David McNett (aka Nugget) van Distributed.net heeft een .plan update gepost over de problemen met de statistieken server. Vamiddag waren er nog steeds geen nieuwe stats en nu is de opperkoe offline:

Finally have a chance to do some forensics on statsbox, I'm starting off with the normal "dbcc checkdb" and "update statistics" just to make sure everything is tidy at the lowest levels. I also see that we're getting close to capacity (only about 150mb free on the main statsdb device) so I'm going to slice off another half gig or so of space for the data tables.

I think we're within a few months of needing another drive in there, the main RC5_64_master table is nearing 20 million rows.

The goal today is to determine the cause of the daily update slowdowns that started last week, although I'd settle for prodding at the box and having it automagically start working properly.

En voor wie dat nog niet gedaan heeft: lid worden van de Dutch Power Cows kan hier.

Scott Miller van 3D Realms heeft een posting over de multiplayer aspecten van Duke Nukem Forever op de GoD Developer's Corner geplakt:

>>> in designing the game how are you balancing the network/multiplayer with the story driven singleplayer(or maybe multi?) portion of the product? <<<

The multiplayer game will ignore the story and simply focus on various Dukematch games. There will also be several multiplay-only levels, and possibly a weapon or two only available in multiplay. I doubt we'll include the more difficult game types like CTF, mainly because multiplayer focused games like UT and QA3 will do these very well already.

>>> the previous id products have always suffered in one respect or another from trying to do both, <<<

I love to read a developer say something like: "We're focusing on single-play and multiplay." In other words, they're not focusing on either! You can only focus on one because they are not compatible game design methods -- a great single player map has different design objectives than a great multiplayer map. However, with a Great Deal of Ingenuity, you can have a map that serves both masters well, and we achieved this quite often in Duke 3D, and many Quake and DOOM maps scored in this way, too. But, in general a single player level should be more linear in nature, and a multiplayer map should avoid dead ends.

>>>>with the networking bar raised by ut and q3a or conversely or games like thief that have totally eschewed multiplayer to focus on the single player experience (all games that have given up on the story/multiplayer combination), how have you approached this issue from a design perspective? what tradeoffs have you been forced to make in things like programmer/artist allocation, level design, weapon choices, etc.? <<<

Our focus is on the single player experience, but we know we can also provide a great multiplayer experience, too. This is exactly the approach we took with Duke 3D, and we did pretty well.

I'm not sure we've really thought about specific trade-offs. George would be in a far better position as project leader to answer that question.

Scott Miller

Microsoft en Cirrus (ooit bekend van z'n videochips) zijn kameraden geworden en gaan een audio chip ontwikkelen voor gebruik in portable MP3 players:

Microsoft announced today an alliance with chip-manufacturer Cirrus Logic to produce a new audio chip to work with portable audio devices that will utilize Microsoft software. Available as soon as next month, the portable device will have built-in support for Windows Media Technologies 4 and will try to grab a share of the burgeoning portable MP3 market, which has been estimated to grow to anywhere from $150 million to $1.1 billion in the next four years. The portable MP3 players will feature the Maverick audio chip, and will be especially competitive because Cirrus is offering licensing to their OEMs at no additional cost.

Logitech heeft drie nieuwe Wingman gamepads aangekondigd. Hier de info van GA-Source:

Logitech is now shipping all members of its new family of WingMan gamepads.

The flagship model, WingMan Gamepad Extreme, features advanced motion sensing technology which turns body motion into on-screen action. The sensor, which can be enabled or disabled with the press of a button, uses micromachined accelerometer technology to accurately measure tilting motions (forward and back, side to side and all angles in between). On-board electronics and software drivers convert this data into precise and responsive proportional control for games.

In addition to motion sensing, WingMan Gamepad Extreme features include 10 digitally programmable buttons, an 8-way D-pad/POV, powerful software shift and macro capabilities, a digital game port/USB combo interface and an industrial design which has been lauded for both its comfort and attractive appearance. WingMan Gamepad Extreme is available at an estimated street price of $39.95 and is bundled with Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Elite Missions by LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC.

With a Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price of $19.95, the mid-range WingMan Gamepad offers 11 digitally programmable buttons, a precise 8-way D-pad, software shift and macro capabilities, a digital game port/USB combo interface and the same physical shape as WingMan Gamepad Extreme - suggested retail: $19.95.

The WingMan gamepad line is completed by WingMan Thunderpad at $9.95. Based on a classic Logitech design, WingMan Thunderpad offers 6 action buttons with a straight-forward analog game port interface. Ideal for young and casual gamers, this entry-level pad offers an optimal combination of comfort, ease-of-use, precision and control.

