Wired News heeft een artikeltje over het Easy PC initiative van Intel en Mikrosoft, waarmee beide bedrijven hopen wat meer leven in de brouwerij te brengen wat betreft case designs (zeg maar Apple na-apen):

Apple's iMac made more than one PC user wish in vain for a rainbow of tasty computer colors.

Before too long, PC users yearning for color will get their wish. Intel and Microsoft's Easy PC initiative is pushing colorful PCs and unusual tower shapes for late 1999 and early 2000.

Intel spokesman Michael Sullivan said that Easy PC concept prototypes will appear at Miami's Comdex in September.

Intel heeft op de Intel Developers Conference een kudde bunnies losgelaten die daar een paar alternatieve case designs hebben zitten showen:

Matrox heeft een press release gepost waarin het zegt de z'n G400 de snelste videokaart is in de GameGauge 2.0 torture test. Hier is de soep:

Matrox Graphics Inc. today announced that the Matrox Millennium G400 MAX outperforms all other competitors’ cards at the highest resolutions and color depths on Computer Gaming World’s GameGauge 2.0 test. Pitted against 14 other cards in the high-resolution Torture Test, the Matrox Millennium G400 MAX scored an astounding 23.9 frames per second average at 1600 x 1200 resolution in full 32-bit color.

"The recent GameGauge 2.0 Torture Test scores are testament to the Millennium G400 MAX's ability to truly shine under extreme gaming conditions. This is proof positive that gamers no longer have to shy away from running their favorite 3D games at high resolutions and in 32-bit color! Even the 3D gods at id Software were blown away with our high-res performance in Quake 3 Arena," says Jason Della Rocca, Developer Relations Manager, Matrox.Graphics Inc.

The Matrox Millennium G400 MAX’s stunning high-resolution performance comes as the Matrox Millennium G400 Series is also being recognised with a range of rave reviews and awards. Following the recent E3 Conference in Los Angeles, California, Matrox was honored with Combatsim’s "Best of Show (E3) Video Hardware" for the Matrox Millennium G400 MAX, ExtremeHardware’s "Best Overall Hardware of E3" award for the Matrox Millennium G400 Series, and AdrenalineVault’s "Best of E3 (Hardware)" award for the Matrox Millennium G400 MAX.

PC Rapide (ja, dat is een Frane site in het frans ) heeft een review gepost van de Matrox G400 en G400Max. Hier heb je een stuk:

En 32 bits il est clair que Matrox s'en sort très bien. Pour le moment le leader dans ce domaine restait l'ATI 128 qui était le seule chip graphique dont les performances ne chutaient pas lourdement lors du passage dans ce mode. Les résultats du TnT quant à eux s'effondraient littéralement tandis que le TnT 2 s'en tirait un peu mieux. Les résultat obtenus avec une carte à base de G400 nous démontre donc la puissance inhérente à son architecture mémoire.

Waarschijnlijk zeggen ze hier dat de G400 vet veel sneller is als de TNT2 wanneer 't op 32-bit performance aan komt. Nou is het niet helemaal gek dat je geen fluit van frans begrijpt, maar gelukkig hebben ze ook een paar benchmark grafiekjes en bump mapping screenshots die wel leesbaar zijn voor normale mensen.

Versie 1.1.4. van Fastcard is gereleased. Als je een hekel hebt aan Powerstrip dan is dit een handig & klein alternatief. Hier is de info over nieuwe features in v1.1.4:

- NVidia Riva TNT2 & TNT2 Ultra support.
- Registry Watcher (see User Guide for details).
- Voodoo3 bug fix (clock speed not applying properly).
- New 3Dfx icon (you can stop pissing at me now!!).

Sharky Extreme heeft een preview gepost van de S3 Savage/MX, dat is die 3D accelerator voor mobiele pc's die gisteren door S3 werd aangekondigd. Bij Sharky Extreme zijn ze erg positief over de performance en beeldkwaliteit van het ding:

As far as we're concerned, just the fact that the Savage/MX and /IX are capable of providing the performance we've seen already is amazing. Throw in the fact that the parts support some very high end 3D features like bump mapping, S3's texture compression, and anisotropic filtering, and the picture of how important they will be when they arrive becomes very clear.

