Nog een review van de Elsa Erazor II, ditmaal bij 3DHardware.net. De Erazor II heeft geen fan waardoor het ding nogal heet wordt en dat heeft weer gevolgen voor de overklokbaarheid:

The core clock could not be overclocked significantly. The RAM, being rated at 125MHz, was of course stable at 125MHz. Increasing the memory clock to 125MHz provides a fairly significant performance boost. Since it's rated at that speed, there's almost no reason to not run it that fast. As always, overclocking results will vary from board to board and it does void your warranty. So proceed at your own risk.

3DGaming.net heeft een review gepost van Blood2: the Chosen, en het lijkt veel op Shogo (zelfde engine):

The reason I say Blood2 is so much like Shogo is because it is a lot like it; the characters move the same, look the same, and even have some of the same weapons! They used the Lithtech engine, but I think they used a lot of the same code (or whatever, I'm no programmer) in B2. While I like both games, after beating Shogo, I was getting a little tired of doing the same thing in B2, and although B2 is a much darker, sinister, and evil game than Shogo, I was reminded a little too much of it while playing.

Zoals je waarschijnlijk weet moet er vanaf 1 januari op elke CD-R FL1,50 aan heffing worden afgedragen aan de afzetters van Buma Stemra. Natuurlijk slaat dit helemaal nergens op en er is dan ook veel verzet tegen deze belachelijke actie.

Planet Multimedia heeft een nieuwsartikel:

Recent berichtte deze rubriek de invoering door Buma Stemra en de platenmaatschappijen van een generieke heffing voor verloren gewaande rechten van artiesten als gevolg van vermeende overname van muziek.

De Fiar, de club van producenten van beeld- en geluidsbanden, heeft de eis gesteld dat er opnieuw gesprekken zullen plaatsvinden. Het gaat hier om onder meer Philips, Sony, TDK en Pioneer. In de tweede helft van januari gaan de Fiar en de mede-participanten in overlegorgaan Sont weer praten over de heffing. Dat doen ze onder leiding van voorzitter Henk Vonhoff, ex-politicus.

Het belangrijkste bezwaar is dat het met de cd-recordable en de cd-rewritable aanwijsbaar om data-opslag gaat, te gebruiken voor veel meer doeleinden dan louter muziek. Als de prijs daling zo snel gaat als nu dan zou de cd andere losse opslagmedia voor de pc snel kunnen gaan verdrijven.

Wie wil protesteren tegen de heffing kan dat doen op www.guts.nl/protest.

Jeremy van AGN 3D heeft wat info over Canopus (bekend van de Spectra 2500 en Pure3D videokaarten):

Lately the Canopus Pure3D 2 and SPECTRA 2500 cards have been harder to find than cookies in my cookie jar. (I am really in a cookie mood this morning.) The word on the street is that Canopus may be dropping out of the consumer video card market here in the US, and stick to only high-end video editing hardware. The incredible amount of competition here in the US market, has made it hard for them to make any real penetration into a market that is currently in total gridlock. Even though Canopus has had wide acclaim with the hard core gaming market, the cards are still relatively unknown by the rest of the computer community. With no large OEM buys under their collar and the lack of and standalone 3Dfx based cards in their future product line makes further losses eminent. They also continue to have trouble with driver development, so the addition of any other chipsets than NVIDIA’s would cause a development expense that they no doubt could not afford. –Note: It has not been confirmed that Canopus is dropping out of the video card market, I am just going on rumors that I have heard.

Canopus kaarten zijn hiero in Nederland btw te koop bij o.a. Bolder Hard & Software, maar wel erg duur.

Gamespot UK heeft wat info over wat Intel van plan ik met de Celerons. De nieuwe 366 en 400Mhz exemplaren zijn evensnel als vergelijkbare PII's, maar wel honderden guldens goedkoper. Je zou dus denken dat ze bij Intel teveel powerglue hebben gesnoven, maar dat valt mee. Er zit een hele strategie achter deze wazige handelingen van Intel...

PC Week Labs' tests of two Celeron-based systems released this week show that the once-gutless--no L2 (Level 2) cache--Celeron chip with a consumer focus has been transformed into a serious contender for corporate desktop PCs. Buyers will now find Celeron-equipped systems as powerful as Pentium II machines for hundreds of dollars less.

So what's the catch? Well, Intel sees the Celeron and Pentium II processors as serving different markets. The Celeron, company officials have claimed, is for the "value-conscious" buyer, whereas the Pentium II is for buyers who demand the most powerful system on the market.

As a result, we expect the leading PC vendors to place the Celeron processor in systems that may not offer state-of-the-art components. These PCs would still offer the manageability expected by corporate buyers, just in a less elegant system. This is a shame because, given the same level of components, the Celeron is the match of any Pentium II running typical corporate desktop applications.

Warzone heeft een review van de Midiland S2-4030 speakers. Ze zien er erg vet uit (vooral de subwoofer). Hier wat spul over hoe ze klinken:

While the mids and highs sounded great, the bass wasn’t as deep as I would have liked. Of course, having the sub at only 15W of power doesn’t really help, but it does a pretty good job nevertheless. Having been used to the Microsoft DSS80’s large thump in games and music; I was a little disappointed by the bass from the 4030. Why would I compare the Midiland speakers to the Microsoft DSS80’s when Microsoft’s subwoofer produces 29 more watts? The answer is price. The Midiland speakers go for about $170 while the DSS80’s sell for $180 (prices taken from Pricewatch). While browsing at a local Waldensoftware, I did see the DSS80’s go for $200 with a $50 rebate. In any event, the richness and depth of the bass just wasn’t what I expected. Then again, it could be that I listened to the DSS80’s for so long that I’m a bit spoiled. For those looking for more bass power, you might want to look into the 4100’s which run about $300 with the sub producing 50 watts of power. It’s a mighty big step up, but from all the reports, the 4100’s are the best speaker system to get for a PC.

The Register heeft weer wat nieuws over de rechtszaak tegen Bill:

The DoJ's final witness, MIT economist Franklin Fisher, has produced a blockbuster 'summing up' piece of testimony which endeavours to show clearly first that Microsoft is a monopoly which engages in predatory conduct, and second that this conduct is driven by Bill Gates, not 'loose cannon' subordinates.

In written testimony released yesterday, Fisher says: "It is worth emphasising that the Microsoft documents that reveal Microsoft's predation are not documents from low-level employees or employees likely to be misinformed about the purpose and effect of the company's conduct. Many of the most significant documents are documents to or from CEO Bill Gates personally."

Basically, this takes the DoJ's case full circle. It opened with testimony showing Bill Gates vague and evasive about documentation either to or from him, and it's being rounded-off with the DoJ's final expert witness portraying it as inconceivable that the man in charge knew as little as Gates claims in his testimony.

In de Voodoo Extreme GrandMaster B van vandaag een vraag over cross platform programming (een actuele kwestie nu id Quake Arena gaat uitbrengen de Mac).

Een stukkie (de rest staat hier):

Cross platform programming is easy to do once you get the hang of it.  It requires a certain degree of planning and strong design, and a lot of experience dealing with typical cross platform snafus.  Understanding where the various layers of abstraction need to be placed is very important.

