Rivastation heeft wat info gepost over hoe je de Ultra TNT2 kaarten kunt onderscheiden van de vanilla TNT2's. Herkenning gebeurd aan de hand van de ID code's die je tijdens het booten in je PCI Device Listing kunt zien. Check Rivastation voor de stuff.

Nog voordat nVidia de v1.91 drivers officieel heeft gereleased, heeft Asus drivers uitgebracht die gebaseerd zijn op deze nieuwe reference drivers. Hier is de info, direkt geript van Riva Zone:

ASUS has posted a unified driver (runs on V3400 and V3800 series) based on 1.91 detonator. This release covers Win 9x, NT4 and even a new beta version of Live. Here are the links:

Win 9x 1.91 Driver
NT4 1.91 Driver
Tweak Util v. 2.01
Live 3000 v3.30

Here is what's new:

This 1.91 beta1 driver supports:

- Unified driver for V3400 and V3800, two products but only one driver release
- AMD K6-2 / K6-III - 3DNOW! Support for OpenGL
- Intel Pentium III - SSE Support for OpenGL
- New OnScreenDisplay for stereoscopic mode (better performance and effects)
- LiveSoftware 3.3 can now capture faster with better quality

Nog maar weer eens een review van de Elsa 3D Revelator. De reviews die we tot nu toe gezien hebben waarom allemaal erg positief over de performance van de 3D Revelator. De mening van PC Paradox is niet anders:

As said before, the REVELATOR glasses are pretty much a cool piece of hardware and deserve quite a bit of respect. Even though a bit gimmicky, they can make make some games much more fun to play, while some quite a bit harder. In games which were natively programmed and were "supposed" to run in D3D is where the REVELATOR makes the most headway and runs its best. In games such as Incoming, Descent 3, and Forsaken (gotta love the colored lighting the REVELATOR brings a whole new dimension (ouch bad pun to gaming. It was a lot of fun watching nukes and pine mines spatter people into little bits as I fragged away online with Forsaken, and the already beautiful graphics of Incoming combined with the REVELATOR had quite a synergistic effect.

Naast de aangekondigde samenwerking met Microsoft gebeurd er nog meer bij RioPort: vandaag hebben ze de opvolger van de Diamond Rio aangekondigd:

The next generation in portable Internet audio players has arrived. RioPort, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: DIMD - news), today announced that it has licensed Diamond Multimedia to begin shipping a new 64MB digital audio player, the Rio 500, beginning in August. The company also plans to offer several new Rio designs that support Microsoft's Windows Media Player and IBM's new high-capacity MicroDrives later this year. Diamond Multimedia will be the exclusive retail partner for the Rio 500, which is expected to have an estimated retail price (ERP) of $269. Additional OEM and private label partners are also expected.

Following on the heels of the company's ground-breaking Rio PMP300, the Rio 500 will feature several design and functionality improvements over its popular predecessor. Consumers can pre-order their Rio 500 through Babbages, Electronics Boutique and Comp USA beginning today. Pre-orders will also be accepted at www.RioPort.com and www.diamondmm.com beginning on July 12, 1999.

Next Generation Features

The Rio 500 is compatible with both PC and Macintosh (iMac and G3) platforms and uses a USB connection for blazing fast download speeds (significantly faster than with a parallel port connection). The new Rio design provides support for digital rights management through InterTrust®, ensuring copyright protection for digital content owners.

The next generation Rio also features RioPort's new integrated Rio Audio Manager software for complete management of digital music. Through the new software, Rio users have direct access to RioPort.com, the premiere site for digital audio content aggregation (see separate announcement made today).

The new Rio players will sport an improved user interface with a larger, back-lit LCD display and new teal, purple or silver casings. Playback formats including MP3, MPEG2.5, G.723 (Audible) and ADPMC are supported.

New ergonomic design features make the Rio 500 the fastest and easiest way to load and listen to hours of digital audio content. Among these new features are well-positioned buttons, a multi-function jog key and intuitive playback controls to recall the artist name, song title and playback time. The enhanced back-lit LCD display allows for easy viewing and supports graphics and other unique characters. Customizable EQ settings allow for personalized presets of bass and treble and control over various playlist options. The new RioPort compatible devices also feature special bookmark and control functions for playing back spoken audio content, including books, news stories, on-demand radio and other customized digital audio content found at RioPort.com

The 64MB Rio 500 can store and play back up to two hours of digital quality music and up to 32 hours of spoken audio content (more than twice that of the original Rio PMP300). Optional 16MB ($59) and 32MB ($99) Smart Media flash memory cards allow for additional hours of playback. The Rio 500 runs off a single AA battery for 13 hours of continuous playback. A direct-connect USB cable (included) negates the need for a dedicated docking station for data transport. The Rio 500 package includes the Rio player, earphones, a USB cable, carrying case, battery, Rio Audio Manager software and sample content (see below).

