Hardware Upgrade heeft een grote slot1 mobo comparison in elkaar gedraaid waarin in totaal 14 planken vergeleken worden. De Abit BH6 zit er ook bij, maar de nieuwere BX6-II niet. De BH6 komt samen met de Asus P2B-F als beste uit de test:

Asus P2B-F: the only big limit of this motherboard is the construction based on the jumpers, because it is uncomfortable, particularly for those used to jumperless menus. The operating stability and the compatibility are always high and this is the same also for the general performance. The expandability, weak point of the P2B, is at the top due to 4 Dimm memory benches and the 1-5-2 Slots respectively for AGP, PCI and ISA.

Abit BH6: the strength of this motherboard is the Softmenu II menu, which allows to set all the parameters of the CPU, Core voltage included; this is the best choice for all those who wish to overclock a Slot 1 CPU. The negative aspect is the BIOS, not user friendly, both in terms of timings of the memory and for setting the peripherals parameters.

Volgens een onderzoek van International Data Corp. (IDC) is het gebruik van NT als server zwaar overhyped en worden er in kritische situaties waarbij beveiliging e.d. een grote rol spelen nog steeds voornamelijk gebruik gemaakt van Unix servers. De marketing machine van Mikrosoft slaagd er desondanks in om een totaal ander beeld te creeëren bij het publiek:

Media reports often leave the impression that Windows NT is being adopted by organizations of all sizes for every conceivable mission and that organizations are abandoning their investments in other operating environments," said Dan Kuznetsky, program director for IDC's operating environments and serverware research programs. "However, when IDC shines the light of empirical research on Windows NT usage, a different view emerges." According to IDC, NT is used primarily as a departmental infrastructure server, for things like file/print, messaging, and communications, rather than as a major enterprise server running mission-critical applications. The rest is just good advertising. "Microsoft is very good at momentum marketing. It can turn reports of strong growth in revenues, software licenses shipments, or clients being supported into a message that Windows NT is becoming the de facto standard," Kuznetsky said.

BXB heeft reviews van de Elitegroup P6BXT-A+ (Slot1 + Socket370 op één plankje) en Shuttle B002 (ordinaire BX plank). Check BXBoards.com als je geïnteresseerd ben in deze moederborden.

ZDNet heeft een artikel over de nieuwe JPEG 2000 compressie standaard die gebruik maakt van een nieuwe wavelet compressie techniek en die zowel lossy als lossless compressie mogelijk maakt. Dat alles gebeurd ook nog eens tegen een kleinere bestandsomvang:

JPEG 2000 delivers extremely high compression ratios and still guarantees high image quality. On the simplest level, JPEG 2000 will offer both lossy and lossless compression. More important, it abandons DCT compression in favor of wavelet compression. Wavelets are mathematical expressions that describe an image in a continuous stream, and so avoid the blocky artifacts associated with DCT compression."

"The Internet provides a perfect example of wavelet technology in action, because it will let you download the same image at different resolutions depending upon the available bandwidth. For instance, with a T1 link you'd be able to download more of the wavelet stream (for higher-resolution display) than you could with a 56K connection. This ability to uncompress multiple resolutions on the fly can also pay big dividends in print production workflows."

"While today's JPEG files contain only RGB data, JPEG 2000 will handle up to 256 channels-enough to describe alternate color models such as CMYK or CIE Lab and store alpha channels internally. JPEG 2000 will also work within a color managed environment, because it will include ICC profile information. And extensible metadata fields will make it possible for developers to add all sorts of information to the file. For example, a digital camera could insert the date and time a picture was created.

Corel heeft aangekondigd dat het een alliantie heeft gevorm met KDE en Debian die als doel heeft om de ontwikkeling van Corel's gebruiksvriendelijke Linux distributie te bevorderen. Hier heb je een plak info uit de press release op Corel.com:

Corel Corporation (NASDAQ: COSFF, TSE: COS) today announced an alliance with two major Open Source developer communities to advance the development of its proposed Linux® distribution; a user-friendly Linux installation and graphical user interface (GUI) for the desktop PC.

Corel and the K Desktop Environment (KDE) Project will be working together to enhance the KDE GUI for inclusion in the upcoming Corel version of Linux, aimed for the desktop user.

