Ik lees bij AGN 3D (die het nieuws weer van CTW Newsflash heeft) dat de europease release van de Sega Droomkast vertraagd is. De nieuwe release date staat gepland voor 14 oktober:

The 128-bit console, which was originally due to be launched in the UK and across Europe on September 23rd, will now hit retail on October 14th. CTW understands that the delay is due to a number of critical factors involving the machine’s online capabilities.

Sega recently put back the launch of Dreamcast in Australia, although the US launch is understood to be going ahead on September 9th as planned. Commenting on the decision, J-F Cecillon, chief executive officer of Sega Europe said, "Dreamcast involves the most advanced technology ever incorporated into a games console. Our free Internet access is an industry first and BT has been key in its creation across Europe."

Koen van Hardwareinfo.nl heeft een review van de MSI 3D AGPhantom gepost. Hier heb je een stukje over de matige overklokbaarheid van deze vanilla TNT2 kaart:

Aangezien Microstar een actieve cooler op de chip heeft geplaatst kan de TNT2 chip makkelijk omhoog geklokt worden tot TNT2 Ultra snelheid. De snelheidssprong van 125 MHz naar 150 MHz bracht bij ons exemplaar geen stabiliteits problemen met zich mee. Het geheugen van de MSI TNT2 is een ander verhaal: zoals op de eerste pagina al besproken is de gekozen geheugen configuratie funest voor overklokkers. Meer dan 10 MHz kregen we het geheugen niet stabiel geklokt. De hoogst haalbare instelling wordt zo 150/160 MHz. De performance winst hierbij is overigens wel nog zeer redelijk. I.p.v. 52,8 fps bij Quake II massive.dm2 in 1024 x 768, scoort de kaart bij de 150/160 instelling 59,3 fps. Dit is een performance-stijging van meer dan 12%, mooi meegenomen dus.

De complete review lees je hier.

Ik kwam bij AMD Zone deze info uit een AMD presentatie in Seattle. Er werd o.a. gezegd dat de huidige Athlon's niet multiproccessing compatible zijn:

MSI, FIC, Biostar, Gigabyte, ASUS, and one more I can't remember) were on schedule to have boards out by mid-September. She also said six more manufacturers had been "enabled" to release boards by the end of the year. One thing I thought was interesting was that she said that the AMD "Fester" boards are made on a six-layer PCB, which is the reference spec. However, ASUS told AMD that they have designed a cheaper, more stable board which only uses a four-layer PCB... interesting.

Also of note were the following:

- The Athlon which has just been launched is NOT multiprocessor compatible. The multiprocessor compatible Athlons will be available in early 2000.

- According to the woman at the AMD seminar, the ASUS Athlon motherboard will use an AMI (!?) BIOS (not Award, like they usually do), the AMD "Irongate" Northbridge and the VIA Southbridge.

- Although the Athlon uses 100MHz memory with it's 200MHz bus, AMD is reccommending certain "name brand" memory modules for use with the Athlon. These are supposedly on their web site by now. (I haven't checked yet.)

- AGP 4x is NOT supported in the AMD Athlon chipset. However, the new VIA chipset coming out either late this year or early next year will have support for 133MHz memory AND AGP 4x.

- In un-Athlon related news, the AMD rep said that AMD was definately bringing out a K6-2 500 and that it would be officially announced next monday. She also said that the initial price would be around $110. I'm assuming that's in large quantities, but still... [break] In een andere posting op AMD Zone info afkomstig uit een presentatie in Boston: [/break] He also went on to speak a bit about the costs of adding large amounts of L2 cache to an Athlon, stating that they had in fact built a part with 2MB L2 cache at full CPU clock, but that "the ram alone cost us over $600 for the engineering sample."

