Storage Review heeft een SCSI roundup gepost waarin de performance van de huidige generatie 7200rpm en 10.000rpm SCSI drives wordt vergeleken. Winnaar van die laatste klasse is de Quantum Atlas 10K:

With the breakneck pace that 7200rpm ATA drives are evolving, some users question SCSI's performance advantages over ATA units. It's in the arena of 10k operation, though, that SCSI exerts its undeniable supremacy. Quite simply, there are no 10k rpm ATA drives yet. Even with the impending shipment of WD's 4.6 gig/platter Enterprise 18310, the Quantum Atlas 10k clearly shines as today's pre-eminent SCSI screamer. It's the downright fastest drive in four out of six categories, where it bests all competitors by significant margins. In the remaining two categories, WD's Enterprise manages to match, but not significantly exceed Quantum's offering. Unlike last year's Editor's Choice (the Cheetah 9LP), the Atlas 10k also sports decent heat and noise levels. Taken all together, the Atlas 10k is simply a darn attractive package.

Cizgi Elektrnoic (wazige site uit .tr'fika) heeft de specs gepost van de Asus P3C met Intel i820 Camino chipset:

- 133 MHz FSB for Single
- Pentium® !!! Processor
- Intel® 820 Chipset
- 3 x RIMM (PC800)
- AGP Pro (AGP 4X Compatible)
- Slot for Graphics
- Dual Channel ATA66 IDE
- Asus JumperFree™ ,BIOS
- LiveUpdate
- YAMAHA® 744 PCI Audio ( Optional)
- 1 x AMR, 5 x PCI, 1 x ISA (Optional)
- PC99, WIM 2.0, PCI 2.2
- Ultra 160 SCSI version will be available soon

Verder vind je op die page info over andere P3C varianten zoals de P3C-D (Dual) en P3C-L. Het lijkt erop dat er ook een versie komt met zowel RIMM als DIMM sockets (bij de andere borden kun je een DIMM riser gebruiken om DIMMetjes in een RIMM gat kwijt te krijgen).

De server van Ace's Hardware is in verband met de orkaan Floyd in Florida tijdelijk uit de lucht. In de tussentijd wordt er ge-update op de site van JC. Ondanks de problemen blijft er gelukkig gewoon interessant nieuws verschijnen, zoals de link naar deze spec sheet waaruit blijkt dat de Coppermine toch 32Kb L1 cache heeft (geen 64 dus):

Als dit klopt (en dat mogen we aannemen aangezien de gegevens in dat tabelletje van de fabrikanten zelf komen), dan geloof ik niet meer in de verwachte 15-25% integer performance toename ten opzichte van de huidige PIII / Katmai.

Volgens The Register zal het niet lang meer duren voordat de 700 Mhz versie van de Athlon in de winkel ligt. Verschillende OEM's hebben al exemplaren ontvangen zodat er al systemen gebouwd kunnen worden. Tevens zijn er al verschillende advertenties gesignaleerd.

The German OEM, who declined to be named, said that he had already received sufficient stock of Athlon 700s to start building machines. Further volume stocks are on their way to him, he confirmed. Those reports are strengthened by specialist Web site AMD Zone which is reporting that adverts using the Athlon 700 are already in print. According to the site, the October issue of Computer Shopper is carrying an advert by a firm called Cybermax, which is selling a 700MHz Athlon system with a 21-inch monitor for just under $3,000.

AMD loopt op deze manier voor op haar eigen doelstellingen, terwijl Intel vooralsnog het antwoord schuldig moet blijven. Intel's snelste processor van dit moment komt niet verder dan 600 Mhz. Check het hele artikel hier.

