Ik lees bij DemoNews dat Powerstrip 2.51.07 voor Windows 95/98/2000/NT te downloaden is. Grijp het proggie hier. (661kB)

En als je niet meer weet wat Powerstrip is:

"Designed to compliment the native Windows Display Properties sheet under Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT, the PowerStrip combines advanced, multi-monitor API support with extensive programmable hardware support. A simple toolbar and menu that pops up from the system tray provides configuration and fast access to your favorite display settings, incremental enlargement and reduction of desktop size, comprehensive color calibration controls with gamma hotkeys, the ability to associate specific applications with custom display settings, graphics system diagnostics, flexible font controls, extensive hotkey and screen saver support, a database of over 1500 monitors, and on-the-fly color depth, resolution and refresh rate switching. Additionally, the PowerStrip includes direct hardware support for many chips, permitting an unprecedented degree of control over your display sub-system, particularly under Windows NT."

Tom heeft een artikeltje gepost over de Siggraph 99 beurs, die afgelopen week in Los Angeles werd gehouden. Tom heeft nieuws over nieuwe technologiën van o.a. nVidia, 3dfx, 3DLabs en Number 9. Hier een stukje over de T-Buffer technologie van 3dfx (gaan ze dan toch eindelijk serieus sleutelen aan de beeldkwaliteit van de Voodoo?):

Peter Wicher, Director of Product Marketing, gave me a demonstration of 3dfx's T-Buffer technology at the company's meeting room in an off-site hotel. The demos were running on a Quantum 3D configuration of about 4 Voodoo 2 SLIs so, it was an emulation, but the results were pretty obvious. T-buffer does do a very admirable job of full-scene anti-aliasing, motion blur, depth of field blur, soft shadows, and soft reflections. It's pure visual quality.

While I can see how the anti-aliasing component will have an immediate impact, I am less sure of the motion blur, and depth of field blur effects. Once the effects are pointed out, the impact is significant, but both are going to require developers to think really hard about how they implement these techniques in a real-time interactive 3D environment. Take depth of field blur, or focal blur. Basically, this is when the camera will focus on a character or object in the foreground, and the background will be out of focus. In 3D scenes today, the depth of field is infinite, but 3dfx's T-buffer would allow developers to change the focus of the scene as if the camera was focusing on one particular aspect of the scene. It's really quite nice to watch, but it is a cinematic effect, and it will require a tremendous amount of skill to get right in a dynamic environment.

Bij iXBT hebben ze een overview in elkaar geknutseld van het hardware nieuws van juli '99. Niks nieuws dus, maar wel handig als je bijvoorbeeld afgelopen maand onder een steen hebt gelegen ofzo...

Unfortunately, July appeared very poor in news this year. However, we did our best not to disappoint you and wrote a considerable lot :-) Well, let's get started. And the news looks like this. CPU: Athlon announced in July is going to appear only in August. Mainboards: Apollo pro based mainboards are due only in August as well. Memory: we can't complain about the lack of news here, however, if you remember what has happened, you'll probably prefer to forget about it. Video: everything was quiet all month long, only in the very end 3dfx suddenly woke up and slightly disturbed the calm. Storage: Quantum and Fujitsu respond to Seagate U4 with their new devices. In other words, everything is quite usual. The coming month promises to be more interesting, though September will undoubtedly be the coolest month this year.

Het artikel is nogal uitgebreid, dus lees vooral door!

USB Workshop heeft de Hewlett Packard ScanJet 4200C eens gestest (met USB aansluiting uiteraard). Lees de review hier.