Bij The Tech Zone is een review te vinden van de Vantec P3-D5030 Pentium 3 cooler. Hier heb je een stuk uit de review, de rest kun je hier lezen.

The Vantec stacks up very well against the AMK-SECC80. The Global Win kicks everyone's butt. I didn't really find this unusual for 2 reasons. First the Global Win has more fin area than the Vantec and much more powerful fans. While the AMK-SECC80 has more fin area than the Global Win, it's weak 80mm fan only blows out 8CFM of air, compared to the VEK32 twin 60mm fans that pumps out over 50CFM. The second reason for the great performance of the VEK32 is in order to install the unit on a P3, I had to remove the P3 backplate. The removal of the backplate does help to reduce the CPU temperature.

The Vantec P3-5030 had no problems running the P3-450 at 580Mhz. After a whole day of Quake 3 on the LAN, the CPU temp never went higher than 45.5C. This is a really good performance. The only recommendation I can think of would be more powerful fans like the ones used in the Global Win VEK32. With a street price of $27, it's on the higher side of the price scale. However, considering all the added features that comes with the Vantec cooler, I say it's worth it.

Nog meer i820 geweld op deze maandag, Sharky Extreme heeft namelijk zijn review gepost van de VC820, Intel's eigen moederplank met de i820 chipset. Volgens SE's traditie zijn ze algemeen gezien toch vrij positief over dit Intel produkt, ook al is de performance van de i820 niet geweldig te noemen...

Ask yourself, is there anything as maddening as experiencing a smooth 35fps environment in an online game, only to confront a well armed enemy just as the hard drive kicks in, doing the bidding of the mysterious gremlins that force it to activate at the worst possible times?

The result in a 440BX/SDRAM system is traditionally a 35 to 50% frame rate drop off as the platform handles its hard disk's business, likely resulting in your own online death complete with you firing off complaints about "internet lag" to your opponents so as not to be discounted in skill level perception.

With the i820/RDRAM solution and ATA-66 drivers in full sprint mode, the same disk activity is met with a slight frame rate performance hit, perhaps 10%, which isn't even enough to make a solid player's pulse rise in the heat of heavy combat.

That's progress, and while it's not revolutionary by any means, it is indeed the natural evolution of working with PCs in harmony rather than anger and loathing.

The best part of the i820/RDRAM experience as relayed to us through the VC820 mainboard are the parts of the new architecture that you aren't able to realize consciously at all. We found that there's much less cursing and frustration voiced at our silent ATX cases when they were propelled by i820/RDRAM combos, which is because the platform is trying, and succeeding, in providing a better PC experience no matter what the current situation demands.

Voor de rest van het verhaal, fiets naar Sharky Extreme.

Apple Insider heeft een paar plaatjes van de nieuwe 'Kihei' iMac gepost. Op zich is er weinig aan de hand, want die nieuwe iMac lijkt verdacht veel op de oude (er komen alleen meer kleurtjes, waaronder G4 graphite-white):

Check deze nieuwsposting voor meer info over de next-generation iMac.

The Register heeft info over de IBM PowerPC Power4, een 64-bits processor die geïntroduceerd zal worden op snelheden van 1GHz en bestaat uit meer dan 200 miljoen transistors:

Power4 will have two microprocessors on a single piece of silicon, and at 1.1GHz should be able to deliver 11,000 MIPS. The architecture comes out of Austin, and chips will be fabbed at the Fishkill Semiconductor Center. [break] Volgens eerdere geruchten zou het chippie een bus van 500MHz krijgen. Geheugensnelheid begint echter steeds verder achter te raken op processor snelheid, en het is dan ook de vraag hoe IBM dit gaat fixen: [/break] Whatever the architecture or design, processors spend most of their time waiting for cache misses, so the optimised feeding of processors is the main performance challenge. Software design trends such as OOP and JIT compilation will increase the memory hierarchy load, so the design challenge is to deal with the memory hierarchy bandwidth.

IBM says it believes that its approach to parallelism (Ultra SMP) is superior to Intel's EPIC since EPIC increases the demand for memory hierarchy bandwidth and low latency. IBM also claims that EPIC is less suitable for JIT Java compilation as it needs lengthy compilation and a large optimisation window. Another difficulty that IBM identifies with EPIC is in future binary compatibility, resulting in a probable need to recompile.