Pete's Hardware Domain heeft een review van de extreem koele Kyrotech Cool Athlon-800 online gezet:

Looking at the benchmarks it is plain to see that at 800Mhz the Athlon is truly a monster. Even at 600MHz it is no slouch and comfortably beats Intel's offerings. However, when 'thermally accelerated' it virtually takes off. [break] Piet heeft ook een opmerking over het eigenhandig door AMD geoptimaliseerde 3DMark99 .dll'tje: [/break] One thing that needs a mention is 3D Mark99 MAX, and all this 'optimised' guff. With the Athlon AMD have extended the 3D Now! instruction set by adding 19 new ones. In doing so 3D Mark's default 3D Now! optimisations are not really best suited to the Athlon. They have released a patch that does allow better testing of this enhanced 3D Now! instruction set hence the 'optmised' results. Despite these extra optmisations the Athlon will still beat the equivalent P3 on equal terms.

ZDNet UK heeft een artikeltje over de terughoudendheid van grote OEMs tov de AMD Athlon. Zo hebben Dell en Gateway (deal met Intel) inmiddels besloten de Athlon voorlopig niet te zullen gebruiken. Het welbekende argument van AMD produktieproblemen wordt ook weer naar boven gebaggert:

Steve Duignan, UK product manager for Dell's Dimension range -- the desktop PC family currently using high-end Pentium III chips and thus most suited to AMD's Athlon. Although he admits that price/performance is usually paramount for Dell, he highlights the company's similar decision to adopt the Celeron processor early, when AMD's K6 was performing better in performance testing. "To be honest, we did evaluate the Athlon during pre-testing, as we always have done with previous AMD chips, but the big problem is the company's ability to supply," says Duignan. "AMD hasn't got a particularly good track record in its ability to ship to order and that's the kicker. We're not alone in this -- look at Gateway." [break] In de Coppermine, Intel's zoveelste P6 facelift, hebben ze op een of andere manier wel vertrouwen: [/break] [...] Duignan says: "With Coppermine in the pipeline, Intel looks as if it will regain the high ground. For a couple of months, AMD win the spec wars but they don't have an astounding combination of integration with the motherboard and further chipsets. It's a concern when it comes down to real life performance."

CPU Review heeft een artikeltje in elkaar gedraaid waarin ze kijken naar de performance van de Athlon in Linux (RH6):

My experience in running Linux on the Athlon 600 test system was extremely positive; while there were some initial difficulties (due to the supplied video and network cards) Linux appears to be an excellent match for the power of the K7.

De Athlon blijkt trouwens geen goede koe: op 600Mhz haalt-ie een keyrate van slechts 1,44MKeys/sec (geen 464MHz Celeron haalt 1,28MKeys/sec en m'n dual C490 doet 2,7MKeys/sec). Zodra er een voor de Athlon geoptimaliseerde client komt zal dit waarschijnlijk wel veranderen.

Ik kwam bij FullOn3D deze info tegen over brakke MSI 6167 Athlon planken:

From a very reliable OEM source I learned that the reason for the AMD/MSI pullback in Japan was caused by MSI's attempt to cheapen their 6167 board design at the expense of stability. The source claims that MSI altered the AMD approved design to save more costs and produced an unreliable board in the process that has problems with DIMMs, power supplies and soundcards. All those boards have to be yanked from the channel and replaced with the fixed version.

This contradicts allegations on japanese websites that Irongate itself is broken, the problem is with the motherboard layout and cheapened components. No doubt AMD is not very thrilled about this fubar.

AMD is hier vanzelfsprekend niet erg blij mee. BDW: is dit de reden dat de MSI borden van de familie Funprice niet met G400 videokaarten overweg kunnen?

MSNBC heeft een artikeltje over de snel groeiende Instant Messenger markt. AOL, Yahoo en Microsoft zoeken naar wegen om geld te verdienen met hun Instant Messengers (aan inkomsten ontbreekt het op dit moment namelijk nog):

THAT MAY CHANGE, as America Online Inc. and its ICQ subsidiary, Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp. implement schemes to make instant messaging a profit center.

“Monetizing instant messaging will be huge,” said Charlene Li, senior analyst at Forrester Research Inc., and it will only get bigger after there’s an open standard for IM technology, she said.

[...] A spokeswoman said the service would integrate advertising for hip apparel for young women and students, and for music and entertainment. “It’s a perfect demographic fit,” she said. For the future, ICQ is exploring ways to target Instant Messages about special discounts that are of interest to individual users.

