Gurutech heeft een artikeltje over de Intel Coppermine in elkaar gedraaid. Hier heppie een stuk:

ntel's Coppermine is set to hit shelves in September, and be one of the last remaining chips based around it's P6 generation architecture. It is planned to include a 256k on-die L2 cache, and two 36k on-die L1 cache units. It will run on a 133MHz front-side bus, and is predicted to enter the market running at a clock speed of 600MHz, with a cost of around $730.

One of the most decieving aspects of the Coppermine is it's name, Coppermine. Contrary to what you'd believe, the Coppermine does not utilize copper technology. Now, whether or not Intel named the chip the Coppermine so as to trick the media into believing they were to be using Copper, especially after IBM and Motorolla announced they would be using the technology, I couldn't tell you.

Pete's Hardware Domain heeft een benchmark vergelijking gepost met de Videologic Neon 250 (PowerVRS2), TNT2 en Voodoo3. De Neon 250 benchmarks komen van PowerVR Revolution, de TNT2 en Voodoo3 scores uit een review van Anand. De 125/125MHz Neon 250 doet het beter dan de TNT2 en Voodoo3, maar aangezien de kaarten niet op hetzelfde systeem zijn getest zijn de scores compleet onbetrouwbaar.

Once again, the Neon 250 is triumphant, although this time around, the margins are a lot closer, courtesy of driver improvements from 3dfx that saw their cards jump nearly 5 fps, or a 10 % increase. To put this into perspective, this leap places the V3 2000 higher the previous results for the V3 3500!

Check de benchmarks bij Pete's Hardware Domain.

Thresh en Kenn van Firingsquad hebben een review rond de Quake III online test gebouwd. De helft van de review is gemekker over de G3, die moesten ze noodgedwongen gebruiken omdat de Win32 versie van de test nog niet gereleased is. Over de G3 waren ze trouwens nog wel redelijk tevreden, behalve dus de muis die erbij zit (ga daar maar eens mee Kweken). Ergens aan het eind komt Q3 aan de beurt . Het artikel is niet erg copy/paste vriendelijk, dus check 't zelf maar.

FullOn3D heeft een nieuwe issue van FullOn3D Opinionated gepost met als onderwerp de recente ontwikkelingen bij Cyrix en wat die voor gevolgen kunnen hebben voor de x86 industrie. Hier heb je een plak uit het artikel:

If Cyrix does indeed stay out of the PC chip market, there may be several consequences. First of all, this would be the opportunity for upstarts like IDT and Rise to grab the spotlight by filling in Cyrix's shoes and greatly increasing revenues but not necessarily profits (as Cyrix has demonstrated). The second result that could come from this exit is the continued rise of AMD, which might be able to take Cyrix's current market share and continue its quest toward obtaining 30% of the x86 market.

Speedy 3D heeft een review gebakken van het "Return to Na Pali" expansion pack voor Unreal. Hier heb je het achterliggende verhaaltje:

Return to Na Pali takes place right where the original unreal left off. The escape pod you left the planet in has been caught in a tracker beam by the UMS Bodega, a "good guy" military ship with a mission. Another more important ship (the prometheus) has crash landed on the planets surface. That ship was carrying secret weapon plans which are going to be salvaged by the UMS Bodega. Your mission is to recover the plans. In return you get a full pardon from whatever crimes you have committed in the past. [break]Er zitten een paar nieuwe dingen in Return to Na pali, waaronder 3 nieuwe wapens:[/break] First of the 3 is the grenade launcher. Not to different from the grenade launcher in Quake2 this new weapon ports 1 new feature, mine laying, which is detonated from a remote detonator in your control. Next is the combat assault rifle or the CAR. This is a huge rapid fire assault machine gun, think chaingun from Quake2. Finally the most impressive of them all, the rocket launcher. The rocket launcher acts similarly to any other except that after you launch a rocket it deploys fins, and gains speed after it leaves the canister. Also, using the secondary fire, you can guide the rocket much like the way you do with half-life's rocket launcher. [break]Check de review van Speedy 3D voor de complete info.

Oja, nu we toch met Unreal bezig zijn: Billy van Voodoo Extreme heeft een bezoekje gebracht aan de Epic HQ's, waar hij Unreal Tournament heeft mogen uitproberen. Hier heb je z'n laatste "blah":[/break] It might be hard to believe, but I'm still here at Epic, play Unreal Tournament. The game rocks so damn hard! I'm going to do a bit of a preview sometime after I return to Salt Lake. Regardless, I figured while I'm taking a break from the festivities, I'd make a few updates. My plane leaves at like 10am (Eastern)....ugh. Not sure if I can skip, let's see, my third night without sleep. Probably not a good idea, I think I'm starting to hallucinate

Creative Labs heeft de data sheet van z'n nieuwe Dolby Digital speaker set gepost. Hier heb je wat info met plaatje uit het .PDFje:

DeskTop Theater ™ 5.1 DTT2500 Digital, Based on the award-winning DeskTop Theater 5.1, is the most complete Dolby Digital speaker system for the PC. With a built-in Dolby Digital decoder, it enables you to enjoy home theater quality audio without purchasing an expensive Dolby Digital receiver. You’ll also experience thrilling multi-channel Dolby Digital movie sound with a PC-DVD or any set-top DVD player.

