Ik lees op MacOS Rumors schokkend nieuws over onze goeie Sint die iMacs gaat promoten!

On November 30th, 7.00 pm, Amsterdam time, Sint Nicolaas, the Dutch incarnation of Santa Claus will be demonstrating an iMac in the Childrens programme 'Willem Wever'. This is an show explaining children how things work. It's very popular, also with grown-ups.

Willem Wever has a web-adress, but I don't know wether there will be any material of this demonstration on their site.

Having Sint Nicolaas demonstrating an iMac on national television is a big thing.

iMac's keep popping up in all kinds of (Dutch) commercials in the Netherlands too. This is funny because the iMac has been introduced only 10 weeks ago. TV and radio are flooded with Dutch-spoken commercials. At the same time we have the newest American versions on Discovery and C-NBC.

Looks like Mac is back here.

Ook the Brotherhood of the CPU heeft een artikel over de K6-2 400 en zijn performance onder Winstone 99. Niet iedereen is even blije met Anand's conclusies.

Hier de intro:

Those of you who have been visiting the Brotherhood website for a while know that I don't really like to criticize other people's articles. However, unfortunately, sometimes it's not possible to avoid that kind of thing. Many of you have been e-mailing us regarding AnandTech's recently published K6-2 400Mhz benchmarks, using Winstone 99. They were intrigued with the fact that Anand said that without the proper optimization, the K6-2 400Mhz was slower than the 350Mhz unit, and with the scores presented by him using Winstone 99. Let me tell you that I have a great respect for Anand and for the work that he has been doing, and I know that he's not lying about the scores that he got. However, what I do question is Winstone 99 itself. First of all, we had a K6-2 400Mhz unit running here for a few days, without the Write Allocation optimization, and let me assure you that by no means is the K6-2 400Mhz slower than the K6-2 350Mhz even without the proper Write Allocation optimization feature. Although the redesigned Write Allocation delivers quite a performance boost, the difference between Write Allocation enabled and disabled in the older K6 & K6-2 CPUs isn't that much that would make a 400Mhz unit run slower than the 350Mhz version. Believe me, I've been handling K6's for a long time and I know what I'm talking about, and I did compare the new K6-2 400Mhz with the older one. The difference made by the old Write Allocation is so small in terms of performance that it was even inside what we consider to be an error margin, that's why I said we couldn't come to any conclusions about the new core tweaks (at least not without the proper optimization).

CPU Central heeft z'n Voodoo2 cooling article geupdate. Errug handig info voor als je heatsinks op je Voodoo wilt planten.

Hier wat sfeeropbouwende info:

Over time,  I've collected a number of CPU heat sinks, most leftover from other projects. I have found that CPU heat sinks are cheap (esp. used heat sinks) and easy to adapt to many applications. When making a heat sink from scratch, there are many things that should be considered. For example the base of the heat sink should be on the thick side if the item being cooled is subject to short quick bursts of work (or heat). This 'thermal density' helps keep the item cool on the short term but can result in a 'damping effect' when trying to dissipate the heat to the air. In my case the only real thing that is of any concern is fin height. The heat sinks should not protrude from the card too far. I always keep the PCI slot next to hot cards empty but I still want lots of 'air' room around the card. I found that an older blue Pentium Pro heat sink was shallow enough for my purposes yet large enough to make four heat sinks of the size required.

    When trying to get a minor improvement (as in this case) it is not necessary to make the heat sink much larger than the chip being cooled. In fact I some times make the heat sink smaller if the wattage is low and I have a little chunk of heat sink that will work. If you want to check the performance of your heat sink I would suggest getting an indoor/outdoor thermometer from Radio Shack. Tape the probe to the back of the card, directly behind the chip being cooled. If it isn't clear by the circuit layout it will be by feeling for the hot spots. Take before and after temp readings for comparison. A heat sink will keep the whole card cooler.

Storage Review heeft een review gepost van Quantum's enorme 5,25" Bigfoot TS met de fijne opslagcapaciteit van 19,2Gb(genoeg voor 200.000 plaatjes).

Hier wat stuff over z'n performance (dat het met de capacitiet goed zit weten we wel):

Well, as the test results indicate, the Bigfoot TS isn't going to be challenging the Cheetah line for drive supremacy any time in the near future . The TS is not within the upper echelon of disks. It dwells among the lower divisions. There is no use comparing the drives to today's performance leaders (among them being Quantum's own Fireball EX). All things considered, however, I wouldn't expect a drive marketed as a value-class unit to be challenging speed limits. What is noteworthy, however, is that the TS churned out WinBench 98 scores between 36% and 46% higher than it's TX predecessor. This increase allows us to draw some interesting comparisons. Consider, for example, the top offerings from two current manufacturers: Western Digital's Caviar AC10100 and Fujitsu's Desktop 10. Both are 3.5" disks, ostensibly representing the cream-of-the-crop of ATA performance. Yep, the lowly Bigfoot TS trounces both in most performance figures. To put things further into perspective, a comparison between the TS and the ATA champ of less than a year ago, the IBM Deskstar 8, the TS outdistances the Deskstar in most performance catagories.

Dit is ff totala niet compute related, maar wel erg grappig: Lega deatch scenes. Voor het geval je die nog niet kent moet je hier ff kijken. Alvast een voorproefje (jammie):

Samsung is klaar om de productie van 3rd generation Alphaatjes flink op te krikken, aldus dit artikel:

Samsung is about to begin volume shipments of the latest version of the Alpha processor. The company added that it expects to make $100 million in sales of the new CPU throughout 1999.