There are various levels of portability.  Probably the easiest is going from one CPU to another on the same OS, e.g. WinNT for Intel and WinNT for Alpha.  In this type of situation you don't have to worry about endianess, operating system, file storage, and other issues, you basically have to watch for code generation bugs and make sure you didn't do anything stupid like assume that random memory cast to a float would still work.   In this case very little abstraction is necessary, if any.

Another type of portability is going from one compiler to another on the same platform -- this is actually very complicated once you start using compiler specific features like pragmas, inline assembler, and reserved keywords.  Sometimes an abstraction is necessary, but often you can get away with portability just by well placed #ifdefs.

Wie zo'n beetje dacht alles wat betreft overclocking inmiddels gezien te hebben moet ff gaan rondsnuffelen bij AlienPC. Daar hebben ze een SL2W8 (0,25micron PII-300) laten invriezen met de hoop dat-ie daardoor beter overklokbaar zou worden (daar zit een hele natuurkundig theorie achter).

Het wil alleen nog niet erg helpen:

finally put the Abit BH6 MoBo back in and started messing with the settings.  It seems that the Cryo-tempered SL2W8  is a little more stable at 504 but, it is not 100%  I tried everything up to and including 2.3v.  I am using the VEK 12 on the bare P2 and it is running cool enough.  I guess that the chip is just not going to make it no matter what I do.  I will just have to try something else.  I would add pics but they would look just like the others I have up already.  On another note I got an email today pertaining to cooling cache chips.  On the SL2W8 the cache chips do not touch the thermal plate.  If you take alumium foil and carefully fold it you can use that to help transfer the heat to the thermal plate.  You have to take the cartridge apart to do this of course.  For more on that see Bare P2.  Make sure you use thermal compound if you do use the foil.  I hear it works quite well.  This may also help those of you with an SL2WY PII 333 that isn't quite making 500.  I would try it.  What have you got to lose besides a $200 dollar chip and the use of your computer? :o)  No one ever siad overclocking doesn't come without it's dangers.

Home of Lost Circuits heeft een review van de nieuwe AMD K6-2 380 met CXT core. Hier wat info over wat CXT is:

Most of you have already heard about the new AMD core called CXT, what's the benefit of this new feature? Well, Anand's tests showed the difference pretty nicely, compared to the old core there is at least a 5% increase in performance. Still, remember that for unleashing the potential benefit of the new core, an updated BIOS is necessary in order to extend the amount of write allocation. For those who don't have a suitable BIOS upgrade, there is still a way around, in form of a special software driver written by Andreas Stiller from the German "CT" magazine.

"Write Allocation" is a feature that works by grabbing not just a single instruction but actually a whole bunch of data at a time. To explain it in very trivial terms, one can use the example of a waiter in a breakfast restaurant. If there are four people coming in during breakfast time, the waiter could go and ask each one individually whether they wold like some coffee, go back to the kitchen, serve the coffee and then ask the next person. Alternatively, after he finds out that the first guest would like coffee, he figures that, because of the time of day everybody will have similar desires and simply carries as much coffee, milk and sugar with him as he suspects will be necessary. This way he does not have to return to the coffee machine but actually can deliver the goodies in one run instead of four. If his guess was wrong, then, of course he has to return.

Het kan nooit snel genoeg zijn...ook een laptop. Dr.Evil's Damage Lab heeft wat info over hoe je die kunt overklokken:

One example I know of is the Toshiba Libretto, which has an overclocking guide.   The later issues of the Libretto 50CT,in particular, are a safe bet for overclocking; when Intel stopped making mobile Pentium 75's, Toshiba just stuck in mobile P-120's and underclocked them to 75 so the 50CT wouldn't compete with the higher models in the Libretto line. These machines can be clocked up to 120 without even exceeding the rated speed of the processor. The guide also reports model 100 Librettos being overclocked from 166 all the way up to 266MHz--quite impressive.

Another plus here is, based on the information on the Libretto page, it appears Intel hasn't put any sort of multiplier lock on the mobile chips, meaning you don't have to make do with bus speed changes to experiment with overclocking.

Having said that, however, I'm not sure I'd recommend overclocking a notebook, except in the aforementioned 50CT case where you're really "properclocking" it.  (Hmm, sounds like a word Orwell would make up.) There are several reasons why I say this.

First, most laptops don't have the luxury of an active cooling system (a fan or fans) like desktop systems do, and overclocking can potentially generate a lot more heat, which becomes more of a concern in the tight, little spaces inside a laptop. Get things up to a nice oven temperature in there and you could do bad things for the long-term life of all the laptop components, though I doubt you'd have a rehash of the "Flaming PowerBook" episode or anything. 8-)

Ik zag op JC's News'n'Links page wat handige info over de AMD K6-3 en K7. De info is afkomstig van 't Yahoo AMD Stock message board. JC's reactie zie je vetgedrukt:

AMD is about to announce a K6-2/450. They will up the core voltage to 2.3 volts instead of 2.2 volts and with that small bump can easily yield 450MHz devices. This announcement will be coming any day now. The ASP on this processor will be over $200.

This is very possible and somewhat scary. When AMD was nearing the end of their 0.35um process, they were up to 200MHz at 2.9v. To get to 233MHz, they upped to 3.2v with near-disastrous results. A jump from 2.2v to 2.3v wouldn't be dangerous (K6 core is said to be fine up to 2.4 and probably 2.5), but it is a sign that K6-3 won't get too high before its die shrink.

AMD is on target for a February introduction of the K6-3/400 processor with several major OEMs. The K6-3/400 has already been shown to outperform the PentiumII-450 by 8 - 12% depending on the benchmark. This processor will be initially targeted at the commercial market segment. And you know who the big players are in that segment don't you (Compaq, Dell, Gateway, IBM, Micron). AMD will probably launch K6-3 with at least 3 of these leading players in February. Since the commercial segment is less price sensitive, AMD's initial ASPs for the K6-3 will be in the $300 range (much higher than the current $100 ASP model).

I do like those prices. If they are true, they make sense. Higher than what an AMD customer is used to, but still lower than Intel's PII prices.

K7 is on track for an April/May release date. K7 has already been shown to significantly outperform the Katmai processor on recent benchmarks posted on Sharky's Extreme website. K7 will support multiprocessor designs and will be targeted at the server market which commands even higher margins than the commercial market. K7 will sell in the $500 range.

This is slightly incorrect. It was Hardware Extreme that showed the K7 trouncing a Katmai. That's Mr. Terry Kok (the drawer of my logo above) who deserves credit. Sharky was responsible for the second K6-3 benchmarkfest. That is, unless Sharky recently put up a K7 review that I missed. I might mention, about the K7/Katmai benchmarks, that I have been in contact with more than one AMD source, and they've both strongly implied that the K7 Terry's contact was using was an early model and the final model has some additional optimizations which may further improve performance. Anyway, the price range sounds right (Silvino Orozco, an AMD fellow, has stated that the K7 will be priced around Katmai's level, MHz for MHz.

Overclockers Workbench heeft een interview gepost met Jeremy van Abit Taiwan:

Q1: What would be the strategy of ABIT in terms of support K6-3 and also

the K7 architecture? When is the expected model and date of release of

such boards?