For the record, the differences between the MX and IX come down to one factor: Integrated DRAM. The IX version of the mobile Savage uses up to 16MB of DRAM integrated on a Multi-Chip Module along with the graphics core, while the MX forgoes the on-die RAM in favor of external modules. Both are expected to perform similarly, no matter what the configuration the OEM selects.

Benchmarks hebben ze ook: in Quake2 haalt de Savage/MX 30fps op een PII-400 met beta drivers en een res van 1024x768. Meer info vind je hier.

Yamaha heeft vandaag z'n nieuwe YST-MS55D speakers aangekondigd. Hier heb je wat geblah uit de press release:

Yamaha Corporation, the world's largest manufacturer of musical instruments, today announced the launch of its new Yamaha Powered Multimedia Speaker System (YST-MS55D) for PCs that promises high-fidelity sound and easy connectivity using the USB interface standard.

The YST-MS55D will debut in electronics and computer retailers throughout Japan from July 1. In the U.S., Yamaha has already begun promoting the YST-MS55D at the suggested retail price of US$179 as well as its identical twin, the MS50 which does not have USB standard support. In Europe, the product will go on sale this fall.

The latest addition to the Yamaha range of speakers for PCs, the YST-MS55D is a three-piece system of two satellite speakers - one each for the left and right channels - and a small subwoofer which incorporates Yamaha's own Advanced-YST (A-YST) technology(a) for realistic bass reproduction. Yamaha also chose to use spruce pulp in the speaker ``cone drivers'' or diaphragms because of the pinewood's excellent resonance characteristics.

The result is a system powerful enough to deliver a natural, vibrant sound and yet small enough to nestle neatly in the limited space around a PC monitor.

The YST-MS55D is also easy to install because it is the first Yamaha system to take advantage of the USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard, a new interface standard for moving data between PCs and their peripheral devices. With USB, users don't need to adjust system settings, insert add-in cards or restart their computers when adding peripherals. The availability of PCs equipped with USB ports and the number of peripherals that can be connected have both been rising rapidly since USB support became standard on Windows98 last year.

Before USB, the digital signals from a PC's music CD or software were converted into analog signals by the computer's D/A converter and then output to the speakers, a process that risked contaminating the sound signal with noise originating from inside the computer. As a USB ``plug-and-play'' connection can be used to send the digital signals directly to the speaker system which then converts them to analog, extraneous computer noise is reduced and playback quality further enhanced.

Hier komt weer een overzicht van game reviews, previews, interviews, screenshots e.d.:

Daikatana screenshots (Voodoo Extreme)
Sherman Project (Half-Life mod) screenshots (GA-Source)
System Shock 2 preview (PC Zone UK)
Sorcery interview (Gamers Crypt)
Rogue Spear screenshots (Rainbowsix.net)
Alien vs Predator review (Gamespot)
Unreal Tournament fly-by screenshot (Unreal Universe)
Oni preview (Sharky Extreme)
Rune interview (Unreal Universe)
Final Fantasy VIII preview (IGN.PC)
Graeme Devine (id Software project manager) interview (Gamespot UK)
Dario Casali (Valve level designer) interview (Barrysworld)
Empire Earth screenshots (Screenshots.net)
Desert Fighters demo review (3DGaming.net)
Drakan screenshots (Gamespot UK)
Deus Ex preview (U-Games)
Messiah screenshots (3D Unlimited)
Boss Rally review (Gamers Central)
Odium screenshots (Gamers Crypt)
AMA Superbikes preview (CGO)
Extreme Mountain Biking review (Evil Avatar)

De ontwikkelaars van Mortyr (= nazi's neerknallen) hebben een probleempje: Interactive Magic, die oorspronkelijk het spel zou uitbrengen, is overgenomen door Ubisoft en die wil het spel niet uitgeven. Lullig:

Due to Interactive Magic's recent publishing deal with Ubi Soft, their 'Nazi bashing' 3D first person shoot em up, Mortyr, is reported to be looking for a new home. While Ubi Soft is happy with the other six titles that came with the deal, they are a bit squeemish about publishing the violent Mortyr but are confident that it would be picked up easily by another publisher if put on offer.