“Corel has chosen to work with KDE as our preferred desktop interface because we believe its development is further ahead than other offerings at this time,” said Derek Burney, Corel’s executive vice president of engineering. “KDE can easily be configured to offer a strong Windows-like look and feel, which we see as being very important to our strategy of making all aspects of work in a Linux environment compatible with present-day Windows offerings.

“Corel will also be releasing all its improvements and development on open source software to the Open Source community,” said Mr. Burney. “The developers in that community are the strength of Linux, and with our recent work and contributions to the WINE project, Corel strongly supports their efforts.

Voodoo3 review numero 10.003, deze is afkomstig van The Sanctum. Hier een stuk:

We threw a boatload of direct3d, glide , and openGL games at the V3 3000 and didn't run into any problems. We did crash Half-Life - TFC once, but it never occurred again. We also didn't miss our V2 SLI setup, something that couldn't seem to be done before with other cards. Also 3dfx forces a rendering scheme to push coloring to 22Bits. We did notice a difference in image quality when this feature was enabled. We aren't sure how it's done but it does make a difference. Also readers will be happy to hear that the gamma seems to be much improved. The V3 3000 ships with a mini-GL 1.48. No, not a full openGL ICD. Most likely a marketing move from 3dfx not to make the full ICD. Other then that, the driver set that is shipped with the V3 3000 retail unit is very good. A welcome change from highly buggy drivers most cards ship with. Although there is room for improvement, like anything.

Eric van Fastgraphics heeft een review gepost van de nieuwe FireGL1, Diamond's nieuwe High-end OpenGL kaart met een 256-bits IBM rasterizing processor. De performance van de FireGL1 kickt ass:

The FireGL1 is a dope card. It offers excellent image quality and takes advantage of a second CPU when available. It's 32 bit Z-Buffer guarantees high quality images. The CDRS and ProCDRS scores are sky-high, but when we compare the card to other professional cards we see that cards based upon the 3DLabs GLINT GMX2000 chipset still perform better. But then again, those are considerably more expensive. Another thing which deserves to be honored is the excellent 2D speed. This is usually the lacking part in OpenGL cards, but the FireGL1 performs about as good in 2D as the Riva TNT and the Rage 128 chipset. Final verdict: A good option for the (semi) professional workstation user which can afford about $ 999 for a graphics card.

Storage Review heeft de IBM Deskstar 25GP gereviewed. De 25GP is het 25GB model uit de oude 5400rpm serie van IBM:

As expected, the Deskstar 25GP performs quite similarly to the latest Caviar from WD. This does mean, of course, that the 25GP ranks right up there with the WD disk as the fastest 5400rpm drive currently available. Performance differences between the 5400rpm IBM and WD units were even tighter than the correlation between the companies' 7200rpm drives. Differences in the Business and High-End Disk WinMark tests running under both Windows 95 and Windows NT were held within a negligible 1%.

The Register heeft een newsposting met info afkomstig van JC over de release date van de AMD K7. Volgens Kazuo Sakai, president van AMD japan, zal de K7 gelanceerd worden op een clock speed van 550MHz. De K7 zal een serieuze concurrent worden voor Intel in het high-end segment:

According to Sakai, the introduction of the 550MHz K7 will precipitate a gladiatoral battle between AMD and Chipzilla.

According to the report, Intel introduced the Celeron because they faced a threat from AMD. Although the fight was tough for AMD, the intro of the K7 will push Intel's pricing on the midrange to the limit.

As reported here at the launch of the K6, AMD believes that Intel's manufacturing model means they have to capitalise on large margins at the midrange and high end.

Avault heeft een review gepost van de Pioneer DVD-103S DVD drive:

Pioneer seems to sell their CD-ROM and DVD-ROM products to the OEM market, so you probably won't find one in a retail store unless packaged by Hi-Val. Plenty of on-line stores sell the product, usually with the option of buying a hardware DVD decoder board. I purchased the unit from Hi-Val's online store sans decoder board so I could experiment with various software DVD decoders. The plain white box contents consisted of a single-connector IDE cable, an audio cable for connecting to a soundcard, mounting screws, a disk with DOS drivers, the drive itself, a Pioneer manual, plus an Installation and User's Guide written by Hi-Val. The Guide is really a generic one meant to cover CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and even CD recorder setup, and contains enough information to do just that. Installation went without a hitch, with the DVD-103S installed as the Master (and only) device on the Secondary IDE bus on the test machine. Windows 95 and 98 have a driver that supports the drive, leaving no need for the DOS driver provided.