Ok, so it's easy, but it is too easy? There is a tradeoff between simple interface and more control. The user interface is a step by step like, with large buttons, help/zoom-in & out buttons easily accessible, and height, width, scale, size information clearly shown. Changing resolution and rescan option is handy (though somewhat hidden under menus, and didn't know if the source is removed from the scanner when rescan). Cancel takes about 1 second. However, there are several weaknesses. It does not have exposure controls (tone maps, gamma correction, histograms, highlight and shadow, brightness and contrast, emphasis) but only automatic exposure. Intelligent picking of image area can mistakenly pick something wrong or include unnecessary background. To me, the most important of all, it lacks rotation! This way I have to flip the image about 50% of the time in Photoshop or something... or do I really have to remember which way is up? Also, note that images are internally processed and enhanced without user intervention; lack of control probably means processing can't be disabled.

Anyway, on the physical side. It's weighted 6.2 lbs. (2.8 kg), pretty light. The lid flips is extendible for thicker books, it can even be removed. Cables snap on pretty tightly. There is one problem I noticed though. Once after a scan the scan head light (cold cathode?) does not power down for a long time, almost always on. I wonder if that would shorten the life of the tube. Two things are also lacking: there is no stop/cancel button on the scanner, and there is no power switch. But then again, being with USB means that I can unplug it whenever I want and plugging it back in it works, no hassle.

Tom heeft een review gepost van een 800MHz Kryotech Cool Athlon systeempje. Uiteraard blowt dit systeem alles dat Intel op dit moment kan bieden volledig weg. Vooral in 3DStudio Max is het verschil dramatisch:

Wow! At 800MHz the Athlon provides almost double the performance over the Pentium III 600Mhz. 3D-rendering software typically runs pretty tight loops that can be handled within the CPU's caches. This is why 3D Studio Max scales perfectly with CPU clock speed. 800 MHz are 33% higher than 600 MHz and 109 pph are 33% more than 82 pph. It's very hard to find any other kind of software that scales as well as 3D-renderers. [break]Wat betreft het snelheidsvoordeel t.o.v. een ' normale' Athlon-600 heeft Tom ook een analyse: [/break] 3D Studio Max scales perfectly, we see an increase of the 33% that 800 MHz is more than 600 MHz. The rendering process is running almost completely within Athlon's big 1st level cache. Half-Life requires a lot of CPU-performance too, which is why it benefits from the 200 MHz higher clock frequency by 24%. Sysmark 98 under Windows98 and NT is restricted by the hard drive performance, which impacts the performance increase down to 20 or 19%. Quake2 and Quake3 are depending on the graphics card performance, even at a resolution of only 640x480x16. This is why the performance increase at Quake3-Test is only a meager 12%.

Check THG voor de review.

Bij WomenGamers.com hebben ze een preview online gekwakt van het zeer mooie spel Drakan - Order of the Flame. Waarschijnlijk een van de laatste previews want Drakan is al een tijdje af, en volgende week zal ie verkrijgbaar zijn. Zeker een game om eens naar te kijken!

To dispel any doubts you might be having, Drakan is not Tomb Raiders + Dragons. Indeed, Drakan outshines Tomb Raiders in many aspects. For one, the interface, character actions/movements, and controls to Drakan are so seamless they don't in any way hinder you on your adventure. Let's take Tomb Raiders idiotic inventory control as an example. Rember having to push escape, then left or right arrow to scroll through? In Drakan simply hit 'I', Rynn spins around to face you (very nice touch), and you get an inventory list loosely reminiscent of Diablo and other RPG's. I like the fact that 1) you don't leave the game screen 2) inventory selection is simple point and click. One click pops up a description of the item, a double click puts the inventory item in your hand. It's a good thing the interface is so well done, because you'll have at your disposal over 50 weapons and magical items spread throughout various stages of the game. The main point here is, the interface is logical and unobtrusive. The same can be said for the character movement controls, but I won't ramble more on this.

In Tomb Raiders, simply point your gun at your enemy, and sqeeze the trigger. The game automatically locks and tracks the target for you, so all you really need to be able to do is press the fire button and jump around. Snooze! Because Drakan consists of many hand-to-hand combat weapons (swords, maces, axes, etc), combat is not a trivial thing. You must learn to slash in combinations with jump, crouch, strafe, and roll. Some of the harder foes have shields, that they use well, so you'll have to learn various moves to take them out without getting yourself smote first. The combat action is far closer to a fighting game like Soul Blade then the mindless shooting in Tomb Raiders (Don't let me mislead you here, there are not near as many combos and fighting moves as you would find in Soul Blade).