We intend to continue to support the Socket 7 architecure  as long as it remains a viable market for us. In that light we have just come out with our first Super 7 board the SK5, it comes with sound and video on board, making for a cost efficient solution for the SS7 market, and yes, it comes with Soft Menu II

Q2: Will ABIT boards less overclockable because of the pressure from

Intel?

For our boards with Intel Chipsets we make our boards according to the Intel specs, whether or not a CPU is overclockable or not depends on the restrictions that Intel puts on the CPUs, not us.

Q3: Is there any possibility of using K6-2 or Pentium CPUs on to a

Sloket to be used on Slot 1 boards just like Socket 370

We have no such plans as of now.

Q4: Any plans to release pre-production or beta BIOS so that uses can

test them .. just like what ASUS does.

We have considered that and might do that with a few select sites

Q5: Can the BX6 / BH6 use the Katmai processor?

Yes, they should have Katmai support.

Q6: Will future Super 7 boards be jumperless?

Yes, the SK5 features Soft Menu II

Storage Review heeft een review gepost van de Western Digital AC313000, de eerste harddisk met ondersteuning voor ATA-66 (opvolger van ATA-66/UltraDMA). Het ding draait nog steeds maar op 5400rpm.

Hier wat stuff dat ik uit de review geript heb:

The AC313000 presents perhaps the last iteration of WD's aging 3-platter design. Each platter in this 5400rpm drive packs a rather contemporary 4.3 gigs of data (See Areal Density). The drive features a now-standard 9.5 millisecond random seek time. A 512k buffer rounds out the package. The AC313000 is the first drive to hit the market that incorporates the new ATA-66 standard. Proper ATA-66 operation requires an 80-conductor cable along with a motherboard that supports the spec (as of the writing of this article, there aren't many that do). Though it'll eventually become important in allowing future drives to realize their maximum transfer rates, ATA-66 doesn't do much for today's drives. Transfer rates for state-of-the-art ATA drives are hovering right around 15 MB/sec, just high enough to signal the call for ATA-33 (UltraDMA) rates. ATA-66 is a spec for the future, not the present.

Storage Review heeft wat zitten benchmarken met de Western Digital en daaruit bleek dat ze bij WD hebben zitten knutselen aan de drivers en firmware waardoor de Winbench resultaten werden vervalst, net zoals wat ATI met hun drivers geflikt heeft (errug fout dus).

Maxis heeft de originele versie van Simcity op www.simcity.com gegooid waar je 'm voor noppes kunt downen:

SimCity ClassicTM, released way back in 1989, is the granddaddy of all of Maxis' Sim games (including our newest release: SimCity 3000TM), and is considered one of the most popular games of all time. Now, help us celebrate the release of the latest edition of SimCityTM -- SimCity 3000 -- by playing SimCity Classic right here on our site while chatting with other players.

Volgens wat info afkomstig van AppleWorld zal ID in maart een testversie van Quake III Arena releasen, zowel voor PC als Mac:

Emerging from MacWorld are reports that a public test version of Quake III: Arena is planned for release in March. The news came today as John Carmack demonstrated the game running on a Mac G3 platform. ID is simultaneously developing the PC and MAC versions and aiming for a dual release.

Ook C|Net News.com heeft info over de nieuwe 2Mb cache Xeons:

After months of delay, the world's leading chipmaker unveiled 450-MHz versions of its high-performance Xeon with as much as 2MB of secondary (or L2) cache, special high-speed memory that keeps the chips fed with data and instructions. More importantly, up to four of the processors can be used in a single server, which will allow PC vendors to make hardware that can more acutely compete with servers based around Reduced Instruction Computing Set (RISC) processors.

Single processor Xeon systems with the 450-MHz chip range in price from around $7,000 to $20,000 but are still less expensive than RISC machines.

Four-processor Xeon systems, which will be followed shortly by eight processor Xeon servers, have so far proven a difficult goal for Intel and its partners. Xeons for four-processor servers have been repeatedly delayed and, even when Intel could manufacture some of the chips, these came out in relatively small numbers, said sources.

Intel heeft gisteren een telg in de Xeon familie gereleased, draaiend op 450Mhz. Die dingen zijn bedoeld voor servers en belachelijk duur, dus niets voor de casual gamer.

Techweb heeft een artikel met info:

Technology News

Intel Rolls Out New Xeons

(01/05/99, 7:56 p.m. ET)

By Marcia Savage, Computer Reseller News

Intel pushed harder into the server market Tuesday, rolling out new versions of its high-end Pentium II Xeon chip to support four-processor servers.

The three new 450-MHz processors, with 512 kilobytes, 1 megabyte to 2 MBs of Level 2 cache, offer the performance features needed for server applications such as e-commerce and enterprise resource planning, according to Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel.

During a briefing, John Miner, vice president and general manager of Intel's enterprise-server group, said applications that will greatly benefit from the larger, 2 MBs of cache include database-intensive applications.

The new Xeon chips reflect Intel's goal of moving up the enterprise-computing ladder, Miner said.

Later this quarter, Intel will announce the 500-MHz Tanner, the next in its Xeon family line of processors for servers. Tanner will incorporate the Katmai new instructions, which include enhanced 3-D graphics and speech-recognition capabilities.

Brett heeft op de newspagine van BXBoards nog wat spul over de plannen van Intel om een einde te maken aan het overklokken (dmv een frequency lock).

Onderstaand stukkie text is een reactie op een vorige posting van Brett die suggereert dat Intel ons alleen een beetje zit op te jarren, waarna vervolgens zal blijken dat er geen overclock-lock komt waardoor alle overclockers weer blij zijn en massaal Intel CPU's gaan komen (dat is althans wat Intel dan wil - als dit verhaaltje waar is).

Hier de reactie van Snake van Dimension 128:

Got quite a bit of mail regarding my last post. This one stood out though. Snake from D128 (www.d128.com) sent this my way, and I'm not sure if it's supporting my statement or not, but it does hit the nail on the head about what Intel (may) be doing.

I saw your comment on Intel's marketing strategy for the new Celeries, and I wanted to mention to you that in the world of marketing and sales, in which I have been active in the past (ugh), it is highly conceivable that Intel deliberately spread rumors of killing off overclocking, in order to boost sales for the new Celeries and Katmais.

The technique is known as "fear of loss". Direct sales people, for example, have a method by which they put whatever they are trying to sell you into your hands, and then at the moment of decision, snatch it from you (gently). The victim of such a sales technique feels that he/she has had something taken from them, and subconciously tries to "get it back" (in this case, buys it, to the credit of the skillful sales demon).

It goes without saying that if we suddenly see Katmais and Celeries being massively overclocked with impunity, the o'cing community will breathe a sigh of relief, and people who are at present happy with their 504MHz celeries will go forth and buy new, even more overclockable CPUs to gratify their peverted desires :)

So is Intel pulling our leg with the whole bus-lock thingy? We'll see...