For instance, ICQ has a deal with eBay.com to distribute IM alerts about auction activity. That potentially drives traffic to eBay, which indirectly boosts sales. Yahoo! also alerts its Messenger users if they have been outbid on Yahoo! Auction.

Park says Yahoo! sees expanded commerce and communication opportunities down the road for instant messaging. Among the possibilities are users being alerted to when their stocks have reached the user’s preset level, and then the user can decide whether to sell the stock and make the transaction via instant messaging.

Check MSNBC voor het complete verhaal.

Alweer een nieuwe patch voor Kingpin. Er zijn behoorlijk wat fixes en updates.

Download 'em hier. Daar staan ook de preciese gegevens van de update.

Midway, het bedrijf dat ons altijd blij maakt in o.a. de Arcade en op de PC, heeft een groot verlies geleden in het afgelopen kwartaal.

Falling revenues and a high-priced priced settlement with GT Interactive sent Midway Games’ Quarter 4 1999 financial results tumbling. Also impacting the company was a restructuring of its arcade business to optimize its Atari and Midway units, a move expected to save the company $5 million in annual overhead. Fourth quarter revenues were $56 million compared with revenues of $98 million in the same period last year. Midway reported a net loss of $15.4 million compared with net income of $9 million for the quarter ending June 30, 1998 -- $10 million of which was attributed to litigation costs, restructuring and other unconventional charges.

Lees de rest van de blabla hier.

Er is een demo van Battlezone II beschikbaar gekomen.

Downloaden kan hier.

Thresh's FiringSquad heeft een interview gehad met Landon Montgomery over de expansion pack voor Half-Life, genaamd Opposing Force. Er staan overigens ook wat mooie screens bij. Check het hele interview hier.

Thresh's Firingsquad: What can you tell us about the AI in Opp For? Will you ever be able to communicate with some of your fellow soldiers and coordinate attacks, etc?

Landon Montgomery: The AI in OpFor is essentially the AI you found in HL, but tweaked to fit the particular characters you now encounter. For example, the squad based AI you came across in the form of enemy soldiers in HL has been carried over to not only your own squad mates as they work with you, but to the Shock Troopers as they work together to put a halt to your progress. It's very cool to see your squad of soldiers working together as unit against an equally intelligent pack of Shock Troopers or Voltigores.

We have this little test map to demonstrate the squad interaction and on one side of this crate filled room you find a pack of Shock Troopers. In the opposite corner of the same side, you find a pack of Voltigores. You occupy the other side with a small squad of soldiers and a medic. You can just imagine the war the ensues.

You'll be able to command your fellow soldiers in much the same manner you did with the original friendly NPCs in HL. You can gather a squad of several soldiers together and have them follow you into combat. Once in the heat of things, they react independently in their firefights with the medic healing those in need as he's able to.

FS: What sorts of new weapons can we expect to see in the game?

LM: We have 9 new weapons, which is just unheard of in most traditional add-on packs. They range from the melee attack of the new pipe wrench, complete with a secondary overhanded wind-up swing that dramatically increases the damage dealt, to the Desert Eagle with its laser sighted, incredibly accurate secondary firing mode. The M-249 SAW is the perfect weapon for serious mowdown when the need arises and we have a nice selection of exotic weapons that we're keeping secret for right now but it's safe to say that people will be thrilled with their new arsenal of weaponry.

Als je nog niet wist hoe je je Voodoo3 kaart moest overklokken, Thresh's FiringSquad heeft er een handige guide over geschreven. Dit waren hun resultaten:

We could overclock our 2000 from 143MHz to 175MHz for a 22% gain, but we needed to point a fan directly at the video card. The card worked fine at 166MHz with the standard heatsink and thermal pad. We could squeeze the performance of a V3 3000 out of our 2000 right out of the box.

Our V3 3000 could overclock 10% up to 183MHz, but we had to replace the thermal pad with thermal compound and add a fan to make the card stable. The card was fine at 175MHz with the standard cooling options.