The chip will also form the mainstay of the companies non-memory semiconductor business, and will spearhead Samsung's strategy to reduce its reliance on DRAM sales.

The third-generation Alpha is twice as fast as the previous release, said Samsung. It also contains features, accessed through APIs for Windows NT and various forms of Unix, that improve the playback of audio and video streams.

The first shipments of the new CPU have gone to Compaq, with whom Samsung recently formed the Alpha Processor organisation, a body tasked with developing and marketing the Alpha chip. Samsung began volume production of the second-generation Alpha last year, and entered the Alpha business in 1996.

In addition to next year's $100 million sales target, Samsung said that over the next five years, it hopes to net $1.5 billion in Alpha sales.

Transmeta, een nogal vaag bedrijf waarover we een paar week geleden tijdens de Comdex ook al wat nieuws poste, heeft wat meer info bekend gemaakt over wat ze van plan zijn.

Het idee ziet er erg vet uit: een super snelle processor die alles draait wat te emuleren valt en dat nog veel sneller doet ook.

The Register heeft een artikel met info, waarvan hier een deel:

Clear? Thought not. The application actually covers a range of 21 interrelated claims, the gist of which seems to be that Transmeta thinks it can design a cheap, fast processor which uses a range of cute techniques to overcome the shortcomings of cloning and emulation. The techniques are applicable to all kinds of target hardware, operating systems and applications, but obviously x86 and Wintel apps are the most important ones that have to be tackled. They allow for the design of a new, original processor (VLIW seems to be the preference, but this doesn't have to be the case) which can run x86 and other applications faster than the original.

The point of the "memory controller" aspect of the application is to allow for the detection of the difference between memory and memory-mapped I/O. Emulation systems such as SoftPC have to deal with situations where the hardware used by the application being run is different, or maybe isn't even there. Instructions to I/O also have to be executed in a particular order, so dealing with this, if you don't know which is memory and which memory-mapped I/O, slows down emulators massively.

Transmeta intends to combine microprocessor and memory controller into something it refers to as a "morph host." The CPU will include code morphing software and a hardware morph portion. How this works is as follows: The target application gives target instructions to the code morphing software for translation into host instructions, which the morph host can then execute. At the same time, the target OS receives calls from the target application and transfers these to the code morphing software. Says the application: "In a preferred embodiment of the microprocessor the morph host is a VLIW processor designed with a plurality of processing channels."

The VLIW processor itself can be much simpler, faster and cheaper than current processors, because it "does not include circuitry to detect issue dependencies or to reorder, optimise and reschedule primitive instructions. This, in turn, allows faster processing at higher clock rates than is possible with either the processors for which the target application programs were originally designed or other processors using emulation programs to run target application programs. However, the processor is not limited to VLIW processors and may function as well with any type of processor such as a Risc processor."

The Register heeft weer wat info over de anti-trust rechtszaak tegen Bill en kompanen, ditmaal over Bill's handelstaktieken in Japan, die in vuiligheid niet verschillen van praktijken zoals M$ deze in de rest van de wereld toepast:

Last week we elaborated on Microsoft's interesting way of reporting how it had "won" its antitrust battle in Japan. (Earlier story) We now have the full text of the Japan Fair Trade Commission decision, which makes interesting reading.

The JFTC found that since March 1995, Microsoft Japan "unjustly has tied its word processor software 'Word' to its spreadsheet 'Excel' and has tied personal information manager software 'Outlook' to 'Excel' and 'Word' when it licenses their software to PC manufacturers (Fujitsu Ltd, NEC Corporation, IBM Japan Ltd, Compaq Computer Co Ltd, etc) for the purpose of installing or bundling them to PCs." The JFTC issued a recommendation to Microsoft (to which Microsoft hastily agreed) that it should cease the breaches of the law concerned with tie-in sales. If Microsoft had not accepted the recommendation, the JFTC announced it would "commence hearing procedures".

The JFTC also identified breaches of the Designation of Unfair Trade Practices (Dealing on Exclusive Terms). Of specific concern was that since April 1996, Microsoft offered to reduce its licence fees for Windows if OEMs "stopped installing a competing browser" on their PCs. The second concern was that Microsoft's contracts with ISPs in Japan "restrained them from dealing in competing browser software in exchange for offering referral services".

Microsoft agreed to stop these practices in April, but the picture that now emerges is radically different from that presented in the Microsoft press release and statement from Microsoft general counsel, international, Brad Smith. That the JFTC decided that Microsoft had illegally tied its products and dealt on exclusive terms should give the DoJ some comfort

Intel is definitief gestop met de productie van de oude Celeron zonder cache (Covington) en de Klamatch, de 0,35 micron opa-PII.

The original Celeron is discontinued, Intel confirmed today. The processor, launched in spring this year, gave way to later revisions of the brand name with a faster Mendocino core.

And Intel has also decided to discontinue the PII/233, the PII/266 and the PII/300. It will continue to supply the processors to those with existing orders until November 1999, a representative said.

The move means that Intel will now concentrate on pushing its higher clocked PIIs, with the Pentium II/333 now the entry level processor.

Distributors reported some weeks ago that there was a shortage of PII/266 and PII/300 parts, and the announcement by Intel is, in some respects, a solution to these problems.

There are unlikely to be any changes on PII prices until early January, however.

Natuurlijk weer met veel genoegen gecopy/paste van The Register...

Volgens een onderzoek van Price Waterhouse Coopers is Mikroschoft het tweede meest gerespecteerde bedrijf op deze aardkloot.

Hier de sauce, van TR:

Microsoft achieves a respectable second place in today's Financial Times survey of the world's most respected companies. But curiously, the closer the respondents come to the company, the worse Microsoft seems to do.