Nog één posting over Macs, dan hou ik op (anders kan ik de naam van deze site wel gaan veranderen in WoM - World of Macs). The Register heeft nog wat info over de nieuwe PowerMacs met G3 erin. Steve beweert meteen de snelste PC te hebben, wat wel weer onzin zal zijn:

Apple unveiled and began shipping the latest generation Power Mac G3 machine today, which it claimed is the fastest personal computer, offering the best graphics and the best design.

The new G3 is based on a 400MHz PowerPC 750 processor using copper technology (Apple is buying chips from both Motorola and IBM) with 1MB of backside-configuration L2 cache. It also ships with 100Mbps Ethernet (Gigabit Ethernet is an optional extra) on the motherboard, which also sports ATI's Rage 128 graphics acceleration chipset, making its first appearance in a personal computer.

The motherboard contains four PCI slots, three of them 64 bits wide -- the other is a double-speed slot.

The machine can take up to 1GB of RAM and 100GB of storage space though three IBM 36GB UltraATA hard drives. CD/DVD-ROM and Zip drives are also included but, as anticipated, Apple is not including a floppy drive. Nor will the new G3 use SCSI as its peripheral connection system -- instead, it contains two FireWire ports, plus USB ports for serial connections.

Apple gaat nieuwe iMacs leveren met nieuwe kleurtjes. Bij Apple zijn ze namelijk van mening dat hun klanten meer geven om de kleur van hun Mac dan om de performance van het ding (geeft waar weer eens aan op wat voor 'n niveau die Mac gebruikers aan het klooien zijn - lang leven de PC).

Hier wat stuff van The Register:

As iMac sales passed the 800,000 mark, Apple announced the latest revision of the consumer computer, increasing its spec, lowering its price and introducing a range of new colours.

The new version, which began shipping in the US today, sports a 266MHz PowerPC 750 (aka G3) processor, up from 233MHz, and a 6GB hard drive (up from 4GB). The price falls from $1299 to $1199 -- earlier iMacs fall to $1049.

The iMac will continue to be available with its distinctive translucent blue casing, but buyers will now be also able to choose from purple, green, orange and red -- though Apple names them after fruit to allow them to be trademarked and thus forcing peripherals manufacturers to pay the Mac maker to use them.

Apple interim CEO Steve Jobs suggested keen iMacs fans might like to consider collecting the entire set. Actually, not long after taking up his current position, Jobs did say he would like Apple to become in some ways the IT equivalent of trendy watch manufacturer Swatch, so it seems he's had his way at last.

Als je wilt weten hoe die ding eruit zien moet je even op Apple.com gaan rondsnuffelen.

Apple dumpt QuickTime3D en stapt over op OpenGL. Zelfs onze vriend Carmack (van ID Software) heeft er wat mee te maken:

s a sign that it has finally abandoned the 'not invented here' philosophy that dogged it for most of its life, Apple has licensed the industry-standard 3D graphics technology, OpenGL, and said it will use the Silicon Graphics API in preference to its own, more sophisticated QuickDraw 3D API.

OpenGL will be integrated into future versions of the MacOS, said interim CEO Steve Jobs, speaking at this year's MacWorld Expo, held in San Francisco. Jobs declined to specify which release of the operating system will be the first to support OpenGL, but its likely to be sooner rather than later.

[...]

Indeed, it's as much for that market as for the more high end stuff that Apple has licensed OpenGL now, a move that received vocal support from leading 3D games developers, specifically Id Software's John Carmack, programmer of Doom, Quake, Quake II and Quake Arena.

Carmack has been calling for Apple to adopt OpenGL for some time. Most of Id's games were developed under NeXTStep/OpenStep (both of which use OpenGL), and not DOS/Windows, even though that's where they were destined to be played. While Carmack has been fairly keen on Rhapsody/MacOS X, both derived from NeXTStep, thanks to Apple's purchase of Jobs' old company, Apple's insistence on sticking with its proprietary QuickDraw 3D API rather than embracing OpenGL drew much barbed comment from the shoot-'em-up supremo.

Nog meer Apple info (we lijken wel een Mac site): Apple gaat volgende maand z'n MacOS X server zachtwaar releasen waarmee de iMac kan worden omgetoverd tot volwaardige Network Computer (wel handig als het ding wegens het ontbreken van een diskdrive volledig geïsoleerd is).

Hier wat info van The Register:

Apple interim CEO Steve Jobs effectively admitted that the iMac was a Network Computer after all today when he announced that the first commercial release of MacOS X Server will be available next month.

Early iMac buyers quickly discovered that the computer had been designed to boot from a network. That, plus its built-in 100Mbps Ethernet port and lack of floppy drive, suggested that the iMac had indeed been the result of Apple's development of an NC, a project unofficially announced a year or so earlier by Oracle CEO, Apple board member and Jobs chum Larry Ellison.

The missing component was the server software needed to make all this work, and that has finally arrived through MacOS X Server, and demonstrated at MacWorld Expo by booting a diskless iMac from a Power Mac running the new server OS.

"The iMac thinks everything is being done locally," said Jobs, "whereas in fact its all being done on the server." He added the MacOS had been specially modified to allow this to work, but its not clear whether that applies to all versions of MacOS 8.1 (the first release the iMac shipped with) and above, or simply the release that the iMac ships with.

According to Jobs, in most cases using a high performance Mac server as the storage medium via a 100Mbps Ethernet link is faster than using local storage.

The Register heeft een nieuwsartikel met wat info over de Mac PSX emulator die gisteren op MacWorld werd aangekondigd:

Mac users could soon have access to one of the largest selections of computer games in the world, thanks to a neat utility from developer Connectix.

Connectix Virtual Game Station (VGS), released today at MacWorld Expo, allows any Power Mac G3 and iMac to run almost all PlayStation titles out of the box.

The snag: will Sony, developer of the PlayStation, let Connectix get away with it.

VGS is based on Connectix's well-established CPU emulation software, most notably VirtualPC, which recreates a full SoundBlaster-compatible MMX Pentium-based PC in software. VGS does the same thing, but this time the hardware is the PlayStation.

Emulation isn't a free-ride technology, and the downside here is a hefty CPU and bus speed requirement, needed to match the performance of the Sony hardware's dedicated graphics processors. Which is why the software only runs on "factory original" G3s, and not lesser machines fitted with CPU upgrade cards.

Connectix also said it couldn't assure full compatibility with every PlayStation title, since some games bypass the standard APIs to perform certain tricks.

The big problem, though, comes from Sony. Connectix clearly hasn't developed VGS through official channels -- if it had worked with Sony on this one, the software would have been called Virtual Play Station, not Virtual Game Station, for a start.

The Register heeft weer wat info over de rechtszaak tegen Mikroschoft. Hier wat grappige info over dementerende Bill:

In what is probably the last extract from his videotaped deposition, Bill Gates was as obstructive, petulant and 'forgetful' as usual. Unless he has a medical condition that is completely unknown, it is inconceivable that he could be as ignorant of significant developments for Microsoft as he purports to be. Any normal company with such a forgetful CEO would surely discretely arrange for some medical help for the poor chap.

[...]

The only rational defence that Microsoft could present to defend Gates' behaviour in the videotaped deposition would be to say that he has burn out, and is suffering from mental fatigue. Since this is extremely unlikely, Microsoft will have to live with the consequences. Microsoft has become used to being able to win using its usual repertoire of business practices that have propelled it to its pre-eminent position, but in a court that functions on the basis of equity, Microsoft will not be able to get its own way. The question that remains is whether the US courts will dispense justice in this case.