The V3 3500 also needed a shot of thermal compound and a fan to get up to 212MHz. The 29MHz translates to a %16 speed increase.

Tweakers.net plaatst altijd nieuws, dit is gedeeltelijk wel nieuw, maar niet helemaal:
- Dat M$ software vol met bugs zitten was al bekend (oud nieuws )
- Dat er bugs in NT4 en IE5 zitten is wel nieuw.

Check this wat ik tegenkwam in UpToByte:

Microsoft heeft toegegeven dat er een vrij ernstige veiligheidsfout zit in haar Windows NT besturingssysteem wanneer Service Pack 4 (SP4) is geïnstalleerd. De door het Britse NTA Monitor ontdekte bug geeft hackers de mogelijkheid om zich via het zogenaamde Predictable IP Sequence Numbering voor te doen als een gewone 'host' en zich op die manier toegang te verschaffen tot beveiligde systemen. Microsoft heeft er inmiddels voor gezorgd dat de fout in Windows 2000 is weggewerkt, maar het zal ook een oplossing ter beschikking stellen voor gebruikers van NT4. En alsof de softwaregigant nog niet genoeg geplaagd wordt, heeft de Bulgaarse bugjager Georgi Guninski opnieuw een serieuze bug gevonden in de nieuwste Internet Explorer. Een bepaalde ActiveX control zorgt ervoor dat iemand die een website bezoekt of een e-mail via Outlook ontvangt, een programma kan toegestuurd krijgen dat bij het rebooten van uw systeem de controle erover volledig kan overnemen.

Het gaat weer goed, kan Microsoft niet beter elke week naar iedereen een cd-rommetje sturen met de laatste bugfixes? Is iets handiger dan telkens die bugfixes te downloaden

De Verlosser, oftewel Thomas Pabst, zegent ons met een artikel over Athlon overclocking:

With my Athlon-Scaling article I incidentally started some kind of competition on the web about who would be the first one to publish how to overclock Athlon. Unfortunately there's a significant number of incorrect or at least incomplete 'How To's available now, so that I felt forced to publish the complete story here. The last thing that anyone wants is to destroy his brand new Athlon CPU due to wrong or incomplete information. If any Athlon-owner really thinks that his system is still too slow and he's capable of soldering SMD-parts, he's now got the complete information required for successfully overclocking Athlon.

Oh Tom, gij bent geweldig!

Ook bij DemoNews, een nieuwe versie van Motherboard Monitor. Nieuw in 4.10 Beta3:

Lost of code changes to the MBM.DLL and SMbus code
VUMeters will allow negative values
UpDown Log code adjusted for negative voltages
Win2000 Hibernation code implemented, hopefully it will not crash when you return from hibernation (I would really like this tested !!)
Asus MEWi810 compatible (select Asus MEWi810 on voltage setup tab and again I need feeback on this !!)

This program will try to access one or more of the following chips: LM78, LM78-j, LM79, LM80, WinBond W83781D, WinBond W83782D, WinBond W83783S , GL518SM, GL520SM, ADM9240, ADM1021, ADM1020, MAX1016, MAX1016a, FMS2701 and LM75 on your motherboard and will try to provide you with information about your motherboard's temperature, voltages, fan speeds and cpu temperature.

Download Motherboard Monitor 4.10 B3 hier. (1.4MB)

Ik zie bij DemoNews dat er een beta van MGA Tweak gereleased is. Met deze util kan je je Matrox kaart van alle kanten tweaken:

Noticed at MURC that the first public beta of MGA Tweak has bee released, version 1.10 beta 0.13. MGA Tweak is a comprehensive utility that allows full control over your Matrox board to adjust clock, memory and warp speeds and much more, it is THE overclocking utility.