``With the plethora of new digital audio programming now available on the Internet, we have recognized that there are consumers who want different feature sets in their portable playback devices,'' said David Watkins, president of RioPort, Inc. ``Our engineers have developed several new Rio designs that will appeal to everyone from the beginner to the advanced user who wants very high capacity storage and playback for both entertainment and business uses.''

Spoken Audio Programming

One of the most compelling new uses emerging for the Rio is spoken audio playback, allowing people to listen to books, learn languages, receive news and more from their PC or portable player. The new Rio players are the only devices to offer feature sets specifically designed for this use, including a special bookmark control, giving users the ability to stop playback and then and resume where they left off. Rio Windows 95/98 users can playback more than 16,000 hours of spoken word content from Audible, Inc., including selections from novels by best-selling authors, audio newspapers, speeches, lectures and more. People interested in new spoken word content can go to RioPort.com to browse a vast selection of digital audio offerings available for purchase.

New Integrated Rio Audio Manager Software

The new Rio 500 will come bundled with RioPort's exclusive Rio Audio Manager software, which allows consumers to search, locate, create and playback digital audio content in one simple application. Rio Audio Manager's powerful integrated database allows users to store and categorize audio tracks and related information into a personal ``jukebox'' that they can easily sort through to find the songs and audio content they want to hear. The database supports CDDB digital tracks embedded with ID3 tags to provide information such as song titles, lyrics, CD art, and more. With Rio Audio Manager, Rio users can convert their CDs to the MP3 format or, in the future, to Microsoft's WMA format and store them on their PC; organize all their digital audio tracks into personalized playlists and albums that they can playback from their PC or portable music device; and even transfer MP3 and Audible data files back and forth between their Rio and PC. Moreover, Rio Audio Manager provides an integrated Web browser to search RioPort or other sites on the Internet without ever leaving the application.

The Rio 500 is also the first portable digital audio player to support the Macintosh platform (iMac/G3 systems) and ships with Casady & Green's SoundJam MP digital audio system. SoundJam MP provides a powerful suite of digital audio tools for iMac users, including MP3 encoding, playback and downloading to the Rio 500.

In-Box Music and Audio Content CD Sampler

On the Rio 500 in-box CD, users can access the Rio Audio Manager software, AudibleManager 2.0 software (see separate announcement made today) and a variety of digital audio tracks that can be downloaded from the disc to the Rio or desktop. The disc features MP3-formatted music tracks from two multi-platinum-selling artists, the Cowboy Junkies and Julian Lennon, and selections from the leading music sources on the Web, including CDuctive (indie label distributor), E-music (formerly Goodnoise), Epitonic.com (indie rock label), Fandom Records (Korean artists), JazzPromo.com (Juno Award-winning artists), MP3.com (tracks from a variety of genres), Riffage.com (cutting-edge music from new bands) and Songs.com (folk, rock and R&B). A sample of spoken word programs from Audible, including The New York Times, lectures from top college and poetry readings, are also included.

Security

The Windows versions of the new Rio models are designed to be MetaTrust(TM) ready and will be compatible with InterTrust's digital rights management (DRM) technology. InterTrust's sophisticated DRM system enables music labels, artists and other providers to deliver content with persistent protection against piracy during both online and offline transactions. RioPort is committed to providing robust support for multiple copyright protection schemes with upgradeable firmware solutions as new security systems emerge.

Future Rio Designs to Feature Microsoft Windows Media Support, Digital Voice Recording and High Capacity Storage

RioPort, Inc. is also working on a line of new high capacity Rio devices that will feature, among other things, support for Microsoft's Windows Media format, voice recording capability and a USB docking station for fast charging. Two models will be bundled with IBM's ultra-high capacity MicroDrives for up to 340MB of digital audio storage. Additional details of the future Rio designs will be available closer to the next-generation product line's expected release in the Fall of 1999.

Aarghh, Microsoft is everywhere. Rioport kan de verleiding niet weerstaan en laat zich pakken door Microsoft:

RioPort Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: DIMD - news), and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) today announced a broad relationship in which RioPort will incorporate support for Microsoft® Windows® Media Audio, a key feature of its Windows Media(TM) Technologies, in future Rio-brand digital audio players. Windows Media Audio (WMA) offers exceptional audio quality as well as digital rights management and content protection. RioPort and Microsoft will collaborate on the development of secure technology - Windows Media Management Services for the transfer of digital music between PCs and Rio-compatible players. In addition, the two companies will work together to provide easy access to downloadable audio content from their respective portal sites, www.WindowsMedia.com and www.RioPort.com.

