The Register heeft wat info lost weten te peuteren over de super geheimzinnige Transmeta chip, waarover de meest wilde verhalden de rond doen (bijv. dat er buitenaardse technologie in zou zitten).

Sources said that the long-awaited Transmeta processor is set to arrive in the fourth quarter of this year. And details have emerged about what type of chip it will be.

The sources said there will be x.86 compatibility built into the chip, and it will also function in Java devices.

The source said: "It will be a mobile chip sold by IBM Microelectronics and when it launches, it will announce customers for it."

Clock speeds of the part are expected to start at over 400MHz, according to reliable sources.

Nog meer info staat in dit artikel over de rol van Linus Torvalds (de bedenker van Linux) in het Transmeta project:

The Register heeft wat info over de geruchten dat AMD Alpha's gaat produceren voor Compaq:

hip company AMD today declined to either confirm or deny that it will take over manufacture of Compaq's DEC Alpha chips.

As reported here earlier, a common motherboard will allow K7 users to upgrade to faster Alphas, as and when they become available.

Rana Mainee, European market research director at AMD Europe, said: "We have no plans for producing Alpha chips that I know of. We have enough demand for our K7 chips on their own."

According to sources close to Compaq, AMD's Dresden fab, which opens in Q3 this year, has the technology to produce fast Alphas.

The deal is a strange echo of a situation some years ago in the UK. Then, AMD was interested in Digital's fab in South Queensferry, near Edinburgh, Scotland.

However, it could not afford to buy the fab as AMD was then going through troubled times.

Sun heeft Sony en onze Eindhovense vrienden van Philips zover weten te krijgen dat ze de op java gebaseerde Jini netwerk technologie gaan toepassen in consumenten elektronica zoals videorecorders en TVs:

Ahead of next week's official launch of its Java-based Jini networking technology, Sun yesterday announced partnerships with Sony and Philips to bring the technology into the home networking arena.

The agreement centres on establishing a development effort to allow Jini devices to communicate with HAVi, a Philips-devised technology which will allow hi-fi separates, VCRs, TVs and PCs to be connected throughout the home.

Based on FireWire (aka IEEE 1394), HAVi essentially merges networking, hi-fi interconnects and SCART cables into a single cabling system. It provides the necessary software infrastructure for connected devises to identify themselves automatically on connection or power-up to other networked machines and communicate across the network, allowing consumers to build functioning networks simply by plugging devices into each other.

Each device maintains a registry of the network resources available to it. So, say, your HAVi amplifier will know it's connected to a CD player, a VCR, TV and speakers, and can route data from source to output point accordingly. Each machine has a Device Control Module -- in IT we call them drivers -- which abstracts operating idiosyncrasies into a consistent interface the rest of the network can understand.

All this, of course, is pretty much precisely what Jini does, so patching up their respective drivers, registries and messaging systems shouldn't overly tax each company's software guys.

But the deal is really more strategic than developmental. Tying Jini into HAVi gives it a neat edge on Microsoft's competing Universal Plug and Play (UPP) thing, or at least that's what Sun is hoping.

Meer info vind je hier.

Dat het volk bij Mikroschoft bijzonder intelligent zijn bleek al uit eerdere verklaringen in de anti-trust rechtszaak tegen ome Bill. Nu beweren ze bijv. dat het aandeel van Netscape in de browsermarkt sinds in de periode 1996-98 maar 5% gedaald is, terwijl onafhankelijke onderzoeken keer op keer een daling van rond de 40% laten zien. Uiteraard zijn die onderzoeken fout, zo zegt ene Schmalensee (Mikroschoft getuige):

Schmalensee's pitch is somewhat radical, to say the least. He says most independent surveys undercounted AOL subscribers in 1996 and early 1997, as AOL cached the most popular Web sites, so survey systems didn't track the hits. He uses data gleaned from surveys made by Market Decisions Corp and paid for by Microsoft. This says that Netscape's share was near 50 per cent in early 1996, rose to 57 per cent, and then fell back to 45 per cent.

