Ik kwam via JC bij dit nieuwsbericht van EBN Online, waarin wordt gezegd dat de performance van de Intel Merced op dit moment slechts 90% is van de HP PA-RISC 8500 CPU:

HP plans to initially offer its next-generation servers with its own PA-RISC architecture, principally for reasons of code compatibility with previous generations, according to Ken Kroeker, senior technical consultant at the company's Partner Support Organization, Palo Alto, Calif. However, the servers will be upgradeable to Intel Corp.'s IA-64 platform Merced or McKinley by replacing the processor add-on card, Kroeker said.

Reports indicating that HP is pushing the McKinley over the Merced are "complete hooey," Kroeker said. However, in recent HP tests, the net integer performance of a simulation of the first Merced chip was 90% of HP's current 440-MHz PA-RISC 8500, and 85% of the 8500's ability to calculate floating-point operations, according to Kroeker. The tests were conducted to eliminate factors such as bus speed, using software that would isolate the performance of the CPU. While the Merced's clock speed is faster than 440 MHz, it has not been publicly disclosed, he said. [break] En voor iets meer duidelijkheid heb je hier de opmerking die JC bij dit artikel plaatste: [/break] Interesting. Take a quick jump over to this article, in which HP claims that Merced has been estimated via simulator to have a performance 90% that of the current 440MHz PA-8500 in integer and 85% of the same chip in floating point. For reference, I'd presume that the Merced could probably be optimized further due to its software-dependent architecture (just my WAG), but the road ahead seems hard, especially since if we were to assume that these results were paralleled in spec (the actual benchmarks used were likely not spec, since they were processor level benchmarks, not system level benchmarks) we would find (according to this SI post) that its specint score would be not too much higher than the non-server 600MHz Athlon (perhaps slower than the sort-of-now-existing 650MHz Athlon). Mind you, even 85% of the 8500's specfp is still amazingly phenominal compared to any non server cpu, but general expectation is still for Merced to be at least competitive with other processors out at the time (original expectation was that it'd beat the socks off of anything else out there, but this has been lowered due to the "testbed" thing). Anyway, I'll let you know how it develops.

Poehee, leuke naam voor een 6x/4x/24x speed CD-Rewriter. Gamespot heeft een review van het ding:

The record speed of the drive is rated at 4x speeds for CD-RW and 6x speeds for CD-R media. To test CD-R and CD-RW performance, I used a 170MB folder that had hundreds of files, ranging from 5MB to as little as 50KB. Using a CD-RW disc, the copy took 6:42, which translates to a shade over 25 megabytes per minute. A CD-R disc took 5:01 to record the same data, or about 34MB per minute. Note that record time was measured from hitting the "OK" button in Adaptec's Easy-CD Creator software, so a bit of time was spent reading the files. However, I used the "Create CD" option to record. This forces an immediate write to the media and will almost guarantee a buffer underrun if the hardware isn't up to snuff. (Buffer underruns will cause data errors and will ruin a CD-R disc). There were no problems at all with the CD creation process on a PIII/500 with a pair of fast ultraATA/33 hard drives.

Drivers nieuws van Betanews.com. Allereerst heeft Creative een stel nieuwe drivers voor z'n Creative 3DBlaster Banshee op z'n site geparkeerd:

Creative has updated their website with new drivers for its Banshee cards (Models CT6760 & CT6751). New in this version:

- Support for AMD's 3DNow! features
- Improved control for memory clock setting and allows optimal refresh rate to be set when running at 800x600 resolution in Windows 98
- Allow proper installation with plug & play monitor [break] Windows 98 drivers
Windows NT4 drivers

Verder heeft Diamond nieuwe drivers gereleased voor z'n Stealth III S540 Savage 4 kaart. De Windows 98 drivers bevinden zich hier en de NT4 drivers kunnen hier weggeplukt worden.

