Ik lees bij Demonews dat Alex van Kaam een nieuwe versie van Motherboard Monitor heeft gereleased. De updates in versie 4.09:

- Added: If alarm goes below a certain RPM then this will also trigger shutdown now, if you enabled it
- Added: Support for THMC50 (2 temperatures chip) all possible 3
- Changed: Application will be executed even if you don't have a dialog box checked for an alarm
- Changed: Ryszard Sommefeldt -a user of MBM- freely supplied some better CPU speed detection which has been implemented
- Changed: Link and URLs in MBM to the new page

Je kunt het proggie (dat de temperatuur van je moederbord & CPU, voltages, fan speeds enz. weergeeft) hier neer gaan halen (nieuwe URL!).

AVault heeft een aantal Soldier of Fortune screenshots gepost die de mogelijkheden van S3 Texture Compression demonstreren. Deze twee screenshots maken het verschil in detail duidelijk bij het gebruik van grote textures (rechts is dus mét S3TC):

En de bijbehorende info:

The difference is noticable here. Using S3TC, scenes can have higher resolution textures with little performance hit. Alternatively, a 16Meg card with S3TC would give similar performance to a 32Meg card without S3TC. However, the texture-uploading bottleneck, which S3TC alleviates, is becoming a less critical obstruction to performance as the memory supplied on cards increases. Processing of geometry, triangle setup on the card and fill rate are the other major bottlenecks in the rendering pipeline. Scott says fill rate is reaching a point where it is no longer an issue.

Klik richting AVault voor het complete verhaal...

AMD heeft een press release gepost waarin ze bekend maken meer 0,18 micron equipment gekocht te hebben voor hun production plant in Austin. Ook wordt gezegd dat er inmiddels 5000 0,18 micron Athlon wafers zijn gebakken. Volgens Ace's Hardware kan AMD bij goede yields ongeveer 270 Athlons uit een wafer halen. Hopelijk wil dit zeggen dat we binnen niet al te lange tijd de eerste 0,18micron (700MHz) Athlons op de markt zullen zien:

"AMD's leading-edge Fab 25 in Austin, Texas, is qualifying the initial system for 0.18 micron shallow trench isolation (STI) for AMD Athlon(TM) processor production. Subsequent systems will add capacity at AMD's Fab 25 and will be used for advanced CMP applications in AMD's Submicron Development Center in Sunnyvale, California." "AMD achieved excellent within-die and across-wafer uniformity as well as very low defect densities."

"Jeremy Lansford, an AMD manager, addressed Teres' manufacturability, "We are impressed by Teres' exceptional cost of ownership. The low cost is driven by the combination of outstanding reliability, fast consumables changes, and a cost-effective carrier design. With more than 5,000 wafers polished on the Teres so far, the MTBF approaches 300 hours, and the system hasn't broken a wafer. Teres is setting a new standard for reliability among advanced CMP systems.""

Ik kwam bij Ace's Hardware nieuwe info tegen over de problemen bij Micron. Op zich niet zo belangrijk zul je wellicht denken, maar Micron is één van de grootste DRAM producenten ter wereld en als er daar gekke dingen gebeuren dan heeft dat ook al snel invloed op de DRAM prijzen. Check dit stukje van Ace's (vooral de laatste regel):

On the Micron production rumor front, here are some detailed info on it. First the source the all the info is Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, an analyst at Japan's stock market. The reported problem is that during the 0.25um to 0.22um shrink the re-layout caused the optical Masks to be sub-optimal and thus creates Hold reflection and initial clock gap problem. Also this happens only to the 0.22um 64Mb SDRAM chips, not modules; the chips which are mounted on to the modules will be tested and thus no bad chips will ever get to the end user. So for those who are questioning about their Micron memories, they have nothing to worry about. The report also mentions that Micron's Japanese partner Kobe Steel has publicly stated that there is no problem with the Micron production lines. This seems to be an initial process transition problem, and is now solved and should not happen after the 0.18um transition, which is what Micron is doing now. However the effects on the market is already heavy as the 64Mb SDRAM chip prices just went from under 4 USD to above 5 USD, which is a great news for all the DRAM makers out there.

