Op JC's PC News'n'Links vond ik deze link naar een site waar wat info staat over de K6-3 (of K6-III, wat je wilt). Helaas is alles in een of andere onleesbare taal. Dit is wat JC er van begrijpt :

Looks very promising, though WinTune isn't quite as giving to the Sharptooth as Winstone has proven to be. Here, the K6-3-400 is almost as fast as a 450MHz Intel chip and much faster than the 400MHz PII, and hence much faster than the 400MHz PIII, which the Sharptooth will be much less expensive than (we hope!)

Let ook op de plaatjes onderaan van de nieuwe Intel chipset.

Big Blue gaat Linux bundelen met z'n x86 en PowerPC systemen. Hier wat info van The Register:

BM will next month announce its intention to bundle Linux on a wide range of systems and that it will develop its own version of the OS for its RS/6000 machines.

The announcement, due to take place at next month's LinuxWorld show in San Jose, California, will see Big Blue licensing a range of Linux distributions from the leading vendors. Red Hat, Caldera, Pacific HiTech and SuSE have been suggested by sources as likely suppliers of the OS for IBM's Netfinity servers and a Linux edition of its PC300 desktop line.

3DLabs heeft aangekondigd dat de drivers van de nieuwe Permedia III videochip support zullen hebben voor de streaming SIMD extensions (aka Katmai New Instructions) van de Pentium III:

These driver enhancements are expected to deliver advanced 3D geometry processing performance for applications utilizing both the DirectX 6.1 and OpenGL application programming interfaces. PERMEDIA 3 and its software drivers are expected to begin shipping in volume in the second quarter of 1999.

"The outstanding 3D rendering performance of PERMEDIA 3 coupled with the advancements incorporated in the Pentium III will deliver a high-performance and well-balanced platform that mainstream PC users desire for both at work and at home," said David Frerichs, director of product marketing for desktop products at 3Dlabs.

Goh, wordt dat SIMD/KNI toch ergens goed voor.

Meer info vind je in dit nieuwsbericht van GA-Source.

Apple heeft z'n plannen wat betreft de FireWire licensies aangepast. Aanvankelijk hadden ze het idee opgevat om voor iedere FireWire poort een dollar te beuren, maar daar zijn ze inmiddels na veel kritiek op terug gekomen. De Appel was weer eens rot...

The company today announced it was forming a 'patent pool' with key FireWire licensees Compaq, Sony, Matsushita/Panasonic, Philips and Toshiba. Together, the six companies will develop and implement a collective licensing programme.

In effect, the move takes Apple's FireWire intellectual property and shares it out among the six companies, though whether they each have an equal share isn't known.

The announcement follows the widespread criticism targeted at Apple earlier this year when it emerged the company was charging newer licensees a $1-a-port royalty (see Apple caught charging crafty FireWire fee). Numerous PC manufacturers and peripheral vendors claimed the company was unjustified in seeking a royalty for FireWire, since, as IEEE1394, it was an open standard.

Meer stuff in dit artikel van The Register.

AMD heeft nu toegegeven dat ze de K6-III processoren ook echt zo gaan noemen:

AMD has admitted its K6-3 is called the K6-III.

If you go to FAQs about the K6-III you will see that AMD has finally admitted the fact.

Only a died-in-the-wool cynic would suggest that AMD has used Roman numerals because Intel's Pentium III has its "preview day" later on, today.

PC Sportsgaming heeft een previewvan Nascar 3 in elkaar gepleurd. Papyrus heeft voor dit spel gebruik gemaakt van dezelfde engine als die gebruikt wordt in Grandprix Legends:

NASCAR 3 will be using the next generation GPL engine. Naturally the GPL engine has been modified and the physics model now match that of a real NASCAR racer. This is visually noticeable when driving from the cockpit view of the car. You’ll see and feel the differences from the previous versions of the game. On top of the new physics model is the all new HARDWARE ONLY graphics engine. Sorry people, I’m told that there won’t be a non-accelerated version of the game. Time for that upgrade.

Naast een zooi info hebben ze er ook nog een emmer screenshots bij gezet.

Er is een nieuwe versie van het handige koelproggie CPUidle. De updates in versie 5.3:

- added "Auto-disable on high CPU load"

- removed Control Panel plugin

Meer info + downloads vind je op de CPUidle site.