Misschien is het al wat langer bekend, maar vandaag hoorde ik een interessant nieuwtje toen ik tijdens het zappen op TMF terecht kwam. Vanaf morgen gaat TMF namelijk gratis (dus zonder abonnements kosten) internet aanbieden, genaamd TMF Web. De technische snufjes worden door GX Networks geleverd, een dochterbedrijf van ITG. Een korte opsommig van de mogelijkheden:

volledig vrije en gratis toegang tot Internet, zonder abonnements- of inschrijfkosten 1 landelijk inbelnummer, dat in heel Nederland tegen lokaal tarief te bereiken is behalve analoog kan ook digitaal ingebeld worden (ISDN) een eigen mailbox met een onbeperkt aantal E-mail adressen een persoonlijke homepage ter grootte van 2MB de site van TMF WEB is een uitgebreid startpunt voor zowel ervaren als onervaren Internetters

Het project waar TMF gebruikt van maakt en geleverd wordt door GX Networks heet Freesurf. Een internet pakket wat bedrijven en organisaties in staat stelt gratis internet aan te bieden.

AnandTech heeft een artikeltje in elkaar gedraaid over de oorzaken van de huidige prijsstijgingen op de geheugen markt:

With the transition to RDRAM (Rambus DRAM) being pushed for by Intel (ok, you can blame them for that, but really, they didn't do anything wrong this time) in time for their September 27th release of the Camino chipset - which will support SDRAM - memory manufacturers are currently trying to juggle more than a few balls here. Just look at what the industry is asking them to do: produce PC66 modules (seemingly not that great of a demand, but there are still PC66 compliant systems out there guys), produce PC100 modules, produce PC133 modules (just in case RDRAM fails miserably), and now produce RDRAM. That's a lot of balls they're being asked to juggle, and frankly, it makes perfect sense for them to have trouble cranking out four different flavors of memory.

A shortage of regular SDRAM modules due to the pressure for a shift to RDRAM is another possibility for such a drastic price hike, however on the other side of the issue we have the OEMs and distributors that actually sell the stuff. They are claiming the opposite, in that quite a few OEMs and distributors don't understand the price hike at all, stating that there couldn't possibly be a shortage as they are currently sitting on more than enough DRAM parts just waiting to be sold. While this doesn't apply to everyone, it could very well be a contributing factor to the rocketing prices.

Verder heeft-ie wat info over Rambus DRAM ('800MHz of crap?') en laat-ie een paar leuke plaatjes van 256Meg DIMMetjes zien (die dingen kunnen groooot zijn ).

Georgi Guninski, een Bulgaarse programmeur, meent weer een gat in Hotmail ontdekt te hebben. ZDNet meldt:

Guninski, who has made a name for himself by finding security violations in browsers, has found that Hotmail enables Web-paged embedded Javascript code to run automatically.

This makes it possible for someone to write Web programs that could do anything from steal passwords to read others' mail. While it's long been known that active Web applets, whether written in ActiveX or Java, have the potential to pry open systems from the inside, this is the first case in which someone has shown that Hotmail is vulnerable to such attacks.[break]Een tip van een Microsoft spokesman:[/break]

"To protect yourself now, you can disable JavaScript, just disable it before using Hotmail, or do not open mail from unknown people when you think it might contain JavaScript".

The latest Hotmail hole opens up because Hotmail doesn't handle the new HTML tag "STYLE." Java programmers and Webweavers use STYLE to insert JavaScript into HTML pages. The solution is to force Hotmail to handle STYLE in the same way it does ordinary JavaScript -- disabling it on arrival.

Ga'ash Soffer, ooit werkzaam bij AnandTech (deed daar een aantal CPU artikel maar werd blijkbaar weggeschopt) heeft een artikeltje over de GeForce 256 in elkaar gedraaid. Hier heb je z'n conclusie:

Perhaps the biggest gripe I have about the announced GeForce is its failure to offer anything new over the TNT2 Ultra. The image quality improvements and geometry processing power which will probably never be fully used do not warrant a $250-$350 dollar price tag. When GeForce is released, it will drive TNT2 Ultra prices down even further, making the TNT2 Ultra a much more appealing buy. Furthermore, if S3 can provide decent drivers and a stable Savage 2000 chipset, the GeForce will not have a market at all. Early indications point to a ~$150-$200 Savage 2000 board price point. Combine low price with better fill-rate than GeForce and geometry processing, (which may not be as fast as that of the GeForce, but still not likely to be the limiting factor in performance, making the difference completely negligible) the Savage 2000 looks to be a hands down winner over the GeForce. Although Savage 2000 will probably be released a month or two later than the GeForce boards; even the most hardware crazed will not want to shell out $250 for a board which will probably be obsolete in two months. As it stands now, the GeForce looks to be a dismal failure due to it's extremely unbalanced design and very high price. Look for the TNT2 Ultra to be the chipset of choice until the release of the Savage 2000 and/or 3dfx's T-buffer packing "Napalm/ Rampage / Voodoo4 / some other name floating around". There simply won't be enough room for the pricey GeForce.