Ik zou Pricewatch.com in de gaten houden. Zodra de prijzen daar omhoog gaan wordt het tijd om hier in Nederland geheugen in te slaan.

Was jullie misschien opgevallen, maar de zeer veel talige website van Abit die met groot trompet geschal werd aangekondigd ("behalve engels maarliefst 16 andere talen").

Chinese (Standard/Traditional)	German
Chinese ("Simplified")	Spanish
French	Japanese
Korean	Russian
Italian	Dutch
Norwegian	Swedish
Turkish	Hungarian
Portuguese	Polish

Je raad het al: de rode talen zijn niet langer van de partij.

OSOpinion heeft een editorial over BeOS online gezet. Ik vind 'm best wel interessant:

BeOS is no Linux in mass appeal, but it is extremely fast, clean, and fun to use. I run high end SG Unix boxes at the shop and to be honest, I can't see much of a difference in performance between my 400 MHz box and the mega-buck 320 SG box at 500Mhz. I work with serious animation and graphics and demand serious performance. BeOS has delivered this much-needed performance.

Now running V4, I am constantly amazed at what this fresh OS can do. Maybe no contender for the desktop as of yet, but watch out! Be is making serious inroads with the graphics community and with animation/multimedia specialists. Be is also receiving droves of once happy Mac and PC users who are looking for something different to learn and play with.

I give Be a couple of years and then I think there will be enough ground support where we'll start seeing the BeOS loaded on PCs for sale as we now see MS Windows and Linux are.

Hmm, dan moet eerst Adobe maar eens zover gekregen worden dat Photoshop, Premiere e.d. naar BeOS worden geport. Een bijdetijdse browser (Mozilla 5?) zou ook wel handig zijn.

The Register heeft een mistig nieuwsbericht gepost over de overklokbaarheid van de AMD Athlon. Volgens de info die The Register bij elkaar heeft weten te scharrelen is die overklokbaarheid errug goed:

Sources close to AMD said today that overclocking Athlon K7s is an easy matter, with systems builders easily able to achieve speeds of 700MHz.

But things could get even better for overclocking freaks, because the same source said that AMD is likely to introduce a 750MHz part either late in Q3 or early in Q4 this year.

Rana Mainee, European research director at AMD, said: "We don't recommend overclocking but we haven't done anything in K7 to prevent it. If people want to do that, they can choose to do so at their own risk."

He said the majority of people using K7s would never want to open a machine but there were dedicated hobbyists who would want to tweak performance to its maximum.

Als ze er echt zo over denken dan is AMD mijn vriendje... Het klinkt allemaal nogal tegenstrijdig vergeleken met eerdere berichten van AMD Zone en JC (die zeggen dat je een of ander apparaatje nodig hebt om de multiplier te veranderen, maar als ze dat apparaatje los verkopen zou alles ok zijn natuurlijk...).

Adrian (van de gelijknamige Rojak Pot...) heeft een BIOS optimization guide in elkaar gefrutseld, waarin hij alle instellingen in j e BIOS langswandelt en uitleg geeft over de functie ervan. Is misschien handig om even te checken.

AGN Hardware heeft een artikel gepost over de Kryotech Super G 1GHz, da's een AMD Athlon die dankzij de nodige koeling op 1000Megahertzen loop! Tjakka:

For those of you not familiar with the Super G K7, the computer is from the folks over at Kryotech and includes a speedy K7 Athlon processor running at 1000MHz or 1GHz. It seems that the new Athlon is much more overclockable then past AMD processors, allowing for them to bring the speed much higher. I spoke a bit with Kryotech about the Super G and they informed me that the new computer will not be out until this fall. Another thing to remember about the Super G is that the price will be quite expensive, most likely due to the fact that it is going to be the fastest K7 computer in the world. But then again there is quite a few of us who want the fastest computers and don't mind paying for it.

Op dit moment zijn er nog geen benchmarks, maar de schrijver van het artikel belooft dat die later deze dag toegevoegd zullen worden. Hou deze link in de gaten.