Ook kwam ik nog wat info tegen over een 3dfx Voodoo INFje voor Windoos 2000: [/break] Anthony Toste just finished a new update of his INF files to use 3Dfx based graphic cards under Windows 2000. Now with new readme and installation instructions. Updated INFs are the: Voodoo INF to use Voodoo Graphics (Voodoo1) in Glide under Windows 2000, Voodoo ICD INF to use Voodoo1 in Glide and ICD OpenGL (Quake3) under Windows 2000, Voodoo 2 INF to use Voodoo2 in Glide under Windows 2000, Voodoo 2 ICD INF to use Voodoo2 in Glide and ICD OpenGL (Quake3) under Windows 2000, Voodoo 3 INF to use Voodoo3 in Direct3D and Glide under Windows 2000, Voodoo 3 ICD INF to use Voodoo3 in Direct3D, Glide and ICD OpenGL (Quake3) under Windows 2000, Voodoo Banshee INF to use Banshee in Direct3D and Glide under Windows 2000, Voodoo Banshee ICD INF to use Banshee in Direct3D, Glide and ICD OpenGL (Quake3) under Windows 2000, and the Voodoo Rush INF to use Voodoo Rush in Windows 2000 (2D only, no Direct3D or Glide support).

Meer info daarover vind je bij het NT Game Palace.

Intel zal op maandag de prijzen van z'n P-Twee en P-Drietjes weer eens verlagen. Vooral de PIII-500 gaat een stuk interessanter worden:

Intel Corp. will cut prices on its desktop Pentium II and Pentium III processors by as much as 41 percent on Monday, ZDNN has learned.

Intel will lower its 550MHz Pentium III from $658 to $487, a price cut of about 26 percent, sources said.

The 500MHz Pentium III will receive the largest price cut, a whopping 41 percent from $423 to $251, sources said.

The 450MHz Pentium III will be reduced by about 21 percent from $230 to $183, sources said.

The recently introduced 600MHz Pentium III will stay the same at $669, sources said.

Verder zullen de PII-450 en PII-400 in prijs omlaag gebracht worden. Meer daarover lees je in dit artikel van ZDNet.

Weer een nieuwe site om rekening mee te houden: NV10.net, volledig toegewijdt aan de (jaja) de nVidia NV10:

We are pleased to announce the launch of NV10.net, a new hardware related web site dedicated to NVIDIA's upcoming chip, the NV10.

Though the final product name will probably not be called NV10, we decided to launch the site and name it NV10.net, as we feel that a comprehensive source for the upcoming technology is needed even now at such an early stage. The short domain name will also provide an easy to remember URL.

The new web site is being maintained by an experienced staff of hardware reporters, and currently provides the one and only publication dedicated to the upcoming chip. Current active sections are the news section, updated with all related news from around the web, as well as a F.A.Q. and a preview section. Other sections (such as reviews, interviews, tweaking, files and more) will be updated when the information becomes available.

We believe NV10.net will provide you with the most comprehensive and up-to-date source of information dedicated to NVIDIA's upcoming technology. [break]...en nu ik daar toch aan het rondwandelen ben kan ik net zo goed deze nieuwsposting over een NV10 interview van PowerGamerz mee pikken:[/break] There's a lot of people who've been talking about how a good xform and lighting engine can off-load the CPU. To give some rough guesstimates, a game like Quake2 or Quake3 probably spends something between 15% and 20% of its time transforming vertices. That's time that the CPU really should be spending doing things like better A.I., or nicer particle systems, model physics, etc. There's no games out there that use lighting now. One of the big reasons is that in order to make lighting look good, you need a lot more geometry in a scene (since lighting is applied at each vertex). But, if you add more vertices, then your CPU needs to get bogged down lighting all those extra vertices. So instead, many 3D games chose to follow the likes of Quake2 and use lightmaps.

Hier heb je nog wat meer info over het (waarschijnlijke) faillisement van Hercules. Dit komt van AGN 3D:

I Just got back from Hercules of Fremont California. I was just informed by the staff that Hercules is indeed "out of business". The anonymous employees told me that they site financial woes as the main reason why Hercules can no longer continue. The staff also informed me that the employees have not been paid for two weeks. The reason that they do not answer the phones is because they are working for free and are basically clearing their desk out.

