Computer Exchange heeft een review van de V3800 Deluxe op het net gezet. De kaart draait op 150/175MHz, hoewel ik heb begrepen dat dit eerst 150/183MHz was, en inmiddels zelfs 175/200 (check deze nieuwsposting van 15 juni). Helaas geen overclockers info in de review, wel een opmerking over de bijgeleverde 3D shutter glasses:

Those glasses, not exactly the trendy set that you'd walk along the street with. (If you do, I worry for you). They basically bring the picture of the monitor closer to you, giving games a 'true' 3D look. You thought it was that easy. You were wrong. After multiple attempts at getting the images on the glasses to match up with the monitor, I just gave up. The glasses only support direct 3D games, so forget about using this in Quake 2 or Tribes (which use OpenGL). It would have been a nice feature, if they had actually worked. Elsa have also integrated glasses onto their TNT2 package, the Erazor III. They look substantially cooler as well !!

GA-Source bekijkt kabelloze ActionLink LAN set van ActionTec, die op het interne huis-telefoonnetwerk aangesloten dient te worden. Hier is een stukje uit hun review:

ActionTec's software is capable of switching which computer is treated as the server on the fly if multiple computers have modems and/or other means to connect to the Internet. As an example, if you have 4 machines on the network, and 1 has a cable modem, and one of the others has a standard modem, the cable modem would be your normal server. Unlike most other Internet sharing software, DynaNAT would automatically switch to using the standard modem if the machine that has the cable modem was turned off, or lost its connection. This can be really handy for use with multiple computers on a dial-up account.

Onze russische vrienden van iXBT Labs hebben in Moskou een AMD Developer's meeting bijgewoond, en daar hebben ze wat interessant info vandaan weten te halen. Er gaat een socket versie van de K7 komen, alleen is nog niet bekend welk socket dat gaat worden:

The idea of dividing the whole PC market into a number of clear-cut segments is still occupying the manufacturers' minds. For example, AMD is going to produce its K7 not only for the already promised Slot A and Slot B, but also for Socket. However, no one knows yet which Socket it will be. We can only suppose that it will hardly be a Socket7, because in the year 2000, when Socketed AMD K7 is due, Socket 7 won't be that popular any longer. That's why it is likely to be either a Socket370, which has every chance to become the absolute sales hit, or the "improved" Socket418. Or even a totally new Socket if AMD considers itself to be skillful enough in promoting its own CPU interfaces. By the way, in order to make it easier for customers to choose the right processor, AMD will provide its K7 Athlon with multicolored logos - each color will denote a particular market segment. So, from now on we will decide on this or that CPU regarding their color and not their performance.

Hmm, is de Athlon uberhaupt wel te combineren met een Intel (BX, Camino whatever) chipset?

iXBT-Labs bericht dat er fake G400's in de omloop zijn:

Matrox is troubled by the fact that some G400 based graphics cards have recently appeared in retail in a number of oriental countries. The matter is that Matrox itself never sold any cards to anyone, because the first official supplies are planned only for July, when the complete drivers version is due. You are probably wondering where these graphics cards come from? The official version sounds as follows: the presently available cards based on G400 belong to some Taiwanese manufacturers, who bought these chips directly from NEC. And NEC had previously received an order from Matrox for manufacturing a certain amount of these chips. Of course, NEC had performed absolutely illegally having sold the devices, but according to some sources NEC has very grave problems with the security team of the plant. In other words, the chips were stolen - as simple as that. And then some skillful guys made the cards and provided them with the beta-drivers.

(Thanks to Robert voor de link)

Systemlogic en Beyond3D hebben Q3 screenshots gepost van resp. de 3DLabs Permedia3 en Videologic Neon 250. De beeldkwaliteit lijkt bij beide kaarten okee te zijn (links P3, rechts Neon 250):

Unreal Universe heeft een Q&A'tje gepost met Tim Sweeney, de man achter Epic / Unreal. Het interview bestaat uit drie vragen, waarvan hier eentje:

Unreal Universe: What's the status of the next Unreal patch?