Planet Hardware heeft een review van de Guillemot Race Leader 3D in elkaar gedraaid. Hier een wat info over die force feedback stuur:

This wheel has some nice features that you don't find on too many other wheels. Most wheels have in the range of 6 to 8 buttons, whereas this one has 14 buttons (The box claims 20, but either they're wrong or I don't have enough fingers) and a Point Of View hat. Another nifty feature is the mappable buttons. If you're playing a game that doesn't recognize all 14 buttons, you can map the buttons to keyboard commands. Say you're playing a game in which you press the 'Enter' button to switch gears. You could map 'Enter' to one of the buttons, and the game will act exactly as it would if you pressed 'Enter' on the keyboard. Another thing I liked about this product is the fact that you have two options for securing it to a desk. The wheel has four suction cups built into its base, but if that's not enough, you can use the included clamps to hold it onto the edge of a desk or table.

Nog wat nieuws van Diamond: de HomeFree Phoneline:

Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc. today announced the addition of the HomeFree™ Phoneline solution to its line of home networking products for PCs.

With pricing at approximately $50 per computer, the Diamond HomeFree Phoneline product uses existing home phonelines to link multiple PCs for the sharing of Internet access, printers and other peripherals, as well as to support networked multi-player gaming. The new product incorporates AMD's PCnet™-Home networking controller, is Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA)-certified and carries the HomePNA logo to ensure full compatibility with other standardized phoneline networking products.

De Mac krijgt eindelijk een fatsoenlijke videokaart: ATI gaat de Rage128 kaarten bakken voor de Mac. Nou maakt ATI al langere tijd videokaarten voor de Mac, maar die waren nogal klote (net zoals de ATI kaarten voor de PC). Met de Rage128 zitten ze op TNT niveau.

Hier wat info, geript van AGN Hardware:

``The RAGE 128 delivers the fastest high-quality graphics and multimedia performance of any mainstream accelerator on the market today,'' said Ed Grondahl, vice president of Product Marketing, ATI Technologies Inc. ``With our 128-bit accelerator, the new Power Macintosh G3s will quickly become one of the most desirable computers on the market, and further enhance Apple's reputation as a technological leader and trendsetter.''

Apple's new Power Macintosh G3 line includes the latest copper-based PowerPC processors running up to 400MHz and are packed with powerful forward- looking technologies, such as FireWire®, USB and 10/100BASE-T Ethernet. Housed in a compact, translucent minitower enclosure, that allows easy access and expansion, the new Power Macintosh G3 line starts at an aggressive price of U.S $1,599.

Jaja, nog een review van de Diamond Monster Sound MX300. Alsof we er daar nog niet genoeg van hebben gehad komen ze daar bij PCFan met hun eigen review van deze super kaart:

ince the A3D 2.0 instructions are hardwired onto the chipset you'll get everything you need at once instead of having to upgrade every so often like you do with the SB Live (which uses a more expensive DSP chipset). In fact, Aureal 3D even told us that the MX300 *could* (hypothetically speaking, of course) emulate Creative Lab's much hyped EAX sound API! Take that SB Live! Finally, I should mention that the MX300 is backward compatible with A3D 1.0, so you won't have to worry about those old games not running the sound scheme correctly. It all works, I've done the homework for you.

Another good reason to check out this board is the fact that its processor works a lot faster than the old A3D Vortex (the old Vortex boards ate up as much as 20% of your CPU, ouch!) boards. Since the processor works on the sound itself, it taxes your CPU a lot less thus making all your apps run a lot faster. Lord knows we all could use more FPS from our games!

De Elsa Erazor II bracht het er nogal slecht af in Tom's TNT comparison. Dimension5D heeft ook een review. Hun conclusie wat betreft de performance:

As you can see the ELSA Erazor II is typical Riva TNT in performance terms. But The Erazor II was slower than the Velocity 4400. Looking at the scores from my Holiday Video Card Guide, the Erazor II is a couple of frames slower than the Velocity 4400. I think that this has to do with the ELSA drivers using older drivers, than the Velocity 4400.

Now the big deal with the Erazor II, like I said earlier is its inclusion of a heatsink/fan and 125MHz rated SGRAM. So does this combination make overclocking a viable option. I ran Quake 2 benchmarks at a core clock rate of 110MHz (compared to 90MHz default), and a memory clock rate of 125MHz (compared to 110MHz default).

BTW: volgens THG wordt de Erazor II niet meer geleverd met ventilator, waardoor het ding een stuk minder overklokbaar is.

De Super7 Hardware Guide heeft een review gepost van de EFA P5MPVP3-AT, een socket 7 moederbord van EFA, een merk waar ik dus nog helemaal nooit van gehoord heb.

EFA's decision to base the Viking 3 on VIA's MVP3 chipset means that the use of PC100 SDRAM is optional as the chipset supports both synch/asynch operation of the CPU/Memory bus (capable of running at either the CPU or AGP frequency). The chipset also provides full local enhanced dual channel IDE support for data transfer rates up to 33MB/s - Ultra ATA/33. With documented CPU frequencies of 60/66/75/83/95/100MHz operable at clock cycles of 1.5-5.0 and documented core voltages of 2.2/2.5/2.8/2.9/3.2/3.3/and 3.52v the board offers support for all current socket 7 CPUs however there is no documented support for overclocked settings. The Viking 3 comes with 512K of fast Pipelined Burst Write-back SRAM L2 cache for a cacheable memory area of 128MB, and with 3 DIMM slots that will hold up to 768MB of system memory. The board also supports up to 2 USB ports but does require connectors, however, the most outstanding feature is the board's ability to avail itself of either AT or ATX power supplies.

USB lijkt nu toch eindelijk door te gaan breken. Ik zie steeds meer USB spul, o.a. de LCS-1040 USB speakers van Labtec. Net Excite heeft een review:

Since this is the first version of the USB Class 1 Digital Audio standard, this leaves the LCS-1040 and other products many room for improvements. This includes by improving the quality of the speaker itself. While we were playing some .WAV files, we can notice some distortion when we were running other programs such as Internet Explorer 4 the same time. This can be fixed by optimizing the drivers with in Windows 98. I guess we have to leave it up to Microsoft for fixing it. Not to mention that CPU usage was quite high when we compare it to the SoundBlaster Live! Also there should be a microphone input on the speaker itself so users can connect a microphone. The microphone signal should, of course, travel back to the system so you can do video conferencing or record your voice! I also look forward in seeing units that have multiple speaker and surround sound configuration along with 3D effects. Something like EAX built into the drivers or speakers.

PC Powerhouse heeft een review van de Guillemot Maxi Gamer Phoenix in elkaar gepleurd. Zoals bekend een kaart heeft deze kaart een Banshee aan boord.

