taking liability for the risk that we find an issue with the material during the system-level tests. This might sound frightening, but it’s a relatively common scenario in manufacturing, and appropriately balancing risks is a core responsibility of our Supply Chain Team!
2. Liquid metal installation - In parallel to the CPU heatsink qualification, we’re qualifying the final recipe for liquid metal thermal pad and containment barrier installation. We’ve iterated on several configurations and put them through some extreme torture tests. For example, we ran Prime95 on units sitting in six orientations on a vibration table for three hours, we put systems through high-G shock while running Prime95, and we are running an extended period of thermal cycling. All of this is to build confidence that the final configuration is robust to handling and aging. All of this is set to intercept the heatsink schedule.

Resolved issues

1. Tuning capacitor noise - We found and resolved one additional scenario that could result in a high pitch noise coming from the Mainboard when using >20V power adapters.
2. Touchpad row sliding friction - We found and resolved a material quality issue that could result in excess friction in sliding the Touchpad Module and Touchpad Spacers on and off.

In our first update email, we gave a quick overview of where we are on starting Framework Laptop 16 manufacturing and a list of open issues. There are still a handful of firmware items that are open and module production dates that are pending for full system production. However, we’ve made excellent progress in the last two weeks, and we’re happy to share that Mainboard mass production has started! This means the first set of final Mainboards are flowing down the manufacturing line this week at our factory in Taiwan. We’ll run them through the normal testing procedures and hold them while we prepare for full system manufacturing.

We’re eager to close out the rest of the opens, build the first units, and get them out to you all. We have a list of the remaining open items below, along with the issues from the last update that are now resolved.

New issues

1. High pitched airflow noise in the Graphics Module fan - We identified an airflow path in the Graphics Module fan that could result in a high pitch noise. This is another issue that was resolved in DVT2, but we found a regression in it during pre-mass production sample checking. Our supplier was able to resolve the issue with an adjustment to one of the internal mechanical parts in the fan that guides the airflow path. We’re now determining whether there is any impact to the schedule from needing to adjust tooling and rework already produced fans, but we don’t expect this to be the long pole in the schedule.

In progress

1. The fans have a small chirping noise on startup - Our fan supplier was able to root cause the issue and revise the fan to remove the chirping noise. The initial production schedule for updated fans is currently the longest pole for our system production schedule, so we’re working closely with the supplier to find ways to shorten it.
2. Power tuning during heavy loading - Our graphics card provider was able to revise the card and is proceeding into production on it. Even though the issue is resolved, we’re tracking it as “in progress” since Graphics Module manufacturing is one of the longer pole items on our production schedule. We’re also continuing to tune firmware to maximize performance across different power scenarios (on full battery, on low battery, on a 100W adapter, on a 180W adapter, on a 240W adapter, etc)
3. Graphics Module compatibility issues in Linux - We’re still working closely with the team at AMD to debug Linux compatibility issues on the Graphics Module. Our current assumption is that VBIOS firmware needs to be modified. Linux compatibility is extremely important, and we’re committed to making sure it is smooth before launch.
4. USB-PD firmware is in the process of completion - With the Framework Laptop 16 being the first product on the market supporting 180W and 240W USB-C along with a complex scheme for handling Expansion Cards, our USB-PD firmware is complicated. Implementation is nearly complete, and we also want to ensure we do sufficient testing before our target 12/8 mass production internal firmware release.
5. LED Matrix module schedule is trending late - We’re working with the supplier to pull in their schedule to meet launch timing, but it is still trending late.

Resolved issues

1. Cosmetic issues on aluminum forming parts using high recycled material content - We’ve completed process tuning and set cosmetic criteria that gives good results without resulting in excessive yield loss for production. In parallel, we’re working with the aluminum parts supplier on an improved source for post-consumer recycled material to use in the long run.
2. Our Numpad vendor used out of spec resistors - Our supplier was able to build new interface boards with the correct resistors, and their overall module production is on schedule.
3. Tuning capacitor noise - Our supplier was able to switch some capacitors to low noise variants and adjust the slew rate on some power rails, which substantially reduced noise.
4. Expansion Bay Interposer manufacturing yields - The interposer manufacturer was able to tune the tooling and assembly process on the custom connector, and yields are at the level required for production. The timing of production quantities is currently on track to meet our system production. We’re really excited about this connector, and will be sharing more detail in an upcoming blog post on how it enables GPU modularity.
5. Late display firmware update - We were able to roll out a new EDID into panel production that enables DCI-P3 correctly, and panel deliveries are on track for system production.

Slightly confusing, and not necessarily directly piracy-related. I run OpenVPN on my Netgear router that allows me to connect to devices on my home network while I am away from home. It works great for most devices, but I cannot connect to any devices that are running Mullvad VPN. Disabling Mullvad on those devices allows me to connect. Also, if I SSH into a device that does not run Mullvad, I can use that SSH session to then communicate with those Mullvad devices. Any ideas?

Been using this for months and never hear anyone talk about it. Faster updates than from F-Droid is nice.