Tim: The next patch will be out before Unreal Tournament ships. It contains the latest majorly improved Direct3D code, some OpenGL improvements, some server improvements, and other minor fixes. We'll be using public feedback from the patch (which shares the same C++ code, hardware driver code, etc with UT) in the very final stage of testing UT before shipping.

Verder nog wat info over de status van Unreal Tournament en de coolheid van Tim's nieuwe Corvette .

Hmm, Bill heeft weer iets nieuws bedacht:

According to the NY Times, Microsoft plans to introduce a feature in the next version of its Windows operating system that allows users to determine which type of games can be played on the computer. Such a feature could enable parents to prevent a game with gruesome violence, offensive language or nudity from being played, based on the game's content rating. Access to games based on ratings or titles could be limited based on user names or a password.

The participation of the rating groups and game creators could be critical to the success of the feature. So far, no game procducers have agreed to embed ratings in their new games, but executives at several companies, including GT Interactive Software, Mindscape Entertainment, Acclaim Entertainment and Interplay Entertainment, said their companies would consider doing so.

Anti-geweld zachtwaar? Nu maar hopen voor Billie dat 't niet crasht ...

The Heatsink Guide heeft een review gepost van de Tiger Electronics HDD Cooler. Het gaat hier om een passieve koeler, in feite gewoon een grote koelvin. Omdat er geen fan op zit maakt het ding ook geen herrie:

The performance of the passive hard drive coolers depends very much on your case ventialation. If airflow through the case is good, then they provide good performance, if ventilation is poor and heat accumulates in the drive frame, then these passive coolers won't help much. Under typical circumstances, they will provide sufficient cooling for today's 7200rpm drives (especially for today's 7200rpm IDE drives, which run much cooler than the first-generation 7200rpm SCSI drives).

Ace's Hardware heeft een nieuwsposting geplaatst over de stand van zaken wat betreft de ontwikkeling van AMD Athlon moederborden:

According to this Ctech Taiwan report, Asus, Gigabyte and Microstar have completed their K7 motherboard samples. Gigabyte and Microstar will stick to AMD's Slot-A chipset whereas Asus will use a hybrid chipset of AMD northbridge and a VIA southbridge. Mass productions of these motherboards are expected to start by end of July or August, with Asus's K7 board expected to come out first. The actual shipping date of the motherboards will be dependent on both the availability of K7 and "Intel's mood". Also, it's projected that AMD will ship a total of 1 million K7 by the end of 99. [break]Verder nog deze blurb over VIA's Slot-A chipset, die zal in eerste instantie geen 133MHz FSB ondersteunen (onder druk van Intel?):[/break]

Another Ctech Taiwan report says VIA's initial Slot-A chipset will feature AGP 4X and DDR PC133 memory support, but the FSB is only at 100 Mhz, duh!! 133 Mhz FSB support will only arrive next year. Again, duh!!! Also, VIA's Slot-A chipset series will be known as KX series. VIA KX chipset is expected to be introduced in August, and mass produced by end of Q3 or early Q4.

Kijk, dit is wat we nodig hebben: een draagbaar dingetje dat zowel MP3'tjes als CD'tjes afspeelt:

A number of small companies are working to bring downloadable music into the mainstream with devices that can play both CDs and MP3s. Vertical Horizon, a 20-person company based in Los Angeles, has said it is working on what it hopes will be the first such device available in portable form in the United States. The as-yet unnamed device should debut later this year, said Tay Yoo, marketing manager of Vertical Horizon. The company has already made a non-portable version. "CDs will eventually become obsolete and music will be downloaded from the Internet," Yoo said. "In the meantime, people will want to play both." The technology is based on a specialized chip the company has devised that lets a player read MP3 files off a CD, Yoo said. MP3 is a popular digital download format for music.

Meer info in dit nieuwsbericht van Techweb.

Sysop Solutions heeft een artikeltje in elkaar gedraaid waarin wordt uitgelegd hoe de PIII van zijn behuizing ontdaan kan worden. Uitleg gebeurd aan de hand van duidelijke foto's, errug handig dus.

