Brian Hook heeft z'n .plan geupdate met allerlei spul over problemen met Q3Test. Eind het eind heeft-ie ook info over Quake3 op een K7 prototype:

Sorry I didn't get the benchmarks up tonight, but we were going through hell with a prototype K7. Hopefully tomorrow night we'll have something to post. We have some temporary help in here right now doing nothing but benchmarking, which means we can do a better job of it than having me distractedly run some tests while I'm trying to get "real" work done too.

Eind juni is het de bedoeling dat de AMD K7 gereleased gaat worden. Super7.net vond het tijd om weer eens een preview rondom de K7 te bouwen. Hier heb je de intro:

June is rapidly approaching and with it the expected release of a whole new processor architecture from AMD. The seventh generation x86 processor aptly named the K7 promises to outperform, clock for clock, virtually every x86 processor currently available by a fairly significant margin and will do so without requiring consumers to wait for enhanced software to make use of it's new architecture. In this, the first of three articles on the K7 we will endeavor, on a simple level, to unlock some of the exciting new changes to the x86 CPU as designed by Advanced Micro Devices, and see how they can work together to make the fastest consumer CPU come to life.

3D Soundsurge heeft een press release van Logitech, die een nieuwe set speakers heeft aangekondigd:

The enhanced SoundMan® line incorporates excellent sound reproduction made possible through Linear Magnetic Drive (LIMAD(TM)) technology in an attractive, contemporary industrial design that requires minimal space and provides must-have appeal at a competitive price. SoundMan X2, a high-performance subwoofer and speaker system, featured this week at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, marks the launch of the new Logitech audio line. Additional models will follow during the summer months.

SoundMan X2 brings theater-quality sound to MP3, DVD, CD music, gaming and other popular multimedia applications. The expertly tuned subwoofer accurately reproduces the full bass range and, combined with two satellite speakers, provides a total of 40 watts of RMS power. The small footprint enables users to easily place the speakers on a desk, bookcase, or in an entertainment center. A carefully thought-out design offers convenience features including headphone jack and sound controls, an integrated power supply that eliminates the need for an adaptor and an automatic sound detection system that activates the speakers and subwoofer only when sound is present.

Available in July in the U.S. for an estimated street price of $99.95, SoundMan X2 will be bundled with the MP3 Music Center CD-ROM containing more than 100 MP3 songs and Internet music software, developed for Logitech by AudioSoft. The MP3 Music Center will allow users to download and play music from the Internet.

Meer nieuws van de E3 beurs: AGN 3D heeft een nieuwsposting over de Nomad MP3 player van Creative:

Features of the Nomad include up to 64MB of storage (32mb built in and 32 on Flash Media), FM tuner, voice recognition, LCD screen, and non-mechanical operation. It has a magnesium case, so dropping it should not effect it too much (don't drop it though, ok?). The package comes with a docking station that connects to your PC via a parallel port connection. USB would have been cool, but parallel will do for now.

Er zit ook info bij over de Ultra TNT2 kaart van Creative. Hij gaat $229 kosten, verder geen info over kloksnelheid of memory speeds.

AGN 3D bij de 3Dfx stand op de E3 wat info over de V3-3500TV (= met FM tuner + TV/in en out) bijeen gescharrelt. Check de update op de newspage:

he real advantages of this card are the video and TV features 3Dfx has added. The merger between 3Dfx and STB may have brought new stock options and a new brand name, but the Voodoo 3 3500 TV also displays the perfect marriage of technologies from both of the companies. The 3500 TV take the popular Desktop TV product from STB and seamlessly integrates it onto the Voodoo 3 PCB. In doing so, 3Dfx has added high quality Cable TV and FM input to the card, without any degradation of the sheer power of the Voodoo 3. Nice...real nice.

Matrox heeft nieuwe Win9x drivers voor z'n G200 videokaarten gereleased. Versie 4.11.01.4330 kun je hier neer halen.