Hier wat info over de performance (ze hebben een hele zooi benchmarks van Banshee, TNT en V2):

   I was quite surprised at the speed this card has in 2D and Direct3D. Windows redraws were fast with no studdering, while dragging produced no artifacts onscreen.  Wintune98 showed that this card is nearly as fast at 2D as the Canopus Spectra 2500 TNT based video card. What was truly amazing was the Direct3D tests. Wintune98 recorded about a 50% increase in performance over the TNT. Simply put, if you want a fast 2D card with excellent Direct3D performance, you can't go wrong with this card.

     Now for the let down. For some strange reason I couldn't get OpenGL to run very well with this card. After downloading the latest Beta from 3Dfx, and renaming the file to Opengl32.dll (to replace the existing driver under Windows\system folder), I still couldn't get very good performance witn Wintune98. Using the Glide engine did produce excellent numbers in 3DMark99, beating the Canopus TNT by small margines. If you looking for a good video card to pump up performance in games like Quake2, Unreal, and Half-Life, then this card is definately not for you. Just check out the benchmarks below in Quake2 and you'll see what I mean.

Het moet niet gekker worden: Quake Arena op de G3. ID Software ontwikkeld tegelijkertijd een versie voor de PC en voor de Mac en het is de bedoeling dat ze tegelijkertijd gereleased worden. Hier wat info van Apple Insider, afkomstig van MacWorld 1999:

Jobs introduced John Carmack, who stated "Apple finally has their act together with games." Jon announced that Quake Arena (Quake III) is being developed simultaneously for the Macintosh and Wintel, and should be released side by side. Jon later performed a demonstration of Quake III on the new Power Macintosh G3, and it looked beautiful!

Steve Jobs then announce the Connectix Virtual Game Station we reported to you about yesterday. The Virtual Game Station will play any PlayStation game on your Macintosh G3, straight out of the box. It was demoed live on stage and will be $49 dollars, as mentioned last night.

De nieuwe G3 towers zien er trouwens wel erg vet uit:

Gamepen heeft een review van het hakspel Myth II:

Bungie professed a dizzying array of improvements to the original; better controls, improvements to the multiplayer interface, smarter AI, better graphics, easy player made maps, and ambient life. Needless to say even as a fan I was a bit cynical as to their chances of actually incorporating all those improvements in the espoused time frame. Yea, they could probably do those things I thought, but not until next year some time. Tons of other games are scheduled to be released for the holidays but then come out much later or are released with bugs. Having now played multiplayer on bungie.net and all the levels of single player I can say without hesitation that Bungie has lived up to it’s promises. Bungie has taken an already great game and improved it; Myth II is a grand achievement. No game is perfect though and before you tune out thinking this is a love fest let me tell you that Myth II has room for improvement and problems, which I’ll cover.

Techstocks.com heeft een interview met Scott Sellers van 3Dfx over de merger met STB. Hier wat info:

STB does not have a strong retail presence. How will you support the retailers and to what extent will the loss of multiple vendors lower your unit shipments?

Scott: Well, in the near term, we don't expect any significant loss of unit shipments because we have communicated to our current board partners that we will support them 110% through the end of life of the current products. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, STB has very good retail and VAR/SI distribution in North America -- they have just never really focused on it as intently as we obviously will. Clearly, our challenges are going to be ramping a worldwide distribution channel for the launch of Voodoo3, but many plans are already in place that we'll be disclosing that allow us significant global distribution for the Voodoo3 launch.

Gamespot heeft een review van Asteroids, de rebuild van het legendarische Asteroids uit de prehistorie van videogaming:

With Asteroids, Activision is attempting to satisfy the crotchety old man in all of us by bringing the old game back to the future with the core of its gameplay intact. And Asteroids succeeds in doing just that. This is definitely Asteroids. Lots of big rocks. One tiny ship that reappears on the left when you exit stage right. This is 2D folks, despite the 3D look of the spinning asteroids and miscellaneous debris. And while the rocks do look prettier, and the black background has been replaced with various handsome nebulae and a panorama of space dust (didn't they figure out that stuff was actually ice?), the gameplay itself is faithful to the original and in no way iconoclastic. The basic controls are the same as in the original. It's simple: rotate (left and right), thrust, shields, a 180-degree flip, fire, and hyperspace. Come to think of it, that sounds like a lot for 1979. At any rate, then and now it was (and is) a simple but effective recipe for blistered fingers.

Games Domain heeft een review van Actua Soccer 3. Hier wat stuff over de graphics, in vergelijking met Fifa99:

Those blessed with a good accelerator card will see the rain and fog in action (no snow showed up for me). The look doesn't quite keep pace with the rest of the visuals (check out the cheesy 'raindrops' in the picture below), but it does provide some of the hoped-for atmosphere.

The designers also included software-rendered, 3Dfx, and Direct3D support for just about every resolution under the sun. Both 16-and 32-bit color depth are also present and accounted for. And these modes aren't there just for show; they work very well. Running the game on my Riva TNT video card at 1024x768 in 32-bit color with all options maxed out has resulted in flawless performance. Everything is smooth and the image quality is sharp enough to cut your finger on. This all makes for a nice contrast with the ridiculously limited FIFA 99, which is stuck at 640x480 no matter what video adapter you're running. It's still hard for me to fathom why the EA Sports braintrust refused to accomodate the growing number of gamers with Voodoo2 SLI and Riva TNT cards, but at least the good lads at Gremlin demonstrated more sense.

[...]

Audio is okay, but little more than a half-baked EA Sports rip-off. The title song, a well-chewed wad of bubblegum pop called "Let Me Entertain You," makes me long for the chart-climbing tunes that have become part of the FIFA mystique. Hey, I'm no Chumbawamba fan either, but if I had to choose between that "I get knocked down" track and this one (and there wasn't a handgun in sight), I'd take the former every time. Play-by-play is sparse, with few specific lines that add anything to the proceedings. The duties are once more handled by Barry Davies. He's no John Motson, but he's friendly and familiar to series veterans. Playing an Actua Sports game without hearing his dulcet tones would be like drinking near-beer on New Year's Eve. Gameplay effects and crowd noise sounded good when I first installed the game using my old Sound Blaster 16, but I then lost these sounds after changing over to a Diamond Sonic Impact PCI card. Turning off DirectSound 3D acceleration fixed the problem.

Next-Generation Online heeft een review van Powerslide gepost:

n comparison with the fertile market for realistic racing simulations like Need For Speed 3 and Carmageddon 2, the off-road crowd has had slim pickings this year. Australian Ratbag Games is trying to fill just such a niche with Powerslide. In many ways they've succeeded. Yet many racing fans will cry deja vu as they compare faults between Powerslide and the aging Pod.

Like Pod, Powerslide suffers from a lack of friction, so controlling the car is a matter of overcorrection prevention. Should your car flip over, it will automatically slide back onto its wheels, yet somehow you can still control your car's direction even when your wheels point to the sky. Collisions with your opponents or even your surroundings only marginally effect your car's velocity; you'll hover along as if the road were iced and the walls were coated with Pam.

Electric Games heeft een review van Nascar Racing 1999, de nieuwste telg in deze serie Nascar simulaties van Papyrus.