GlobalWin (fabrikant van heatsinks) heeft een tabelletje gepost met het stroomverbruik van de Athlon en PIII processors. Athlon eet veel:

SLOT 1 CPU		SLOT A CPU
Celeron 500MHz	30W	AMD K7 500MHz	35 - 40W
PII SECC2 450MHz	27.1W	AMD K7 550MHz	45W
P!!! 450MHz	25.3W	AMD K7 600MHz	50W
P!!! 500MHz	25.3W	AMD K7 700MHz	60W
P!!! 550MHz	31.2W

Hopelijk gaat dit niet al te veel gevolgen geven voor de overklokbaarheid van de Athlon (voor zover overklokken al mogelijk is).

Er hangt nog steeds veel wazigheid rond de shipping date van de G400. Volgens Matrox Users zullen de eerste pre-orders vanaf volgende week afgeleverd worden:

It seems the first small batch of Millennium G400 MAX cards are to ship today or Monday to those lucky few who got the first pre-orders in at the Matrox Online Store. There is no word on how many cards are in this batch or when the next batch will be ready. If you pre-ordered before June 11 you may be one of the lucky ones, call them on 1-877-MBUY-NOW to find out. Apart from this confusion reigns supreme over the G400 shipments. Some resellers are saying no retail G400s (MAX or otherwise) will be shipped until 9th September, others are saying they have retail regular G400s, others still that they will have MAX in stock early next week. Still no sign yet of official clarification from Matrox I'm afraid.

Time Digital heeft een artikel over DEF CON, de jaarlijkse hackers meeting in Las Vegas, waar de Cult of the Dead Cow komende zaterdag een nieuwe versie van Back Orifice zal releasen:

According to its creators, the new version of BackOrifice slated for release on Saturday is more powerful than ever. It's tougher to detect, gives the user a greater degree of control over the infected computer, and works on Windows NT, the heavy-duty version of Windows used by most large businesses. While the original version of BackOrifice was a threat to small businesses and private users, BackOrifice 2000, as it's called, will affect a much broader and more vital sector of the world's computers.

So why does the Cult of the Dead Cow claim they're doing it all for our own good — and why do some computer programmers agree? To quote from the Cult's press release, "BackOrifice 2000 could bring pressure on [Microsoft] to finally implement a security model in their Windows operating system. Failure to do so would leave customers vulnerable to malicious attacks from crackers using tools that exploit Windows' breezy defenses." In other words, don't blame us, blame Microsoft for making a shoddy product — now maybe they'll improve it. As one poster on a hacking bulletin board wrote, "I feel better knowing that at least these holes will be known publicly and raise some sense of awareness rather than in a closed private environment where exploitation could continue unfettered."

Techweb heeft een kewl nieuwsbericht over een nieuwe besturingsysteem met de (naar mijn mening intens debiele ) naam "PetrOS". Is dit de MessiOS die ons van Windoos gaat verlossen?

Next month, Australian company Trumpet Software will release an alpha version of its new operating system called PetrOS, designed to act as a substitute for Windows 95/98 and NT. Unlike Linux and other competitors, the company said, PetrOS will be able to seamlessly run 32-bit Windows applications.

This will offer a smooth changeover and let the company aggressively go after the workstation market, said Simon Milburn, U.S. manager for Trumpet. Even if the company only managed to get a 1 percent market share in workstations, Milburn said, it would consider PetrOS successful.

PetrOS' main marketing advantage, Milburn added, is speed. Its kernel only takes up about 100 kilobytes.

News.com heeft een artikeltje over verdere problemen met de Merced, Intel's eerste processor die gebaseerd zal zijn op de volledige nieuwe IA-64 architectuur. Het ding blijkt weer eens vertraagd te zijn:

Prototypes of Merced still aren't out, and it looks like Intel's next-generation processor may slip until the third or fourth quarter of next year.

The latest lag, which could put off Merced's release by a few weeks or months, won't be as significant as the delay Intel imposed last year when it shifted the 64-bit chip's debut from the end of 1999 to mid-2000.

Still, the revised calendar may sap Intel of some psychological momentum and will likely solidify arguments that Merced, the first Intel server and workstation processor designed to compete directly against the most powerful Alpha and UltraSparc processors, will primarily serve as a test vehicle. Customers and computer companies may buy it, but could hold off on migrating to Intel's 64-bit chips until McKinley, Merced's successor, comes out in late 2001.