Delivers thrilling Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound on DVD movies and games through its built-in Dolby Digital decoder and 24-bit Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC)

Five compact satellite speakers and electronically contoured subwoofer

Creates clean, crystal clear four-channel digital audio through the DIGITAL DIN connection with Sound Blaster ® Live!

Produces realistic sound on Environmental Audio ™ and DirectSound ® 3D games over four channels with Sound Blaster Live! ™ series or any four-channel Sound Blaster ® PCI card

Creative Multi-Speaker Surround stereo signal converts to simulated Dolby Digital 5.1 surround output

Bij HardwarePros.com hebben ze een review van de Act Labs Force RS gepost. Dit force feedback stuur heeft een nep-leren bekleding en een paar unieke features, zoals het cartridge systeem waarmee je 'm kunt omdingesen voor gebruik met een Nintendo of Speelstation. Hier heb je een stuk over de constructie van het stuur:

What is so striking about this system is its excellent quality and construction. The wheel is very sturdy and comfortable because of its synthetic leather type material wrapped around the wheel. This material is in my opion much better than the one found on the Sidewinder Wheel or Logitech's Formula Force. The pedals are also very sturdy and unlike other pedals, actually stay still on the floor when you press on them. The buttons on the wheel are well placed and easy to access when you're playing a game. The desk clamps are very well designed and can support a wide range of desk thickness. In fact, when we tested this thing, the wheel didn't move at all from all the vibration, instead, the whole desk did!

Check Hardware Pros voor de review. Stuur is trouwens maar 140 dollar, alleen weer nergens verkrijgbaar in Nederland

Yep, 0,10micron technologie in 2002. Intel en Silicon Valley Group Inc. zijn er mee bezig. Hier heb je de info van Sharky Extreme:

Intel and Silicon Valley Group, Inc. announced that Intel has made a $15 million equity investment in Silicon Valley Group. They intend to work together on the development of next generation photolithography tools used for manufacturing future Intel microprocessors. SVG's future 157-nanometer (nm) lithography technology is the process by which microprocessor circuits are imprinted on silicon wafers. Early tools are expected to be available in 2002 and are being designed to extend the ability to print circuits for the 0.10-micron range and beyond...and that means faster, cooler, processors.

Check deze info bij Gamespot, over de PGC kaarten van Alienware. Voodoo3 met TNT2 combineren in een PGC config?

So how much are gamers expected to pay for this lightning-fast package? While official pricing hasn't been made available yet, Alex Aguila, Alienware's national sales director, told GameSpot News that a US$300 price point, plus or minus a few dollars, is an accurate estimation. A final amount will be decided upon at a later date, however.

GameSpot News has also learned that Alienware will soon offer a downloadable driver, which will let its PGC Voodoo3 2000 boards be used in conjunction with any nVidia TNT2-powered AGP video card. Again, no price has been decided on for this download, but Alienware hinted at a possible US$20 figure.

Weer een tech update van Tim Sweeney op de Unreal Technology page. Server en TNT stuff:

All the known server-crashing problems in 224 have been fixed and are in internal testing now. Stability has improved quite a bit. There is still significantly higher server CPU usage in 224 compared to 220 on heavily populated servers, and I'm still tracking this down. The Direct3D code has been cleaned up and optimized a bit, giving a few FPS improvement on the Riva TNT, with support for detail textures now enabled. 225 will include the new D3D driver, and the 225 public source release will include the source.

3Dfx heeft eindelijk de OpenGL ICD voor z'n Voodoo3, Voodo2, Voodoo Rush en Voodoo Graphics kaarten gereleased. Hier heb je de info:

The driver kits on this page include the 3dfx OpenGL® ICD driver and have been tested for compatibility with Quake3 only. We are hard at work on a general release for these kits, so visit this url regularly for new updates. In addition, we are working with id® to include future versions of all 3dfx driver kits in the next release of GLSetup.

- Voodoo3 Windows 9x Retail Drivers (AGP-PCI) - Quake3 Compatible
- Voodoo2 Windows 9x Driver Kit - Quake3 Combatible
- Voodoo Rush Windows 9x Driver Kit - Quake3Compatible
- Voodoo Graphics Windows 9x Driver Kit - Quake3 Compatible