3DHardware.net heeft een review geplaatst van de Labtec ATX-5820 speakers. De main feature van deze set is de Virtual Dolby Surround chip die er in is geplant, want voor de rest is-ie hetzelfde als zijn kleine broertje, de ATX-4620. Hier heb je een gedeelte over dat Virtual Dolby Surround:

Virtual Dolby Surround sound is engineered to produce theatre-like audio that seems as if it is coming from all around the listener. This is acheived with Interaural Time Delays (ITD), Interaural Intensity Differences (IID) and Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTF). In addition to the sound from the left and right speakers, the signals for the other channels are processed to match these time delays, intensity differences and transfer function differences. The result? You'll hear sounds coming from the center and rear, even though there are no physical speakers there. Of course, you'll need Dolby Surround-encoded movies or games to benefit from this effect. But does it really work as they claim? Yes. Does it work as good as a real 5.1 system? No.

The Virtual Dolby Surround is a nice feature, but it can in no way compete with the real deal. Sound coming from two speakers will always sound, more or less, like sound coming from two speakers - it will never sound as if was really coming from 5 speakers. Get the point? With the effect turned on, the DVD movies become a tad more immersive due to the Virtual Dolby Surround sound. Still, if you really want to enjoy Dolby Digital sound, go for the real deal.

Volgens een artikel van C|Net Taiwan gaan de mobo prijzen mogelijk omhoog in verband met een tekort aan flash memories en ander IC-spul. Ace's Hardware heeft een engelstalige samenvatting:

According to this CNet Taiwan report, semiconductor components needed for manufacturing motherboards are facing a serious shortage that may last over the next 1-2 years. These components, which include flash memory, IC, diode, etc., are getting higher and higher demands primarily due to the the surge in popularity of telecommunication/consumer electronics such as mobile phones and MP3 players etc. The fact that the world-wide semiconductor production has slowed down because of the recent economy crisis only further complicates the situation.

Volgens een artikel van EBNews is Intel van plan om z'n eigen 133MHz SDRAM specs te creeëren, die losstaan van de PC133 standaard zoals die o.a. door VIA en AMD wordt ondersteund. Zo te lezen gaat het alleen om een paar kleine timing verschillen:

Intel Corp.'s pending endorsement of 133-MHz SDRAM is likely to include a new set of interface specifications that will create a rival standard to the PC133 chips now coming onto the market, according to a variety of industry sources.

The new specifications, which Intel would not confirm, could include tighter timing parameters similar to the extensive engineering effort the company spearheaded prior to the introduction of PC100 SDRAM.

DRAM makers, PC OEMs, and analysts believe Intel will tweak the 133-MHz specs to gain control of the new memory chips' qualification process. A revised set of specifications could also give Intel chipsets supporting 133-MHz memory a competitive edge over chipsets from Via Technologies Inc. and other rivals using current PC133 designs, sources said.

"[Intel] is positioning itself to set up an alternate 133-MHz SDRAM spec to try to gain an advantage over Via and other independent chipset suppliers despite its late start," said Bob Merritt, an analyst for Semico Research Corp., Phoenix.

Wazige Japanse site heeft een aantal plaatjes van de Gigabyte GA-7IX (Athlon) moederplank online gezet. Hieronder zie je bijv. een erg spannend shot van de Slot-A gleuf (ja, dit orgaan ziet er dus gewoon hetzelfde uit als die van een Slot-1 mobo ):

En nu we het toch over Athlon mobo's hebben: Biostar heeft de specs gepost van z'n M7MKA plankje, met 5 PCI, 2 ISA, 1 AGP en 3 DIMM slots.