It will be clear very soon when Hercules issues their press release regarding their departure from the graphics business. Hercules will also be calling the game sites with additional statements.

The staff also said that its unlikely that they will be fulfilling any more video card orders, even the ones that have been ordered weeks ago. They did say that there was some employees(out of charity) still there packing up some cards for shipment. So if your credit card was not charged, then you should not be receiving a video card. I was able to get what is probaly one of the last new Hercules TNT2 Ultras that will be seen again. They sold me the Hercules TNT2 Ultra /TV-out with dvd software for a discount price of $200. They said that if you are lucky enough to live in the Fremont area, able to arrive at Hercules Co. with the next days before they clear out, that you could also get the Hercules TNT2 Ultra/ TV-out with dvd software for the discount price of $200. [break]AVault heeft een posting met op zich weinig nieuws, maar wel een stukje over de geschiedenis van Hercules: [/break] Similar to other success stories of the computer industry, Hercules Computer Technology was launched in a garage. In this case, the garage was 10 miles northeast of San Francisco in the town of Hercules. It was there in 1982 that the first high-resolution graphics adapter for the burgeoning PC business was created, the Hercules Monochrome Graphics Adapter.

From its roots in establishing the monochrome graphics standard, Hercules pioneered advances in color graphics solutions. In the late 80s and early 90s, the company led the industry with high-end solutions based on TIGA, RISC and proprietary ASIC technologies. These products brought graphics functionality to PCs once reserved for more expensive professional systems.

Since 1992, Hercules has focused on its Windows multimedia accelerators, including an extensive line of 3D graphics cards. In November 1998, a proposed acquisition of the privately held corporation by Germany-based ELSA was terminated when the companies were unable to agree on the terms of the sale. Hercules still managed to ship its Dynamite TNT2 in June 1999, and on Aug. 9 released updated drivers for its entire TNT and TNT2 product line. [break] Verder nog wat info op de frontpage van Extreme Hardware: [/break] This pretty well sums up what all of the evidence has been pointing to: the dumped Hercules inventory, the halted TNT2 Ultra shipments, the unanswered phone calls and the USENET posting derived from an anonymous Hercules executive. This email is definitely not good news for those eagerly awaiting their Dynamite TNT2 Ultra shipments, but what can I say? I fully expect a formal announcement from Hercules early next week. [break] Tenslotte nog een artikel van 3DAlpha:[/break] When I recieved word of Hercules shutting down, I was saddened. The computer graphics market is made up mainly of companies that do not have a long standing history. Should one of the newer players have gone out of bussiness, I might not have been bothered too deeply. However, for an industry heavyweight such as Hercules to collapse so unexpectedly, it has made me step back and reconsider my views of the cut throat computer market. The loss of Hercules also means fewer companies remain to produce new graphics cards. With 3dfx and S3 acquiring STB and Diamond, respectively, the number of large, well known manufacturers still producing cards utilizing NVidia's chipsets has been cut significantly. I would not be surprised if NVidia chose to acquire their own manufacturer soon, and, in fact, it would seem almost dangerous not to do so.

Erg klote allemaal .

Over bij ZDNN staat nu ook een artikel over de vernieuwde Celeron die in 2000 zal komen. De processor zal dus overgeheveld worden naar de Pentium 3 Coppermine technologie, met alle voordelen van dien:

With this transition, Celeron will receive a performance increase thanks to a number of features that are now reserved for high-end Pentium III processors. The list includes Streaming SIMD Extensions, a set of instructions for processing multimedia, along with support for a 100MHz system bus, sources said.

Celeron will also adopt a new packaging design, called "flip chip," pin grid array for the 370 pin Socket 370. Flip chip packaging moves the pins that attach the chip to the motherboard from its edges to its center, making for a shorter electrical path and a shorter thermal path, and increasing performance and heat dissipation, sources said.

Hier kun je meer lezen.