Glide Underground heeft een review van de Turtle Beach Montego II Quadzilla online gezet:

As for sound quality, I've played dozens of supporting 3D sound. The few that I play most often are Tribes, and Half Life. All of these games sound amazing with the Quadzilla, even without quad-speakers. Although I didn't have a Live! to compare it with, I did fool around a bit with a spare AWE32 board, and let me tell you, there's absolutely NO comparison. After using the Quadzilla for only an hour, I couldn't even stand to use the AWE32, as going back to stereo sound was absolutely gruesome. 3D sound coming from the Quadzilla was crystal clear on my set of Altec Lansing ACS 295's, and very well positioned. When playing Tribes, it makes the game a hell of a lot easier, as your playing in a large, outdoor environment most of the time, and occasionally you'll get shot, but you can't tell where it came form using stereo sound. With the Quadzilla, you can tell precisely where the shot came from, for instance slightly above you, to the read/left. Amazing eh?

Nog maar net aangekondigd en nu al een review: 3D Gaming Review heeft de primeur met de eerste bespreking van Aureal's nieuwe SQ2500 soundcard:

As far as 2D sound goes, the SQ2500 is the same as the original Vortex2 chip. In general, it is very good, with the SoundBlaster Live! edging it out by a small margin. MP3's won't sound any different on the two boards, and in general, .WAV's won't either. However, CD audio on the Live! (with the CD-ROM connected to the S/PDIF of course) is much clearer. Unfortunately the time I spend listening to CD's is dwindling as I find my MP3 collection growing to almost 2GB, making the S/PDIF a moot point for me.

3D audio, on the other hand, is simply gorgeous. After not having played Half Life for a good 3 months, I once again installed it, enabled A3D 2.0, turned the lights off, and closed my eyes. The experience is nothing less then real. The difference between the A3D 2.0 and the EAX I was used to amazed me once again. With the Sennheiser HD580 headphones on, the positional audio was a real as I could ever imagine

Volgens Betanews zit er weer eens een gat in de beveiliging van Windoos 2000. Onderstaand probleem heeft alleen betrekking op Beta 3, niet de nieuwere RC2 builds:

The latest security problem in Microsoft software stems from the popular 'autologin' feature that was first included in Beta 3. Windows creates an autologin account for all users who are not connected to a domain, which includes almost every home user. Usually, there is little security risk unless the malicious user can obtain physical access to the computer. However, if the Telnet server is enabled, a remote user could log in with full access to the computer remotely. Some reports indicate that a remote user could activate the Telnet server with a VBScript code hidden in an HTML document.

Ik lees bij Betanews dat JASC Software de final van Paint Shop 6 heeft gereleased. Een behoorlijk populair proggie, daarom post ik 'm hier:

After numerous beta releases, Jasc Software has set up a redirect on its beta page to the announcement of the final release. Jasc Paint Shop Pro 6 takes image editing to a new level of functionality and ease of use. Designed for users who want control, power, and flexibility, Paint Shop Pro 6 delivers the tools you need to easily capture, create, enhance, and optimize your graphics projects.

De 14,5Meg grote file kun je hier naar beneden laden.

Creative Labs heeft een tweetal nieuwe geluidskaarten aangekondigd. Allereerst de Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer:

Creative Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ: CREAF), the leading provider of multimedia solutions for personal entertainment, announced today the introduction of the Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer audio accelerator, a feature-rich solution designed to allow gamers to experience digital quality audio on all source material including more than 60 current game titles supported by Creative’s Environmental Audio .

