Singularity heeft een preview gepost van de Matrox G400. De G400 heeft een fillrate van 333Mtexels/s en komt daarmee in de buurt van de V3-3500 en TNT2. De RAMDAC is met 360MHz extreem snel. Verder heeft-ie support voor bump-mapping:

The G400 will be one of the first chips to offer true bump-mapping support, the lack of which led to some 3D chip makers using software to compensate for. Supported in DirectX 6.0, bump mapping applies realistic perturbations on the surface of an object, creating a very tactile appearance. G400's hardware implementation provides a more realistic and detailed effect than the software option. This should bode especially well for games that take place in "natural" outdoor environments. Native bump mapping support will render much more realistic- and organic-looking terrain.

Ziet er naar uit dat Matrox eindelijk weer een serieuze concurrent wordt voor 3Dfx en nVidia...

HardOCP heeft een Leadtek Winfast 3D S320 TNT2 kaart te pakken weten te krijgen, en heeft 'm meteen wat zitten overklokken:

efault settings for this card with 16Megs of SDRam to be clocked at 170MHz on the memory and 150MHz on the core. We used the OC feature to bring up the core to 160MHz and the mem up to 175MHz. In the few benchmarks I had time to run, the card performed flawlessly as well as hauled some major ass. The frame rate was incredible!!

I simply cannot wait for this card to get to market, I think Leadtek has a winner on their hands for sure. I will keep you peeps up to date as more of this progresses.  Let me leave you with one juicy titbit, we did see increases of OVER 20% in some of our performance numbers! WOoHOo!

Meer info over de Winfast kaart zal binnenkort gepost worden op HardOCP.com.

Volgens een door Mikrosoft gesponsorde test van Mindcraft is een Windows NT server zo'n 2,5 tot 3,7 sneller dan een Linux server met Apache en Sambar:

The test was carried out by Mindcraft, Inc., whose previous greatest hits include providing evidence that supported Microsoft's claims that it was all Apple's fault that Quicktime didn't work with Internet Explorer. The outfit concludes that NT 4.0 is 2.5 times faster than Linux as a file server and 3.7 times faster as a Web server. Presumably this means that an awful lot of customers out there (including The Register, which scores 100 on the Dumbo scale by running Linux and Apache) are just plain stupid. NT isn't exactly the world's Web server of choice, whereas Apache is.

The Register boort vervolgens de test volledige de grond in. Zie hier.

Volgens info op de The Register heeft Bill gisteren zijn eigen alternatief voor MP3 gelanceert. Het heet "Windows Media Technologies" en als we Bill mogen geloven dan geeft 't vergelijkbare kwaliteit als MP3, maar tegen een halve bestandsgrootte. Microsoft zou Mikroschoft niet zijn als ze er ook nog ff een vieze beveiligingsmethode in hadden gebouwd:

Windows Media Rights Manager brings to WMT tools for content publishers to determine what kind of licence users have been granted when they download a music track. It all sounds pretty flexible but it has a sinister dimension. Microsoft is clearly attempting to treat music in the same way it treats software: we own, we're just letting you use it for a while.

Licensing music rather than selling a copy of it, as is currently the case with CDs, isn't likely to win much support among serious music fans, and may well act contrary to US law such as The Home Recording Act. This permits the user the right to copy music tracks for personal use. This may be impossible in Microsoft's system, which seeks to prevent copyright infringement by preventing duplication rather than by taking legal action against those who make illegal copies. Microsoft is essentially assuming guilt before innocence.

Storage Review heeft een review gepost van de IBM Deskstar 22GXP, een 7200rpm harddisk met een capaciteit van 22Gig. Hier een stuk over de performance:

s expected, the Deskstar 22GXP delivers bleeding-edge performance. Its performance, however, seems remarkably similar to that delivered by the WD Expert. WinBench 99 Business Disk WinMark tests yield close results. The IBM drive outpaces the Expert by about 3% in the Windows 95. The matchup flip-flops in the High-End WinMark, though, where the Deskstar slipped behind by 4%. The similarities tighten up even more when it comes to NT: In both the Business and the High-End Disk WinMarks, the IBM drive leads by an all-but-undetectable 1%-2%. A look at the individual High-End WinMark tests also yields a very tight correlation between the two drives, with one notable anomaly: in WinBench 99's Adobe Premiere 4.2 disk access test under Windows 95, the 22GXP fell behind the Expert by 17%.