According to the survey, which was carried out by Price Waterhouse Coopers, Microsoft scored half the votes of top-placed General Electric. Third place Coca Cola got half as many votes as Microsoft, while IBM in fourth got half as many as Coca Cola. If only the views of US CEOs (major Microsoft customers?) are taken into account, then Microsoft only gets half the votes of GE, and is less respected than Toyota, while in the electrical/IT/telecoms sector globally it comes eighth, with GE, IBM, HP, Matsushita, BT, Emerson Electric and Ericsson all beating it.

His Billness can, however, take some comfort from being the second most-respected business leader (number one is, of course, Jack Welch of GE). Gates is trailed by Jurgen Schrempp of Daimler-Benz, Lou Gerstner and then Andy Grove.

Elf DRAM fabrikanten hebben support toegezegd voor de DDR standaard, wat ze bij Intel en Rambus waarschijnlijk niet zo lekker vinden.

Hier de info uit een artikel op The Register:

Eleven DRAM manufacturers have pledged their support for the DDR (double data rate) SDRAM standard, despite the rise and rise of Direct Rambus.

Fujitsu, Hitachi, Hyundai, Big Blue, LG, Micron, Mitsubishi, NEC, Samsung, Siemens and Toshiba all said they would use the standard, which was developed by the Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council (JEDEC). And SGI said it would also develop systems using DDR.

Last August, Samsung actually shipped the first of its 64Mb parts using DDR at a speed of 266MHz.

Manufacturers are forced to pay royalties of around two per cent when they license Rambus technology, while DDR is a cheaper alternative.

However, most PC vendors are expected to use the Direct Rambus technology because it offers vastly superior memory speeds to DDR.

Zo'n beetje heel Europa is nu pissed-off van de te hoge telefoon tarieven en wil gaan staken. The Register heeft een leuk artikel, waarvan hier een stukkie:

Posted 30/11/98 4:17pm by Tim Richardson

British Telecom threatened with two cyberstrikes

Internet users in the UK are being urged to down modems and take part in a pan-European cyberstrike next year, even as they are also being asked separately to desist from access the Net in December.

The strike, which could be the largest of its kind if it goes ahead, will seek fairer Internet charging by telecoms operators in EU member states.

In particular, organisers are calling for flat-rate tariffs -- a single payment per month for voice calls and Internet access -- rather than the per-minute tariffs currently levied.

Protest groups from Germany, Spain, France and Italy have joined the UK to co-ordinate the 'industrial action' and it's expected that more countries will join the strike by the time it takes place in the middle of next year.

UMC heeft prototype silicon op 1 GHz gekregen. Hier de info diek ik van AGN Hardware getrokken heb:

A unique co-development model in place between the UMC Group and Xilinx, Inc., has led to the production of the first field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) capable of operating at speeds of one gigahertz (1GHz). The prototype FPGAs, derivatives of the XC4036XV family, were part of a mask set co-developed by the two companies to be used as the process driver for the new 0.18 micron technology.

The aggressive development of the 0.18 micron process, currently among the most advanced in the world, reflects the very close working relationship between UMC Group and Xilinx. The partnership is based on an on-going, mutual effort to be at the leading edge of semiconductor industry process development. This unprecedented level of cooperation is allowing FPGA users to have early access to the most advanced technology for low-power, high performance applications.

``Xilinx is an ideal development partner because it is dedicated to being an early adopter of advanced foundry technology. Moreover, the regularity of the SRAM-based Xilinx FPGA architecture facilitates defect analysis and fault testing, making FPGAs excellent vehicles to troubleshoot the most up-to-date UMC Group processes,'' said Jim Kupec, president of UMC Group (U.S.A.). ``We also have been using the UMC Group Silicon Shuttle(SM) test-chip program as a vehicle for early verification of customer and IP vendor designs based on our 0.18 micron design rules. We have already run two 0.18 micron Shuttles and are currently accepting applications for the next one scheduled for tape-out on January 30.''

Xilinx recently benchmarked the performance of the prototype 0.18 micron devices using a frequency counter design and observed the FPGA operating at frequencies up to 1GHz. This level of performance will be required for emerging communications equipment such as OC-12 systems and DSP systems capable of handling more than 200 million samples per second.

ComputerNerd, de holy heatsink fabrikant, is een nieuwe actie gestart waarbij je een C300A/heatsink/BH6 combo kunt kopen die gegarandeerd op 450Mhz draait.

Het hele ding gaat je minimaal $240 (excl. verzendkosten) lichter maken. Meer info vind je hier.

PC Fan heeft een artikel over Everquest in elkaar gedraaid en ze zijn er geloof ik nogal positief over:

any are wetting their pants in anticipation for EverQuest, the best game we at PC Fan have played all year (and it's still a beta!). Others however, are taking a "wait and see" attitude towards the game. That's exactly how we felt - until we actually sat down and played it.

I-Sim gaat een racesimulatie bouwen rond de Humvee! Lachuh...

Hier wat blablabla uit de PR:

I-Sim Corporation, a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance driving simulation equipment, today unveiled its Humvee-based military driving simulator at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) here.

I-Sim developed this simulator using an actual Humvee cab to provide a fully immersive, highly realistic driving experience. I-Sim's Humvee simulator is designed to help the military satisfy its maximum readiness objective by training personnel faster and more effectively. Geographically specific databases increase training realism, and I-Sim simulators are mobile, allowing for training at any location on short notice.

The Humvee cab teamed with computer-controlled adaptable payload dynamics and programmable weather conditions provide realistic simulations of edge-of- envelope situations that are often too expensive or dangerous to duplicate by conventional means.

