In navolging van 3dfx's T-Buffer en Nvidia's Transfer & Lightning heeft Matrox nu haar Flex 3D techniek aangekondigd die net als de andere 2 technieken voor weer snellere en vooral betere 3D moet gaan zorgen.

Hier alvast een gedeelte uit de press release van Matrox:

Matrox Flex 3D is a fully-programmable, resolution-independent architecture that applies 3D texture mapping to video using a Matrox 3D graphics accelerator chip and graphics memory. Motion video or graphics are treated as source textures and mapped onto polygon-based 3D shapes such as page curls, planes, and particles. Broadcast-quality effects are achieved using special features that are built into the 3D-accelerator chip and exploited through the Flex 3D architecture:

YUV4:2:2 and RGB32 source textures and 32bpp RGBA output maintain true-color integrity.

Tri-linear and anisotropic filtering ensure high-quality video scaling and perspective.

Sub-pixel precision guarantees smooth DVEs and transitions.

Anti-aliasing ensures smooth edges.

True environment-mapped hardware bump-mapping produces an unlimited variety of realistic effects such as emboss, ripple, shimmer, wave, etc.

256 levels of alpha-blending enable multi-layer compositing.

Met de overname van Cyrix door VIA leek het erop dat het met de nieuwe processors die Cyrix in ontwikkeling had wel goed zou zitten. Volgens The Register is het tegengestelde waar: Gobi en M3 worden gecancelled:

Reports reached The Register early today that National/Cyrix fired over 160 employees from Richardson and Arlington late Friday.

[...] There are also some comments about the layoffs here, which suggest the reason for the cheap price Via paid is because it didn't want the technology, just the intellectual property.

[...] According to the unconfirmed sources, those remaining at Cyrix will lose their jobs towards at the end of August, just as the Gobi and MII were due to start going into production.

If the reports are true, that means the M3 project will enter the shadowy underworld of failed processor projects.

And it also appears Via thinks the Centaur core is better than anything Cyrix can offer. This is, possibly, a big mistake.

One source extremely close to the company's plans said: "It is well known within Cyrix that Centaur's products cannot even make it through a 24 hour application/OS/compatibility stress test in Cyrix's labs. In contrast, AMD's products make it through a couple of days, the Cyrix MII goes four to five days, and Intel manages five to six days." ®

Volgens News.com zal AMD volgende week een 650MHz versie van de Athlon aankondigen. Levering zou al over 2 week moeten beginnen:

The chip will allow AMD to brag that its processors are faster than rival Intel, which recently released a 600-MHz Pentium III. No significant upgrades to the Pentium III line are due until November, according to an Intel spokesman.

[...] The company previously said it would release a 650-MHz Athlon in the third quarter, but sources inside the company indicated it would occur after the initial debut of the chips in August. A 700-MHz version is due in the fourth quarter, while Intel is planning 667-MHz and faster versions of the Pentium III.

Overclockers' Workbench maakt ons nog veel blijer met een posting over een wonder C333 SL36B die 710MHz weet te halen (en dat terwijl m'n eigen C333's nauwelijks 500Mhz kunnen trekken). Dit chippie verdiend een heilig verklaring:

Thanks to Firestone for his email regarding this first world super overclocked Celeron 333 (SL36B). it is overclocked to 710Mhz using 333MHz ? 710MHz?142x5? PCI 1/4?35.5MHz? FV524RX333128 SL36B L9240728-0xxx MALAY370 with Riser card from MSI MS-6905D

Overclockers' Workbench weet ons te verblijden met het bericht dat Abit een nieuw BIOS voor de ZM6 socket370 moederplank klaar gebakken heeft. Het ding kun je hier naar neerladen.

Firingsquad heeft een review gepost van de Abit BE6, troon opvolger van de BX6-II. De BE6 is PC99 compliant, is voorzien van een extra UltraATA/66 controller en beschikt uiteraard over Abit's unieke Softmenu. Uiteraard is er ook weer een volle kudde busspeeds voorhanden: 66, 75, 83, 100, 105, 110, 112, 115, 120, 124, 133, 140, 150MHz :

How does the overclocking ability of the BE6 compare to the BX6 2.0? Let's take a look at the BX6 2.0's FSB speeds:

66, 75, 83, 100, 103, 112, 117, 124, 129, 133, 138, 143, 148, 153

As far as we can tell, the BE6 doesn't offer more bus speeds, just different ones. There may be a limit to the number of multipliers supported in the Winbond chipset which allows for SoftFSB changes. In this case, we can assume that Abit has optimized the changes to best the results of effective overclocking, providing more range near likely fail points, and fewer at "long-shot" ranges.

Met de komst van nieuwe Celerons en Coppermines met 100 en 133MHz bus, zal Intel eindelijk vaarwel zeggen tegen de aloude 66MHz frontside bus, die reeds in gebruik is sinds de voorhistorische Pentium 66:

According to Digitimes Taiwan, Intel is finally abondoning the 66-Mhz FSB. The LX chipset production will stop in September, and Celeron-500 that runs on 100-Mhz FSB will start sampling in Q4 99. This is an expected move to make way for the soon-to-debut 133-Mhz FSB Intel processors and a new chipset featuring PC133 SDRAM support that is slated to come out in Q1 2000. It is rumored that Celeron-433, 466, 500 and 533 Mhz will all appear in both 66-Mhz and 100-Mhz FSB versions.