``We are tremendously excited about working with Microsoft to support Windows Media Audio on future Rio-brand digital audio player designs,'' said David Watkins, president of RioPort Inc. ``The small size of Windows Media Audio files means consumers can fit more high fidelity digital audio content on their Rio players, and the Windows Media digital rights management system will encourage content providers to continually make more of their audio catalogs available in the WMA format.''

Future Rio players will support the Windows Media Audio format. WMA files are half the size of standard MP3 tracks while offering superior quality to larger MP3 files. Consumers who use Windows Media Audio will be able to store twice the amount of audio content on the new Rio players and still enjoy a high-quality listening experience.

``We're thrilled that RioPort has chosen to integrate Windows Media Audio technology into its next-generation Rio-brand players,'' said Anthony Bay, general manager, Streaming Media Division, Microsoft. ``Working together, RioPort and Microsoft will deliver to our mutual customers the best digital audio experience on the PC and on portable digital audio devices.''

RioPort is the first company to work with Microsoft on its Windows Media Management Services and related application services. Windows Media Management Services will enable software applications and peripheral devices, such as RioPort's line of Rio portable digital audio players, to seamlessly and securely transfer content. Windows Media Management Services will address the means by which protected content is moved from Windows-based systems to personal devices in accordance with SDMI recommendations and requirements. Microsoft, RioPort and other development partners will help further define and evolve Windows Media Management Services.

Wired News heeft trouwens ook nog een artikel over RioPort.

Ja, alleen mogen ze de benchmarks nog niet vrijgeven ivm een NDA :

As you read this, Maximum PC is closely monitoring a fully AMD-approved, 600MHz Athlon machine that's humming away in our lab; benchmarks will be released pending clearance from AMD. You can also set your sights on the September issue of the magazine, in which we'll feature test results and the full upgrading skinny.

The Tech Zone heeft een review van de allmighty Alpha P125 gepost. De indrukwekkende verschijning van deze cooler dwingt respect af bij iedere overklokker:

(ergens op de achterkant kan ook nog een nietige PII cartridge waargenomen worden)

Het ding blijkt er niet alleen tof uit te zien, maar het werkt ook: dankzij de P125 kreeg The Tech Zone een C366 stabiel op 550Mhz:

Temp wise, the system runs cooler running at 550Mhz at 2.3V than it did at 458Mhz a 2V with the stock heatsink. Right now, the unit is inside the Project 620 case and humming along at 550Mhz at just 80F. It has never went over 84F once, even after running 2 hours of Unreal timedemos!

I have tried backing down the voltage to 2.2 and that works fine for Windows and Quake 2, but Unreal would kick out after about 20 loops. I notice no temp drop by lowering the voltage. This is truly a kick ass heatsink!

Nu we toch met koeling bezig zijn: het volk van HardwareMasters.com heeft een system cooling artikeltje bij elkaar geschreven.

Systemlogic heeft een review van Win98SE in elkaar gedraaid. Microsoft blijkt het nodig gevonden te hebben om een of andere vuile copy protection op de CD te zetten, waardoor kopiëren moeilijker wordt:

Your good friends from Microsoft got smart and decided to make the CD copy protected, meaning that you're going to have a hell of a time getting it to work. When I copied it for, um, backup purposes I tried installing it to my machine again and I got a bunch of critical exception errors; however, when I used it to install drivers for my video card and for some of its applications, it worked without a hitch. [break]Hmm, wil je dat ding uberhaupt we hebben?[/break] The bottom line is that you can pay 25 bucks to fix a lot of problems (3000 bug fixes remember) or just deal with it. Either way you're getting screwed somewhat.

The Register heeft een interesse niieuwsposting over de deal tussen S3 en 3dfx, die uiteindelijk niet door ging (zoals bekend nam S3 Diamond over):

Sources close to the discussions have confirmed that 3DFx made an offer for S3. But it was an offer that S3 could and did refuse. Instead, earlier this week, it bound Diamond.

The issue at question for 3DFx is that its next generation chip, Napalm, has some problems with features and functionality, according to the source. While Nvidia's NV10 chip is exciting, the source said, the only thing that comes close to it is the S3 GX4. It "has a smaller die size and is the only serious contender on the block". For that reason, 3DFx wanted S3.

Unfortunately, it couldn't have, our source said. S3 turned down 3Dfx's offer.