Brian Hook heeft in z'n 'Ask Grandmaster B' column bij Voodoo Extreme een reactie gepost op de vraag wat hij vindt van de super arrogante opmerkingen van Tom, die beweert dat de timedemo benchmarks in Quake3 wél betrouwbaar zijn, terwijl Brian Hook - programmer bij id Software - zelf zegt dat het niet zo is. Tom zegt dat Brian fout zit - zie dit nieuwsbericht:

I've seen those comments, and I think they pretty much speak for themselves. My track record speaks for itself within this industry, and unlike others, I don't have a resume that basically consists of "I've done a lot of HTML, therefore I must know my shit, right?". I actually do this stuff for a living, so maybe I'm not full of shit. And I don't advertise products that I'm also reviewing on my Web page. I don't make ANY money from Grandmaster B ads or from .plan files, so you know there's no conflict of interest when I tell it like it is. I do not own any shares of stock in 3D accelerator companies, so there's no conflict there.

When I write this stuff, I do it because I enjoy it and because I like to educate others. It's that simple. It's not a job, it's not something I have to do to feed my dogs or pay off my car. I do it for the love of writing, communication, and education. It's that simple.

Tom's numbers might be valid. Then again, they might not. There's some variability there, depending on how paranoid you are about his advertiser revenue affecting his findings. But all that is irrelevant -- what is going to happen now is that id will publish authoritative numbers using up to date drivers and production hardware. Those numbers will be the unarguable truth, using the most up to date code possible. There will be no illicit overclocking, no conflict of interest, and no advertiser revenue from chip manufacturers to dilute any discovery.

Tom's comments about _me_ are irrelevant -- pissing matches over personalities are pretty much useless, people will take sides over who they like the most and rarely will listen to the issues. In the end, what matters is getting good, honest numbers to the public, and that is something that id has promised will be around Real Soon Now.

Nou, zijn ze eigenlijk al ooit op tijd geweest.....??
Nog even wachten op Windows 2000........
Zullen ze het pakket al milleniumproof hebben????

After all, Windows 2000 will just be released in the year 2000. At least, this announced Rudolf Gallist, member
of the management at Microsoft Germany, at the Windows-2000-forum on April, 27th. The conference was
organized by the Germany company debis (DaimlerChrysler Services AG) in Offenbach. Gallist repeated his
statement several times. So far Microsoft always claimed the product would be delivered this year. Until today
Microsoft Germany was not able to give further comments on Gallist's statements or to tell an exact release date
for Windows 2000.

Ik las dit berichtje dat een klein processor bedrijfje van plan is om een processor uit te brengen die hetzelfde werkt als Intel's Celeron.

Update: A small, struggling processor start-up is aiming to release the first clone of a Pentium II-class chip in the second half of the year, amid a ravaging price war.

Rise Technology, which makes a line of PC processors similar to the Pentium MMX, hopes to bring out a chip that will utilize the same packaging as Intel's low-cost Celeron chip, which comes from the Pentium II generation. The company is also expanding its workforce and seeking additional financing, according to Rise CEO David Lin.

If successful, Rise could become the first company with a product that's interchangeable with Celeron systems and, hence, the Pentium II architecture. National Semiconductor has been working on a Celeron-compatible chip but recently said it will sell its Cyrix processor division, putting the chip's fate in question.

Linux fans lezen alleen maar verhalen over Linux en documentatie over hoe het moet. Ze komen niet toe aan de praktische zaken. Nou ja, Linux kan best wel lastig zijn...

Employers beware. When hiring new techies, think twice before giving the job to an applicant wearing a Linux beanie hat. Exhaustive research by The Register's statistics division has revealed that any news story posted on the Web containg the L word is immediately pounced on by Torvaldians worldwide who obviously have little else to occupy their time.