Ik kwam via Ace's Hardware bij deze press release van Micron, waaruit blijkt dat Micron inmiddels de eerste RIMMs voor Intel aan het samplen is:

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced shipment of 128 Meg and 144 Meg RDRAM® (Rambus® DRAM) samples to Intel Corporation. These components are intended to support 600MHz, 712MHz, and 800MHz speed grades. Samples will be available for customers as soon as initial evaluations are completed and production volumes of RDRAM devices will be available in the second half of 1999.

"Micron's successful development of RDRAM devices enhances our leading position in the highly competitive DRAM industry," said Steven Appleton, Micron's Chairman, CEO and President. "By focusing RDRAM development on 0.18um process technology, Micron will deliver very competitive memory products for the introduction of Rambus-based systems this fall. Over the course of the last year, Micron has gained extensive production experience on our 0.18um process. Based on previous manufacturer's announcements, Micron's RDRAM devices are the smallest in the industry. We are fully prepared to bring Rambus technology to market and anticipate becoming a volume leader in the latter half of 1999."

Dat is weer prettig nieuws voor Intel / minder prettig nieuws voor AMD.

Jeremy van AGN Hardware heeft een review van de Creative 3D Blaster TNT2 Ultra gepost. Zoals veel andere Ultra TNT2 kaarten draait dit ding standaard op 150/183Mhz, maar dat kan uiteraard opgekrikt worden met oc-proggies zoals Powerstrip:

The Creative TNT2 Ultra seems to be just fine for the overclocking loving public, by offering the ability for 183MHz for the core and 210MHz for the memory. Creative only offers a slider for adjusting the memory timing with their drivers, but access to Powerstrip or any other tweaking program with support for the TNT2 can change that. I played around with Powerstrip and had the core up to 190MHz and the memory up to 220, a speed that seemed to have been working. This turned out not to be true though as I was left with a lockup while running 3Dmark 99Max. I then moved down the speeds to 183MHz/210MHz, speeds that proved to be quite stable. Even after leaving 3Dmark 99 Max in demo mode overnight, the computer was still working with no lockups the next morning. Overall the 3D Blaster Ultra seems to be performing as good as the Hercules Dynamite TNT2, for those of you overclocking lovers out there.

Op zich is 183/210 niet slecht, maar de Dynamite TNT2 blijft toch de snelste (die haalt rond de 190/225MHz).

Oei, ernstig nieuws van onze vrienden van de BSA: 40% van de zakelijke software is illegaal geïnstalleerd. Check deze info van The Register:

In a survey conducted jointly by both trade organisations, an estimated 615 million new applications were installed across the globe last year, 231 million of them unlicensed.

That figure was up 2.5 million copies on 1997's figure, and represents a cost to the software industry of $11 billion. [break]Opmerking van The Register:[/break] In value terms, North America, the UK, Germany and France all generated a high financial impact, even though the level of piracy was fairly low. That tells you all you need to know about just how high prices are in the West. The level of piracy in Western Europe fell by three per cent over 1997's figures, suggesting that software companies are starting to price their products at a point where fewer users feel they need to pirate software.

Volgens The Register zal Intel pas eind dit jaar 550Mhz en 600MHz versies van de Coppermine (= PIII met 256Kb on-die L2 cache). Dat betekend goed nieuws voor AMD:

Intel is not confirming or denying that its Coppermine process will be delayed, because it won't speak about unannounced products.

But the word on the street is that CuMine, is, indeed, on the back burner.

According to various reports, Intel will release 550MHz and 600MHz parts at the end of the year, and a 666MHz part in the first quarter of next year.

Problems, problems. Compromises, compromises.

But the delay, if true, will give succour to chip rival AMD. Intel's strategy was to introduce CuMine early and queer AMD's pitch.

<Herhaal header> en voor 6495 dollar is <kwijl>ze</geil> van jou:

SGI today announced that it began volume shipments of its Silicon Graphics 540 visual workstations, as scheduled. These new graphics workstations are the only systems based on the Intel and Microsoft Windows NT platform to offer compute-intensive application users the power to scale up to four processors on a single system. Additionally, Silicon Graphics 540 delivers professional-level digital media editing capabilities to Windows NT users starting from under $6,500.