Software optimizer for all Matrox graphics accelerators, from the early Matrox Millenium PCI (MGA-2064W) to the latest MGA-G400 AGP. Supported optimization includes system PLL clock speed control, clock dividers and clock source selection control, SDRAM/SGRAM optimization and miscellaneous control. Supported MGA chipsets:

- MGA-2064W
- MGA-1064/1164SG
- MGA-2164W PCI/AGP
- MGA-G100 PCI/AGP
- MGA-G200 PCI/AGP
- MGA-G400 AGP

There is a thorough guide to MGA Tweak included with example settings for you to use to get the most out of your G400, G200 etc. Keep up to date on the latest MGA Tweak news at MGA Optimisation Tools, please provide any feedback you may have or requests for help in the MGA Tools Forum.

Haal MGA Tweak hier naar beneden.

Over bij Adrenaline Vault is nu een preview te vinden van Homeworld. Dit is dus die 3D stratey game die in de ruimte afspeelt. Veel mensen zijn er erg enthousiast over, en deze preview zeker ook wel. Hier heb je een gedeelte:

There are units upon units to pore over in Homeworld. To describe them would consume the bulk of this preview. Small scout ships, larger and more powerful interceptors, and light and heavy attack corvettes are some of the vessels available early on. They can all be customized according to your level of research. As you develop stronger chassis and more potent weaponry, you begin to build frigates and soon battleships. Your repair corvette can swallow ships into its blue, glowing maw and replenish their shields and tattered hulls; the salvage corvette locks in on drifting flotsam to examine the wreckage for valuables. The battleship, a hulking beast of a capital ship, truly does the classification justice; it is birthed like a daughter whale from the mothership's side, a whole panel moving upward to let it free. Cloaked Fighters, Gravity Well Generators, Missile Destroyers, Mine Layer Corvettes, Sensor Arrays, Attack Bombers, Ion Beam Frigates, Defense Field Frigates, Proximity Sensors, Deep Space Seeker Probes and more are all a part of the war plan. The variety is stupefying.

Just to make you really gawk, Sierra has thrown in a handy little option: If you get tired of the variety of ships in your fleet, switch fleets! A second group, stocked with a similar array of choices but based on a different design philosophy, awaits. Customize their colors. Push and pull them across the screen to gaze at them in motion. But beware! Here is one of the danger zones -- the graphics are so compelling you sometimes ignore the play of the game itself. The designs are Manga inspired, showing that decidedly Japanese sense in the asymmetrical designs, lotus-like vessels and dragonfly fighters. Lighting effects are like something from Akira set to motion -- a truly impressive feat. Blinkers blink. Trails trail. It's a dizzying, electric and truly breathtaking visual experience.

Zie hier ook een screenshot, check deze page voor meer eye-candy.

OK, wat is er nu zo spectaculair aan deze laptop? De specs zijn hoog, maar niet extreem: PII 400, 64 mb RAM, 14 Gb HD. Het mooiste is dat deze laptop geschikt is om te gamen! Jaja, dat we dat nog mogen meemaken

Door de aanwezigheid van een ATI Rage met 8 Mb SGRAM en een prachtig 15.1 inch TFT scherm is het heel goed mogelijk om op deze laptop games te spelen, en dan niet alleen Patience...

Forsaken, Quake2 en dat soort spellen zijn prima te doen
Verwacht geen TNT2-prestaties, maar het is speelbaar. Check deze link voor het hele artikel.

What use is a snazzy 15.1-inch TFT if you can't make the colors and desktop look vibrant at a decent refresh rate? That's where Dell's system integrators have made a good choice in ATI's 8MB SGRAM Rage Mobility 2D/3D for the graphics sub system. On the 2D side, the default resolution of 1024x768x32 (although current LCD's don't really display above 22-bits in reality) is also the optimal setting. 800x600 looks a tad blocky on an LCD of this size so stick to the higher resolution where possible. The fast 230MHz RAMDAC on the Rage Mobility also helps keep the refresh rates at a good level for all resolutions.

32 FPS in Quake2 (640x480x16) en 54 FPS in Forsaken (800x600x16) is best aanvaardbaar. In ieder geval beter dan een gameboy ofzo
Prijs: ongeveer 8000 gulden...

Tweak3D heeft een review online van de Savage 4 Pro+ kaart van Diamond, de Stealth III S540. Voor de snelheid moet je deze kaart niet kopen, wel voor zijn prijs en de S3TC feature, die toch wel cool blijft vind ik. Check de review hier.