Maandag worden Pentium III dingen goedkoper (niet dat iemand die nu zou kopen ). Ook Pentium II dingen worden goedkoper

As listed here, Chipzilla is chopping prices on Monday to make room at the top for the hot (literally) new P3 550 which will debut at $744. Other parts take a dive at the same time – the P3 500MHz drops from $637 to $482, the 450MHz is slashed from $411 to $268 as does the humble P2 of the same speed. The P2 400 drops to $193 from $234.

KBench, een Koreaanse site, heeft benchmarks van de G400 gepost. De info is in het Koreaans maar de grafiekjes zijn engels. Op hoge resoluties blijkt de G400 sneller te zijn dan de TNT2 en vooral bij 32-bit is het verschil groot.

Check KBench voor het complete verhaal. De game benchmarks zijn hier en de Wintune en 3DMark99 benchmarks hier.

Zoals je wellicht al gezien hebt zijn de SDRAM prijzen weer zwaar aan het dalen (na bijna een jaar stabiel te zijn geweest). Check dit stuk bij de The Register:

Richard Gordon, senior semiconductor memory analyst at Dataquest Europe, said: "We saw Q4 and Q1 pricing as being reasonably stable but in the middle of Q1 they went down significantly."

He said the PC-100 parts cost around $9 but was heading towards $7. "It's as little as $6 on the spot market," he said.

Part of the reason for the prices dropping was because US company Micron had aggressively ramped during the year. "It's because they have a very low die size and they're flooding the market," Gordon said.

Als je nu een paar reepjes RAM nodig hebt dan zou ik daar nog ff mee wachten. Op Pricewatch.com zitten de 128Mb DIMMen al rond de 90 dollar! Waarschijnlijk gaan de prijzen nog verder dalen en bovendien duurt het altijd even voordat we die lage prijzen ook in Nederland zien.

Voor de Q3A freaks onders ons heeft Fusion Industries een page gemaakt met alle Q3A console commands. Deze is hier te vinden.

Jaja, het is weer zover. Westwood's Tiberian Sun is weer eens uitgesteld, dit keer tot augustus. Dit is overigens al de derde keer dit jaar. En ze waren er nog wel zo zeker van dat ze het zouden halen voor juni, niet dus.

While playing the latest build of Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, a Westwood official broke the bad news to us. The game has been pushed back, once again, until August. Tiberian Sun was previously scheduled to ship sometime in June.

The Westwood representative claimed that more quality assurance and testing is required before Tiberian Sun could be released. Additionally, Westwood feels that unit balancing isn't quite up to par with its standards, and is busily working at remedying the problems.

Al het nieuwste E3 news staat overigens op deze site.

Graeme Devine van id Software heeft z'n .plan geupdate met de laatste stand van zaken wat betreft Quake3:

The main issues we're seeing are:

3Dfx drivers seem to be pretty darn difficult. About 50% of the emails comprise of 3Dfx issues including BSOD on NT, crashing during level changes, and crashing due to in game mode changes. We're working with 3Dfx on this.

The next biggest problem is that people run the game without running GLSETUP to update their drivers. Arrgh. Arrgh.

People claim that the TNT slows to a crawl when you in-game change the video color depth to 32bpp, but it's fine after a restart.

There's a "lag trap" quirk of firing the plasma gun 12 times at a wall, as people approach it the overdraw slows their systems and makes them vulnerable to hits.

There's a lot of people trying to run the game with 32mb of RAM.

Setting everything to "highest" (highest resolution, color depth, etc.) causes artifacts on the TNT.

Alt-TAB on a Matrox G200 causes the system to crash.

A lot of people wrote to let us know that they just love the game.

The main game feedback seems to be:

1. the new railgun sucks / and / or is / awesome.
2. the game is too slow / too fast.
3. make it more like quake 1 / quake 2.
4. the rockets are too slow / too fast.
5. people die too slow / too fast.
6. the graphics are awesome / too cartoony.
7. don't touch a thing / change everything.