De nieuwe geheugenstandaard RamBus wordt weer vertraagd. The Register verteld je hier meer. Alvast een voorproefje :

Concern that memory companies will not be able to produce enough Rambus Direct DRAMs increased yesterday when the deputy general manager of Fujitsu's DRAM division admitted a shortage of packaging and testing units will hit supply hard. "1999 is not going to be a Direct Rambus year," warned Masao Taguchi. Taguchi said that tight supplies of both Micro-BGA packages and testing devices for high-speed memory is putting the squeeze on Fujitsu's Direct DRAM production, according to EE Times.

Er is weer een nieuwe versie van HWiNFO uit. Dit programmaatje verteld je precies wat er in je PC zit. Dit is een stukje reclametaal van de maker :

HWiNFO is a powerful system information utility designed especially for detection of hardware. It's able to identify a large scale of system components and supports the latest technologies and standards. This program is periodically updated (usually once per month) in order to provide most accurate results.

Het is dus een soort Microsoft Diagnostics maar dan veel beter. Als je het wil proberen moet je hier zijn.

Cyrix, IDT en Rise krijgen het moeilijk in de heftige prijsoorlog die inmiddels is losgebarsten tussen Intel en AMD. Vooral de positie van Cyrix is opvallend. 2,5 jaar geleden hadden ze met de 6x86 PR200 nog de snelste x86 processor, nu zijn ze nergens meer:

He said that Cyrix too was at a disadvantage. "Cyrix was at least within striking distance of Intel and AMD two years ago," he said. "Now they've lost sight. Their PR233 is being sold purely on price and in the same space as IDT. It won't be until the second half of this year that their products based on the new core start to compete."

Meer info vind je in dit artikel van The Register.

Glide Underground heeft z'n GL2IDE Glide wrapper voor OpenGL kaarten gepost. Hier heb je wat info over de wrapper:

Here's another wrapper for your entertainment. This one uses OpenGL.

This wrapper is based on the source for Let's GLiD3D v0.24.

The only card this wrapper has been tested on is STB Velocity 4400 TNT, but it should work fine on any OpenGL compatible card (or even in software, but believe us, you don't want to run this in software)

Since this wrapper is strictly developed to support the UltraHLE emulator, we don't suspect it will work with many other applications (there's to few glide settings implemented). But for running UltraHLE, it works just fine.

Configuration of the wrapper is done with the included GL2IDEConfig

We've included the source hoping that someone else will take over the development of this wrapper, since we no longer have the time needed.

Joan van Sharky Extreme heeft wat rond zitten raggen met Midnight GT en heeft die ervaring tot onze grote vreugde tot een review verwerkt. Hier wat stuff over de AI in dit racespel:

Cars will be subject to real world physics. In simulation mode, if a zero to 60-MPH acceleration took about 8 seconds for the player, it would apply to the AI controlled cars also - no perfect drivers allowed! The neural network approach to the opponent AI follows a real player simulation model, which means that the longer you race the more your competition adjusts to your techniques and tricks. They learn the track along with you. This should alleviate the frustration of the inverted learning curve where you get smarter and your AI competition gets dumber. There are five AI opponents in each lookalike race, seven in Pininfarina mode.

Gamespot UK heeft een preview van Driver in elkaar gedraaid. Driver is een extreem vet racespel waarbij je als crimineel crimineel werk moet verrichten voor nog criminelere collega-criminelen. Da's nog eens wrede approach voor een race spelletje Hier heb spul uit de preview van Gamespot:

e first introduced Driver to you last summer, claiming it would be the most exciting new action automobile game for years.

It's now due for release this spring and has lost none of its initial attraction. The storyline has changed a tad, though: last time we saw it the central character was just a plain old getaway driver, eking out a living on the mean streets of America's biggest cities. Now, due to the sensibilities of certain overseas markets, he has been remodelled as an undercover cop who is trying to infiltrate the mob by pretending to be just a plain old getaway driver, eking out a living on the mean streets of America's biggest cities. Subtle.

Gamespot heeft ook een paar screenshots. De graphics zijn coel, vooral de damage van de wagens rouleert heftig.