I-Sim accurately simulates actual Humvee vehicle dynamics right down to 3D road surface and tire characteristics. In addition to providing authentic motion and visuals, the Humvee simulator has lifelike sound, vibration, instrumentation, steering and pedal simulation, as well.

Dukeworld heeft een interview met Ken Silverman, de gozer die grotendeels verantwoorlijk was voor de bouw van de Build engine voor Duke Nukem 3D. En hij is pas 23...

Ken Silverman, maybe you've heard of him, maybe you've haven't. He made his exit from the gaming industry almost as quickly as he entered it. He's had a hand in many released games, from many different game developers. Although others at 3D Realms, mainly Todd Replogle (Duke Nukem 3D) and Frank Maddin (Shadow Warrior) have had a hand in game specific enhancements, Ken Silverman is the primary architect of the Build engine. Ken perhaps said it best himself, with the following message hidden within Duke Nukem 3D, "BUILD engine&tools programmed by Ken Silverman of E.G. RI. (c) Copyright 1995 Ken Silverman. Summary BUILD = Ken. !!!!"

Ken took some time out of his schedule, and met us on Undernet IRC's #3drealms channel. We threw a series of questions at Ken, who is now 23, and is a full time student at Brown University and as it turns out, it was Ken's first time ever on IRC.

AGN 3D heeft z'n eigen Heretic II review in elkaar gewipt.

Hier wat ik er over de graphics uitgeplukt heb:

retty much all Raven games have had outstanding graphics, and Heretic II is definitely no exception. Like virtually all of the Quake 2 engine licensees, Raven have moved to a 16 bit palette and used tons of colored lighting to escape the grays and browns of Q2. (Don’t worry, the colored lighting is tasteful, not tacky.) As a licensee, the game fully supports OpenGL, so if your card can run Q2, you should be set with Heretic II. The textures are done in vibrant colors, and fit in perfectly with the medieval architecture. Another enhancement to the engine is fogging, which, looks great. One level in particular, the swamps, is one of my favorite levels in a 3D-action game to date. The fog in this level gives it this misty, surreal quality that looks fantastic.

In addition to the colored lighting used in level design, the lighting effects for the weapons are incredible. With its medieval/fantasy setting, Heretic II skips over the standard "gun, stronger gun, rocket launcher" in favor of spells and magic staffs and bows. You start out with a simple bladed staff (my favorite melee weapon since the Doom chainsaw) and the Fireball spell, where you throw (surprise!) red balls of fire at the enemies. Later weapons include the Hellstaff, which is a shorter staff that actually works almost like a machine gun, rapidly firing small orbs of energy, and my personal favorite, the Phoenix Bow, that shoots out a powerful flaming arrow that sets enemies ablaze.

Action Extreme heeft een interview met William Haskins van ION Storm, waar laatst zo'n beetje de helft van het personeel opstapte. Hier een stukkie:

DarkViper: Many people comment on John Romero's "ego", what are your comments on this?

William: This one always gets me. My personal opinion is that John has earned the notoriety that he receives, and I'm not sure that many designers in this industry would turn away Rolling Stone or Time Magazine from the door. I think a lot of this type of criticism amounts to little more than professional jealousy. Gamers love John, and he is one of the most accessible personalities in the industry. While other developers let their publishers demo their products at trade shows, John is there, answering questions and talking to whoever shows an interest in his work. Anyone who spends any time around him will see that he's a warm and generous person who has a great deal of confidence in his abilities.

VE heeft wat info over de vorderingen met de OpenGL ICD voor de Matrox G200. Dat ding had er 4 maand geleden al moeten zijn en ik kan met voorstellen dat G200 bezitters aardig pissig zijn, of inmiddels zijn overgestapt naar bijv. een TNT.

Hier wat info over de stand van zaken:

Matrox regrets to announce that it has pushed back the release of  its OpenGL ICD to Wednesday, December 9, 1998. On this date, Matrox will release a pre-beta version with support for Windows 95/98 only. Windows NT 4.0 support is expected during Q1'99.

While the pre-beta ICD will not exceed the performance of the currently available Matrox Direct3D Wrapper, Matrox wanted to assure customers that, despite the unfortunate delays, we are aggressively working on the ICD development under Windows 95/98 and NT in order to deliver the maximum performance possible for MGA-G200 based graphics accelerators.

This pre-beta ICD released on December 9, 1998 will support a limited number of OpenGL games and applications including, Quake II and Half Life.

3DGaming.com heeft een review van Grim Fandango. Ik heb de demo gezien en het is echt een wreed wazige adventure. Ik snap niets van adventures, maar dat GF anders is zal voor iedereen duidelijk zijn.

LucasArts have always been renowned for bringing out startling adventure games such as Indiana Jones, Sam and Max, plus the hilarious and unforgettable Monkey Island series. Gamers across the world have been waiting for the next game in the LucasArts series, and it has finally arrived in the shape of Grim Fandango.

Grim Fandango has received plenty of attention during the last year or two, but no more than when the final game was released only a short while ago. It’s been praised as a ‘Monkey Island 3 beater’, or ‘the adventure game of all adventures’ but does it really live up to these statements?

Game-Over heeft een review gepost van Raven's Heretic II:

Over the past couple of years since the release of Tombraider, the game market has been crowded with 3rd person trash. Due to the overwhelming popularity of Tombraider, the 3rd person camera angle has been blatantly exploited by developers with no talent who are all well known for skimping out on gameplay and going for beautiful babes in tank tops. Deviating from the normal first person clone, Raven Software opted to use a 3rd person camera angle that suits the game perfectly. Heretic 2 is by far is one of the best 3rd Person games I have played this year. The Gamplay is far superior to Tombraider and also has a deeper atmosphere where you actually find yourself engulfed in the story.