Gamespot UK heeft een preview van Rally Championship '99 gepost. Dit spel gaat vèt worden. Niet alleen de graphics, maar ook de gameplay:

There's more to Rally Championship, though, than a meticulous approach to accuracy and detail. Magnetic Fields has also made it an enjoyable, playable game - one that'll satisfy both arcade and simulation styles of play. One nice touch is the ability to drive completely off the track, sometimes into the car parks of pubs, or to take a wrong turning for the sake of it, just to see what's down there. And the map you follow in the bottom right of the screen is the Ordnance Survey map for the real locations - which prompted one rally driver brought in to test the game to remark: 'We could use this for practice!'

Ja, die zijn vet of niet? Op de Europress site staan nog veel meer screenshots:

Slecht nieuws(of goed) voor de Amsterdamse(en omstreken) kabelnetters, MediaOne heeft het resterende aandeel van 50% in A2000 verkocht aan UPC.
UPC wordt dus volledig eigenaar van A2000 en het ligt dus ook voor de hand dat alle kabelnetters in A'dam en omstreken MOETEN overstappen op Chello.

Hier een stukie uit de tekst:

United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC) betaalt 487 miljoen gulden voor het 50 procents belang in A2000 van MediaOne. Ook uitstaande schulden van 255 miljoen gulden gaan over naar de nieuwe eigenaar.

De transactie zal, zo hoopt UPC, in het derde kwartaal van dit jaar helemaal zijn afgerond. Inclusief de ruim 535.000 klanten van A2000 heeft UPC dan 1,5 miljoen kabelklanten in Nederland.

Gelijk met de aankondiging dat UPC volledig eigenaar wordt van A2000 meldt het bedrijf ook de aandelen in Kabel Plus, een Tsjechisch kabelbedrijf met vertakkingen in Slowakije, van MediaOne overgenomen te hebben voor 150 miljoen dollar. MediaOne had een belang van 97 procent in de Oost-Europese kabelaanbieder.

Lees hier de rest van het bericht.

Ik zag via AMD Zone dit fotootje van wat een AMD Athlon zou moeten zijn:

Ik zag bij Hardware One deze twee artikelen die misschien interessant zijn voor Linux gebruikers:

Software RAID Howto
Multi-Head Displays in Linux

Uit het multi-display artikel heb je hier wat plakwerk:

If you're looking for ways to enhance your desktop, and you have the extra hardware available, then the cost and time requirements of multi-head are so low that they justify giving it a try. On the other hand, you may gain no practical benefits other than bragging rights, and there are real drawbacks to such a setup. Two monitors draw twice as much power and take up twice as much space on cluttered desks. In addition, running a proprietary X server may keep you from taking advantage of some programs which use XFree86-specific features, such as VMWare. The bottom line is that unl ess you are a computer graphics professional or something similar, going completely multi-head might not be practical. But if you are an adventurous user, I urge you to give it a try; you may come away pleasantly surprised.

Hardware Central heeft een artikel gepost over de multiplier lock, waarmee Intel het levensgeluk van ons overklokkers probeert te vergallen. Het artikel geeft geen oplossing voor de lock, maar probeert wel antwoord te geven op een aantal vragen, zoals de locatie van de lock (op de PCB of in de chip zelf):

If we take a look at the latest Intel Pentium II Specification Update and the Pentium III data sheets, the following comment is listed and I quote:

‘These parts will only operate at the specified core to bus frequency ratio at which they were manufactured and tested. It is not necessary to configure the core frequency ratios by using the A20M#, IGNEE#, LINT[1]/NMI and LINT [0]/INTR pins during reset’

Thus the latest Pentium II’s and all the Pentium III’s have a multiplier lock that is non-responsive to any signals on the A20M#, IGNEE#, LINT[1]/NMI and LINT [0]/INTR pins during #RESET. This proves that the multiplier cannot be on the PCB, leaving CPU-core as the only possible alternative.

Upgrade Center heeft een Hard Drive Roundup, waarin de Quantum Bigfoot TS, Fujitsu MPD3084AT en Quantum Fireball EX worden vergeleken. In feite is het hele verhaal al achterhaalt want de geteste schijven zijn al vrij oud. Verder valt er weinig info uit het artikel te halen, benchmarks ontbreken al helemaal... Maar goed, hier heb je een stukje ctrl-v over de Fireball EX (25% van het artikel):

Let me begin by saying I've had one Quantum hard drive in particular since 1994 that is stick ticking data today. For one I think that's a sign of a quality product, so when I received the Fireball EX for review quality and performance was what I expected and low and behold that's what I got! Every Quantum drive I've used since day one has always been quick and responsive and this one was no exception. The speed and access specifications on the drive were identical to the Fujitsu drive, but for some reason the Quantum seemed to be a little faster. Quantum has been known for making quick drives, but from a numbers stand point the fact that the Quantum would be faster than the Fujitsu doesn't make sense, so maybe it's just my imagination. I would recommend this Quantum drive for any system, it's quick, responsive and reliable. You're probably now asking yourself, how does he come up with this? Well, granted I can't use this drive for a few years like like I did my previous Quantum drive, but in my opinion the drives speak for themselves.