In conclusion, and to set my thoughts straight: The Stealth III S540 with the Savage4 Pro+ is a NIIICCE addition to anyone's graphic arsenal, in the category of image quality at the very least. However, it is severely plagued by incomplete support of its number one feature, S3TC. A second downfall is the overall speed at high resolutions, and even at the lower ones for that matter. The clock of the chip just doesn't cut it, especially with today's monsters close to hitting 200MHz! This can be overlooked, however, because it is aimed at the money-conscience consumers, remember...

On a good note, the bundle almost literally pays for the card. I remember once buying a Matrox Mystique just for the pack in. Basically, you'll be paying about $120 dollars for two games, and some nice software (including that one demo!) on the disc itself. One thing that I believe I forgot to mention earlier is that Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit is included as a demo and capable of being unlocked after purchase. (*cough* I'm sure you can find a generator. *cough*)

Finally, my standpoint on the Savage4 is that it is a great improvement over the Savage3D and deserves recognition. Given the market it is aimed for, Diamond and S3 developed on great card and when Unreal Tournament comes out, or other supporting games, I'll be the first to put my Stealth III back in my computer and get ready for stunning visuals in both 2D and 3D. Last and not least (well maybe in a comical sense) is the price. This card runs about $80 dollars across the BDNetwork which is less than a Voodoo3 2000 yet just about as good. (Notice at the bottom of all our reviews the link to search BDN. This finds you the cheapest prices of it on the 'net, so click it! Afterall, it is there for you

Nog meer nieuws van The Register: Linux rukt nu ook op in de supercomputer-markt.
De Amerikaanse electronica-gigant en chipbakker Motorola gaat een systeem met meer dan 200 processors gebruiken om nieuwe chips te ontwikkelen. Het geval is in staat tot 0.5 TeraFlops en draait op RedHat Linux.

Motorola is designing next generation semiconductors with the aid of a 200+ node cluster Linux system capable of 0.5 teraflops in peak floating point performance. The system is from Atipa Linux Solutions, and uses Red Hat as the OS. The existence of a system of this size makes it clear that Linux is going places in terms of scalability.

Lees het hele artikeltje hier

Volgens The Register (het roddelblad onder de computersites) zal Windows2000 toch niet in 1999 uitkomen. Volgens anonieme bronnen bij Microsoft is men bezig met de voorbereidingen van een release in januari 2000:

One of our friendly readers who seems to have inside knowledge of said plans but wants to keep his job, is claiming that a target launch date has been set for the end of January. He wrote: "On the completely hush-hush, plans are already being made for a full-blown Win2000 launch on Superbowl Sunday in late January. By then, it should already be in the channel, but the full (what they are calling "balloons and t-shirts") launch will be either Superbowl Sunday or early February."

Oftewel: misschien al verkrijgbaar in 1999, maar pas officieel uit in januari 2000.

Stay tuned..

Sharky Extreme heeft een review in elkaar gedraaid waarin de (eindelijk normaal leverbare) Matrox G400 32 Mb wordt getest. De Matrox wordt vergeleken met de Guillemot Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 TNT2 Ultra (wat een naam...) die het meest in de buurt komt wat betreft specificaties, prestaties en prijs.
Het resultaat is zeer goed voor de Matrox:

The G400 32MB delivers impressive performance, especially considering the fact that it's clock is lower than both the Xentor 32 TNT2 Ultra and Voodoo 3 3000 we've compared it to in these charts. In 1024 x 768 at 32bit color the G400 is less than 1 fps slower than the powerful Xentor 32 board, considering that the G400 ICD is still in development and the fact that the Xentor has somewhere around 30% higher clock this no doubt tells us a little something about the G400's capabilities. In every benchmark we ran, the G400 delivered comparable performance to both the V3 3000 and the Xentor 32. In 32-bit, at times the G400 was even faster than the Xentor 32, the V3 was left out of the 32bit race due to being unable to render in 32bit color depths. In Direct 3D the G400 was very impressive, delivering highly playable frame rates at 1024 x 768 and above with very little performance loss in 32bit modes. Games like Drakan, Motorhead and others looked dreamy and played smoothly.