De P3 is nog maar nauwelijks op de markt of bij Intel ligt de opvolger alweer klaar. Dat wordt tenminste beweert in dit artikeltje.

Intel Corp. will have samples of its 64-bit Merced processor available within three to four months and still is on track to put the chip into production by the middle of next year, said the company's chief executive, Craig Barrett.

Natuurlijk leuk 64bits, maar dan is het wel te hopen dat M$ ook op tijd is met hun Win64.

S3 gaat samenwerken met VIA, bekend van de Super7 chipsets. Best wel opmerkelijk nieuws, aangezien er enige tijd geleden nog werd gesproken over samenwerking tussen S3 en Intel. Hier het nieuws van EETimes:

Once-mighty graphics accelerator vendor S3 Inc. and core-logic design house Via Technologies Inc. have announced an agreement to jointly develop combination core-logic and graphics chips for the explosive low end of the personal-computer market.

The move, the second of its kind in recent months, indicates the seriousness with which the chip industry is responding to plunging PC prices. It further suggests that the new market — in which "free" seems to be the only final offer — may ruthlessly punish those who have made performance their mandate.

Specifically, S3 and Via plan to collaborate on integrated products that will combine the graphics controller, frame buffer and north-bridge functions of a PC on one chip. The expected product line will support microprocessors from both Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., and the first chips could be available by the second half.

Als het aan Intel ligt zal de 'revolutionaire' Slot-technologie na de zomer tot het verleden behoren (volgens dit artikeltje.

As reported here earlier this year, Intel will shift its Pentium III platform to a socketed design during the course of the summer. (Story: Intel says new socket on way iMac lookalikes).

That is in line with Intel's .18 micron Coppermine plans, revealed here yesterday. Although the company is keeping tight lipped about the exact specification, it is likely that early systems (and motherboards) will be shown at the Computex trade show in Taiwan in June. (We will be attending).

A source close to Intel's plans confirmed the socket was currently in design, as part of the company's plans for the "sexy looking" machines it showed at the Intel Developer Forum.

You will notice that if you a look at a Pentium III slot chip, it does not have the name on the cartridge. Intel does not want the world to identify Slot One with the PIII.

Later this evening, Intel will release its financial results. We will carry that story when it breaks. ®

En ook die financiele resultaten zouden weleens interessant kunnen zijn ;)

Bij AnandTech kan je een 5 pagina's tellende test vinden over verschillende Force Feedback speeltjes.

The Competitors: Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Wheel The latest thing from the team at Microsoft. A compact, all black unit with the smallest footprint both for the wheel and the pedal unit. Logitech Wingman Formula Force A racy, red and black unit that makes you feel like you are taking the reigns of a Ferrari F355 even before you start playing. Act-Labs Force RS A very different-looking product from the Great White North, it's middle name is versatility.

Gisteren maakten we al melding van de aankomende OpenLinux2.2 van Caldera, de andere grote jongens zoals SuSe en Redhat komen volgende week ook met een nieuwe release.