Hardware Upgrade heeft z'n June 1999 videocard comparison op het net gezet. De vergelijking is eigenlijk nog maar half af: naast het intro verhaaltje staan alleen de 3D benchmarks al online. Uit de benchmarks blijkt overigens dat de V3 (-3500) bij de meeste spellen het snelst is. Check de info hier.

Ik zag bij AnandTech Webnews dat Rivazone de laatste v.191 TNT/TNT2 reference drivers heeft gepost:

Download site 1
Download site 2

CGO heeft een review van de Matrox G400 gepost. Hier heb je wat info over Environment-mapped bump mapping op de G400:

Environment-mapped bump mapping is a little confusing. It's a feature, made available by DirectX 6, which can make normal flat textures look like they have relief and reflect their environment. Most current 3D cards support what is called "emboss bump mapping" which approximates true bump mapping by blending and converting an additional texture. This method is good, but has limitations that true EMBM does not. The emboss method cannot handle multiple light sources or lights of different colors, nor can it produce animated bumps. EMBM, on the other hand, quite easily produces effects like rippling waves, and more easily handles greater ranges of simulated bumpiness. This feature is being supported for spot-effects in quite a few titles, but like any new graphic effect, it comes at a cost. EMBM, like the emboss method, requires an additional bump map texture and some blending. Thus, it has the same performance hit as any other multi-pass rendering effect. This is typically between 10-30%, depending on how much of the scene is bump-mapped. Whether or not this performance cost justifies the improved visual quality is something that will vary from person to person and title to title. Regardless, only the G400 gives users that option.

In de review vind je een aantal bumpmapping screenshots en verder nog een paar benchmarks die de G400 met een oude TNT vergelijken. Check 't hier.

De FAQ op de AMD website is ge-update met een verklaring over de naamsverandering van de K7, die nu door het leven gaat onder de naam 'Athlon' (niet iedereen is daar even blij mee):

Question: Why did you choose AMD Athlon™ as the product name for the AMD-K7 processor?

Answer: In choosing the AMD Athlon™ product name, AMD wanted to emphasize that the new product represents a significant technological departure from sixth generation processors. Formerly code-named the AMD-K7, the AMD Athlon processor is a true next-generation processor in terms of its architectural capabilities and delivered performance.

Tevens zie ik dat Techweb inmiddels een artikel heeft gepost over de Athlon launch. Verder heeft Slashdot een Athlon newsposting, die is wellicht interessant vanwege de reacties die bezoekers daar (net zoals bij Tweakers.net) kunnen posten.

Ik zie bij Betanews dat Diamond en Creative nieuwe drivers hebben gereleased voor hun TNT2 kaarten. De V770 drivers kun je hier downen. De Creative Labs Unified Drivers beta version 1.13 (met Glide wrapper) staan hier klaar om neergehaald te worden.

Alienware heeft bekend gemaakt dat het de Canopus Spectra 5400 TNT2 kaart niet zal gaan importeren in de VS, zo bericht Gamespot. Hoewel voor ons hollanders niet zo belangrijk, gaat 't waarschijnlijk wel betekenen dat we de kaart ook hier in Nederland nooit zullen zien. De prijs is way te hoog:

"It's a great card that offers amazing visual quality," Alienware's Alex Aguila told GameSpot News. "Unfortunately, Canopus is simply asking too much for the 5400. To break even, we'd have to sell the cards for around US$330" - a daunting price for any video card, especially when you consider that Alienware is only weeks away from selling the dual 166MHz Voodoo3 2000 PGC video cards for less.

Ook AVault heeft interview gepost met S3. Uiteraard gaat-ie over het heftige & onverwachte nieuws over de overname van Diamond door S3. Hier heb je alvast twee Q&A'tjes:

AVault: How will this purchase affect the development of future graphics accelerators from Diamond?

Crossley: Obviously, S3 will continue to design graphics accelerators for a wide range of applications. Yet, in the case of business segments we do not design solutions for, we will continue to supply external chip solutions. Diamond's FireGL1 board with IBM's graphics chipset is an example of a product line that will continue to be externally sourced.

AVault: Will your investments lead to faster product implementation at a higher level of quality, or is Diamond already poised at the cutting edge? Specifically, what will this pairing mean to the consumer?

Crossley: Bottom line, this pairing should result in better, more highly integrated hardware and software PC graphics solutions as well as new and innovative products for emerging outlets.

Lees 'm helemaal.

AVault heeft een artikeltje gepost over de mogelijkheid dat Aureal, in navolging van 3dfx en Diamond/S3 nu ook zelf (geluids)kaarten gaat bakken.