The digital architecture of the Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer processes every audio signal at a full 32-bit resolution for high quality output. To further enhance the digital experience, a digital output allows the connection of four-way digital speakers such as the FourPointSurround FPS2000 Digital for a surround sound experience. Featuring advanced elements such as the powerhouse EMU10K1 processor, customized sound pre-sets and downloadable upgrades through Creative’s Live!Ware , the Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer is the gamer’s sound card of choice. [break] Check 3D Soundsurge voor de volledige press release.

De tweede nieuwe kaart is de Sound Blaster Live! MP+ Audio Accelerator: [/break] September 13, 1999 – Creative Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ: CREAF), the leading provider of multimedia solutions for personal entertainment, today announced the availability of the Sound Blaster Live! MP3+ audio card, a comprehensive solution that allows Internet music enthusiasts to seamlessly create, organize and play MP3 and other audio files at CD-quality fidelity. The Sound Blaster Live! MP3+ also features the genre-expanding technology LAVA!Ô (Live Audio Visual Animation), an innovative visual music animator that creates 3D "music videos" in real time for the enhancement of MP3 and other internet music files.

Based on the award-winning Sound Blaster Live!, which set a new industry standard for processing power when introduced last year, the Sound Blaster Live! MP3+ utilizes the unrivaled power of the EMU10K1 audio processor to give music fans and artists alike the ability to create and manipulate studio-quality sounds with digital-to-digital processing and playback of MP3, MIDI, WAV, Internet and CD audio files. The Sound Blaster Live! MP3+ allows users to easily ‘rip’ songs from their personal CD collection and convert them into MP3 files for easy storage and access on their PCs.

Zie ook hier 3D Soundsurge voor de volledige PR.

Haha . ATi, fabrikant van semi-brakke videokaarten, heeft voor de tweede keer in korte tijd een belangrijke OEM deal verloren. Techweb zegent ons met het blije nieuws:

Stock in Markham, Ontario-based ATI took a drubbing, declining 1.50 Canadian dollars ($1.02) on the Toronto Stock Exchange, to 16.05 Canadian dollars ($10.93), a drop of 8.55 percent. ATI stock led the TSE on volume, as more than 5.4 million shares traded hands. On Nasdaq, it dropped 7/8, to 11.

That news came on the heels of the Aug. 31 confirmation by ATI that it had lost a supply deal with Round Rock, Texas-based Dell, worth $10 million in sales per quarter, to Palm Springs, Calif.-based Nvidia.

[...] Some analysts suggest more bad news is to come this month, with ATI conceding further design wins to Nvidia.

[...] The ATI sell-off may also have been sparked by comments by Dell CEO Michael Dell in Canada's Globe and Mail on Saturday that suggested ATI had trouble meeting production deadlines.

Er is ook nog slecht nieuws (ATI chips in Toshiba PC's), maar dat kan de pret niet drukken .

Tech Review heeft gemeend een review van de Cambridge Soundworks FPS2000 speaker set te moeten schrijven. Hier een plak info over de meegeleverde subwoofer:

The 5.25" woofer cone is housed in a 14.1" x 8.0" x 6.5" wood casing, with an air port located on the right wall of the sub. This small subwoofer produces a suprising amount of bass that is sure to fill any average sized room. Response was tight and pleasing, with Bassgasm's hard hitting beats coming in loud and clear. The downside of the subwoofer is respresented by less than optimal low frequency response. The specifications show a frequency range down to 50Hz which is nice, but could be improved by providing 20Hz response. Low frequency hits from each of the bass test tracks didn't come through with the super low, wall shaking bass some of us love. Other than that simple fact, this is one excellent sub especially for its small size.

Volgens de EETimes zal de japanse release van de Playstation II op 4 maart plaats vinden. De VS en Europa volgen een half jaar later. De prijs van het doosje zal 364 dollar zijn, evenveel als de introductieprijs van de PSX1 in '94:

When SCE [Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.] announced the outline of the game console in March this year, two major functions — communications and DVD-Video playback — were left undisclosed. Playstation 2 will have DVD-Video capability as a standard function and will connect to cable TV networks through an Ethernet interface provided in a PC Card.