Gamer's Alliance France heeft de specs bekend gemaakt van de Hercules Dynamite TNT2. Zelf heb ik een Dynamite TNT (de oude) en ik ben er erg tevreden mee. De features van de TNT2 zien er ook niet slecht uit:

Hercules proud to announce 2 new products based on NVIDIA's revolutionary RIVA TNT2 technology. First shipments mid of May. Please place your initial orders now !!

Hercules Dynamite Ultra TNT/2
NVIDIA RIVA Ultra TNT2 (300 MHz RAMDAC)
32MB/16MB ultra high-speed memory (183MHz or faster)
Engine clock 150MHz of faster, memory clock 183MHz or faster
Hercules HercuMeter Performance Tuning Utility
active cooling, TV-out
Distribution product numbers and distribution pricing
Model D8332SDU-TV (32MB) $199 retail
Model D8316SDU-TV (16MB) $155 retail
Model SBP-D8332SDU-TV (32MB) $191 oem
Model SBP-D8316SDU-TV (16MB) $147 oem
Hercules Dynamite TNT/2 - cost reduced for OEM integration NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 (300 MHz RAMDAC) 32MB/16MB high-speed memory (166MHz or faster)
Engine clock 125MHz of faster, memory clock 150MHz or faster Hercules HercuMeter Performance
Tuning Utility passive cooling

Distribution product numbers and distribution pricing
Model SBP-D8332SD (32MB) $153 oem
Model SBP-D8316SD (16MB) $114 oem

Volgens dit bericht bij EBNews hebben de Samsung Rambus RDRAM chips met succes de "Intel validation tests" voltooid. Dit zou kunnen betekenen dat de Rambus RDRAMs binnenkort in grote aantallen leverbaar zullen zijn:

In January, Samsung began volume production of its 72- and 144-Mbit RDRAMs. The company said it is now shipping the memories to a number of computer manufacturers around the world. The company predicted that its RDRAM will be used in commercially available Pentium III-based desktop PCs, starting in September.

The Korean memory maker said will increase production of 128- and 144-Mbit RDRAMs to about five million a month in the second half of 1999. At that time, Samsung said it will shift its focus from synchronous DRAMs to RDRAMs.

Het wil dus echt niet vlotten bij NEC/Videologic. De PowerVR Series 2 (voor de PC) heeft inmiddels al een vertraging opgelopen van bijna een jaar. NEC gaat nu voor een release in de zomer van dit jaar. Zie dit nieuwsbericht bij The Register:

And last autumn NEC was forced to admit problems with PowerVR production had scuppered Sega's release plans for its Dreamcast games console -- its graphics engine is driven by the PowerVR 2 chip (see NEC admits it delayed Sega Dreamcast) which also forms the basis for the 250.

According to an NEC spokesman, cited by EE Times, the company has had problems casting a production-worthy design, and that will effectively push volume shipments of the part to September.

NEC reckons the PowerVR 250 will still be highly competitive so far down the line, but it will be much harder to establish the superiority the company claims the part has. Following the recent release of 3dfx's Voodoo3 accelerator, rival graphics specialists nVidia, S3, ATI and Matrox are readying the next generation of 3D chips, and PowerVR is going to hit the market pretty much as they do, offering broadly the same features.

Yep, er komt een vervolg op Theme Park. Hier het nieuws van Coolinfo:

The rumored sequel to Bullfrog Productions' Theme Park was officially announced today. Theme Park World will be the follow-up to the amusement-park management simulation, which was a huge success in Europe but remained relatively unplayed in the United States, with many critics citing the game's reliance on micromanagement as its biggest flaw.

According to the information released, Theme Park World will be much bigger in scope than its predecessor. Four themes - outer space, jungle, fantasy, and Halloween - will be available for the player to choose, allowing for different types of rides and attractions.