As the only graphics workstation to offer the ability to run four processors on a single desktop system, Silicon Graphics 540 delivers proven scalability to users running processor-intensive analysis applications such as Kinetix's 3D Studio Max. In rendering test results on 100 animation images with effects, running on two and then four 500MHz Intel Pentium III Xeon(TM) processors, Silicon Graphics 540 demonstrated a 40-percent increase in application performance when scaling up to the maximum processor support. From animators and video editors to engineers and scientists, four-processor scalability means a significant reduction in modeling and rendering time for graphic and compute-intensive applications.

Priced beginning at $6,495 (U.S. list), the Silicon Graphics 540 visual workstation can be configured with up to four 550MHz Intel Pentium III Xeon processors and 2GB of ECC SDRAM memory. The system comes standard with six available PCI expansion slots, two available storage bays, integrated floppy drive, 32X max CD-ROM and Ultra2 SCSI hard drive with up to 54GB disk capacity. Silicon Graphics 540 also features 10/100Base-T, USB, S-video, composite video and audio and with additional software, IEEE-1394. Silicon Graphics 540, and the Silicon Graphics 320 are available through SGI's direct sales force, value-added resellers, telesales (888-400-4744) and online at www.sgi.com/visual.

Planet Riva heeft een review van de Skywell Magic TNT2 gepost. Eerder kwamen Systemlogic en Guru3D tot de conclusie dat het wat betreft overklokken niet zo vrolijk zit bij de Skywell. Planet Riva heeft vergelijkbare ervaringen:

As far as the "Ultra High-Speed" SGRAM is concerned; since it is rated at 7ns, anything over 165Mhz caused severe screen artifacts and system instability. So that pretty much sums this baby up in a nutshell. It's a good card for people who prefer not to over-clock and want a TNT2 card that has a fan on it, plus a 150Mhz default core setting. They can count on getting solid 150MHz core/150MHz memory default performance with it. Which is a lot better than what some of the other TNT2 plain vanilla's do at their default settings. But as for the over-clocker's, don't plan on sliding the clock settings up very high on this one. It is a little sad, because the prospect of it's having SGRAM seemed to hold so much potential. Hopefully the Skywell Magic TNT2 ULTRA version will perform better than this one does. And hopefully it will have 5.5ns or faster SGRAM on it, now that would be really nice to see.

De Skywel Magic TNT2 draait dus standaard al op 150/150MHz en dat is hoger dan de 125/150Mhz van veel andere 'vanilla' TNT2 kaarten. Volgens Planet Riva heeft Skywell een Ultra TNT2 kaart in de planning die op 183/183 zou moeten gaan lopen. Die kaart zou nog wel eens interessant kunnen worden (sneller dan veel andere Ultra TNT2 kaarten, maar waarschijnlijk toch vriendelijk geprijst).

Nog een Logitech USB mouse review bij USB Workshop: deze is van de Wheel Mouse USB, een erg populaire muis (de halve aardbevolking gebruikt de PS/2 versie):

The shape fits nicely on both hands. Since button functions can be reassigned and configured very easily with MouseWare, it should suit everyone's need. It feels a bit too flat though if you are used to "big" mices like Microsoft IntelliMouse or MouseMan.

It is also odd that I can hear a slight sqeaking noise coming from the mouse ball when I moves the mouse -- possibly mechanical glitches of the motion sensor in my review unit.

On the usability side, the 2 buttons and the wheel scrolling rate are customizable. There is a huge list of functions, like "Minimize All", "Double Click", "Task List", "Recall Application", or keyboard function keys, that can be assigned to any button. It maybe great in that area, though MouseWare is lacking in some laptop efficient features provided in the Microsoft IntelliPoint driver, such as "Sonar" or "Wrap-over".

Bij The Tech Zone hebben ze de The Card Cooler aan een review onderworpen. Ze te lezen zijn ze erg blij met het ding:

Besides being a great device to cool down hot video cards, The Card Cooler can also be used as a case cooler. I found that out when I installed the unit in another computer with no case fans. This was a Celeron running at 458Mhz with a Creative TNT video card. With the case cover on, it runs at a very hot 102F. With the case cover off, it's still runs quite hot at 96F. Once I installed The Card Cooler the system temp went down to just 89F, with the case cover on! With The Card Cooler now blowing air at the TNT card, I was able to overclock the Creative card to 110/120 without any problems. This is just as high as I can get with a TennMax cooler. However, the TennMax cooler won't lower your case temp 13F or let you keep your video card warranty.