Thresh's FiringSquad heeft een review online van de nieuwe Terratec DMX soundcard met de ESS Canyon3D Engine. Terratec is een Duits bedrijf die oorspronkelijk hoge kwaliteit audio producten maakt voor studio's. Met deze geluidskaart willen ze nu echter ook een betaalbaar product voor de thuisgebruiker op de markt brengen brengen. De prijs is echt nog vrij hoog, maar voor $199 dollar krijg je dan wel een Digital I/O kaart, ondersteuning voor DirectSound3D, EAX, A3D en Sensaura en een heftige voorraad zachtwaar.

Features do not make a sound card. Even with all the fancy technology being incorporated into sound cards, what it all comes down to is the audio quality that is produced. Factors that influence audio fidelity are similar to factors that determine 2D video sharpness in video cards, the digital to analog converters and the construction and placement of these components.

The DMX uses Burr-Brown D/A converters which are known among industry as own of the finest makers of Digital to Analog converters. Burr-Brown components can be found in Linn Audio's insanely expensive CD player (Unless the amount your net worth fluctuates daily is more than the latest Lotto jackpot) as well as many other finer CD players. Granted, the D/A converters in the DMX are not the same ones in the Linn, but this means that the people at Burr-Brown know what a good D/A converter should be. And yes, this did give the DMX nice sound.

My standards for nice sound include the clarity of audio, meaning how well the instruments are separated from each other, as in does this sound like a chorus effect, or are there really thirty separate instruments playing? Another sign of a quality audio system is the ability to create an expansive sound stage, using only two speakers, and without any manipulation of the audio signal. The DMX also passed this test, creating a sound stage intermediate between the speakers, with good stereo separation.

Via AnandTech kwam ik op deze site die een artikel heeft geplaatst over de nieuwe NV10 chip van nVidia. In het artikel wordt gezegd dat de NV10 al zo'n beetje in productie is gegaan:

As a good reporter I couldn’t let NVIDIA go unquestioned about their NV10 product even though I suspected I wouldn’t get a straight answer. My simple question? Is NV10 a chip or chipset? To my surprise Derek Perez answered that it was indeed a single chip. This is important because NVIDIA made a special press release saying that they would have on-chip geometry before the end of the year. Clearly you can still be "on-chip" if you are using a chipset but that definitely would be a prevarication on NVIDIA’s part. This is indeed quite an accomplishment to combine a minimum TNT2 level of performance and geometry on the same chip. I also questioned Chris Hoberg about their fab process and she informed me that NVIDIA won’t be utilizing .18 micron this year, and that .18 micron will be used for another product in first quarter next year. This is very contrary to almost every NV10 preview on the net that was doing more speculation that actual fact finding. NVIDIA’s most advanced process right now is .22 micron. Since NV10 is now in production this is undoubtedly the process they are using. Also of note is the fact their CEO mentioned in the quarterly conference call that there will be two product announcements coming soon. Obviously one is the NV10. I’m curious as to what else NVIDIA has up their sleeve.

Zeker de moeite waard om dit dit 3 pagina tellende stukkie te lezen.

Linux.com heeft een interview gepost met Daniel Duley, KDE developer bij MandrakeSoft. In het artikel vind je o.a. info over nieuwe features in KDE 2.0.

Q: What do you consider to be the most important new features of version 2.0? Daniel M. Duley: Well, the most obvious is we are using Corba extensively now. For example, our new file manager, Konqueror, can dynamically embed all sorts of small applets, such as image viewers. Thus, when you click on something either locally or via the Internet, KDE can automatically handle it while still in the browser, even if the browser doesn't know how to.

A: Other new things include advanced themeing support (including a point-and-click widget theme designer), more I/O capability such as LDAP, ODBC management and integration, and Java and JavaScript support which is in the works.

Wired News heeft een artikeltje over de MP3 Anywhere, een koel produkt van X11 waarmee je je PC en stereo tot op een afstand van 30 meter draadloos kunt verbinden:

MP3 addicts can now bypass those wimpy PC speakers and broadcast straight to their stereos, thanks to a wireless attachment that comes in under US$100.