Hier een stukkie over de visuals:

he biggest change to the popular game series is the addition of accelerated graphics support. While still stuck at the 640x480 screen resolution, NASCAR Racing now boasts full 3D acceleration. The cars look fabulous, absolutely real as they zoom around the track. The tracks, on the other hand, are not nearly as well implemented. Don't get me wrong - they look good. Trackside objects are much more detailed and smooth. But the horizon is closer than I'd prefer, you can see it "popping" into existence in the distance ahead of you, just like in NASCAR 2. They just don't look as technically impressive as those in Grand Prix Legends, for example.

Infinite Planes heeft een Bass pack voor Quake II in elkaar geknutseld. Hiermee krijg je extreem vette bass die je niet alleen hoort maar ook voelt. Hier wat ze er zelf over te zeggen hebben:

rust me, it's soooooooo cool. You've got to try it.

The chaingun sounds more in-your-face, the single barrel shotgun sounds like a cannon, and the bigger guns- well, you'll like them. Even the blaster shots' explosions make a boom (although not comparable to that of a rocket).

Just make sure your speakers can go low- I mean really low- so they can reproduce the bass well, or you won't get a nice effect. And turn the bass way up :)

Gamer's Alliance heeft een review gepost van de Hercules Dynamite TNT. Sinds een paar dagen heb ik deze kaart ook en ik ben er erg tevreden over, net zoals Jeff van GaGames:

I will not waste any time here, this card is simply the most responsive/stable and lively card I have ever installed into my system. (I have never had another TNT in MY system but I have had my share of newer cards) Since installation, I have logged hours upon hours of gaming death upon it, and have yet to have any crash or instability with the exception of one, but that was quickly taken care of by the game company, so it was not hardware related. The Windows 2D is sharp and crisp on my 19 inch monitor even at the highest supported refresh rates. (And I am sure that my system is quite beneath the card's overall potential) Want to try some Quake 2? I will illustrate to you what I have going on now. At 32 bit high color 1152 x 864, I have my MS word open writing this document, Gamespy 3D in a window, and Quake 2 screams at 1024x768 in a nice opengl window on my desktop, and my system feels like it is purring. I did my own fps benchmarks and I can get Quake 2 to around 40 fps on my Celeron 266 oc'ed to 400 in demo2.dm2 (at 1024 x 768). The Direct3d performance for me was excellent, as it ran my favorite D3D game really well. For me this card has been nothing but a dream come true in regards to how it performs for the applications that I use, as well as for it simply "working" all the time. (I do realize that performance on the various TNT's on the market is quite comparable, but I guess I have to say that this card is no exception.)

Meer reviews van de Dynamite TNT vind je bij Sharky Extreme, Tom's Hardware Guide en AGN Hardware.

Alle reviews zijn positief. De Dynamite TNT haalt zelfs de tweede plaats in de TNT Comparison van Tom.

Computer OEM online heeft een artikel met info over wat de gevolgen van de fusie tussen STB en 3Dfx zijn voor andere kaartbakkers:

Some second-tier PC add-on card vendors are predicting last month's sale of STB Systems will lead to a shakeout among smaller card suppliers, if not to the demise of the independent graphics-card market itself.

In buying Richardson, Texas-based STB for an estimated $141 million stock swap, chip maker 3Dfx Interactive is gaining the two most popular means of distributing individual graphics ICss: add-on cards and motherboards.

The move puts increasing pressure on card companies, whose days as distributors of PC components seem numbered, according to observers. On the same day the acquisition was disclosed, STB reported a fourth quarter loss of $5.9 million on sales of $54.9 million.

At the time, one analyst said privately: "I'm not going to name names, but some of the smaller companies-- you know who they are-- are toast."

Executives at 3Dfx, in Santa Clara, Calif., said they will continue to support existing customers-- and will even expand a relationship with Santa Clara, Calif.-based workstation-card maker Quantum3D-- but likely will halt sales to STB competitors once the 3Dfx Voodoo3 chip is launched in early 1999.

The upshot? "There is definitely going to be a consolidation," said Jim Anderson, vice president of marketing and sales at Canopus, a card maker located in San Jose, Calif. "A lot of the smaller guys are going to be hurt. We've gone from a couple hundred [card companies] down to about a dozen, and a reduction to three or five is coming up."

Tweak3D heeft z'n Riva TNT Tweak Guide geupdate. Erg handige info voor TNT gebruikers.

Er zit ook wat algemene info over de diverse TNT planken:

Are you looking for the right TNT to purchase? Go for the cheapest one! (unless you want the Canopus board).

The Canopus sticks out because it costs a bit more.. but it does have very nice Tv-out and a cooling fan. Some say that it isn't great for overclocking, but I had a great experience with it. This is my personal favorite TNT.

The Diamond should be avoided (I believe) because their TNT doesn't offer anything over the other brands, and their boards are generally more expensive than Creative Labs or STB. If you can find the Diamond card for cheaper, go for it. Diamond had a bad reputation for not updating their drivers with the Riva 128 boards, however.

The STB is a great card for a couple reasons. If you are looking for more of a retail package for a bit more $ than the Creative Labs card it is a nice choice. Other than that, the card does not have anything extra worth paying a lot of money for. Take away the software bundle and the card is a standard TNT..

The Creative Labs card is good because it is cheap and can usually overclock well. The card can be purchased for much cheaper than the others using the TNT, and many people don't need the games that the others come with.

The ASUS TNT-TV has the best features so far; editing, TV-tuner, TV-Output, onboard fan, etc. However, it costs a lot more and does not have as good of performance. The ASUS TNT is the same as the other cards, and costs around the same too.

If you live outside the US then other brands like Elsa may be right for you. Again, like I said, go for the cheapest TNT you can find unless you are willing to spend more.

Tweak3D heeft trouwens ook nog een pagina over TNT Cooling (heatsinks op je TNT bouwen enz.).

Ook Games Mania heeft een review van Viper Racing. Dit spel heeft zo'n beetje de meest realistisch physics engine tot nu toe:

To ensure that this game was as realistic as possible, Sierra decided to concentrate their efforts on one car only, and to explore every nook and cranny of it. Their choice was the home-grown Dodge Viper, one of the fastest production cars in the world. They duplicated all aspects of the Viper that were imaginable, including its custom suspension and drivetrain measurements. Since Sierra was taking a shot at only one car, they had to get it right.

This meticulous detail paid off in creating the best physics engine that I have ever seen; not just in racing games, but in ALL sports games. You can really feel yourself about to lose the rear end of your car as you enter a fast corner and you find yourself becoming extremely involved in negotiating the tight turns.

Car crash physics are exciting, too. I would definitely play with car damage on just for this feature. When you collide, your car has distinct crumple zones that absorb the hit. When looking at the car from the 11 different viewpoints made available, the results look great; the car looks just as you would expect it to after having a real accident. But oddly enough, no tires, framework pieces, or other debris come flying off any of the cars, almost as if the programmers chose to ignore this realistic fact.

CG Online heeft een interview met Ron Gilbert van Cavedog over Total Annihilation: Kingdoms.

Hier wat pastewerk uit het interview:

CG Online: What are some of the new features can players expect in Kingdoms?