LadyICE van Unreal Kingdom heeft ivm de recente aandacht voor geweld in games in de Amerikaanse media een mailtje gedropt bij Tim Sweeney van Epic. Hier heb je z'n reply:

LadyICE: I'm sure you're aware of the recent bruhaha regarding the possible correlation of violence in video games, and the steady increase in violence amongst our nation's teens.

Tim: Yes. Very much to the contrary, teen violence has been decreasing steadily over the past 20 years. The world really needs to make a distinction between media coverage and genuine statistics. The statistics paint a very different picture, regarding the magnitude of teen violence and correlation with various forms of media, than one would guess based on volume of coverage of the tragedies that have recently occured.

LadyICE: I came across this article today at Next Generation Online ( http://www.next-generation.com/jsmid/news/6590.html ), and in reading it, was curious to see how Epic will handle the possible onslaught of negative media coverage of Unreal/UT. If this article is correct in predicting that there will be major media outlets looking to uncover only the negative aspects of our industry, I personally feel that Epic will be a sure target. The reason I say this is because a couple of weekends ago, during a segment on the incident in Columbine on 60 Minutes, there was a screenshot of some kids playing video games and Unreal was one of them. My question to you is will Epic be doing anything different in their E3 preview version of UT in order to circumvent possible negative exposure by the media?

Tim: Unreal Tournament contains violence, and we're neither going to play that down to calm the media, or overemphasise it to get free publicity. Given our gameplay and visual/artistic goals, we think Unreal Tournament has an appropriate level of violence for the genre, and also that games of this sort aren't appropriate for everyone, especially young children. We believe in labeling our games with ratings (as we did with Unreal), so that people know exactly what they're getting when they buy Unreal and Unreal Tournament. As with R-rated movies, we don't believe our games are appropriate for young children, and we advocate parental involvement and responsibility in their kids' game buying. In the long-term, we expect the industry and/or government will get together and put the same appropriate controls over video games as with movies, and we support that.

-Tim

Ik zag via Unreal Kingdom dat Extreme Hardware een review van de Leadtek TNT2 heeft, die ze voor de verandering ook eens hebben gebenchmarked met de TNT2:

To supplement our usual set of Direct3D benchmarks, I decided to add a two new FPS Direct3D Benchmarks: Shogo and Unreal. Both benchmarks reflect not only the Direct3D performance of the card, but also help to give a rough indication of future performance, since many advanced Direct3D features such as multitexturing are implemented in these games. At high resolutions, Unreal’s vast worlds are simply breathtaking on the S320 II. Moving from 640x480 up to 1024x768 or 1280x1024, the worlds greatly increase in size and detail. While this is true in most games, the effect in Unreal is more profound. Furthermore, in Unreal the S320 II can handle smooth gameplay up to 1152x864, a far cry from the 640x480 and 800x600 resolutions commonly seen with earlier generation 3D cards.

Check de benchmarks: de TNT2 haalt 34fps met een PII-450 op 16-bit en 27fps op dezelfde config met 32-bits kleurdiepte. Niet super snel, maar wel aanvaardbaar.

Ik zag bij Bluesnews dat onze vriend Carmack van id Software 10.000 dollar heeft gedoneert aan Mesa3D.org:

May 1999 - John Carmack of id Software, Inc. has made a donation of US$10,000 to the Mesa project to support its continuing development. Mesa is a free implementation of the OpenGL 3D graphics library and id's newest game, Quake 3 Arena, will use Mesa as the 3D renderer on Linux.

The donation will go to Keith Whitwell, who has been optimizing Mesa to improve performance on 3d hardware. Thanks to Keith's work, many applications using Mesa 3.1 will see a dramatic performance increase over Mesa 3.0. The donation will allow Keith to continue working on Mesa full time for some time to come.