The Register heeft wat info over de nieuwe iMac bijeen geraapt. Onderstaande geruchten komen van Apple Insider:

AppleInsider's latest iMac spec. features a basic model derived from the current machine. Instead of a new, 17in display, we have a 15in CRT screen but with a larger viewable area. That's in marked contrast to recent reports that the next iMac would feature LCD an LCD screen -- a neat idea, but one that fails to take into account the current shortage of LCDs.

According to AppleInsider, Apple will offer three versions of the new iMac. The first will ship with a 350MHz PowerPC 750 (aka G3) CPU, CD-ROM drive (apparently a tray-less model), and will be available in a single colour, blue. The site doesn't offer memory and hard drive specs.

The second model will come in the five colours of the current iMac, sport a 400MHz G3, tray-less DVD-ROM drive, 64MB RAM, 10GB hard drive, 2x AGP Rage 128 graphics card, two USB and two FireWire (for the first time on the iMac) ports, 56Kbps modem, 10/100 Ethernet, AirPort radio networking support (via a slot for the AirPort add-in card) and, oddly, video out and two headphone socket.

The third configuration ups the RAM to 128MB and the drive size to 13GB and comes in the Power Mac G4's silver colour scheme.

GA-Source heeft een review geschreven van de nieuwe Aureal Vortex II SQ2500 geluidskaart. Hier heb je een plak uit de review.

For non-3D sound applications there is something less of a difference between a high end and low end card, but there is still definitely a difference. One that makes the Aureal chipset stand out among the competition is the inclusion of the hardware equalizer onboard. This lets you really tweak the sounds to get things to sound the way you want them to through your own speakers.

When you look at the spec of a 98db signal to noise ratio, you know that there is not going to be any distortion from the soundcard itself. This means that "regular" sounds from Windows are as crisp and clear as possible. For CD audio as well, you can be sure that the quality of playback is as good as your speakers/headphones are.

One thing that the SQ2500 is lacking is a digital input for use with the CD player. I am not sure that this is any loss. In machines with soundcards that do have a digital in for the CD I still use the analog input. For me the sound that comes from the digital in is too crisp, and the high notes seem too high.

The other main component of 2D sound is MIDI. Actually I was rather pleasantly surprised at the MIDI quality, as it was definitely improved over the earlier Vortex2 cards. I must say that it is quite possibly the best MIDI I have gotten from a soundcard. The difference between this and Yamaha's Waveforce 192 Digital was so small, I really couldn't tell the difference.

Ars Technica heeft een review online geschopt van de Global WIN FEP32 cooler, het kleine broertje van de FDP32 (gebruikt bij die Celeron 300a @ 600MHz). Hoewel de FEP32 makkelijk op een BP6 zou moeten passen, is het volgens Ars Technica nog steeds een heel gedoe. Als het zaakie echter eenmaal draait doet hij zijn werkt goed:

We don't expect anything less than solid performance from Global WIN, and performance is what they deliver. As I mentioned before, we used the hottest-running BP6 combo we could put together to test the FEP32. We threw in two Celeron 366es, clocked 'em up to 550MHz, and laid the whole shebang in a SC-750A, which we closed entirely (front and side panels were all put on properly). Aside from the power supply's fans, we also had two 80mm fans up front blowing in. We ran SETI for an hour to warm the box up, and then measured the temperature over the course of 6 hours (with SETI still running) to get our measurements.

In this test system, none of the fans were able to change the fact that the BP6 needed to be crankin' with 2.10 volts on both CPUs to remain stable. All temps are reported at that CPU voltage, in Celsius, and averaged over 6 hours. Needless to say, the room temperature was the same for all of the tests. Also, we didn't bother trying to overclock these CPUs without cooling, so there's no real "ground" measurement. Instead, we figured the CoolMaster Socket heatsink and fan combo is comparable to any default cooling solution, i.e., it's nothing special, so I believe that it provides a pretty effective basis for comparison.

Overclockin.com heeft een verslag gepost van een Celeron 300a (SL36A week 27) die ze op 600MHz hebben draaien. Dit met behulp van een Abit BX6-2, GlobalWin FDP-32 Socket heatsink en een MSI-6905 v1.1 Socket370/Slot1 adapter card. Het zaakie loopt op 2.2 volt stabiel op 600MHz...

After I warmed everything up at a modest (he says with tongue firmly planted in cheek) 558MHz @ 2.0V with no problems, I kicked it up to 580MHz @ 2.0V. Since I was told the processor was stable at 580MHz and 2.10V, I was hopeful that it would work at this voltage and I was not disappointed. It just ran and ran. Amazing stuff from a processor rated at 300MHz!!!