3D Racing Mania heeft een enorme zooi screenshots van Nascar Revolution weten te scoren. De graphics zien er behoorlijk wreed uit. Hier heb je wat info over het spel:

ASCAR Revolution is about the roar of engines firing when the starter says "Gentlemen, start your engines!" The hard nudge from the Intimidator going into the turn that loosens up the car in front to set up a pass underneath. The near-perfect consistency of Gordon--and the cheer that goes up when he gets passed. The thunder of the pack hurtling down the front straight at 200 MPH. The organized frenzy of a pit crew trying to get their car out in front of the other guy. Trying to keep a car with worn tires from sliding into the wall. The gasp from the crowd when there's a pile up on the back straight and drivers drive into a cloud of smoke and chaos. Nursing a car with a blown tire into the pits before you lose a lap to the leaders. Taking the checkered flag. Winning the series. Standing on your car in victory lane with arms triumphantly raised. Proving that you are The Man. Live to Race, Race to Win.

Meer spul + screenshots vind je hier.

PC Gamer Online heeft een interview met Roberta Williams online gezet. Wie Roberta Williams is mag inmiddels bekend zijn (Sierra Online, King's Quest enz.). Hier alvast een vraag uit het interview:

hen making Mask of Eternity, because it is 3D why did you opt to create from scratch a 3D engine when you had the choice to use the Quake/Quake II/Unreal Engine. And at any point did you consider just scrapping 3D altogether and keeping with the old style. Which (game) is your favorite in the King's Quest Series?

--John Emanuel

We did not create from 'scratch' a 3D engine. We actually used a flight simulator 3D engine which our subsidiary Dynamix was using for their flight simulators. Games like Red Baron, and Aces Over the Pacific were developed using this engine. At the time, it was a very advanced and very good 3D engine. Also--we started working on KQ: MOE more than three years ago and Quake wasn't out yet, and Unreal wasn't even heard of. The game of record at the time this decision was being made was Duke Nukem. Even the first Tomb Raider was not out yet. Also, we had no intention of creating a first-person shooter type of game. We were more interested in trying to created a third-person adventure game, and we wanted an engine which could create beautiful landscapes, especially outside landscapes. At the time, there was no engine which could do this except for Dynamix's 3D engine, which was called 3Space.

No, I never considered scrapping 3D and going back to 2D. 3D is now and is the future.

PC Gamer Online heeft een paar nieuwe single player levels voor Half-Life. Je kunt ze hier gaan halen.

3DLabs is begonnen met het samplen van de Permedia III. Hier heb je de volledige press release, geript van PGR:

Dlabs®, Inc. today announced immediate sampling of the new 3Dlabs PERMEDIA® 3 graphics processor, with volume shipment expected in second quarter of 1999. PERMEDIA 3, the first 128-bit device in the award-winning PERMEDIA product family, incorporates support for 32-bit true-color displays, a full 32-bit Z-buffer and up to 32 Mbytes of graphics RAM to deliver high-quality picture realism as well as exceptional 3D and 2D performance. With a fill-rate of 125 million multi-textured pixels-per-second, PERMEDIA 3 offers the graphics power desired by game enthusiasts, mainstream PC consumers, and corporate desktop users.

``Our market research indicates the Performance PC add-in board (AIB) sector will grow from 33.8 million units (shipped) in 1998 to almost 56 million by 2002-one of the fastest growing AIB segments in the PC industry,'' said Dr. Jon Peddie, president, Jon Peddie Associates (Tiburon, Calif.) ``3Dlabs has made impressive moves to broaden their potential customer base to include the consumer market. PERMEDIA 3 will be a strong challenger for consumer and corporate design wins during 1999.''

Incorporating 3Dlabs' unique Virtual Texture technology, PERMEDIA 3 has hardware support that manages both on-board and system texture map memory as virtual memory for textures. When compared to other solutions, the peak performance of Virtual Textures can reduce the amount of data transferred across the AGP bus up to 4000 times. Virtual Texturing optimizes board texture memory and AGP bus bandwidth by handling texture maps in 4kb pages. These pages are demand-loaded into texture memory only as needed, allowing both the usage of non-contiguous local memory, which maximizes on-card texture map storage requirement, and the reduction of AGP bus utilization without degrading image quality. PERMEDIA 3's transparent support for Virtual Texture in Direct3D and OpenGL applications enables developers to allocate standard API texture resources only when needed.