Is Safir implying that Aureal is closing in on becoming a direct-to-retail provider? He did everything but confirm it is a done deal, saying, “I wouldn’t want to officially announce anything prematurely, but you can deduce what our plans are from current industry trends. Companies such as 3dfx are going right to consumer, and we are not oblivious to this trend. We have been closely analyzing our position in this business and what we might be able to do to bring the best possible audio technology to consumers at the best possible price.” Will this involve a similar merger with a company that has strong production and distribution muscles? Safir would not say.

In other words, the S3 and Diamond announcement does not alter Aureal’s plans. To be sure, the company is poised to move in this direction given its significant investment in brand equity with its Vortex line. Even the recent name change from Aureal Semiconductor to Aureal, Inc., points to this change in a roundabout way. Aureal is no longer just a semiconductor company, and has not been for some time. Companies must be prepared to react on a dime to the constantly changing and competitive high-technology climate, and Aureal, along with Creative Labs and its EAX technology, is a frontrunner in its field. Suffice to say, we are watching, or perhaps we should say listening, for the inevitable official word.

Check the Adrenaline Vault voor het volledige artikel.

Dat lees ik bij Stomped.com. Is wellicht leuk voor de gamende Maccers (voor zover die bestaan):

"In order to better support the MacOS community, 3dfx has decided to release Glide 2.x and Glide 3.x drivers for Voodoo2. These drivers will be completely generic in nature and not tied to any particular Voodoo2 board design. These drivers will be provided free of charge via our website. They are available on an as-is basis and are unsupported. Actual date of availability will be posted in this newsgroup, but it is our intent to make these drivers available within the next few weeks. It is also our intention to release similar drivers for Voodoo3 2000 PCI boards in the near future. Specifically, we will be releasing 2D display drivers as well as Glide 2.x and Glide 3.x libraries. These drivers will not be supported, and thus will be made available free of charge to users who would like to use them. We know there are compatibility issues with Voodoo3 on the Macintosh platform, and we will do our best to document them and ensure that both game developers and end users are aware of the issues. Specific information regarding availability will be provided via this newsgroup. OpenGL drivers for Voodoo2 and Voodoo3 that plug directly into Apple's OpenGL implementation will not be available. Instead, we will try to work closely with the developers of the Mesa 3D library to help bring OpenGL games to Voodoo2 and Voodoo3 users on the Macintosh."

Speedy3D heeft een artikeltje over texture compression in elkaar geknalt. Aan de hand van een aantal Quake3 screenshots wordt het verschil duidelijk tussen kleine 256x256px textures en (middel)grote 512x512px textures gemaakt:

As you can see the 512x512 resolution texture is much sharper and clearer then the sample taken at 256x256. There is quite a bit more noticeable detail, and it looks much more realistic. Here is another sample using the same conditions as the first samples, again 256x256 is on the right, and 512x512 is on the left. Notice how much more realistic the gun looks. Click for a larger image.

IBM heeft alvast een aantal nieuwe Aptiva's met AMD Athlon / K7 processor aangekondigd. Hier heb je een stukje uit een nieuwsposting van C|Net News.com:

NEW YORK--IBM will showcase the power of the new K7/Athlon chip from Advanced Micro Devices when it brings out a fancy, high-end consumer PC packing the chip this summer.

Big Blue's move could present a challenge to Intel's high-end PC dominance and the key to AMD's survival.

IBM will bring out the high-end Aptiva S series computer with AMD's coming K7 processor and a novel industrial design, according to industry sources familiar with the

announcement. The K7/Athlon, meanwhile, may officially be announced later this afternoon in a conference call.

Behind closed doors, IBM is demonstrating the computer at PC Expo here, according to sources. IBM would not comment.

The S series is IBM's flashiest, most-feature-packed consumer PC line and is usually reserved for the swiftest chips from Intel, such as the fastest Pentium III processors.

Entry into the S series would be a big boost for AMD, which has seen most of its chips confined to machines costing less than $1,200. The K7, which sources say will likely be marketed as the "Athlon" processor, represents a potential break with the past for AMD.

The chip's innovative design has received rave reviews from analysts, who say it should equal or surpass Pentium III in performance. A 600-MHz Athlon, one source said, will equal a 700-MHz Pentium III. Test drivers of beta models say the chip "smokes." Along with IBM, Compaq Computer is expected to release Athlon systems later this summer.

A recently announced delay in Intel's 600-MHz "Coppermine" chip, a souped-up Pentium III, has given AMD a historic chance to wear the performance processor crown for PCs for potentially the rest of the year. Athlon-based PCs are expected to start hitting store shelves when the chip goes into volume production toward August, said sources, and run at 500 MHz, 550 MHz, and 600 MHz, with faster speeds following.