Ik kwam via Hardware One bij dit artikel over IBM's Electronic Newspaper. Moet je die foto zien:

This project explores future methods of news and information delivery and use. It is designed to search for and select news items that are of interest to the subscriber and send the information to him/her periodically over the Internet. This device connects to a service provider via a telephone line or TV cable and quickly downloads the latest information that has been collected on the news server. The news is loaded into the memory of the electronic newspaper and then the first 16 dual-sided pages are displayed.

"Conceptual 'lead' projects like the IBM Electronic Newspaper are extraordinarily valuable as a method of developing human-centered products. It seems fundamentally right to pick a ubiquitous channel for information distribution, such as the newspaper, and understand it from a user's viewpoint. The truth is, we understand more about technology than people, but it's people who use this stuff. Effectively linking past, present and future, the Electronic Newspaper is smart, fully technological and yet has the feel of a familiar object. I especially like how the 16 flexible 'Tyvek' pages allow the paper to be rolled and thumbed through, but are 8.5x11 so they fit into briefcases and onto copy machines."

Nog maar weer eens een review van de V770 Ultra. Deze is van Extreme Hardware, altijd wel goede info. De drivers van de V770 zijn voorzien van een overclock slidertje, waarmee je de snelheid in vijf stappen kunt variëren tussen 150/183 en 175/200MHz. Uiteraard ging ExtremeHW op zoek naar de meest optimale setting:

In overclocking testing, I was unable to get the Viper to run stable at level five [175/200MHz], although level four seemed to work fine. Turok 2 was the only game in where I ran into problems, and the problems disappeared when the overclocking was bumped down to level three. I refrained from posting overclocked benchmark results in this review for a few reasons. First of all, at EH we don't officially encourage overclocking (although we do enjoy writing overclocking disclaimers). But the main reason why comparison benchmarks were not included is because overclocking the Viper V770 Ultra never provided more than a few frames per second increase, never enough to make a substantial difference in gameplay. Furthermore, using the 1.88 NVIDIA reference drivers often nets a larger performance increase than overclocking does, and switching a driver set is far safer than overclocking. On the other hand, if you switched drivers and also overclocked....

Verder véél (QII, Unreal, Shogo, Incoming, Turok 2, SiN) benchmarks, dus check de review.

The Sanctum heeft een review in elkaar gedraaid van de GlobalWin FA420 cooler, die je bijv. kunt gebruiken om een TNT2 te koelen. De resultaten die ze met een Guillemot Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 behaalden zijn helaas best wel droevig...

After applying the 185/185 speed we fired up GLQuake II and after a few seconds of playing, the textures teared like Niagara falls and the screen locked up. We knew 185/185 was too high. Working down from that number we tried 179/183. This time we only overclocked the chipset 4MHZ more. We booted into Windows without incident, but again once we fired up GLQuake II it froze. We came back for more, but this time we left the core chipset speed stock and brought the memory timing up to 186MHZ. We fired up GLQuake II with no problems, but the frames gained wasn't large.

In plaats van 175/183MHz een snelheid van 177/185 stabiel, daar doe je het niet voor .

Coolinfo heeft een review gepost van de Xitel Storm Platinum, en geven 'm een rating van 95%. Hier een stuk over de 3D geluidskwaliteit:

Some of the most impressive 3D sound I’ve heard has came from the technology demo’s bundled with the card. You’ll hear helicopters flying in the sky, racecars darting around a track, and bees flying around your head in full 3D sound. The experience is truly visceral. Mere technology demos, however, are not what most people are interested in. There are several games that take advantage of the capabilities the StormVX Platinum has to offer, as well. And all of them sound phenomenal. Be it one of the newest additions, such as Star Wars Episode 1: Racer, or something older, the 3D sound quality, especially under A3D 2.0, is impressive. It’s not at all uncommon to hear near precise sound reproduction. If a something is behind you and a little to the left, pinpointing the location, especially with a four-speakers, is not in the least bit problematic. As a matter of fact, it adds another level of depth to nearly any game with support for 3D sound.