Verder trapt Sharky een paar open deuren in wat betreft de beeldkwaliteit en de onvolprezen Dual-Head functie.
Lees de hele review hier.

Ik zag op /. dat Mozilla.org een nieuwe beta van Mozilla 5 heeft gaar gebakken. Milestone 9 kun je hier downloaden. Info over bugfixes en nieuwe features waren op het moment dat ik dit tikte nog niet beschikbaar, daarom maar twee reakties van Slashdot:

---- It seems really nice and fast, and seems to support quite a lot of things, but there seem to still be a lot of silly bugs that I wouldnt expect to still be seeing at this stage. For instance sometimes when i highlight the location bar and try to type over the text, instead of disappearing it becomes part of the background and makes it impossible to read. Are other people getting these sorts of things? In any case, many thanks to the mozilla team and keep up the good work. I hope to see NS5 before IE for Linux

---- It is unfortunate that such a landmark project will probably get wasted. Explorer has the market and the momentum once enjoyed by Netscape. To regain it back Mozilla would have to be so much better than its nemesis that it would really have to be another application entirely.

Naturally, if AOL decides to make Mozilla THE AOL browser, the nature of the game may change. But will them?

Guillemot heeft een nieuwe geluidskaart voor ons in petto. Hier heb je de press release, bruut geript van GA-Source:

Guillemot's latest sound card is coming out Fortissimo! Guillemot's new PCI audio accelerator, the Maxi Sound FORTISSIMO, is a four-channel digital sound board powered by the latest Yamaha engine.

The Maxi Sound FORTISSIMO features the very first processo r to accelerate DirectMusic in hardware. DirectMusic is Microsoft newest API, and allows digital sound fidelity and 3D audio gaming.

Music aficionados will be thrilled to discover they can create and edit their own music with the highly acclaimed Sonic Foundry ACID DJ music software, and that they can connect their hi-fi systems to make their own digital recordings with mini-disc or digital recorders. Free from any outside interference, the optical digital output included, coupled with a DVD-ROM drive, also makes Maxi Sound FORTISSIMO(tm) an ideal companion for upcoming digital TVs.

The Maxi Sound FORTISSIM Ooffers:

- An S/PDIF digital output with optical connector
- True full duplex playback and capture with different sampling rates.
- A professional built-in music synthesizer with a 2MB 64- voice XG hardware wavetable
- 676 instrument sounds, 21 drum kits as well as an effects processor
- 100% Plug & Play -step-by-step photo-illustrated guide for easy installation

The Maxi Sound FORTISSIMO will hit North American retail shelves in September of 1999 and will sell for $49.99.

Ik kwam bij GA-Source deze korte posting tegen over een ATA/66 controller van IWill:

Iwill USA, a motherboard and I/O controller manufacturer, announced an new item named SIDE Pro66 for Ultra DMA 66 Interface controller. The new controller provides two IDE hard drive connectors that support Ultra DMA 66. Check out the full press release for more inform ation and images (PDF format).

Tiger Investor heeft een interessant interview gepost met Greg Ballard en Jim Hopkins van 3dfx. Beide zeggen zelf verzekerd dat de Napalm / Voodoo4 sneller zal zijn dan de NV10, ondanks het ontbreken van een onboard geometry engine op de V4:

Patrick Grinsell: Let’s just take Quake 3 at 1024x768, just throw that out there.

Jim Hopkins: Unequivocally our product will be faster than the NV10.

Greg Ballard: As best we can tell. I mean, we still need to see an NV10. If you can get us a hold of an NV10 it would make it a lot easier for us to answer that question.