System Logic heeft een review van een TNT2 kaart waar we nog niet zoveel van gehoord hebben: de AOpen PA3010. Het ding is standaard geklokt op een erg conservatieve 125/140Mhz, maar dat valt uiteraard wat omhoog te tweaken:

The drivers for this card, was what made it stand out for me more than anything else. The best part of it was the ability to tune (tweak) the performance speed of your card. We got the card up from 140/125 to a speed of 160/160 which increased performance significantly. It also made the card go from the slowest of 3 TNT2 cards, to the fastest, faster than the 32MB TNT2 from Skywell. This is what really impressed me, and the fact that AOpen went into the drivers and pretty much customized everything is great. Here are screenshots of all the panels for the drivers:

Computer Gaming Review heeft wat zitten kletsen met Keith Galocy, een of ander mannetje van 3dfx. In het interview worden een aantal leuke vragen gesteld, over o.a. Glide, het boycotten van Metabyte's PGC technologie, Glide en texture compression. Deze vraag over onboard geometry processing vond ik ook wel interessant:

CGR: Geometry on-board the graphics chip would seem to take much stress of the CPU with floating point intensive games. What’s your opinion on this and does 3dfx see the possibility of this feature for a future graphics card?

KG: This is a very complicated area. The big problem with offloading the CPU with a graphics geometry engine is the danger of decelerating geometry. Especially with the progress that Intel and AMD have been making in floating point performance. No one wants to repeat the fiasco of the first few 3D graphics cards that actually were slower than software rendering. So our philosophy will be to incorporate geometry on the graphics processor when we can significantly accelerate geometry beyond what the fastest CPU can perform.

There are many ways to increase the realism of the computer rendered graphics. 3dfx is as much interested in image quality that results from high-quality pixels, as from increased geometric complexity. So features such as fast anti-aliasing, multiple textures, and other advanced pixel-based effects are as important as geometry. The proper balance between all these features is what is important. For example, 100 million polygons per second without anti-aliasing is an out-of-balance system. And anti-aliasing with 100 thousand polygons per second is also out of balance.

Chris Conolly van Planet Hardware heeft een review over de Creative / Cambridge Soundworks FPS2000 speakers in elkaar geknutseld. Plaatje:

De subwoofer heeft een vermogen van 25Watt en de satellites doen 7W. Tesamen blijkt dat een erg vette experience te geven:

The sound quality, when used with any Vortex-2 or SoundBlaster Live board is without a doubt, breathtaking. After experiencing A3D along with EAX 3D positional audio with a four speaker setup like the FPS2000, two-speaker setups simply seem "faked" now, and don't seem to deliver the punch they used to. Sound quality was on par with such incredible setups like Midiland's S2/4100, which is more than twice the price of this setup, and only has two speakers. Sound quality is dramatically helped by the stereo speaker cabling used by higher end setups like this one. The highest notes to the lowest lows were flawless, and were up to stuff with high-end speaker sets.

Dit is dan weer slecht nieuws voor AMD :

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD - news), Intel Corp.'s (Nasdaq:INTC - news) main rival in microprocessors, said Wednesday it would post a much larger than expected loss for the second quarter, citing a sharp decline in prices and lower shipments for its K6 processors.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD said it would post an operating loss in the range of $200 million for the quarter ending June 27. Based on about 146 million shares outstanding, the loss would come to about $1.37 a share.

Wall Street analysts had been expecting a loss of about 40 cents a share, according to First Call, which tracks estimates.

In the first quarter, AMD reported a net loss of $128.4 million, or 88 cents a share, including a $15 million restructuring charge, or 81 cents a share, before charges, as production problems and steep price cuts hurt its earnings.

Despite substantially higher production of AMD-K6 family processors, AMD said it expected average selling prices and unit shipments would fall substantially below earlier expectations for the second quarter. AMD said it expected to produce more than six million AMD-K6 family processors, but it was unlikely to record sales of more than 3.7 million units.

AMD said pricing pressures in the market came from what it called very aggressive pricing of Intel's Celeron processors, and the liquidation of processors from Cyrix Corp. as it exits the market. Last month, National Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:NSM - news), said it would exit the PC processor business it entered with its 1997 acquisition of Cyrix.

AMD executives said on a conference call that price-cutting by Intel during the quarter was so fierce that in some instances, they believed it was imprudent to match the prices of their Celeron chips. Selling prices for the K6 chip fell to the low $60 range in the second quarter vs. about $78 in the first quarter, AMD executives said.

``Overall, the K6 family of processor (average selling prices) took a beating,'' AMD Chairman W.J. Sanders III said on the conference call.