Firingsquad pakt weer eens de primeur: de eerst review van de Abit BP6.

As this is a dual-CPU motherboard, any changes to one processor are implemented on the other as well, meaning that you can only overclock as fast as your slowest chip can handle. Fortunately, Abit saw this limitation during development, and allowed for two separate CPU voltage adjustment channels. Your high-tolerance chip may be able to get away with 85MHz FSB at 2.0V, but if the second CPU is giving you voltage-related problems, just up that one individually to 2.2V!

We tested overclocking on the BP6 with 2 Celeron 433 PPGAs. One of them wouldn't overclock at all with a standard motherboard, while the other achieved 488MHz (6.5 x 75MHz) with little problem. Using the BP6's 72MHz intermediate, we were able to get the dual system booting at a respectable 468MHz. It's amazing to think that the most versatile overclocking motherboard available is not just a Socket-370 board, but a DUAL Socket-370 motherboard! Kudos to Abit for taking the Celeron seriously and treating it like the high-performance chip Intel doesn't want us to see.

Firingsquad zegt dat 'widespread distribution' van de BP6 op 28 juni begint, dus over een paar week moet-ie ook hier in Nederland te koop zijn. Voor info en benchmarks: check de review!

Overclockers' Workbench heeft nog wat coole info over de Abit BP6. Eet dit:

The BP6 has variable dividers instead of fixed ones e.g. 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 for different FSB. Yet to confirm.

- Updates to ABIT BP6 specs - overclocker 6:47pm (Singapore time)

If you have been following the discussions in the forums and newsgroups, you have noticed that there is a great interest on this board that is to be released in a weeks' time. Here are some updates and corrections to what I have posted earlier on from different sources.

This board supports two Celerons but it can also function with a single Celeron processor.

External Clock FSBs are as follows :
- 66, 72, 75, 78, 80, 82 ~100 (at 1Mhz steppings), 124 and 133Mhz (I have confirmed this settings with ABIT). The previous posting of having 2Mhz steppings from 100~110Mhz is not correct.
- 66 ~ 91 (1/2), 92 ~ 100 (1/2), 124 (1/4), 133 (1/4)

Both CPUs can have separate CPU voltages.

Turbo Frequency is to increase FSB by 2.5% instead of 3%.

Uses HPT 366 Ultra ATA/66 Chipset.
- IDE 1/2 : UDMA/33, IDE 3/4 : UDMA/66
- Supports up to 4 UDMA/33 drives + 4 UDMA/66 drives

Supports Wake On Lan, Keyboard, Mouse

Check Overclockers' Workbench voor een screenshot van Softmenu op de BP6.

Voodoo Extreme meldt dat 3dfx nieuwe reference drivers heeft uitgebracht, voor zowel de Voodoo 1 als de Voodoo 2. Hier zijn de links:

Voodoo 1 v3.01.00
Voodoo 2 v3.03.00

Avault heeft een interview geplaatst met Francois Lourdin (productmanager van Infogames) over Alone in the Dark 4. De game zal aan het einde van 2000 uitkomen.
Hier een klein stukje van dat interview:

AVault: What are the creative goals of this new project?

Lourdin: To arouse the primeval fear of the dark felt by each of us. The new episode gives the player an experience that is comparable to being in a cinema, except that he is the actor. It is real-time 3D cinema that gives the player the opportunity to experience and share this extraordinary adventure.

AVault: A lot of things have changed in computer gaming since the release of the third title. Nevertheless, what are some of the classic elements the series pioneered that will be revisited?

Lourdin: At the time of its release, Alone In The Dark revolutionized the adventure genre as much in terms of technology as gameplay. Not only was it the game that introduced polygonal 3D into the adventure genre, but it was also the first to combine adventure with action. But what characterizes the first episode the most is the fear and anguish being the driving force behind the gameplay. Alone In The Dark 4 will blend the same scary atmosphere and nightmarish monsters of the original while leveraging tomorrow’s advanced technology.