"My sources tell me first silicon was originally scheduled for the first of June, and now it's late August, so I think there's been some slippage over there," said Linley Gwennap, senior analyst at Cahners Microdesign Resources.

IGN.PC heeft een review gepost van Official Formula 1 Racing. De reviewer vond het blijkbaar een kutspel, want hij beoordeeld 'm met een 5:

Like I said earlier, the best part of watching Formula 1 (other than watching wheels fly into the audience at 150mph) is the intricate relationships between the cars and the track. Every vehicle has an agenda and a mission, and while they may be taking corners and curves in a nearly identical fashion, each driver has their own unique game plan. The drivers in OF1, however, race more like the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica than real humans. Don't even think about sneaking in to an existing line without facing some serious penalties. I played the Hungarian Grand Prix about twenty times, and each time the cars would take corners and position themselves in the same way every race. If you just happen to be next to a car when it decides it needs to take the left bank, then you'll be immediately slammed off the course, despite all logic. In the middle of the line, and going too slow? Don't worry -- the car behind will crush you into oblivion, despite the fact that they've ruined their own chances at success. None of the cars ever seem to try and stop you, beat you, or do anything other than follow their pre-designated paths.

Michael van AnandTech heeft een review gepost van de Palo Alto Design Group ATCX Mid Tower / Desktop ATX kast. Poehee, da's een mooie naam...waar je waarschijnlijk nog nooit van gehoord hebt. De kasten van PADG worden o.a. gebruikt door Dell en Micron, dat zegt al wat meer. Een quote uit de review:

Mounting a motherboard in the ATCX shows yet another of its unique features - its one screw motherboard mounting system. A trick metal clip attaches to the the back of the motherboard (shown at right). That assembly is then inserted into the case and secured using a single screw from the rear of the case. Clip in metal standoffs, which are premounted for the most part, support the rest of the board. While not quite as convenient as a removable motherboard tray for troubleshooting, but it's much faster for OEM's looking to minimize assembly time.

Amiga heeft bevestigd dat het Linux gaat gebruiken als kernel voor z'n next-generation operating system. Da's lullig voor al dat volk dat in de afgelopen tijd aan QNX heeft zitten werken...

The company signed a deal to use QNX last year, but now Jim Collas, president and CEO, has confirmed Linux is the favourite.

Part of the reason, according to Collas, is because of the enormous interest in Linux in the computer industry.

But another reason is that endorsing Linux will allow Amiga to run with a spate of applications almost straight away.

There Collas says in an Open Letter to Amigans: "After months of research and in-depth discussions with all of our technology partners we have decided to use Linux as the primary OS kernel for the new Amiga Operating Environment (AOE).

"I know this decision is a shock to many of you given the previous announcements and activities relative to QNX. This was a very complicated and difficult decision to make and I assure you that I didn't make this decision without a significant amount of research and deliberation.

Ik lees bij AGN Hardware dat Abit een nieuwe BIOS voor de ZM6 heeft gaar gebakken. Je kunt 'm neerhalen vanaf Abit's FTP.

Sharky Extreme heeft een review van NFS4: High Stakes op de site gekwakt. Ze bepiesen het spel met een beoordeling van 4,5!

Overall, Electronic Arts' Need For Speed: High Stakes is a back of the pack racing game. The high point is the average graphics, the low points are poor sound, boring tracks, and control so poor we want to hurl. All in all, there is absolutely no reason to buy this poorly made game. Need For Speed: High Stakes belongs in the game library of someone you don't like while you play Psygnosis' Rollcage, Lucas Arts' Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer, or even Microsoft's Midtown Madness.

Laat ik dan maar blij gaan doen met deze 3 screenshots :

CNN heeft een artikeltje over de AMD Athlon in elkaar gedraaid. Verwacht geen opwindende info, je zult er niets in vinden wat we nog niet weten...