But curiously, although Microsoft does publish results from these Market Decisions surveys (as part of a response to earlier DoJ data), a Microsoft press release of January 1997 (source, er, Market Decisions and Zona) claims IE as "the fastest growing Web browser across the board". Market Decisions claimed IE use had grown 260 per cent since March 1996, while Zona found a rise in use from eight per cent to 28 per cent from August-December 1996, while Netscape lost 13 per cent in the same period, down to 70 per cent. Numbers, schmumbers...

Zie The Register voor meer goeds...

Screenshots.net heeft een zooi screenshots van Simcity 3000. Hier wat info:

Recreate your version of the world's greatest cities using landscapes such as San Francisco or Berlin and landmark buildings like the Empire State Building or Big Ben. To put your stamp on your city, create your own unique buildings using the SimCity Building Architect Tool. Then zoom in close to your metropolis as it comes to life with people and traffic in living color and full 3D sound. All new missions and cool disasters test your abilities to run your city or even destroy it. For more challenge, negotiate and barter with neighboring cities to strengthen your metropolis.

Nog wat info van OCP, over het tekort aan BH6-en (k'weenie of we daar hier in de polder ook last van hebben). OCP heeft een mailtje bij Abit gedropt en kreeg dit antwoord:

"..apparently it is world wide, demand has outstripped supply.."

Dit bedenk ik ff ter plekke: zijn ze daar bij Abit niet gewoon de voorraad BH6-en aan het dumpen zodat ze de produktie van de BX6-II, die over een paar week gereleased wordt, flink op kunnen jutten?

Er gingen wat geruchten dat de C300A (overclockers choice no1) door Intel uit produktie zou worden gehaald. OCP heeft een mailtje van een ventje van Intel die deze geruchten tegenspreekt, al zullen er wel minder Slot1 versies van de C300A gemaakt worden:

I am not trying to sell you on anything. I am not trying to represent Intel either. I just wanted to be careful with my words so as to not piss off anybody here at Intel (they real get ticked off when you use the wrong words). I am a technical support frontline for developers by the way. The only point I really wanted to make when I stated that the 300A is going to be made available for "a while" was that people shouldn't start freaking out so early. Q1, Intel is going to make a big push to convert people to PPGA and will begin shipping more PPGA processors than the S.E.P.P. version (Celeron only) so although the S.E.P.P. version will be available it will be harder to find stores with the S.E.P.P. version in stock. The 300A S.E.P.P. is not even on the list of soon to be discontinued so expect to see it until late '99. I am not pissed. Since I read your web site so much, I just wish you would tell people that the 300A wasn't going away so please stop panicking. Have a good day.

Manuel Guzman

-Premier Tech Direct-

-Phone: 916-555-1212-

-REMOVED@intel.com -

Wel zal de overklokbaarheid van de C300A's waarschijnlijk minder worden omdat Intel de cores in het midden van de wafer, die van betere kwaliteit zijn en daardoor ook hogere snelheden kunnen halen, reserveert voor de C366 en C400. De mindere plakken aan de buitenkant blijven dan over voor de C300A (zie Celery Report #3 @ AnandTech).

OGR heeft een review gepost van de Diamond Monster Sound MX300. CompUSA verkoopt die dingen voor $49,95. Ik heb er eentje besteld, alleen zijn ze zwaar op back order dus ik heb weinig vertrouwen dat ik m'n MX300 voor het volgende millenium in mijn bezit heb. Het valt te proberen, want is erg weinig geld voor zo'n vette kaart:

he big draw of the MX300 is A3D 2.0 and the 3D sound it enables. There has been some question as to whether or not A3D 2.0 is better than the competing EAX standard from Creative Labs. In our subjective testing, we found that A3D produces much more accurate and convincing 3D positional audio, especially with 4 speakers. Many users won't really hear sounds coming from all around them with only 2 speakers, though proper handling of sound reflections and doppler effects help make it more convincing than typical stereo or DirectSound 3D sound. Of course, 3D sound capabilities are moot if the game support isn't there, and support for A3D is already strong, with the greatly enhanced A3D 2.0 support gaining speed as well. Top titles like Unreal, Half-Life, Sin, and Heretic 2 are all getting the A3D 2.0 treatment. Aureal plans to add support for EAX and the upcoming EAX 2.0 to their drivers for the Vortex 2, so owners of cards like the MX300 will have support for all major sound standards.