You assume the role of Corvus, slayer of the Serpent Riders. After a long post-heretic vacation you are back once again to save the citizens who are up against a magical force. Upon beginning the game in your home town of Silverspring, you notice something is wrong with your people. They seem to be dying rather quickly and even turning into bloodthirsty monsters. To get a solution you head towards Andoria to receive a cure from a healer. After three hours of gameplay just to reach Andoria you learn the story only begins here...

JC van JC's hardware spul pagina is pissig op Anand omdat-ie volgens hem anti-AMD en bevooroordeeld is richting Intel.

Hier zijn relaas, die je hiero kunt lezen:

Mind you, I wouldn't dream of suggesting that the K7 will perform at double the speed of the PII. I mean, that would be nice, and I wouldn't complain if it were so, but I'm just trying to point out that with this many technical improvements, it's downright unethical to produce a statement suggesting, for example, that Katmai will be a faster cpu than the K7 (mind you, KNI is about the same speed as 3DNow!) without actually bringing up facts to back your claim. While I'm at it, AMD's roadmap has it equalling and/or overtaking Intel in the MHz department by midpoint next year. in Q2'99, AMD will have a 500MHz K6-3. They will also have an "over 500MHz" K7 before the midpoint of the year. Intel will come out with their 533MHz Katmai at midpoint of the year, according to their latest roadmap (announced last week). If, as you say, "Mhz for Mhz", the K7 will beat Katmai/Coppermine, why do you say that it will only be even with the fastest (MHz) Intel chip if AMD and Intel are slated to be at the same clock speed?

Let me run straight through: I've read Ga'ash's previous articles and I usually like them. I have nothing against the guy himself. I'm just steamed that he seems to have only scratched the surface of available data on the K7, ignoring some very pertinent details, in the course of making his article. This is especially true in a site that gets tens of thousands of visitors each day. A single word spoken on that site could have a lasting effect on the industry. I should end this by saying that Anandtech was my inspiration (well, one of the main ones, at least) for starting up my site. I like AnandTech for the most part. I don't think Anand is anti-AMD or that Ga'ash has a chip about the semi company. These seem like fine individuals, and this is probably just an isolated incident (indeed, this site is one of the most useful hardware review URLs on the net).

Anand heeft een reaktie op z'n frontpage geplaatst.

Een wat late review van Diamond's Viper V550 bij Planet Hardware, waarvan hier wat info:

Being a hardcore gamer and fan of 3D performance, it is no wonder why my favorite and trusted 3D chipset manufacturer is 3dfx. Time and time again, this company has been at the forefront of performance design with regards to video acceleration, and because of this many board manufacturers have been highly successful in selling products based on 3dfx's video chipsets and reference board designs. I was skeptical when other chipset makers started touting design specs that not only equaled but also surpassed those of the tried and trusted brand.

Best wel erg veel Banshee review de laatste tijd. Bij Sharky Extreme zijn ze onstopbaar en hebben ze een review van de Power Color (nooit van gehoord...) Evil Queen.

Hier wat spul uit de review:

One could call the Voodoo Banshee a consequence of segmentation, somewhat similar to Intel and their CPU strategy if you like. After all, 3Dfx Interactive is now a public company, thus money makes the world go around and all that. With a single Texture Memory Unit (TMU) the Voodoo Banshee product is certainly no Voodoo2 killer (funnily enough 3Dfx were the only ones not to issue a Voodoo2 killer press release?) and therefor not exactly the 'extreme' gaming board. On the other hand, it does the job intended, which is to give access to 3D gaming to the mid-range user along with an extremely solid 2D part. One could call it a cut-down version of the Voodoo2, minus some of the 'speed' but at a competitive price to suffice that fact. What entry-level and mid-range users get is a really cheap 2D/3D solution that performs really well in D3D with Glide thrown in for good measure. The fill rate of the Voodoo Banshee isn't exactly lighting quick by today's high-end standards. But for the everyday gamer, the setup of 4 million textured triangles/second means that it's no slouch. The Voodoo Banshee's chipset die is pretty full and what you get is a 128-bit 2D core GDI accelerator, with a 128 bit VGA and an integrated Voodoo2 pixel unit, along with the aforementioned single 3Dfx powered texture unit.

PC Magazine heeft een vergelijking van 29 videokaarten online gezet:

Chip makers have been climbing over one another in recent years, in a crush to deliver faster and better 3-D rendering to the mainstream PC desktop. The problem is, the only immediate beneficiaries have been those who play games that use 3-D graphics. Thankfully, the coming year looks to be a win/win situation for all users, not just gamers.

The 29 accelerators we tested generally deliver much-improved 3-D performance--but not at the expense of resolution capabilities or 2-D prowess, as in previous years. More importantly, 1998 saw the introduction of 3-D data visualization and presentation applications that could emerge as the nongame 3-D "killer apps" of 1999 and beyond. Throw in Chromeffects, Microsoft's multimedia extensions for adding 3-D effects to Web pages, and you've got a dynamic that could make 3-D graphics relevant in corporate space for the first time.

Gameslice heeft een editorial op z'n site gepleurd over hoe vet, heftig, heersend en roulerend Half-Life is.