En zo ziet het ding er dus uit (reepje metaal met twee 8cm fans):

Anand heeft een review van de IWill BDF100Plus slot1 mammaplank in elkaar geknutseld. Dit is IWill's tweede generatie slot1 bord, met een 5/2/1 (PCI/ISA/AGP) configuratie en 4 DIMM slots. Als één van de weinige niet-Abit planken is dit ding jumperless en doet hij aan voltage tweaking. Serieuze concurrentie voor Abit?

Out of the 24+ hours AnandTech tested the Iwill BD100Plus, it crashed a total of two times, both crashes weren't related to memory or other hardware issues rather seemingly software related crashes. While overclocked, even when using the 124MHz FSB setting, the BD100Plus performed on par with the ABIT BX6 Revision 2. The test bed's stability at 133MHz was hindered due to the unwillingness of the Matrox G200 to operate at the overclocked 88MHz AGP frequency. The performance of the BD100Plus was slightly higher than what competing boards tend to pull in as far as Winstone and Quake 2 benchmarks are concerned, however as AnandTech has made it a point to stress, performance should not be the deciding factor in any motherboard purchase unless the board in question is an unusually slow performer.

Voor de verandering eens een review van een scanner: de Umax Astra 1220U, gereviewed door WickedPC. Hier heb je wat info over de 1220U (USB) in vergelijking met de 1220S (SCSI):

What's the secret to really wanting the 1220U though? Price. The 1220S is almost $40 more expensive than the 1220U. Even though each scanners specifications are exactly the same except for the USB or SCSI choice, the USB version is less expensive because there's less hardware required on UMAX's part. The results are pretty shattering. Even if there's an extra 10 seconds required to scan, the ease of use and the price drop are reason enough to buy it hands down. The image quality is just the same, which was quite impressive to say the least, and things just work like they should.

Voor de review surfen we naar WickedPC. Lees voor meer info ook de review van de 1220S.

Creative begeeft zich in de markt voor ADSL modems (zal aartsrivaal Diamond prettig vinden). Hier heb je de info van C|Net Nets.com:

Creative Technology will offer internal and external ADSL G.Lite modems from the third quarter of this year.

ADSL G.Lite offers speeds of up to 1.5 mbps and do not require visits from the phone company to install the service. They are always connected, and users can simultaneously have a phone conversation while browsing the Internet, using only a single phone line.

Said Creative chief executive Sim Wong Hoo: "Creative's goal is to build better vehicles for the Internet information highway. These broadband solutions will deliver on this promise and enable a host of exciting audio and video enhanced Internet services and applications.

"It is our intent to be a leader in this new exciting market."

Using Lucent Technologies WildWire modem chipset, Creative will offer a combined ADSL G.Lite and V.90 modem on a single PCI card. This will allow people to use V.90 now and switch later to an ADSL connection.

Errug leuk allemaal, alleen zitten we hier in Nederland met KPN die geen ene moer opschiet met ADSL (afgezien dan van de Snelnet proef in Amsterdam). Van wat ik ervan gehoord heb (Snelnet presentatie hier bij mij op school) zullen de kosten in eerste instantie behoorlijk hoog zijn, maar zal er wel gerekend worden met flat rates (dus niet meer betalen per seconde).

Firingsquad heeft een nieuw deel gepost in hun 3D Guide. Dit keer gaat het over onderwerpen zoals Texture Filtering, Shading en Lighting. Hier heb je een stuk over Mip Mapping (ook weer zo'n leuke vaak gebruikte term waarvan niemand weet wat het betekent):

How do we fix depth aliasing artifacts? Simple, we use mip mapping. Mip mapping is the practice of using several different sizes of the same texture to represent the texture on screen at different distances. A large MIP map would be used on a nearby object, and progressively smaller mipmaps would be used as the object gets farther away. The different sized mipmaps are all pre-filtered so the quality of the smaller mipmaps will be better than those created by bilinear filtering on the fly.