AMD's processors have always done well in integer performance, which is important for common business tasks, but have lagged in floating-point performance, which counts most in elaborate financial models, engineering, and games. The K7 claims superior integer performance and even better floating point, with three floating-point units on board to the Pentium III's two. In addition, the K7 is loaded with multimedia instructions. Gamers take note: AMD promises that optimized drivers will be available at launch from NVidia, 3dfx, and Matrox, with S3 and ATI drivers coming soon.

When the K7's on-chip 128KB L1 cache becomes too small, the K7 will call on the 200-MHz EV6 bus developed for Digital's Alpha processors. Unlike the Pentium III, the EV6 bus has a "source-synchronous" design. If fast enough memory can be had, the EV6 bus will give the K7 a big edge over the Pentium III -- Intel's current top bus speed is 100 MHz.

Glide Underground heeft een interview gepost met een mannetje van AMD. Hier een vraag over de 200Mhz snelle bus van de Athlon:

Does the 200MHz frontside bus access PCI/AGP components faster than normal, or does it run parallel instructions (PCI sound and modem simultaneously, for example) for a speed increase/elimination of bottlenecks?

The 200Mhz bus should be considered the bus between the CPU and the system logic (northbridge). The buses off of the chipset (AGP, memory, PCI, etc) are capable of running at speeds distinct from the 200Mhz connection between the CPU and system logic. We haven't talked about the details of the specific implementations or how these will affect overall system performance. Without going into too much detail on performance levels, I can say that the AMD Athlon processor is the industry's first seventh generation CPU and that we plan to demonstrate this level of performance through industry accepted benchmarks.

Dan's Data heeft een review van de Asus V3800 Ultra op het net gezet. De kaart draait op 150/183Mhz en dat kan uiteraard overgeklokt worden:

No matter. The V3800 is happy to overclock. With the simple little TNTClk program, I managed to wind the V3800's core speed up to 175MHz (180MHz hung the computer, and I couldn't be bothered seeing if some intermediate value was stable, since the difference is minuscule). I couldn't find a ceiling for the RAM speed; it was still running fine, with only the tiniest of visible glitches, at 243MHz. This is as far as TNTClk can wind it (incidentally, pulling the memory speed slider all the way to the right consistently hung TNTClk, for some reason), and 18MHz faster than the popular shareware Powerstrip can manage. Monstrous RAM overclocking isn't useful, though; it's the core speed that really matters.

At the 175/243 speed, demo2.dm2 ripped by at 60 frames per second, a respectable 25% faster than the V770. It still managed better than 52 frames per second in 1280 by 960 resolution, which is the highest my poor old 17 inch monitor can handle!

243MHz lijkt me wel erg onrealistisch (zou je 4ns geheugen voor nodig moeten hebben). TNTClk is labiel?

Viper 3D heeft een paar 3D Exercizer benchmarks op een Diamond Viper V770 en Silicon Graphics 320 (dat is zo'n nieuwe WinNT bak) gedraaid:

I've been working with Thomas Brannstrom by providing assorted 3D Exercizer (by Intergraph) benchmarks for the Viper V770 Ultra. Thomas thought it would be a good idea to compare my results against a Silicon Graphics 320. Both systems are based on PII-450MHz processors. The SGI 320 uses Windows NT with 256MB of RAM while I am running Windows 98 and 128MB of RAM. Both benchmarks were run at a resolution of 1280x1024 in 32-bit color. The V770 Ultra results are from a 175MHz core / 200MHz memory speeds using NVIDIA's 1.88 drivers.

In de texture test blijkt de SGI sneller te zijn. Zodra de texture grootte boven de 32Mb komt zakt de performance van de V770 als pudding in elkaar (van 31 naar 2 fps), terwijl de SGI zonder al te veel problemen mee scaled (van 34 naar 25fps). In de geometrie test blijkt de V770 echter weer sneller te zijn. Check Viper3D voor het benchmark grafiekje.

The Tech Zone heeft een artikeltje neer geknalt over hun 'Project 620', een koelsysteem waarmee ze een PIII-550 naar 620Mhz hebben getilt. Hiertoe hebben ze uitsluitend gebruik gemaakt van luchtkoeling, dus het systeem is redelijk simpel na te bouwen. In het artikel lees je hoe ze cartridge & kast hebben gemodified.