Drie van de grootste Linux-leveranciers presenteren de komende tijd hun nieuwste versies van het open source- besturingssysteem. SuSE komt volgende week met versie 6.1 van zijn Linux op de markt. Caldera presenteert op Linux Global Summit OpenLinux 2.2 en Red Hat komt met versie 6.0 van Linux. Dit hebben de bedrijven onafhankelijk van elkaar meegedeeld. SuSE Linux 6.1 brengt met de kernel-versie volgens een persbericht belangrijke verbeteringen aan aan het besturingssysteem. Ook bevat de nieuwe versie volgens het bedrijf een aantal nieuwe mogelijkheden. “Deze zijn leuk voor mensen die met Linux experimenteren, maar nog niet geschikt voor de markt”, aldus Christian Egle van SuSE. “Hierbij moet worden gedacht aan video voor Linux dat gebruikmaakt van beeld- en geluidsbestanden en aan ondersteuning voor spelsystemen als PlayStation en Nintendo”, aldus Egle. De nieuwe release wordt gebundeld met een massa op Linux-gebaseerde gratis applicatiesoftware. Hierbij moet men volgens Egle denken aan KDE 1.1, een open-source grafische gebruikersinterface, kantoorapplicaties en een alternatief open-source pakket met de naam Gnome 1.0. Caldera’s Linux update bevat Versie 2.2.5 van de Linux kernel die opvalt door de verbeterde installatie-wizard van Linux. Deze maakt nieuwe schijfpartities zonder iets van het bestaande Windows-systeem te vernietigen. De software maakt het volgens Caldera voor gebruikers mogelijk om, als zij het willen, Linux te deïnstalleren. De oude schijfindeling wordt in dat geval hersteld. Bij Open Linux 2.2 wordt Corel Word Perfect 8 en Star Office 5.0 geleverd. Red Hats versie 6.0 van Linux bevat ook de Linux kernel en wordt geleverd met Gnome en KDE grafische interfaces.

Zou Linux nu de slag om de consument gaan winnen van Microsoft?

AMD en Intel hebben wederom hun prijzen verlaagd. De info van EBN Online:

he price of Intel's 500-MHz Pentium III dropped 8% to $637, while the 450-MHz version dropped 17% to $411. Prices of the Pentium II dropped as well: the 450-MHz chip was cut 17% to $396; the 400-MHz part dropped 18% to $234, and the 350-MHz version fell 4% to $163.

Intel's Celeron prices fell also, as the 433-MHz chip fell 15% to $143, the 400-MHz part fell 23% to $103, the $366-MHz dropped 22% to $73, and the 333-MHz chip fell 8% to $67.

[break]En AMD...[/break]

Advanced Micro Devices responded by cutting the prices of its entire desktop microprocessor lineup. Prices of its flagship K6-3 processor fell to $397 and $237, respectively, for 450-MHz and 400-MHz parts. While the 475-MHz K6-2 remained unchanged at a price of $213, all of AMD's other K6-2 prices were cut.

The 450-MHz K6-2 dropped from $203 to $158, while the 400-MHz part dropped from $134 to $103. A 380-MHz K6-2 was cut from $118 to $87, while a 366-MHz part dropped from $93 to $72. At the low end, 350-MHz K6-2s fell from $87 to $68, while the 333-MHz versions declined from $72 to $62.

PC Velocity heeft een kleine review in elkaar geknutseld waarin de performance van de Promise UltraATA/66 controller vergeleken wordt met die van de standaard BH6 onboard EIDE controller. De resultaten zijn opmerkelijk:

The Promise controller beat out the BH6 IDE controller by a large margin in only one test: AVS/Express. 3 other tests showed the BH6' IDE barely losing, while in every other test, the Promise controller produced scores that were significantly lower, some nearing 50% worse, than those of the motherboard's controller. CPU usage was also higher with the Promise controller, which leads me to ask why one would possibly want to pay for a controller like this right now for this kind of hard drive. These results may have turned out differently with a 7200 RPM drive, but with this make of drive and this controller, I saw almost no reason to recommend the Promise controller over the BH6' own IDE controller. Many consumers may wind up buying these 5400 RPM drives that supposedly offer Ultra ATA/66 compliance as well as a Promise controller, and may be in for a very big surprise in performance when they set it up.

OGR heeft een preview gepost van de AMD K7. Da's numero #3421122. Eens kijken of ze nog schokkend nieuws te melden hebben...