Ik zag op Sharky Extreme een newsposting over een nieuw moederbord van Abit, gebaseerd op de i810 chipset van Intel en mét onboard video en (A3D!) sound. Niet echt interessant voor de serieuze power users, maar minder slecht dan de baggertrage video/mobo/audio combo's van SiS en Cyrix:

Introducing a board specifically designed for the Celeron® line of processors and re-aligning Value PC standards, ABIT brings to the market the WX6. Based on Intel's new 810 chipset the WX6 is poised to bring the greatest price to performance ratio yet. With the 810 chipset, the WX6 supports: 66/100MHz Front Side Bus, Ultra DMA33/66, Two 168-pin DIMM sockets support SDRAM modules for up to 512MB, integrated AGP 2X 3D graphics accelerator with 100MHz Dynamic Display Memory Interface and On board 4MB SDRAM Graphics Memory, Aureal A3D 3D positioning PCI audio controller that supports A3D & DirectSound 3D games and 64 voice wavetable, ATX form factor, Five PCI slots and One AMR slot.

Michael van AnandTech heeft een review van de Labtec LCS-2414 speakerset gepost. De bijgeleverde subwoofer ziet er best wel heftig (grooot) uit. Hoe's de performance?

The Labtec LCS-2414 continue to surprise when it comes to sound quality, especially considering their size and price. Usually, the weakest part of a system this size and price is the bass response. With just a 4" sub, don't expect the bass to shake the walls, but what this sub does do is produce excellent distortion free bass that can go surprisingly low. Labtec claims that their dynamic bass equalization will prevent distortion of the bass at any volume level and it seems to be quite effective.

Eergisteren al aangekondigd, maar nu zijn ze er dan ook echt... de nieuwe Liveware!

wat versie 2.0 inhoud, en hoe je het kan downloaden kun je Hierzo vinden

Ook Sharky Extreme heeft een review van de Dynamite TNT2 Ultra gepost. De standaard snelheid is 175/200MHz, maar het is inmiddels duidelijk dat de overklokbaarheid van de Dynamite TNT2 extreem goed is. Bij Sharky Extreme halen ze 195/240Mhz!

During our test period, we managed to stabilize the Dynamite TNT2 Ultra at a core speed of 190MHz (15MHz over stock, and 40MHz faster than the Diamond Viper770's default speed) while boosting the SDRAM clock speed up to 236MHz.

At that speed the card was stable, and ran through limitless Quake2 crusher.dm2 cycles in a closed ATX case.

We also managed to get through benchmarks of the Hercules Dynamite TNT2 Ultra at a top speed of 195MHz core speed/240MHz SDRAM speed. This configuration was stable for the most part, but we found that it would experience random lockups after running within a closed case for periods longer than one hour.

Volgens een nieuwsbericht bij EBNews is AMD inmiddels begonnen met het samplen van de 500MHz K6-2. Naar alle waarschijnlijkheid zal-ie in het derde kwartaal in productie worden genomen:

Some distributors have already begun promoting the new chip on their Web sites, labeled as "coming soon". One, Lynn Computer Products Inc., has advertised the 500-MHz part at $439, which the North Lauderdale, Fla.-based distributor says is a tentative price. A 475-MHz K6-2 is being offered at $169, and should be available in a few days, the company said.

The additional speed grade was driven by customer demand, the spokeswoman for AMD, Sunnyvale, Calif., said. She noted too, that the yields of the company's microprocessors have also improved.

Gamewire heeft een review gepost van de CM-168 Clock Multiplier Kit, een dingetje waarmee meer multipliers kunt krijgen op oude socket5 en socket7 planken (die vaak maar tot 3x gaan):

Many people out there still own a Socket 5 or low-end Socket 7 system, only capable of only going up to 3.0x (multiplier)* or the lowly 2.0x, there is not much of a upgrade path avaliable. Sure you coud buy a Pentium Overdrive Kit, but other then that you dont have many options. On top of that the Pentium MMX is pretty much an antique anymore.

Here is where the CM-167 comes in, this nifty little kit lets you set the multiplier to your heart's desire. The purpose of this kit is to allow you to run a faster MHZ speed* processor and not be limited by a lower Multiplier.