Wie trek heeft in een snelle reep SDRAM moet bij IBM zijn, want die heeft zojuist z'n eerste samples PC133 SDRAM uit de bakkerij gehaald. MaximumPC heeft wat info:

First chipset makers expressed support for the PC133 spec, now Big Blue said it is braced to produce RAM that also goes against Intel's memory road map.

IBM said it has sampled PC133 SDRAM chips and plans to produce it in volume by the second quarter. Just this week, chipset makers VIA , Acer Labs, and SIS pledged support for PC133.

AMD and other x86 CPU makers are expected to benefit from the incremental increase in speed.

Intel has endorsed Direct Rambus SDRAM as the next memory architecture. But critics say that Intel's memory plans will be a painful and sweeping transition for OEMs who would be happier with a slower evolution. Critics also say Intel will reap profits from a jump to Rambus because of its investment in Rambus.

"Our memory customers have expressed a strong interest in PC133 as an evolutionary step between PC100 and DDR," said IBM marketing manager Walter Lange.

DDR or Double Data Rate DRAMS are also viewed as another step toward the high bandwidth-and expensive-Direct Rambus spec Intel backs.

PC.IGN heeft wat zitten rondspelen in een beta van Unreal Tournament en heeft daarvan een preview gebakken. Hier een stukkie over het level design in Unreal Tournament:

So what about the levels themselves? They're pretty cool. Many of the levels are themed to real world (or Unreal world) locations that look amazing. We saw two new deathmatch levels, one which resembled a giant Castle Greyskull poised on top of a large column of stone and another which was a huge galley ship complete with below decks areas and a captain's quarters. The assault matches were even more inventive. In the first one we got a look at, one team starts in a copter that lands and the end of a train and the other starts in the center of the train. The first team has to try and get to the front of the train and hit a switch that will stop the train. The second team has to stop them from doing it. Another Assault match drops player's into a Saving Private Ryan nightmare where they have to storm a beach protected by a huge cannon. Their job is to try and destroy the huge gun while the other side tries to stop them. Every level we looked at was magnificent with textures that look even sharper than those in Unreal.

Giki's Gold heeft wat zitten benchmarken en heeft een vergelijking tussen DirectX6.0 en 6.1 in elkaar gezet, waaruit blijkt dat DX6.1 net iets sneller is als DX6. Zo'n 2%, wat erg veel is aangezien we van Mikroschoft normaal gesproken gewend zijn dat nieuwe versies van hun software trager zijn).

Avault heeft een review van Total Air War, oorspronkelijk bedoeld als een expansion pack voor F22 Air Dominance Fighter maar later gereleased als een zelfstandig spel:

Our impression of the game was only slightly affected by these omissions, and in the end F-22 Air Dominance Fighter left us dazzled, but yearning for more. Most people who purchased the initial product were pleased, because it really was a great simulation of the F-22. However, a poor marketing decision soon became cause for disappointment when they announced that Total Air War, the name given the said expansion pack, would now be a full boxed product at a full product price. Thankfully, Infogrames and DID later made a rebate available to F-22 ADF owners.

More changes and controversy were on the way soon, and it was announced that there would be an expansion to procede Total Air War; Red Sea Operations added a ton of high quality new elements, however not the new features and innovations we were expecting. So now arrives the long-awaited full body product plus expansion pack, and yes, finally the dynamic campaign and fully featured multiplayer option are present. So is it worth the price of admission? Well, that depends on what you're looking for. The big draw to the game is no surprise, and if you've been itching for the two long-awaited features you won't be disappointed.

Ryszard heeft een nieuw overklok proggie gereleased die ook werkt op de TNT. Fastcard v1.0 kun je hier halen. Hier is wat info over het ding:

Fast Card is an overclocking utiltity for the Riva TNT, 3Dfx Voodoo and 3Dfx Voodoo2. Also present in the current release in enable/disable Vsync support for all 3 cards, and FastMem and FastPCI support for Voodoo.