In addition to depth aliasing artifacts, MIP mapping also solves another problem. The images used in texturing always remain the same size no matter where they are on the screen. The same texture can't be used to create depth, because the image won't shrink as it gets farther away. A wall with a brick texture looks awfully conspicuous when the bricks don't get any smaller as the wall trails off into the distance. MIP mapping overcomes this problem by providing the smaller MIP maps needed to create illusions of distance

USB Shop heeft een review gepost van de USB versie van de Logitech Mouseman Wheel muis. Om deze muis gaat het dus (heb je vast wel eens ergens in een winkel zien liggen, als je 'm zelf al niet hebt):

Hier heb je wat info uit de review:

This section is pure subjective. The shape design of MouseMan is supposed to be comfortable, however, its odd shape requires a bit get used to. Comparing with Microsoft IntelliMouse, MouseMan is a bit low/thin to start with. After using it for a few days, there is a mysterical aches on my thumb, I suspected it is because I put my thumb a bit too high, as a result I unconsciously pressing hard on the side all the time; a good posture is definitely needed.

Nevertheless, MouseMan fits my palm nicely. And if you are right-handed then you should not have any problem too. Furthermore, buttons are responsive, and I get the sense of actually clicking on something with them. The wheel is "lighter", smoother and it is notched, making it even easier to turn. Mouse sides have the special material that is less slippery.

JC heeft een FAQ bij elkaar geraapt over de K7, waar alle reeds bekende info over de K7 in verzameld is. Goeie info, hier heb je een stuk over de prijs van de K7:

The price of the K7 is a big unknown blot in a sea of misinformation. So far, we've had estimates of the 500MHz part hitting $800 at startup (courtesy Sharky's, of course), and of the same part hitting around $250 at intro (this one's from techweb, I recall). In reality, I think we can expect the K7 to be priced reasonably close to parity with similarly L2-cached P6 parts, perhaps somewhat above. PIII-500 currently runs for as low as $450. I'm told that Intel's most recent price drop just occurred, so I think it would be logical to assume that the K7-500 will be above $400 when announced (at least if it were on pricewatch).

One bit that seems to be too oft-forgotten ist he motherboards. I've heard guesses as high as north of $300 for Slot-A boards. Surely, Slot-A is packed with some pretty advanced (for x86, that is) technology, and probably costs more to produce than the Slot-1 boards, especially given that it is using an untried-for-consumer-market EV-6 architecture. I presume that prices may start around $200, just as the Slot-1 boards started. I get the impression, however, that the current boards are built with cutting costs in mind, so I can accept some boards starting perhaps $150. Then again, I could be totally wrong and we could see $110 Slot-A boards popping up right away!

CGO heeft een review gebakken van de alom bekende Diamond Viper V770. Hier heb je een stuk over de "3D Gauge Settings" (zeg maar 'overklokken') van het ding:

The V770 Ultra is based on the "TNT2 Ultra" specification from NVIDIA, which means a default setting of 150MHz for the core processor and 183MHz for the memory. Diamond provides a "3D Turbo Gauge" in their control panel with 5 boost settings, allowing users to push the card up to 175MHz core/200MHz memory. To help keep the card stable at such speeds, a heatsink/fan combination is used. It works pretty well--we had no difficulty using the card through a heavy weekend of frequent use at the highest setting, though different users will likely have different maximum speeds they can safely achieve.

CGO geeft de kaart een 4/5, met als grootste nadeel z'n hoge prijs van 249 dollar. Check de review voor meer info.

Ik heb weer leuk nieuws voor de Mac freaks hiero. Inmiddels zullen die een teringhekel aan mij hebben gekregen omdat ik niet zo blije ervaringen heb met de Macs (en omdat ik die negatieve ervaringen hier nogal duidelijk kenbaar maak ). Anyweg, ik was dus bij MacOS Rumors (yup, ik - pc gebruiker - kom door regelmatig) en kwam daar dit rijtje met info over de Apple consumor portable (draagbare iMac) tegen:

Expected moniker is "WebMate."

300MHz PowerPC 750 processor

66MHz main bus, 512k backside L2 cache (rumors of a cacheless version persist but are considered unreliable).