Er is een nieuwe Bleem! demo uitgekomen waarvan de verbeteringen precies het zelfde zijn als dat van de full version.

GT stopping at NOTICE screen on Win95

Speed Limiter Adjustments

Final Fantasy 8 Compatibility

Je kunt 'm hier (222KB) ophalen

Ook op Gamecenter is er een review geplaatst over Descent. Het krijgt een vette 9 door een betere gameplay en de uitstekende graphics.

In the previous Descent games, each level involved a key hunt and culminated in a countdown to escape after you blew up the reactor. But the gameplay in Descent 3 is deeper and more varied. The levels have numerous evolving goals and different styles of play. For instance, one of the early levels, in which you have to cover the evacuation of a base under attack, plays like a strategy game. You can place automated turrets and proximity mines at choke points to fend off the attackers streaming through breached walls while you race around to protect the base's reactors. The dynamic nature of the AI is obvious when you replay this level, especially at different difficulty levels.

Ik zag bij Voodoo Extreme deze info over de shipping date van de (eindeloos gedelayde) Videologic Neon 250 (midden augustus dus):

The VideoLogic Neon 250 features the NEC PowerVR 250 graphics processor with full 2X AGP support and integrated 250MHz RAMDAC and comes with 16MB of high performance SDRAM memory running at 125MHz.

Customers worldwide will be able to purchase Neon 250 from retailers and mail order companies as well as direct from VideoLogic online at www.videologic.com from mid–August 1999.

Kevin Dale, marketing and sales director, VideoLogic Systems, says: "Already Neon 250 has achieved considerable acclaim, and with good reason. Our recent internal testing shows that for Quake II and III Neon 250 will be the highest performance 3D graphics card available on the market. At just over £100 Neon 250 is the only choice for gamers."

On a PIII 500 PC with 128 MB of RAM Neon 250 is capable of scores of over 55 FPS on the Quake II Crusher Timedemo at 1024x768 resolution with 16-bit colour, full 16-bit textures and maximum texture detail.*

Neon 250 is based on the PowerVR 250 chip, part of the PowerVR Series2 family designed by VideoLogic Technology and NEC. Other PowerVR Series2 chips are used in Sega’s Dreamcast™ console, the Sega Naomi™ arcade system and on the R-Cade Vision 250™ from VideoLogic for the ArcadePC platform.

Op deze page van Videlogic.com vind je meer info over de Neon 250.

Techweb heeft een artikeltje gepost over de PC Expo, waar ze ff een poll hebben gedraait over hoe de gemiddelde IT-bobo over Mikrosoft denkt:

In a random poll conducted Thursday among corporate information technology workers, users expressed little loyalty to the Redmond, Wash.-based software maker in the antitrust case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. That case was expected to complete the final day of the trial stage Thursday.

The Justice Department has charged that Microsoft abused its near-monopoly in PC operating systems to extend its dominance in the browser market.

A possible outcome of the trial could involve a breakup of the company, which has five high-tech operating units involved in the computer hardware, software, test and measurement, and telecommunications industries. [break]En als ze Billie toch in stukken zagen, dan zijn er genoeg bedrijven die het 'belangrijke' werk van Billie over kunnen nemen :[/break] "That could be better for the software industry -- it would allow competition," said Kevin Lincoln, a technology specialist at Columbia University in New York. "It would allow smaller companies a chance to get into people's desktops."

"If Microsoft loses, it won't be a major issue," Mullan said. "It would open up the market to smaller companies that care more and pay more attention to detail."

If Microsoft is broken up, there will be others to fill in the gap, said Owen Long, the owner of the Doctor Data consultancy in Brooklyn. "There are plenty of people just waiting for it to happen," he said.

"There are 20 companies just waiting to get into their space," said Richard Lederman, a computer programmer at Credit Lyonaise Bank in New York. "And there would be four new Microsoft companies out there doing just what [Microsoft chairman] Bill Gates did."