[...] PS2 has a PC Card Type III slot in its back. The PC Card Ethernet Interface connects the Playstation 2 to cable modems.

SCE will aim at direct bit data distribution services and will begin to offer the interface card from 2001. "For downloading data with PS2, we are going to develop the technology assuming hard drives will be used as a storage, because its bit cost is dropping sharply, " said Kutaragi. Starting with the distribution of PS and PS2's digital content, SCE intends to expand the distribution of the content to much wider fields.

[...] While Sega Enterprises Ltd. positions Internet accessibility as the key feature for its new Dreamcast game console, and Nintendo Co. Ltd. also intents to add that function to its Gameboy, SCE has no intention to making Internet accessibility a main feature of PS2.

[...] In 2001, once PS2 connects to a cable TV network though the Ethernet interface, users will be able to access the Internet through CATV operators that also serve as information service providers. But until then, PS2 may not have any Internet connectability. [break] Volgens ZDNet verwacht Sony in de eerste introductieweek 1 miljoen speeldozen af te kunnen zetten (en ZDNet zegt dat de prijs $368 is ipv $364 bij EETimes): [/break] SNE announced on Monday that it had set the price of its much-awaited PlayStation 2 at 39,800 yen, or U.S. $368, for its Japanese debut in March 2000. The company expects to ship 1 million units in the first week, said company officials at Sony Computer Entertainment, according to a Reuters report.

Speedy 3D heeft een review van de Evergreen Spectra 400MHz neergeknalt. Deze upgrade/overdrive kit bestaat uit een K6-2 400 processor met fan/heatsink en kan dankzij de bijgeleverde voltage regulator ook op oude moederplanken gebruikt worden:

The Spectra400Mhz is primarily suited to those in the Pentium75 - PentiumMMX233 bracket who want to update their system without any real hassle or money expenditure. At £175 (UKP) Inc V.A.T it's reasonably priced and considering the hassle it would cause you to take another upgrade path, then it's probably worth every penny. You can get it cheaper if you hunt, we clocked a £140 inc. V.A.T version in a trading magazine. Just remember that despite the CPU having the ability to run games, it's not actually for gamers as gamers would need the kit to go with it and that simply isn't available for the systems this is designed to upgrade. It is actually cheaper now to get an MB+K6-2-400CPU than it is for the upgrade, but that's not why it's there. This upgrade is just perfect for business systems that need bringing up to date with minimum hassle. It is possible to get PCI TNT cards and faster IDE drives for older systems so if you do want to be a bit of a gamer then it will work, although we didn't have anything to test that out, you just know it will work though.

Aureal heeft vandaag twee nieuwe geluidskaarten gereleased. Het eerste model is de SQ1500, gebaseerd op de low-cost AU8810 processor met ondersteuning voor de (oude) A3D1.0 standaard. De tweede nieuwe kaart is de SQ2500, die gebaseerd is op een verbeterde versie van de AU8830 (Vortex II) audio processor. GA-Source heeft de press release:

Aureal Inc. today announced it expects to begin shipping two new Aureal-branded sound card products, the Vortex SQ1500 and the Vortex2 SQ2500, to retail outlets within the next month. The new products will be exclusively marketed under the Aureal name by I/OMagic Corporation, a marketer of peripheral PC products.

The SQ1500 and SQ2500 offer value in terms of features and performance as well as bundled software - which includes several applications and recent game titles. The sound cards, the first ever to be distributed under the Aureal name, are expected to be available in retail stores including CompUSA, Electronics Boutique, OfficeMax, Micro Center, and other retail outlets across North America.

Aureal is supporting the launch of its new products with the introduction of a multi-million dollar mass marketing campaign including additional advertising, co-marketing with game publishers including Mindscape and Activision, as well as sponsorship of game-related events including the Descent III Tournament, the I-Games Tour, and the Quake III Bus Tour. Designed for the mainstream computer user, the Vortex SQ1500 delivers high-fidelity digital audio for music, games, and interactive entertainment applications. Based on the Aureal AU8810 processor, the SQ1500 provides support for A3D 1.0, supported by hundreds of games and applications, at an affordable price point. Like the SQ2500, the SQ1500 supports headphones, or two or four speaker playback.