Ik kwam nog een leuk nieuwsberichtje tegen bij The Register. Check it:

The AMD K7 chip, aka Athlon, looks set to enter the market with a bang this August, though many PC builders fear Intel's wrath should they choose to use it.

Among those launching Athlonian PCs are Compaq and Bolton-based reseller Dabs Direct. Dell, Viglen and Tiny Computers all told The Register they will stay 100 per cent loyal to Intel.

Others who are planning to adopt the K7 chip, but asked not to be named for fear of the great Satan’s reaction, expected Athlon to be a lower-cost alternative to the Pentium III.

Athlon is also expected to be around 25 per cent cheaper than the equivalent speed of Intel chip for 500 and 550Mhz variants, according to Dabs Direct. It has been told its first K7 500/550Mhz orders will be delivered mid-to-end August 1999.

Rage Software heeft aangekondigd dat al hun spellen vanaf nu gebruik van van S3 Texture Compression. Leuk voor de Savage3D en Savage4 bezitters. Hier heb je de info uit de press release:

Highlighting the PC gaming industry's rapid adoption of S3TC as a ``must-have'' technology, S3 Incorporated (Nasdaq:SIII - news) today announced that Rage Software Plc (LSE:RGE) has entered into a strategic alliance with the company to include S3TC as standard in all future retail game titles. Due for release beginning in October of this year, Rage's first four S3TC-based games include Midnight GT, Hostile Waters, Off Road GT and Incoming Forces, the long awaited sequel to the hugely successful Incoming.

S3TC, which was adopted by Microsoft as a standard in DirectX, is a major leap forward for PC gaming technology as it enables games to utilize up to six times the amount of textures found in today's games without affecting performance. This radically improves the image quality of tomorrow's hottest 3D titles and, essentially, gives your PC 20/20 vision for the first time.

``Rage has always been a technology leader, famous for its high quality, stunning graphics,'' said Paul Finnegan, Managing Director, Rage Software. ``With S3's texture compression technology, we clearly expect to maintain this leadership as S3TC allows us to easily and cost-effectively deliver the highest quality visual gaming experience to gamers.''

``Having an industry innovator such as Rage fully commit to S3TC in all their retail titles, shows just how pervasively our technology is being adopted as a mainstream standard,'' said Paul Ayscough, Manager of S3 Europe. ``S3TC is supported natively in Savage4, which has secured numerous design wins with top-tier world-wide PC manufacturers such as Compaq, IBM, Packard Bell NEC, Micron and others. This year, many hard core and casual gamers will experience photorealistic PC gaming and they will not want to return to low-quality graphics.''

S3's agreement with Rage follows Epic MegaGames' recent announcement that Unreal Tournament will ship with over one gigabyte of texture data in retail using S3TC.

For a complete listing of announced S3TC titles, please visit www.S3.com/s3tc/titles.htm.

Voodoo Extreme weet ons te verblijden met een posting dat Aureal nieuwe Vortex II en A3D drivers gereleased heeft. Hier heb je de soep:

ftp://ftp.a3d.com/pub/Public/Drivers/A3D/a3ddrivers220.exe
A3D Drivers (Version 2.20 - 287 KB executable - 07/08/99)

ftp://ftp.a3d.com/pub/Public/Drivers/Vortex/w9x2031_06NODEMO.zip
Download Pre-Release Vortex 2 Drivers (with the AU30GM.ARL Wavetable set)(Version 4.06.2031.06 (OEM) - 7.62 MB - 07/08/99) PLEASE NOTE: This is a BETA OEM release. It is NOT intended for end-users. A retail release (4.06.2035) will be made available shortly that will fix many outstanding issues. This release only fixes problems with Dungeon Keeper 2, Need For Speed 3, and Need For Speed: High Stakes. This release also supports an upcoming motherboard technology. If you are not experiencing problems with the above three games, it is recommended that you wait for the release of 4.06.2035 which will address other issues, including fixes for many intermittent game crashes.

Lijkt erop dat de Alpha cooler serieuze concurrentie krijgt van GlobalWin. Moet je hun nieuwe socket7 / socket370 koelijzer zien :

(thanx Dennet voor de link).