He said the company now expected that total revenues for the second quarter would be less than $600 million. That compares with $632 million in the first quarter of this year and $527 million in the year-ago second quarter.

Sanders said the second quarter operating loss would be offset by a more than $400 million pretax gain on the sale of its Vantis subsidiary, but added, ``these operating results are a bitter disappointment.''

Separately, AMD said it had begun shipping its next generation K7 microprocessor, dubbed the AMD Athlon, in speeds of 500, 550, and 600 megahertz.

The 600-MHz Athlon processor is priced at $699, the 550-MHz at $479, and the 500-MHz at $324 in 1,000-unit quantities. AMD's stock fell $1.06 to $18.03 in Nasdaq trading. The news was issued after the market closed.

Hopelijk heeft de Athlon de force aan de goeie kant .

Zag bij GA-Source een nieuwsposting over S3TC support in de Lithtech2 engine van Monolith. Blije nieuws voor Savage3D / Savage4 klanten:

Lithtech2 is proceeding along nicely. Among other things, S3 texture compression is in now which reduces our texture file sizes and will make a big difference on cards that support it. I was amazed at the quality of S3's texture compression library, I can't even tell the difference between uncompressed and compressed textures (but then maybe that's because I don't want to see it Just in case, each texture can be stored as compressed or uncompressed.

AMD vandaag (iets eerder dan verwacht) officieel de AMD Athlon (ja, zo heet-ie dus echt) aangekondigd. Hier is de info uit de press release

JUNE 23, 1999--AMD today announced that it has commenced shipments of its new seventh-generation microprocessor, the AMD Athlon™ processor, to computer manufacturers. Formerly code-named the AMD-K7 processor, the AMD Athlon processor is initially available in speed grades of 600, 550, and 500 MHz.

"For the first time in the history of the computer industry, AMD leads the competition in delivering an entirely new generation of processors that offers not just higher clock speeds, but higher performance and processing capabilities clock-for-clock based on a more advanced architectural design," said W.J. Sanders III, chairman and chief executive officer of AMD. "This announcement is truly a watershed for AMD and the entire industry because it heralds new choices based on superior processor technology for system platforms in the enterprise space."

About the AMD Athlon™ Processor Family Name

The AMD Athlon processor is a true seventh-generation processor in terms of its architectural capabilities and delivered performance. In choosing the product name, AMD wanted to emphasize that the new product represents a champion of competition and delivers capabilities and performance significantly better than the existing AMD-K6® processor family.

About the AMD Athlon™ Processor Architecture

The AMD Athlon processor is an x86-compatible, seventh-generation design featuring a super-pipelined, nine-issue superscalar microarchitecture optimized for high clock frequency; the industry's first fully pipelined, superscalar floating point unit for x86 platforms; high-performance cache technology, including 128KB of on-chip level-one (L1) cache and a programmable, high-performance backside L2 cache interface; enhanced 3DNow!™ technology and multimedia performance; and the AMD Athlon system bus--a 200-MHz system interface based on the Alpha™ EV6 bus protocol with support for scalable multiprocessing. The initial versions of the AMD Athlon processor are manufactured on AMD's 0.25-micron process technology in Fab 25 in Austin, Texas.

AMD Athlon™ Processor Pricing and Availability

The 600-MHz AMD Athlon processor is priced at $699, the 550-MHz AMD Athlon is priced at $479, and the 500-MHz AMD Athlon is priced at $324, each in 1,000-unit quantities. End-user systems based on the AMD Athlon processor are planned to be available in Q3.

Cautionary Statement

This release contains forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are generally preceded by words such as "expects," "plans," "believes," "anticipates," or "intends." Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements in this release involve risks and uncertainty that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. Forward-looking statements in this release about the AMD Athlon processor involve the risk that AMD will not be able to produce the processor in the volume required by customers on a timely basis; that AMD may not be successful in developing an infrastructure to support the processor; that third parties may not provide infrastructure solutions to support the processor; and that the processor will not achieve customer and market acceptance. We urge investors to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including the most recently filed Form-10K.

Let ook op de prijsinfo halverwege de tekst: $324 (/1000st.) voor een Athlon-500.

FPS3D.com is een petitie gestart tegen de plannen van Phoenix om advertentie space te gaan verkopen in hun BIOS startup scherm. Deze info kreeg ik per mail:

We have created a petition to Phoenix Technology's recent announcement that they are selling advertising space on their BIOS chips. BIOS chips that are in 70% of the world's computers. You shelled out cold, hard cash for your computer -- and now they treat you like you got one of those "free PCs"?? Sign the petition, let's stop this madness before it gets out of hand: http://www.fps3d.com/petition/

Doe mee!