It looks at a glance like AMD is all set to take the performance lead away from Intel in a commanding way when the K7 is released. Best of all, games are some of the applications that should benefit most from the changes the K7 brings. There are several caveats, though. AMD has had trouble delivering product on time in the past, and in high enough quantities to satisfy demand. It's also not known what price K7 chips will sell for, but AMD will not be trying to undercut the price of Pentium III chips of the same MHz rating as they have done with the K6 line. Without a price advantage, will OEMs choose AMD over the Intel juggernaut? AMD also must rely on third-party manufacturers to build the motherboards for the K7—will they have the features and price users want?

Er zit een foutje in de Intel 450NX chipset...of in Windoos 2000. EBNews brengt het nieuws:

Intel Corp. has discovered a bug in multiprocessor systems running under Windows 2000, the forthcoming operating system from Microsoft Corp.

The error is tied to the PIIX4E south bridge of Intel's 450NX core logic chipset. Microsoft has begun notifying OEMs that in multiprocessor systems using the 450NX platform the commands to put the microprocessors in a low-power "sleep mode" may produce errors. At this time, Microsoft does not know whether a software workaround is possible, according to Microsoft's support documentation.

Simracingnews.com heeft een review van Trans-Am Racing op z'n site geparkeerd. Rond raggen met kisten uit de periode '68-'72, ziet er best wreed uit. De features:

Now, let's get on to the features. You will get a choice between 25 different cars. To name a few: the '64 Pontiac Tempest GTO, the '69 Chevrolet Camaro, the '69 Ford Mustang, the '70 'Cuda, the '70 Firebird, the '72 AMC Javelin, the '67 Ford Mustang Coupe, the '68 Chevrolet Camaro, the '70 Challenger, the '70 Chevrolet Camaro, the '70 AMC Javelin and last but - certainly - not least the '70 Boss Mustang FB.

Of course you can't race with the cars alone. You need a place to drive them on and what better place than 12 (historicaly accurate) American race tracks like Mosport (Canada), Bridgehampton (NY), Bryar, Lime Rock Park (CT), Mid-Ohio (OH), Road America, Meadowdale, Donneybrooke, Riverside (CA) and Kent.

FPS3D heeft een review gebouwd rondom de Card Cooler. Hier hebben we al meer reviews van gehad. Het idee is basicly twee dikke ventilators die je somewhere in de buurt van je V2 of TNT kunt hangen...en het werkt:

With my case on (the only realistic benchmark), I let Quake2 run through it's demo at 1024x768 for an hour both with the fan and without. Now I run my computer hot... Not only is the only fan in my computer a cheapo Celeron fan that shipped with it, but in addition I have my processor overclocked to 500mhz. For the first run I removed the fan... One hour later I was appalled to find that my computer was running at a burning hot 44C, or 111 degrees Farenheit! I then immediately shut down, and stuck in The Card Cooler, positioned as it was before. I booted up and ran Quake II again for precisely one hour. To my surprise, I check the temperature, and it had dropped a whole 20 degrees Farenheit! The final stats were 33 degrees Celsius and a nice 91 degrees Farenheit. Very sweet.

The Register heeft weer wat info over de K7, afkomstig uit een AMD presentatie (die je hier als powerpoint file kunt downen). De info:

n the slides, Weber says that the K7 is 500MHz now, and will be 1GHz next year, and will support 1394 and agp4x.

Front side bus speeds will eventually go to 400MHz, giving throughputs of 3.2Gb/s.

Rambus will allow throughput on memory of 1.6Gb/s.

Hmm...500MHz is dus zeker, is weer 100Mhz minder dan waar ze het een paar maand geleden nog over hadden....

Ik zie op AGN 3D dat er weer eens een nieuwe versie van WinAMP gereleased is:

My bud Gregg Hartness let me know that even though Nullsoft hasn't updated their site they have posted the latest version of the very popular MP3 player Winamp. Version 2.11 comes with it's usual share of fixes. You can pick it up here.

Hier kun je het ding neerhalen.