32MB of RAM, expandability up to 384MB with SDRAM SO-DIMMs (same as used in Wallstreet, Lombard, and iMac).

2MB ATI 64-bit graphics supporting millions of colors in 832x624 resolution. Unknown whether resolution will be switchable.

11" passive matrix LCD display. Display quality will be industry-leading for this price point, but still behind the latest professional models.

"Bulletproof" enclosure designed to survive nearly any accidental impact or fall. Employs high-strength plastics similar to iMac and Blue G3. Design will employ translucent colors not from any existing Mac, rumored to be based around smoke grey and purple (colors are highly speculative and not confirmed). Form factor reported to take a page from the eMate's book, but due to design constraints it will be significantly larger and may not include a handle.

Total weight approximately 4.5 pounds.

Because of the curvaceous design, thickness measurements can be misleading, but reportedly the enclosure will be approximately 3" thick in the middle and approximately 1" thick at the edges.

Expansion port of some type (either a Mezannine PCI slot or PC card slot) to accept wireless LAN and Internet access options.

Built-in 56k v.90 modem and 10/100 Ethernet.

Two USB ports

Supports NetBoot capability

Reported retail pricing: $1349

Da's een mooie prijs voor een laptop. Een oplossing voor het brakke MacOS 8.x is onderweg (in de vorm van MacOS X), dus wie weet worden Macs ooit nog echt bruikbaar [voor mij ]

Idiot (zo noemt-ie zich) van Ace's Hardware heeft een paar opmerkingen gepost over het artikel van The Microprocessor Report waarin een aantal zwakheden van het K7 design worden besproken. Als we Ace's Hardware moeten geloven dan zit alles ok bij de K7:

For the BHT part on Branch Predictor, AMD has said that K6's was an overkill and this choice of BHT size will help the MHz ramp and reduce die area. Next the register files in K7 can do lots of reads and writes in one cycle namely 9 read an 8 write for their integer future file and register file (IFFRF) and 5 read 5 write for the FPU registers. As for not having bypass circuitry, the FPU register can actually do a write on a register that's being read in the same cycle, so this becomes a non-issue for FPU.

As for the schduler depth, since K7 will be fed very well by its 64bit/16 byte multi-ported L2 bus, it should be full most of the time according to MPR and the centralized scheduler could keep 72 MOP on the fly. For the on-die tag, although it might only support 512KB 2-way, the fast lookup speed will do much good for the hit/miss ratio. Also, this feature is even at work when K7 is using additional off-chip tag rams.

We zullen zien (over een paar weken).

Gamers Depot heeft een review gepost van de Hercules Dynamite TNT2 Ultra. Performance king of the hill?

The reason we chose to use the latest reference drivers on both cards, was to get down to the hardware as close as possible. This way everything is the same, except for the cards. As you can tell from the scores, the Hercules card is a no-holds-barred, ass stomping card, that should be on the top of any gamers list as a "must have". I've personally never seen a faster TNT2 product of any kind. One thing to note in the crusher demo, is how the CPU became the bottleneck. This is evident by how we couldn't break into the 60FPS range even with the higher default clock rates on the Hercules. We're also hopeful that Hercules will keep up with the end user by releasing up to date drivers.

Verder zit er weinig info in de review, helaas ook geen overclockers info.

PC Paradox heeft een artikel over bump mapping in elkaar gekwakt. Als je de screenshots van de G400 bekeken hebt dan zul je gezien hebben dat (environment-mapped) bump mapping errug vet is. Hier heb je een hap info over deze vorm van bump mapping:

Environment mapping is achieved through the use of 3 separate maps for each bump mapped object or scene. The first map is the base texture map containing all the normal colors of any texture mapped object. The second is the actual "bump" map. The bump map is a list of height values for each individual texel and is also known as a height map. This height map is then added to an "environment map" (thus it's name) which can be many things. Most often, the environment map is a light map, but often can be another texture map. The possibilities are endless on what the 2nd pass (the one with the environment map) can do. It can perform many effects and is the reason why Environment mapping is so flexible. Once the environment map, texture map, and bump map are finally blended together, the finished product is there.

Meer voer over bump mapping vind je in dit artikel van Gamasutra (gisteren in het nieuws).