Features include:

- Based on the Aureal Vortex AU8810 audio processor
- Support for A3D 1.0, DirectSound, DirectSound3D, DirectInput, and derivatives
- 512-voice wavetable synthesizer
- Support for headphones or two or four speakers
- Coaxial S/PDIF output for connection to other digital devices
- Bundled applications including: Aureal Vortex Player, Midi Orchestrator32,
- AudioView 32, Future Beat 3D, and Flatland Rover
- Bundled games including: Drakan
- MSRP $69.99

The Vortex2 SQ2500 provides premier 3D audio acceleration for gaming and music, making it the ideal choice for game enthusiasts and audiophiles alike. Based on a new, optimized version of Aureal's Vortex2 AU8830 processor, the SQ2500 provides outstanding playback of A3D 2.0 3D audio - which is supported by the latest 3D games and via Flatland Online's 3D Web creation and browsing products. Features include:

New Aureal Vortex2 AU8830 audio processor 576-voice wavetable synthesizer Support for headphones or two or four speakers Coaxial S/PDIF output for connection to other digital devices Bundled applications including: Aureal Vortex Player, Midi Orchestrator32, AudioView 32, Future Beat 3D, and Flatland Rover Bundled games including: Drakan, Heretic II, and Slave Zero MSRP $99.99

Sharky Extreme (waar men sinds kort de Mac heeft ontdekt) heeft een preview gepost van de Apple Cinema Display, da's dat 22" LCD schermpje dat tesamen met de PowerMac G4 werd geïntroduceerd. Hier een stuk over resoluties en beeldkwaliteit:

At 1600 by 1024, the image on the ACD is razor sharp. For many, the text may be too small at this resolution, however, because the ACD is a LCD, you can sit pretty much as close as you want to the screen without eye-fatigue. There actually are a whole slew of resolutions available that Apple does not list in their spec sheet. The problem with all of these resolutions is that, in order to draw them on the fixed pixels of a LCD, some weird pixel manipulation has to go on. Because of this, the images at all but 1600x1024 look fuzzy and poorly defined. Text is more difficult to read, even when it's larger. Basically, other resolutions may be good for when you want to play Quake III, but 1600 by 1024 is the only resolution worth running in normal use.

Hoewel het bestaan ervan door Microsoft volledig wordt ontkend, gooit Wired News er toch weer een nieuwsberichtje over Bill's X-Box console tegenaan:

Microsoft is secretly developing a PC-based computer games console to compete in the market dominated by Sony, Sega and Nintendo, the Sunday Times reports. [break] Blablablah, verhaaltje kennen we wel. Deze opmerking van een Sony ventje maakt het leuk: [/break] The Sunday Times quoted Chris Deering, president of Sony computers in Europe, as saying, "If there is any truth in these rumors, the move seems to be a signal of disappointment, and one of loss of confidence in Sega's new Dreamcast in which Microsoft is a partner."

Got Apex? heeft de primeur met de eerste review van een Intel i820 moederplank. In dit geval gaat het ook om een plaat van Intel zelf (en zoals we allemaal weten zijn die dingen overal goed voor behalve overklokken). Hoewel er de laatste tijd veel roempapa geweest is rond de i820 blijkt de performance (met normaal SDRAM) bedroefend te zijn. De benchmark resultaten zijn dan ook redelijk komisch:

The old BX motherboard lays down the law here, virtually beating the i820 senseless. At each level, the FPS difference is immense. What in the name of all that is good and holy happened?

As you can see in the graphs, the BX beat the i820 by more than 20 frames per second at times. Remember, the only differences between the two configurations where the graphs overlap are the motherboard and RAM. Is the i820 the Cyrix of tomorrow? Should Intel go begging to good old Steve Jobs and Pres. Clinton for suggestions on how to put a mighty spin on it?

I can see it now... "New i820 motherboards teach you as much as 3x as much patience as older motherboards..."