On Wednesday, hardware developer X10 launched the MP3 Anywhere, a wireless kit that can transmit MP3 songs from a PC to stereos up to 100 feet away. The MP3 Anywhere Kit sends the audio signal over a 2.4-gigahertz radio band, the same high bandwidth radio signal used in consumer devices like cordless phones.

The MP3 Anywhere Kit comes with the transmitter and receiver, as well as MouseREMOTE, a remote control unit that functions as both a universal remote and PC mouse. A WinAmp plug-in enables the MouseREMOTE to control the popular MP3 player software

Logitech heeft een tweetal nieuwe speakersetjes op de markt gekwakt. Hier heb je wat spul uit de press release:

SoundMan X1 and SoundMan G1 extend the SoundMan family from the high-end SoundMan X2 through the mid-range and entry-level price points. SoundMan X1, which combines a subwoofer and satellite speakers, carries an estimated retail price of $69. SoundMan G1, a two-piece speaker set, is available at an estimated street price of $39.

The entire SoundMan family incorporates into its compact, contemporary industrial design the enhanced sound reproduction achieved through Linear Magnetic Drive (LIMAD) technology. All speakers are magnetically shielded.

The SoundMan X1 speakers produce realistic, high-definition sound for Internet downloads, CD music, multimedia files, and MP3 audio. A sleek subwoofer accurately reproduces the full bass range and combined with the two satellite speakers, delivers 25 watts RMS of power. The SoundMan G1 speakers, which provide eight watts RMS of power, can accurately reproduce the full spectrum of sound for games, music CD's, Web site audio clips and multimedia programs. SoundMan G1 has a standby/mute button. Because of the small footprint of each system, users can place the speakers on a desk, bookcase or in an entertainment center. All SoundMan products are based on LIMAD technology. This proprietary method of sound reproduction uses rare-earth neodymium magnets to accurately capture the full spectrum of sound in a compact design.

Developed by soundmatters, LIMAD enables speakers to provide output at all frequencies in proportion to input, and to accommodate sudden changes in frequency without distortion. It also allows speakers and subwoofers to handle a wide dynamic range, including low frequency sounds that are difficult to accurately reproduce, such as classical music, male voices, cellos and pianos.

Markt analisten blijken niet onder de indruk te zijn van de AMD Athlon processor. Ze verwachten 'disaster for the company' en denken dat AMD niet aan de vraag naar Athlon processors zal kunnen voldoen (het bekende verhaaltje). Hier heb je wat knipwerk uit een artikel van News.com:

"We are not convinced that AMD can pull it off," Merrill Lynch's Joseph Osha said in a recent report stating that AMD faces "substantial challenges." AMD has been plagued by losses over the years, even when it managed to take the lion's share of the retail consumer PC segment.

Also, "convincing [PC makers] to buy AMD in the non-value segment, where reliability and deliverability are just as important as price [is a challenge,]" the report said.

This puts Intel in a strong position. "The Intel competitive position now looks as good as it has been for some time. The low end of market, which is where the threat lay, has cleared out. AMD is reduced to a Hail Mary strategy which, despite impressive specs for Athlon on paper, has little chance of success," according to the Merril Lynch report.

Others are also cautious. "AMD has made a series of questionable decisions recently that are difficult to rationalize reviewing...their performance at retail. Pulling out of the low-end chip market, while unprofitable, gives them no legs to stand on," Alison Boswell wrote in the Boswell Report.

"While AMD shows improvement in sales and market share...they seem less of a threat than ever in light of recent announcements," said Boswell.

Ominously she added, "Their image is based on price, and as our research has shown over the last six months, consumers have little interest in the brand otherwise. Time and again they have tried to compete with Intel's high-end products and failed, as the K6-3 is a prime example." She concludes that "chronic problems" along with resignation of Atiq Raza, president and COO, spell "disaster for the company."