It currently supports only Win9x, although WinNT support is up and running, being tweaked for a later release.

It supports ALL TNT, Voodoo and Voodoo2 cards, provided they have a complete driver installation.

More features are being added by the day. Here are a few that are being tested just now:

Gamma control for all cards. Mip-map and antialiasing setting for TNT, SLI options for Voodoo2, etc. All these and more will appear in later releases.

Greenmarine heeft wat info over de vooruitgang in de ontwikkeling van Unreal 221 gepost op het Epic Megaboard. Vooral erg blije info voor TNT gebruikers:

221 was originally planned for release around Christmas, but has suffered a little feature bloat since then :-)

Steve and I are finished with our fixes for 221 and have been for a little while, but Tim has been working on a few extra things that have warrented us holding back on the patch.

Specifically, 221 will contain a completely new OpenGL driver. Unreal owners with Riva TNT cards or other cards with a good OpenGL driver will find the game to completely kick ass now. Configuration under OpenGL is as easy as changing one line in the .ini (no more driver registry hacks) and running the game. Tim has tested the OpenGL driver under TNT and a few other cards...I don't have a complete list of what cards have been tested, but I'm sure Tim will post one to the Tech Page (unreal.epicgames.com) when he's finished. The new OpenGL driver will allow for fast hardware acceleration in a window, so UnrealED will be able to use OpenGL now.

Steve, Jack, and I have been focusing our efforts on Unreal Tournament, but some of the Unreal Tournament code has worked its way back into the Unreal codebase. In particular is demo recording, which will be available in 221. Demo recording works in online games and botmatch but not in single player.

I don't have a projected date for 221 at this time, but as soon as we have some idea I'll let you know.

Diamond heeft een paar nieuwe Winloos NT4 drivers voor de Viper 550 op z'n site geparkeerd. Je kunt ze hier halen (1.06Mb).

You must have Windows NT 4.0 installed with the Standard VGA driver (640x480x16) before you install the Diamond Viper V550 Series NT 4.0 drivers. If you are running a different graphics mode please re-configure for Standard VGA.

Shugashack.com heeft een bigass preview van Quake III: Arena in elkaar weten te knutselen. Het ding weegt 10 pagina's, waarvan hier een klein stukje:

At first glance my initial reaction was "Wow." The graphic quality increase is instantly noticeable. Sure Half-Life, SIN, Unreal, etc all used 16 and 24bit color, but the quality of the images just don't seem to compare. Mr. Carmack has done such superb work with the renderer; the colors just pop out at you. If you've read through Carmack's previous .plan updates and been to any of his speeches you are probably familiar with the tecniques he is using.

The short list of improvements is 24bit color, curved surfaces, volumetric fog, mirrors, and drastically higher poly counts in general.

The player models were very good looking as you can see in screenshots. Your point of view in Quake3 is slightly higher off the ground making you feel taller than Quake2.

Next Generation Online heeft een interview met John Romero, Opper God der 3D FPSers, in elkaar geduwd. Hier een stukkie over wat onze vriend John de laatste tijd zoal heeft zitten doen:

lot of our readers are going to want to know: in the Dallas Observer article, it talks about you as being absent and disinterested in Daikatana. What's that all about? Why were various members of the ION Storm staff and the folks at Eidos expressing that concern?

JR: Well, to set the record straight: I have been at Ion every single day since we began and this past Christmas I finally took a vacation along with everyone else. The false statement that I was "absent and disinterested in Daikatana" came from some of the guys who left because a lot of the time back then was spent on business issues and dealing with our new PR firm, doing interviews, etc. Any of the times those core guys didn't see me, I was downstairs dealing with the artists and swapping ideas and making sure content was being created with the right look. At the start of the project a lot of the time was spent making sure each of the artists knew what my vision was and i was always checking things out and steering them in the right direction. Ask any of the current team about my attendance and passion about Daikatana if you want verification.

Aureal heeft nieuw drivers gereleased voor geluidskaarten met de Vortex1 chipset. Het ding kun je hier halen en is 223Kb klein.