PERMEDIA 3 provides a comprehensive implementation of the 2D, 3D, and video components of the Microsoft® DirectX® 6.1 API. In addition to triangle setup processing, PERMEDIA 3 also has a multi-stage rasterizer that implements advanced features such as bump mapping, alpha blending, tri-linear mip-mapping and Direct3D® 6 blend mode operations. For optimized digital video performance, PERMEDIA 3 has a complete video subsystem including filtered hardware overlay, colorspace conversion, and motion compensation for software DVD and MPEG2 playback.

Additionally, PERMEDIA 3 has a Triple-Blend texture core that can deliver unprecedented realism at full performance. With the ability to render up to eight Direct3D Texture Stage operations in a single pass, the PERMEDIA 3 Triple-Blend core can be used, for example, to apply a bumpmap on a surface texture map with a glossmap all in a single pass operation. This capability will enable application developers to deliver extremely realistic content to consumers while still maintaining fast frame rates at high resolutions and color depths.

``AMD is very excited to have 3Dlabs support our 3DNow! technology in their new PERMEDIA 3 chip. With the combination of 3DNow! and PERMEDIA 3, users will have available to them an unprecedented level of performance at great pricing,'' said Ned Finkle, director of Infrastructure Technology Development for Advanced Micro Devices.

``PERMEDIA 3 has been designed to deliver extremely high-performance graphics and includes a number of innovative features such as Virtual Textures and Triple-Blending that will enable delivery of ever-more realistic content and applications during 1999 by our software partners,`` said James Carrington, vice president of desktop products at 3Dlabs. ''We expect PERMEDIA 3 to enable 3Dlabs-based products to further expand their presence in the consumer PC and game enthusiast markets.``

PERMEDIA 3 includes 2D driver support for Windows® 95 and 98 as well as Windows NT® 4.0 and Windows 2000; and 3D driver support includes Direct X 6.0/6.1 and an OpenGL® installable client driver (ICD) tuned for game engine performance. The OpenGL ICD provides support for the multi-texture extensions utilized by Quake II as well as other game engines and it also supports the 3DNow!(TM) instruction set available in x86 CPUs from AMD and other vendors. The PERMEDIA 3 drivers are expected to pass WHQL testing and ship to customers during the second quarter of 1999.

TheTechs.net heeft een artikeltje in elkaar gedraaid waarin ze uit leggen hoe je je Celery zou koud mogelijk krijgt. Om het gehaal wat blijer te maken zitter er een aantal toffe foto's bij met plaatjes van hun homemade koelsysteem. Hier krijg je alvast wat info uit de intro:

There is an extreme need for cooling when you are overclocking an Intel Celeron processor. Whether it is the 266Mhz with no cache or the 400Mhz with 128KB cache, this Slot I beauty overclocked is an amzing site. People that do not want to pay $500 for a Pentium II/450Mhz can get the same speed (minus the 384KB of Cache difference) processor for $70. This article will teach you how-to efficiently cool your Celeron processor. For this article I used an Intel Celeron 300A, overclocked to 450Mhz (Read my Celeron Overclocking Article to learn how to achieve high speeds with the Celeron).

Anand heeft weer even een review uit z'n mouw geschud. Deze keer was de PentiumII OverDrive aan de beurt. Deze is bedoeld om de nu hopeloos verouderde Pentium Pro's te vervangen.

Have you ever owned an Intel Pentium Pro? Remember the feeling of joy you got when Intel promised an upgrade path to your expensive investment in the now deserted Socket-8 platform? Now, years later, we are finally able to cash in on Intel's promise of an upgrade path for Pentium Pro users. While all your friends were at home speeding along with their PentiumII's you were left with an empty promise that was left as one until just recently.

Het is toch fijn dat Intel nog even aan de Socket8 bezitters heeft gedacht.

Gisteren is de site van id Software (de makers van onder andere Doom en Quake) gehackt door een paar medestanders van Kevin Mitnick.

Those who visited www.idsoftware.com yesterday were warmly welcomed with a nice message that, perhaps, was identical to the one that can be seen when entering www.kevinmitnick.com (no, it wasn't also hacked). Why yesterday and why id Software?

Als je de gehackte versie nog wil zien kan je ff op Rootshell kijken. Voor meer info over Kevin Mitnick moet je hier zijn.