Zowel Intel als AMD doen het op dit moment niet erg prettig op Wall Street. Beide aandelen daalden gisteren in waarde:

Shares of AMD, Intel, and other PC-related stocks fell today, as investors worried that the combative PC chip price wars are also indicative of slower-than-expected PC sales.

Late Wednesday, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD said that it would report a bigger-than-expected second quarter loss, as it shipped fewer K6 processor chips than planned, hurt by increasingly aggressive price cuts by rival California chip maker Intel.

As expected, many analysts on Wall Street cut their earnings estimates on AMD, but also held out hope the company's next generation processor, the Athlon, will compete with Intel in the higher-priced corporate PC market.

Shares of AMD fell 1 1/8 to 17 1/16 in active trading on the NYSE. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel lost 1 1/2 to 55 1/16 on Nasdaq, also in active trade.

While AMD painted a picture in its conference call of being under attack by Intel, the 800-pound gorilla, analysts said that Intel's aggressive behavior may also be a reaction to slower-than-expected PC sales in the second quarter.

"Intel is worried about their own business,'' said Dan Niles, a BancBoston Robertson Stephens analyst. "I think when you do the post-mortem on Q2, it's going to be clear that demand is not good.''

De pappa's van Rivazone hebben een Maxi Gamer Xentor TNT2 kaart gereviewed. Het exemplaar dat Riva Zone was nog geklokt op 175/195MHz, hoewel nieuwere releases zijn ge-downgrade naar 150/183Mhz. Wat betreft overklokken komen ze daarom ook niet verder dan de 175/195Mhz setting:

While the Xentor32 doesn't include a utility for setting core and memory speeds. TNTClk works perfectly for setting these variables. I found that the board I tested was nearing its maximum. I really was not able to squeeze much more performance out of it. It seems that the Guillemot engineers found the "sweet spot" and stopped there. If the 150/183 speeds come up in later releases, you should be able to coax a few more FPS out of the Xentor32. Remember, my experience doesn't necessarily mean you can or will reach these values with your own board.

Riva 3D heeft een artikeltje gepost over de fusie tussen S3 en Diamond. Riva 3D kijkt in hoeverre dit gevolgen gaat hebben voor de positie van nVidia, voor wie Diamond een belangrijke klant is:

It's quite apparent that the trend in the graphics marketplace is to emulate ATI's success by combining the ability to design new chipsets, manufacture those chips, and then build and sell the cards to the public and OEMs for inclusion in computer systems. But to do this requires focus. S3 at one time was a very profitable company when their focus was specifically on the graphics market. They then attempted to diversify into other aspects of the market, which caused them to lose their lead and profitability. The merger between Diamond and S3 has been met with little enthusiasm in the stock market, as evidenced by the drop in both Diamond's and S3's stock prices after the announcement. Why? Because S3 is once again attempting to diversify (diversification was stressed quite often in the conference) which is what got them in trouble in the first place.

All of this is actually quite good for NVIDIA. First, some might question why NVIDIA would not seek to acquire or be acquired, but NVIDIA is in the position of selling to anyone and everyone because of their independent status.

Lees 'm hier helemaal.

C|Net's Computers.com bekijkt twee zogenaamde 'iMac-scanners' van Artec en Microtek. Eigenlijk bedoelen ze dat ze twee scanners met een USB aansluiting hebben getest...

Artec 1226USB-iMac review
Microtek ScanMaker X6-USB review

The Sanctun heeft een review van de Asus P2B-F in elkaar gesleuteld, en vergelijkt de 'm met de BX6-II:

The P2B-F has some shortcomings. Compared to other mainboards available now it doesn't feature anything to set itself apart from the crowd. It posted some excellent scores utilizing Intel's Pentium III, but we received better scores and better overall system stableness using our BX6-2. The good news is ASUS has a P3B model coming with a jumperless design. Hopefully this model can improve upon it's P2B line with more features and better options. We really can't recommend this board now since it offers nothing more then what you can find from other mainboards out now. Until then we'll stick with our BX6-2 workhorse.