Planet Unreal vond het nodig om dé man (Tim Sweeney) lastig te vallen met een mailtje over de status van Unreal patch 226 (of is Unreal met patch 225f al afgepetst?):

Yes, there will be another Unreal 1 patch, with the latest Direct3D code (big improvements), network code and server performance improvements. I don't have a date though...we're going through a lot of testing/tweaking on UT now. The Unreal 1 patch might be synch'ed up with the UT demo.

3DWars heeft een review geplaatst van de 3dfxCool hddHO, een harddisk cooler (want dat schijnt tegenwoordig nodig te zijn):

This cooler performed very nicely. No drivers to configure, so the software side is eliminated. The fans ran very quietly as did the hard drive. Using an 8.4 GB Seagate 7200 RPM hard drive makes noise, but it wasn't very noticeable. I played a movie in a loop for 24 hours straight, while doing other work on the computer. After 24 hours, I stopped everything, took of the case and took a look at the setup. I put my hand on the heatsink, and surprisingly there was not much heat on it. It seemed a bit odd to use a heatsink on a hard drive, but regardless of its intentions, the setup worked great. There was some more heat in the case(roughly 3 degrees higher than normal), and that was from the fans blowing the heat off of the hard drive. After seeing the pleasing results, I asked Bart Lane, owner of 3DfxCOOL, about the heatsink and here is what he had to say:

Volgens Quantum is de zware battle in de hardeschijven-land, waar de prijzen 3 tot 4 keer zo hard dalen als normaal, niet meer vol te houden. Vooral Seagate zou schuldig zijn aan de huidige malaise (dank je wel ):

Disk drive manufacturer Quantum, is calling for an end to "unsustainable" price cuts across the industry. Mike Brown, chief executive at Quantum said that Seagate was one of the worst culprits.

Quantum accused its rival of pricing its products below its costs, which forced others to do the same.

Quantum said that it would not cut prices to gain market share, and he asked the rest of the industry to follow suit. He commented: "We can’t go on with everyone losing money."

[...] Prices in the industry have been falling at three or four times the usual rate, illustrating a significant slump even in an industry famous for its ups and downs. But analysts are divided about who is to blame.

Zie The Register voor het volledige nieuwsbericht.

Hilbert Hagedoorn van Guru3D heeft een review van de Skywell Magic TopLAN (da's die rare USB network kit die we gisteren in het nieuws hadden) op z'n site geparkeerd:

The Magic TopLan can reach speeds up to 12MBit/sec. I measured the speed a couple of times. It does a very fast average of 350-400kb/sec. Simply wonderful.

The Magic TopLAN is compatible with almost anything. Even the advanced users can get maximum capability in usage, If you want to e-mail or want to share internet access from one host then you can install for example WinPROXY. It works like a charm.

AGN Hardware heeft een review gepost van de nieuwe Logitech Soundman X2 speakers. Wat betreft vormgeving ziet het setje er in ieder geval al erg cool uit:

Mooi of niet, uiteindelijk gaat het toch om de performance:

We put the X2 system through a workout with Need for Speed: High Stakes, Hidden and Dangerous, Kingpin, Episode 1: Racer, Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, Quake II, a wide variety of audio CDs (Kenny G, Megadeth, Elton John, Queen, etc), and the included MP3 songs. The sound quality for gaming was adequate, as the highs and mid-range was clear, while the bass was lacking, but was much better sounding than we would have thought capable of such a small bass-unit. When pushing the system to extremes, the highs and bass freqencies would break up a little, but this wouldn't occur until cranking the volume almost all the way. It also didn't take cranking the volume to reach a sound level that was adequate for gaming either. In terms of power, the output level was also surprising, as those little speakers are much louder sounding than they look. Listening to audio CDs and MP3s also showed the system was a lacking a real punchy bass, while still offering a decent, yet not stunning audio quality, essepicially when considering how small these speakers are.