As in the original, players can design their own rides. This design functionality will not only apply to roller coasters, but to go-carts and water rides as well. Players can also ride the attractions they design. Theme Park World will use Direct3D for a fully 3D environment, letting the player view the park from any angle and explore the park through the eyes of a customer.

The announcement of the sequel comes at an interesting time, with MicroProse's similar RollerCoaster Tycoon earning much acclaim, as well as many strong comparisons with the original Theme Park. Theme Park World will be shown to the public for the first time at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in May.

Voor sommige mensen is het koelste nog niet koud genoeg. Steve Foster (van HardOCP) was op zoek naar een koelsysteempje voor zijn dual. Wat hij zocht (koeling tot -50 en minder) kon hij nergens vinden (he, wat gek), dus zelf aan de slag.

The true test, a working computer. Everything was turned on and the power supply to the peltiers was set at 12v. Before I had the login screen for WinNT4.0 the processors had dropped to –4C. Within twenty minutes I was at –28C. This was getting exciting. I loaded 3D f/x and started rendering a 2min animation (1.23Gig file) which takes about 2hrs 3min. The system continued to drop until I had reached –43.1C (measured from the center of the thermal plate). Once I finished the rendering, after about 15 minutes the processors were at –58.3C and –59.7C. I set the power supply to 9.7V and maintain a temperature of –35C right now and will continue to test different voltages and check for condensation to be certain that everything is airtight. Next stage will be to cascade the peltiers to see if –80C can be achieved. This will get me real close to the ability to double the clock speed.

En nog niet tevreden zijn !!

Helaas nog geen benchmarks, maar een verdubbeling van de kloksnelheid klinkt goed !!

Hij zat er al een tijdje aan te komen, maar ene Mike Harrington van Valve software heeft in een interview aangekondigd nu toch snel een Linux port te gaan uitbrengen voor HL-server. Effe quoten uit het interview:

As I'm sure you are aware....the Linux server port is a highly anticipated release...what is the current release date?

I can't give you the specific day, but it will be out shortly after TFC. The server is mostly done but we've been focused on getting TFC out the door and because of that we haven't had the bandwidth to finish and properly test it. [break]Dat is kewl, want de windowsversie wil er nog wel eens uitklappen. Een Linuxversie maakt het mogelijk om met relatief goedkope middelen een dedicated HL-server op te zetten die ook nog een beetje behoorlijke load aankan.[/break]

What is the recommended setup for the server? (i.e. baseline system being a 200 mhz???)

We don't have an official baseline machine for servers, but a 200mhz and above will be fine.

Dat worden weer lange nachten... :)

Het is weer een tijdje geleden dat we iets van ome Tom gehoord hebben. Maar zijn comeback is sterk, hij heeft een kryotech-systeem gecombineerd met een Celeron.
Het resultaat mag er wezen.

First of all I tested all the speeds that I could reach and was at least a little bit disappointed that there was no way of running the Celeron 400 any faster than 618 MHz (103 MHz x 6). It seems that the current design of Intel's 0.25 micron 'Mendocino'-core doesn't allow any higher clock speeds. A Celeron 433 would also not reach 650 MHz. Still 618 MHz is way beyond 500 MHz of a Pentium III and the system ran all the Quake2 demos continuously with 'timedemo' set to '1' for more than a week without a crash, actually the week when I was at CeBIT.

Het leek erop dat Intel zijn plannen om een busspeed (en multiplier) lock op z'n processors aan te brengen had afgedaan, maar volgens The Register kunnen we binnenkort Intel processors verwachten waarbij overklokken niet meer mogelijk is:

At the end of last year, we reported that Intel would introduce locks on microprocessor speeds which would prevent end users from increasing the clock rate on chips.

But now, its manufacturing methods mean that Intel chips cannot be overclocked, the source said.

"The general rule is if the thing is marked 'Intel confidential' it's an early sample and may not have multiplier locking enabled. If so, there is a utility for Intel mobos that blows a new clock speed into the flash,overrriding the chip's setting. If the chip isn't marked confidential, you're scuppered," the source said.

Intel introduced the overclocking lock ostensibly to prevent re-marking of Intel processors, the company said at the time.

Het is uiteraard de vraag wat hiervan waar is. Kijk ook eens naar dit artikel bij Ars-Technica.