Jim Hopkins: The presentation from engineering is that if you have a game that is aware of a hardware based geometry engine, if you’re running at 640x480 you will actually, and you have what we know of NV10’s fill rate, then the geometry engine will help you quite a bit. If you were above 640x480 in resolution, you will become fill rate limited before the geometry engine becomes a problem. So, as you get higher resolution, above 640x480, fill rate becomes a bigger bottleneck than having hardware geometry does. I’m not saying that Napalm does or doesn’t have the various and sundry things that are included in a geometry engine. What Napalm, if that’s the name, indeed does have is the ability to provide fill rate that’s faster than anything else out there and at resolutions, particularly 1024x768, our engineering guys have calculated that fill rate is the ultimate bottleneck that keeps you from being able to run faster on benchmarks.

Okay, dus we moeten allemaal op de V4 gaan wachten . In de tussentijd kun je het complete interview lezen...

Intel zal volgende maand z'n nieuwe Camino i820 chipset releasen. Tegelijkertijd zullen er 133Mhz versies van de Pentium III (Katmai, dus geen .18micron Coppermine's). Hier heb je de info van Ace's Hardware:

According to this PC Home Taiwan report , Intel will roll out its FSB133 products, i.e. PIII, i810e and i820, by the end of September. The first FSB133 PIIIs from Intel will be the 533 and 600 Mhz parts, which are manufactured with 0.25 micron process and have 512k L2 cache (KH note: this sound more like the good old Katmai than the Coppermine, which is supposed to have 256k L2 on-die cache). The i820 chipset, slated to replace the BX chipset, will feature 133 Mhz FSB and AGP4X and a dual support of Rambust and PC100 SDRAM. The newest member to the integrated i810 family, i810E, will also support 133 Mhz FSB but again, not PC133 SDRAM.

Opperhoofd Bill heeft ons verzekerd dat Windows 2000 nog voor het eind van dit jaar gereleased wordt:

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates said today he was "pretty sure" Windows 2000 would be out the door by the end of the year.

"We are very close to the final shipment," Gates told some 1200 managers here at Dell Computer's DirectConnect conference. "We're pretty sure the builds will go final by the end of the year." Gates, who spent much of his keynote reiterating plans for the future, did offer some new tidbits, such as that Microsoft will spend $3.8bn this year on research and development.

Twenty-five years ago, he said, his vision was to put a computer on every desk and in every house. Now, with 50 percent of all American homes owning a PC, Microsoft's next move is to help revolutionise the workplace by creating software that works anyplace and on any device. "We still have a lot of work to do," Gates said. "The end is not in sight."

AGN Hardware heeft een review van de Elsa Erazor III neer gemikt. Deze kaart is net zo kaal als andere TNT2 kaarten en afgezien van de overklokbaarheid valt er dan ook weinig bijzonders over te vertellen. De lage snelheid van slechts 125/140Mhz, het ontbreken van een fan (die zet je er zelf maar op...) en de aanwezigheid van nogal traag 7ns geheugen voorspellen weinig goeds:

I have to admit that I am addicted to overclocking, always wanting to squeeze extra performance out of every corner of the card. This corner includes the RAZOR III, a card that seems to be lower than the competition due to the lack of the heavily needed fan on the chip. Fans are something that seem quite common on most of the video cards lately, allowing to pull the heat off the heatsink and away from your card. The lack of the fan on the RAZOR III slowed down the overclocking ability to only 140 MHz for the core speed, much slower than the 160MHz core speed and beyond that I have seen from some other normal TNT2 cards. As mentioned above the slow memory has also been an issue with the card, bringing only 150MHz for the memory speed.

Ook Ars Technica heeft een review gepost van de Abit BP6, een plank die inmiddels al weer enige tijd op de markt is. Ars heeft ruim de tijd genomen om de stabiliteit in de praktijk te testen. Op dat punt zijn ze dan ook kritisch:

If you want rock solid stability, the BP6 is probably not the board for you. It is pretty obvious that this is Abit's first multi-processor board. Little things like USB not working properly in BeOS, random crashes and the infamous disappearing mouse pointer illustrate this. To be totally fair, you'll probably be able to find a tweak-level that keeps you on solid ground, most of the time. But if you absolutely positively have to have a rock-hard box that never bends under pressure, this mobo probably won't do you right in the long run. Go get a less cool, but infinitely more stable Tyan dual board.