De intro van het verhaaltje:

The nature of any software review is that it’s somewhat subjective, but in the case of Sierra Studios and Valve Software’s Half-Life, there is one indisputable fact: I played this game for four days straight; I was enraptured by the experience, deaf to the rest of the world, my emotions and senses honed in on the computer screen for umpteen hours on end. A review can be laced with superlative-frill to the ying yang, nit-picking the tinniest of pitfalls and aggrandizing idiosyncratic creative accents, but what’s really important is the indescribable play experience – The pace, depth, uniqueness, and excitement that is ceded from the game to the player during their time together. Half-Life has an incredible play experience. That fact is indisputable.

The last time I was really taken by a game was on December 10, 1993 – I even remember the date – when the Doom shareware was released. I still have memories of playing those seven shareware levels time and again almost 5 years ago. There was just a raw element of the game experience that caught me. For whatever reasons, Half-Life caught me again. And yes, it probably wasn’t as much as a visual eye-opener as Doom was, but Half-Life’s single player experience has an uncanny depth to it that just drew me in.

Ik zag op VE twee links naar wat handige stuff voor Banshee en Savage3D bezitters die hun videoplankje willen draaien onder Linux. Tsjek 'm aut: Banshee info en Savage3D stof.

Hier wat info:

I've always battled with Linux and X-Server displays.  Don't get me wrong, Linux is a great development OS, but when it just doesn't work after spending days on a project, I sometimes wonder if it's worth the hassle.  The sweet thing to such a big accomplishment is the fact that you've done it and have learned from the experience.  I've spend days researching and gathering little bits of information and now feel that everyone deserves an easy ONE stop place to learn everything you may need to know on how to setup the Banshee under Linux, or for that matter any VESA 2.0 complient video card as a frame buffer device.  This quick howto trys to make sense out of the many available documents on the web about frame buffer devices.  I do referrence the original documents whenever possible.

    This solution is hopefully a temporary one until a fully functional XFree86 X-Server can be implemented.  Thanks to Daryll Strauss and all his work and time he has devoted to the Linux community.  He has been able to implement 3Dfx Glide support for the Voodoo Graphics, Voodoo2, and Voodoo Rush chipsets.  He is presently working on Banshee drivers.  Good luck Daryll.

Die gasten bij Avault hebben wat rond geknutseld met een preview van DID's Wargasm:

Wargasm really breaks out of the traditional war game genre: its designers claim that "It is the ultimate blend of strategy, tactics and all-out 3D combat" and that it looks "like the kind of software that today's military would kill for, but its instant playability and intense 3D arcade-style action ensure it will appeal to every type of gamer." When I asked what existing game is most like Wargasm, Jim Belcher, simulations director at Infogrames Entertainment, responded "There's nothing really quite like Wargasm." (Isn't that the truth!) "If you had to compare it to something, it's like if Delta Force or Rainbow Six mated with M1 Tank Platoon or Comanche." While some of this is no doubt PR hype, it looks to me like it really does break out of the mold in an exceptional way.

DID is throwing every possible extra feature into this game to provide state-of-the-art audio/visual technology. Its new 3Dream(tm) technology combines incredible visual effects, including weather, smoke, and fire, with smooth action sequences involving accurate real-world physics. Everything takes place within a fully-rendered 3D environment containing a diverse variety of landscapes containing both natural phenomena and man-made structures. The company seems to have paid particularly close attention to the physical modeling of troops and vehicles, providing them with high levels of both realism and responsiveness. DID's background in military simulations seems like a real help in the attention to detail here. You may view the action through numerous vantage points, including both first-person and third-person perspectives. The game supports Voodoo2 technology and Aureal 3D sound. There is special support for force feedback joysticks.

PlanetBlood heeft een review van Monolith's Blood2: the Chosen:

My only complaint about the Lithtech engine is the software renderer. To be honest, it's awful, and in my view not even up to par with the Quake engine. You have to have a graphics card capable of rendering in Direct 3D to enjoy this game, and if you have that then you will definitely find the graphics extremely impressive. The outdoor scenes are not as impressive as the Unreal engine, but with a game like this it is important to find the right balance between graphics and performance, Monolith hit the spot. The game flows nicely and for me frame rates seemed more than adequate

The engine as a whole was fluid and impressive. Large open areas were rendered just as speedily as tight corridors and multiple enemies and special effects could fill the screen with little slowdown, unlike Quake2 and Unreal. Overall the Lithtech engine is a great addition to the engine wars, and could well be the one to come out on tops. As far as todays technology goes, you'd have a hard time finding something that does it better.

Ik zag wat nieuws op de Heatsink Guide over heatsinks voor Intel's nieuwe SECC2 catridge design:

SECC2 is the name for the new design of future P2's faster than 450MHz. These do not have a a cardridge like current P2's, but rather look like a Celeron. However, neither Celeron nor current P2 heatsinks are compatible with SECC2. Heatsinks for SECC2 are a bit more tricky to manufacture, because they must be designed to have contact both with the CPU and the SRAM chips, since there is no thermal transfer plate on SECC2. Since the CPU and the cache chips have different heights, the lower side of the heatsink must not be flat (like on current P2 heatsinks), but rather have a special form to fit both CPU and cache chips. The fixation mechanism is similar to the Celeron.

Generally, it can be said that SECC2, (along with the new "Flip Chip" design of newer P2's) allows more efficient cooling than SECC1, both for the CPU and the cache chips. Heatsinks for SECC2 will be more expensive than current P2 heatsinks.

The first major heatsink manufacturer to have SECC2 coolers available seems to be Vantec. I will be receiving a sample; I'll post photos as soon as I have it. Other heatsink manufacturers also have plans for SECC2 heatsinks, of course, but I don't have any detailed info yet. Since no SECC2 CPU is available yet, it really isn't urgent :-). I have just received the new catalog from EKL GmBH, a smaller German heatsink manufacturer. They already offer SECC2 heatsinks, which apparently they manufacture themselves. Unfortunately they haven't posted the SECC2 pictures on their web site yet.