A huge melee shows off Kingdoms' propensity for violence

Gilbert: Kingdoms has a lot of what made Total Annihilation different, obviously the 3D units, the terrain, the 3D of the terrain actually affecting what's going on. That's something we improved in Kingdoms a lot; we've exaggerated the whole effect of being high up as opposed to being low down. It makes a huge strategic advantage-in Kingdoms you put a couple of archers on top of a hill, and it's amazing the size of army they can hold off, just because they have the high ground. The sides are very different… in Total Annihilation the Arm and the Core were probably 80% the same; in Kingdoms the four sides are almost 100 0ifferent. That's kind of interesting to play, because it's not just that you are building different units, but how you build the units is very, very different for the four sides. I think that will be a big challenge for players.

Ik heb een paar maand geleden al een preview gedaan van dit spel: best wel leuk, redelijk goede graphics en realistische weggedrag. De tracks zijn alleen een beetje duf (erg kaal, weinig spul naast de baan).

Avault heeft nu een review van Viper Racing. Hier een stukkie over de graphics:

The 3D accelerated visuals in this game are good but not great. While the dashboard view is quite pleasing, the view from behind the car (the default setting) makes the Viper somehow seem boxy and unattractive. You cannot see the tires from this view, and from any of the perspectives the detail and texturing in the cars is minimal compared to the best racing games. Although car windows do show reflections, these and the sheen off the cars are nowhere near the quality of Electronic Arts' Need for Speed III. Indeed, the whole game appears to be more flat than glossy. The background graphics look a bit grainy as well. One admirable feature of the graphics here is the authentic and varied way in which damage is visually represented, the best I have seen in any racing game.

Ik heb 't spel trouwens bij Vobis gezien voor 50 piek, da's een redelijke prijs.

Bij The Gamelinks Network hebben ze een preview van Interstate '82: deathmatchen in een auto met vette wapens:

Leaning away from the reality based weaponry of I-76, I-82 will feature more fantastic weapons of mass destruction. In the spirit of Star Wars (the proposed multi-billion dollar space missile defense system, not the movie) I-82 will give us hardware like microwave beams and giant satellite lasers. Much attention will be paid to balancing and countering even the most powerful weapons in effort to make the game as deathmatch-friendly as possible. Continuing with the easy deathmatch concept, car controls will be basically "go forward" and "go back," stripped down from the more complex sim style of the first game. You will still be able to customize your car with new engines, shocks, wheels, and the like, but that process will be a simple drag and drop affair as well.

Thresh's FiringSquad heeft een preview gepost Messiah, een 3D Shoot'em up van Shiny Entertainment (die we o.a. kennen van MDK en Earth Worm Jim). Het verhaal achter het spel is tamelijk origineel:

The game is set on Earth in the not so distant future. There is no longer any semblance of order on the planet thanks to a society that places huge emphasis on hedonism and pleasure rather than morality and justice. God's just about had it with this situation, and rather than turn a blind eye on things and leave His creation to Satan, he's dispatched Bob (you), the spunkiest, baddest angel to ever gain his wings in heaven. You play the role of Bob (what an awesome name), who takes the form of a cute, pudgy, winged cherub such as the ones you see in cheesy Valentine's cards.

Now God can't just make it easy by giving you the ability to call down lightning from the sky or shoot fireballs. No, that would be too obvious. In fact, God has taken away your immortality! As Bob you're physically weak, almost helpless, but you have been given a few precious gifts. One is the ability to fly and glide around with your stubby little wings. The second is the ability to take possession of just about any living creature you run into, human or not. When you take possession of a character you gain their physical attributes, as well as any weapons or tools they may be carrying. Finally, the last gift you have is God's blessing to do whatever you damn well please. You can kill, injure, maim, burn, shoot, hack, whatever it takes to clean up Earth by any means necessary.

Received news that AMD will drop prices for K6-2 Processors on Jan.3 1999 so, you may want to hold off picking up that new CPU for another week!!!

ALLEEN HEADLINES

als je zelf wilt lezen

Tom blijft me verbazen. Telkens als je gaat denken dat-ie een eikel is omdat-ie z'n site nooit update komt meneer weer met een retegoed artikel! Nu dus een vergelijking met een hele emmer vol TNT kaarten van Asus, Creative Labs, Diamond, Elsa, Hercules en STB. Alle info zit er in: overklokken, heat report en natuurlijk een verzameling benchmarks. Zo uitgebreid dat er eigenlijk niets valt te quoten.

Ga er meteen heen, hier.

Does it comply with Intel's PC100 SDRAM Spec?

gezien en gehuiverd op deze

Ik heb alleen deze specificatie er uit getild, af en toe draait mijn maag een beetje, dus wil je alles lezen, ga dan naar Super7.

SPECIFICATIONS

In a perfect world these specifications would have included a consistent system for marking the SDRAMs themselves to avoid confusion, but alias, not being in a perfect world, we are forced to deal with a plethora of markings that differ not only by manufacturer but even within individual manufacturers themselves.

Because so many of us haven't taken the time to decipher all of these product codes, we have forced ourselves into having to rely on reseller's and store clerks' veracity to get PC100 modules that will correctly meet our needs.

And because most of them were as ill-informed as we or were less than honest, we, endusers, suffered the consequenses, buying system memory that was not as fast or as capable as we had expected. Even just a month ago there were all sort of claims from the industry, some vendors offering 8ns,7ns or even 6ns parts, when, in fact were offering only 10ns parts!

Problems are not limited to vendor mis-information though. Module manufacturers can take these chips marked with"-7" or "-6" and the like (really-10ns rated) and put them on a DIMM together with an SPD that instructs the system to run the module like a true -8ns. This results in a DIMM that, while it may function correctly, is already technically overclocked, making enduser overclocking impossible, and in systems with more than one module, can cause all sorts of compatibility problems.

Although 10ns components can function at 100MHz, when attached to the DIMM module they will have lost some of their performance abilities due to a number of factors (i.e. trace inductance and resistance, solder joints, terminal resistance etc.) therefore true PC100 compliant DIMMs have to be made up of 8ns(125MHz) components to compensate.

DID YOU GET THAT?

In order to be Intel PC100 compliant; DIMMs have to be made up of 8ns(125MHz) components!

Intel-AMD chip battle as semiconductor stocks surge AMD looks for corporate Gateway

hier gezien

By Binti Harvey, CBSMarketWatch Jan 5 1999

New York--Intel's agressive pricing of its Celeron chip has AMD working to maintain control of the low-end retail market. Yet AMD has launched its own offence, quietly courting Gateway to infiltrate Intel's hold on the corporate segment.

Intel(INTC) has thrived on recent coverage of its all-out pricing attack on AMD's K6 chip, a lower-cost alternative to Intel's Pentium line. A latecomer to the low-end market, Intel is attempting to regain ground via agressive price competition with its low-cost offering, the Celeron chip.

Intel has slashed Celeron prices twice since August, and pushed up the release date of its 400MHz version to the first quarter, instead of the original release date in April.

Intel's strategy is to limit the average selling price of the K6, forcing AMD to depend on greater unit sales to increase profitanility.

AMD's K6, is featured in almost 70% of computers priced under $1,000, primerily in the retail market. Analists expect the demand for AMD chips to continue to increase in 1999, buoyed by the company's release of higher-speed chips in the first quarter, but pricing pressure from Intel may make it more difficult to grow profits.