"I was not slower than that motherboard, the BX..." *finger waggle*

Labtec heeft vandaag een nieuw speakersetje de wereld ingestuurd. GA-Source heeft de press release:

Labtec announced today the introduction of a high-power, 3-piece satellite and subwoofer speaker system for personal computers. The LCS-2422 is specifically engineered and tuned to provide enhanced and robust sound quality for a variety of music sources being used on today's computers.

The LCS-2422 utilizes Labtec's exclusive Dynamic Bass Equalization to keep the sound clean as the user pushes the volume to the limit. This is done by monitoring the sound in real time and actively adjusting the bass level to significantly reduce distortion at all volumes especially the higher ones. The floor-mounted, wood-enclosed, 5 1/4" subwoofer and two 3" satellites have high excursion Max-X Drivers which provide greater dynamic range, improved bass and less distortion. For additional convenience a master volume control on the satellites combined with bass level and power on/off controls on the sub woofer empower the consumer to create a personal listening environment. Convenient features such as color coded jacks and long cables also make the system easy to set up and use.

PC.IGN brengt het nieuws dat 3dfx een eigen texture compressie technologie heeft geïntroduceerd. FXT1 heet het grapje, en het moet gaan concurreren met S3TC:

3dfx has announced that it is making a new compression technology, FXT1, available to the public – making future Voodoo cards able to compete with other cards offering 32-bit texture support and texture compression. The technology can be used on Windows, Macintosh, BeOS, Linux and other platforms, and is built for cross-platform pollination, in order to support the multiple OS development of games such as Quake III and the upcoming Halo.

The key to the texture technology works by treating each texture as a multiple 4 x 4 or 4 x 8 texel block. Four different compression algorithms are applied to the texel block, and the one with the highest results is then used to display the block. This allows for a compression ratio of up to 8:1 says the company, with 32-bit texture images of 256 x 256 going from 256 Kbytes of storage to 32 Kbytes.

By offering the technology free of cost, 3dfx hopes to cause support for the technology which will be utilized on all future 3dfx chipsets. This, on top of the T-Buffer digital effects engine which was recently announced, means that 3dfx now has a well-placed answer to S3's question.

Bungie has already spoken out about having used the new technology for its games Halo and Oni, as well as Loki entertainment (which ports games to Linux) and Flatland Rover, a 3DML web application. More companies will certainly make announcements in the future regarding support of the free technology. For more information, or to download the FXT1 Encode/Decode Binaries and Source Code, browse the 3dfx's developer page. [break] Blijkbaar wil 3dfx hiermee de bestaande S3TC standaard uit de weg rossen. Volgens Extreme Hardware schijnt dit ook nog nut te hebben:[/break] The main benefit to FXT1 Texture Compression is that it is a completely open-source technology. Furthermore, it has cross-platform and cross-API support. Thus, developers aren't limited to using Direct X 6 if they want to use texture compression. Additionally, since FXT1 is open-source, any hardware can support it provided that proper driver adaptation is done.

De engelse PC Zonen hebben een preview van C&C: Renegade op hun site geplant. Met Renegade wordt het de bedoeling dat we ook eindelijk in good old 3D shoot'em up style tegen elkaar kunnen gaan kankeren:

The outdoor areas, it has to be said, are nothing short of stunning. Wandering around the demo map that Westwood has to show us, we start running through the trees, over fields, up some hills (jumping over some amazing waterfalls on the way) and to the top of a hill. From there we can look down upon a vast landscape spreading out beneath us, and that's when it hits - we're looking at Command & Conquer. In 3D. The landscapes are straight out of the game. The rivers, the rocky outcrops, the hills, the waterfalls. And then we think of the size, the sheer scale, of C&C's maps, and imagine how far they must stretch into the distance beyond that hill. These levels are starting to look big. "Think of them as entire levels of Command & Conquer." says Louis, obviously noticing our jaws around our feet. "There can be an enormous amount of gameplay in even one mission." He's not wrong.

Klinkt allemaal veelbelovend. PC Zone heeft een aantal wazige screenshots (foto's van een ECTS demonstratie?):