The Techs Network heeft een review van Everquest.

Hier wat stuff over deze RPG:

Sony has one of the hottest games ever on their hands, Everquest being developed by 989 Studios has the entire industry all hyped up. Everquest is the first real attempt into the world of massively multiplayer online RPGs. So what is a massively multiplayer online RPG? Well its a RPG played in a non-stop online world, accessible 24 hours a day and can hold up to 1,500+ players simultaneously per server.

Now hold on just a second, Everquest has a few technological leaps to overcome which other games such as Ultima Online have been unable to do, but the one team I believe can do it is 989's. Yes games such as Ultima Online have left us bitter and doubtful, but 989's Tech Team has been working around the clock on how to offer Everquest with minimal lag, excellent play balance, and constant play with state of the art 3D graphics. I know I can't wait to get this game to see if its all I believe its going to be. If 989 Studios managed to overcome it then there is no telling how far this game could go.

Lost Circuits heeft een review gepost van Diamond's Monster Fusion Z100 AGP.

Hier spul uit de review van deze Banshee plaat:

To get to the AGP version of the Monster Fusion Z100, Diamond did not stop at changing the pin adapters from the PCI version to the AGP format including the necessary modifications of the PCB layout. The major change actually includes the upgrade from 16 MB SDRAM to the same amount of faster SGRAM (Synchronous Graphics Random Access Memory; 125 MHz vs. 125 MHz SDRAM) which also enables the use of enhanced graphics features. The important features here are the so called "Block Write" and "Mask Write" functions which allow clearing of the frame buffer at a faster rate and thus a much faster modification of individual pixels which ultimately results in a smoother image. Furthermore, because of the faster clearing of the frame buffer, skipping of frames or details within the images displayed is avoided.

Pete's Hardware (nooit van'ehoord) heeft een riesengroße 3D videoplanken roundup in elkaar gedraaid met info over de TNT, Voodoo3, G200, Permedia 3 en nog meer goeds.

Hier een stukkie:

Voodoo2 has ruled for far too long. The original Voodoo chipset broke new ground in 3D gaming on the PC and could not be matched, though not for want of trying. Others produced chips that were of their own design rather than choosing to manufacture a voodoo based card, and some of them were quite reasonable. Some of the most noteworthy include Videologic's PowerVR and nVidia's RIVA 128. Both of these were good performers when given a fair amount of juice from the CPU but on lower end platforms Voodoo shined. Considering that it was released in 1996 Voodoo has had to be upgraded and improved. Enter Voodoo2. Voodoo2 builds on the original design by increasing the available memory and raw processing speed by increasing the number of chips on the board. Once again, other companies have stepped up to the challenge of Voodoo2 but will they provide more power this time round?

Sharky heeft een paar screenshots van Gremlin's Actua Soccer. Die screenshots zien er zeer vet uit.

Hier een stukkie inleidende text:

Since a certain E-I-C happens to be a Brit we thought we'd make him feel at home by posting some new shots of every Brit's favorite sport- Soccer. Gremlin Interactive's Actua Soccer 3 (known as Fox Sports Soccer in the US) is due for release shortly across Europe and to show off just how good the new Actua Soccer engine looks here are a few in-game shots to keep you ticking.

Ook Aanand heeft een nieuw artikel over de K7.

Hier wat spul:

Looking at the specifications of the AMD K7, you can probably tell that it is going to pack quite a punch when it makes its way out of the fab. plants and into our systems. The AMD K7 will be made on a 0.25 micron process (0.25 micron = the size of the connections on the silicon wafer) initially, the current state of the art. This process should allow the K7 to run cool enough to reach speeds of 500mhz, but once the K7 reaches higher speeds, such as 700mhz, the 0.25 micron process might not be efficient enough to warrant stability. The 128K L1 cache is one of the more intriguing features of the AMD K7. Current state of the art processors have 64K L1 (The K6(-2) and 6x86MX are examples). L1 cache is where the most frequently used data is stored on the chip. L1 cache has extremely fast access times and is the most efficient place to retrieve data from. (More on cache in bandwidth discussion) Basically, more L1 cache speeds up software significantly, especially highly repetitive software, such as Microsoft Word and spread sheet software. (these programs do the same thing over, and over, and over). AMD, however, doesn't think 128K L1 cache is enough. They plan on using Digital's Alpha EV6 bus to transfer data from RAM to the CPU. The EV6 bus allows for RAM to CPU transfers of up to 200+mhz! (FrontSideBus) yielding a bandwidth of 2.6GB (Gigabytes) / sec.

Sharky heeft naast die Celeron overclocking guide ook nog een review van Microstar's MS-6119 moederplank met BX chipset.

Hier wat info uit die review:

1998 has been a great year for the Taiwanese mainboard vendor known as Microstar International. Highlighting a list of accomplishments, their early and successful implementation of the ALi Aladdin V Super7 core logic set in the MS- 5169 board was virtually flawless, right from its launch in June of 98. This was no small feat, as the crowded Super7 mainboard market is still struggling today to provide 100% compatibility and stability in their supported products.

The success of the MS-5169 should have been the warning shot over the bow for mainstream board vendors like ASUStek, AOpen, and Abit that MSI was looking to make the move to a "Brand name" vendor like the previous three companies have done.

The MSI mainboard we're reviewing today continues to exemplify the steps that the company is continuing to take to provide users with an option besides just the "big three" while retaining the performance and ease of usage that experienced upgraders have come to expect.