Volgens The Register zit er toch nog leven in de Cyrix Gobi en zal deze low-budget socket370 proc in het vierde kwartaal van dit jaar gereleased worden:

Taiwanese wires are reporting that Via, which bought IDT's WinChip and Cyrix earlier this year, will release the latter's Gobi processor in Q4.

According to the reports, the Socket 370 part will be aimed at the low end of the market.

Samples have already been sent to a number of Taiwanese motherboard companies for evaluation and volume production will start in six weeks.

Just last week, NatSemi fired 180 Cyrix staff, prompted by Via amidst fears that the entire future of the Gobi and Mojave projects were in jeopardy.

Gamasutra heeft een artikeltje gepost over recente ontwikkelingen op het gebied van game AI:

Last year there were signs that development teams were beginning to take game AI much more seriously than they had in the past. Developers were getting involved in the design of the AI earlier in the design cycle, and many projects were beginning to dedicate one or more programmers exclusively to AI development. Polls from the AI roundtables showed a substantial increase in the number of developers devoted exclusively to AI programming (see Figure 1). Resources dedicated to AI development. It was very apparent at the 1999 GDC that this trend has continued at a healthy clip, with 60 percent of the attendees at my roundtables reporting that their projects included one or more dedicated AI programmers. This number is up from approximately 24 percent in 1997 and 46 percent in 1998 and shows a growing desire on the part of development houses to make AI a more important part of their game design. If the trend continues, we'll see dedicated AI developers become as routine as dedicated 3D engine or sound developers.

Het complete artikel vind je hier.

Vorige weken hoorden we Quantum nog jammeren over de veel te keiharde prijs oorlog in de harddisk markt. Dat het niet echt lekker gaat met Quantum blijkt wel uit het feit dat ze gisteren een reorganisatie hebben aangekondigd, waarbij 800 arbeidsplaatsen zullen verdwijnen. Hier heb je het nieuws van News.com:

Quantum's hard disk drive group said it will cut as many as 800 jobs and take a charge of $50 million in the current quarter as part of a restructuring.

The Milpitas, California-based company said it was making the moves to align its technology and business more closely to the rapidly growing market for personal computers costing less than $700.

[...] On a conference call, Quantum executives lamented what it called "destructive pricing pressures" by other disk drive makers to gain market share. As a result, John Gannon, president of the hard disk drive group, told analysts on a conference call that "no one is making any money in the disk drive business today."

After rallying during the past six months, shares of disk drive makers such as Quantum, Seagate Technology, Western Digital have fallen recently, in light of the severe price-cutting and declining profits.

Quantum's high-end disk drive business will be "largely unaffected" by yesterday's announcements, Gannon said. Overall, demand is healthy, typical of the nearing holiday season, but any profits are being more than offset by continued price cutting, Gannon said on the conference call.

PC Paradox heeft een errug compleet interview gepost met een ventje van Bitboys (die finse Future Crew rakkers met hun gigantisch geile Glaze3D accelerator). Hier een stukje over de memory interface van de Glaze3D:

Q: Looking at the chip design: on chip texture cache (8/16k) and 9Mb of eDRAM (also in chip) and an external memory interface that supports upto 128Mb SDRAM. The extra on chip eDRAM is (possibly) similar in idea to the full speed on chip L2 cache of the Celeron and K6-III CPU's. As we all know the 128Kb full speed cache of the Celeron puts its performance up there with the P2/P3 in some apps. With such a large amount of high speed memory what can of benefits are we going to see over other architectures (not only current architectures but future designs too). (Question: Peter Male - PhDweb)

A: The 9MB of embedded DRAM is just regular video memory, it's not used in a cache fashion. Current 3D-graphics chips get (max) 3 GB/s of memory bandwidth from external memory. They have a 128-bit memory interface, Glaze3D has 512-bit memory interface @ 150 MHz. This gives us over three times the memory bandiwidth, 9.6 GB/s. This naturally translates to the high pixel fillrates.

Ok, dit is dus ook waarom 4x AGP bullshit is...