Voodoo Extreme heeft een zooi benchmarks van de ATI Rage 128, afkomstig uit een of ander vaag Frans tijdschrift.

Hier zijn ze, incl. benchmarks van STB's TNT plank:

Joystick, a french game magasine, scored some benchmark on ATI Rage 128 in the December issue.

Here are the score (ATI Rage Fury / STB Velocity 4400)

D3D 3D Mark Pro 99 640*480 16 bpp   2909 / 2729

D3D 3D Mark Pro 99 640*480 32 bpp  2529 / 2236

D3D 3D Mark Pro 99 1024*768 16 bpp  1834 / 1495

D3D 3D Mark Pro 99 1024*768 32 bpp  1493 / 1108

------------

OGL Quake II 640*480 16 bpp  65.5 / 76.2

OGL Quake II 640*480 32 bpp  67.8 / 61.6

OGL Quake II 1024*768 16 bpp  34.9 / 38.1

OGL Quake II 1024*768 32 bpp  34 / 22

Electric Playground heeft een review van SiN:

I clicked the SiN icon that had been placed on my desktop and braced myself for a stupendous ride. Oh- wait, what's this? How come the opening cinema stuff is all off-center? And why does the screen keep flickering back and forth between Windows and the game screens as it's booting up? And what's with the herky-jerky CD audio skippage? Ah, well, it'll probably all smooth out when I start playing. Let's load up the first level, the famed "Bank Heist"…

After what seemed like a half an hour of load time later, I was finally playing SiN and it looked marvelous. I have a P2 233 with 64 megs of RAM and a 3DFX Voodoo2 card installed and although there are much better boxes out there, it still does a pretty good job with almost everything I throw at it. I pinned out the video settings to an acceptable level and SiN lit up like a Christmas Tree. I was ready to get lost for a while.

Tiberian Sun Universe heeft een review van Half-Life in elkaar weten te draaien.

Hier maar weer wat info...

Half-Life may well be the Starcraft of the 3D-shooting genre. It surpasses every competitor (Quake 2, Unreal, Trespasser, etc.) in virtually every aspect you could imagine; presentation, sound, graphics, and gameplay.

For starters let me note the amount of shooters that have a tutorial…none? Once I noticed the “Hazard Course” option on the main menu I knew I was in for a treat. And if I may say the course was pretty cool. You had scientists commenting through a window above, and a computer generated hologram of a chick telling you what to do. The control of the game is above average also, but not too stellar at that. You have to quickly adapt to the different ways to climb into a manhole, jump from ledge to ledge, and strafe your way around tanks and commando’s. And I did it pretty well with the loose handling Half-Life offers. If you notice in the screenshots, you’ll see the nice almost transparent health bar, which gives more room for the overall display area.

Sharky Extreme heeft een hele dikke Celeron Overclocking Guide in elkaar geknutseld.

Errug handig voor C300A overklokkers die hun CPUutje niet op 450 krijgen (en dat zijn er nog al veel, mag ik uit postings op het MS.Nepwereld forum herleiden).

Hier een stukkie over waarom de Celeron zo lekker te oc-en is:

There are some dramatic effects concerning overclocking that Intel's cost cutting on the Celeron has created:

Without any external L2 cache, the Celeron's core was the only part that a buyer has to worry about when overclocking to high MHz levels. In the Pentium 2 line, an overclocker has to worry not only about the Klamath/Deschutes core quality, but also about the two or four (depending upon the model) L2 cache chips located in the Pentium 2's SEC cartridge. Since Intel has specifically matched the right speed L2 SRAM chips to the particular core they'll be mated to, the potential for the L2 cache to hold back the true overclocking potential of the core was great. This is not so in the Celeron, as again there isn't any external L2 cache to worry about. Instead the 128KB of L2 Celeron A cache is located on the die itself. It's virtually a part of the core, which means that if the yields are right, then almost every Celeron A coming down the pike is overclockable. By taking the Celeron core and mounting it on a standard PCB wafer, overclockers could once again mount a high powered fan/heatsink directly on the surface covering of the core itself, instead of having to put up with the poor heat dissipation qualities of the P2's SEC Cartridge. This means that the fan/heatsink would be able to perform its job better, and eliminate more heat that in the covered and blocked Pentium 2 line, which leads to better overclocking. This comes in very handy with the Celeron A CPUs, as there are some seriously capable cooling fans from both ComputerNerd and Net-N-Dude available online.

The Techs Network heeft een preview gepost van AMD's K7.

Hier een stukkie:

Dig-in vultures because AMD is no longer going after Intel’s scraps. On the horizon AMD is perfecting the latest addition to their arsenal: the K7. This processor promises to be speed demon of ’99 and constitutes a revolutionary architecture. However this isn’t the first time AMD has targeted Intel’s power in the CPU industry. The K6-2 and soon to come K6-3 have put a little weight on Intel’s back by somewhat matching the Pentium II’s offerings and surpassing its pricing. With the K7, AMD promises not only to match but to also surpass Intel’s offerings in 1999, which will mainly consist of the Pentium II and Katmai processors. When AMD’s K7 was announced at Microprocessor Forum ’98, it was indeed a day that would change the x86 CPU market. It gave consumers a reason never to go over and switch to Intel’s shiny ‘Slot 1.’ Not all of us have trusted or even considered buying a processor from AMD in the past simply because we never thought of them as being the best. That may change yet. The K7 clearly offers more than the PII Deschutes does, and when in hits in ’99 it will go head to head with Katmai, directly challenging Intel’s supremacy.