With the processor able to run 580MHz @ 2.0V, there was no way I was stopping there. I rebooted, set the bus speed to 133MHz and started things back up again. Things looked promising. Windows 98 loaded fully and I started up SiSoft Sandra. But it was not to be. The machine froze. How about at 2.10V?? Still no go. It got into Windows, but got exception errors. Well, let's try 2.20V... Hey, this is looking good. Loaded Windows, started Unreal, ran 20 loops in software mode!!! Sweet!!! But is it really stable at 600MHz??? You bet it is. Two hours and ten minutes (and 150 loops of software mode Unreal) it was still running with no problems. I just had to give 621MHz (138MHz FSB) a shot and bumped it up to 2.3V and rebooted. I could get all the way into Windows and even run some of the SiSoft Sandra benchmarks before the system would lock up. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't complain.... :-)

This is truly amazing performance from a Celeron 300a processor. Just to prove that the processor was running at those speeds, here are a few screenshots:

Voor de overige screenshots en info, klik hier.

Gamers Depot heeft een review gepost van twee nieuwe Creative soundkaarten, de Mp3+ en de X-Gamer. De kaarten zijn identiek aan elkaar, behalve de software bundles zijn verschillend. Beide kaarten maken overigens ook nog steeds gebruik van de EMU10K1 chip en hebben een digitale uitgang. Hier heb je een hap uit de review.

Using the exact EMU10K1 that the rest of the SB Live! family uses gives you all the EAX lovin' that we've come to expect. This affords these cards to produce sound quality that is right up there with the best of em'. The performance and quality levels on both cards are excellent. The MP3+ card, with its powerful MP3 tools made life easy, as you're given a whole suite of software that will let you do everything from playing MP3's to editing them. Combine this with LAVA!, and you can make your own music videos to your favorite MP3's. In fact, if you're a heavy MP3 user, then look no further than this card. On the other hand, if you're a core gamer, and want nothing but the finest for your gaming pleasure, then the X-Gamer with its great game bundle should be your next pick. One of the best features of these cards is the fact that both have digital out, so if you're running a set of digital speakers like the DTT2500's, then you can do a direct digital connection without having to get the add-on I/O board like you do on the Value edition. This feature, and the included software should make both cards an easy choice over the SB Live! Value edition. If you've been on the fence trying to decide if you should go for a SB Live!, or an Aureal3D-based solution, keep in mind that the EMU10K1 chip on all of the Soundblaster Live! cards is a reprogramable chip. This means that as technologies are brought out, that the chip can be reprogramed to do whatever it is Creative wants to add to it via the "Liveware" updates. This should help give you peace-of-mind when it comes to looking for that next PC-Audio solution.

Like any of the SB Live cards we've heard so far, background hiss and noise is not apparent. Using both the analog and digital outputs to our "GD Reference Surround System" (DTT2500's) the sound quality was clean and clear. The EAX technology does not just limit you to an enhanced gaming expereicnce either. Using various modes included with the software you can make your favorite music source sound like just about any kind of environment you can think of. The Midi output is very acceptable on both cards. I'm not going to get into the Midi output too much because no current game that I know of uses Midi for music.

Bij Thresh's FiringSquad hebben ze vandaag ook een review online gemikt van de nieuwe Marvel G400-TV van Matrox. Zoals bekend heeft deze G400 allemaal coole video capture & editing features. Check de review hier.

Built around the G400, the Marvel may be the best all around card for the PC enthusiast. The G400 chip takes care of all the gaming needs with great 3D performance and features such as Environment Mapped Bump Mapping and DualHead display technology. Matrox's new TurboGL driver gives the G400 a huge performance increase in Quake 2/3, Unreal, and other games based on the Quake and Unreal engines. No longer hampered by substandard OpenGL performance, the G400 is now our choice gaming platform. Gaming performance is nice, but the Marvel's real claim to fame is the hardware video capture and editing features. There are plenty of people out there looking for a complete consumer level video editing solution, and the Marvel G400-TV fills the role nicely. The G400's DualHead feature has incredible versatility. In addition to the Windows desktop environment, games are also starting to support multi-monitor features. Having a second display just for video playback also makes editing video a breeze. We got our hands on a Marvel G400-TV and put it through our usual barrage of tests. Read on to find out how it performed!

Theme Park fans kunnen dit jaar het 3D vervolg verwachten, namelijk Theme Park World. Een leuke feature is o.a. dat je nu in first person view door je park kan lopen, en zelf ik attracties gaan! Check de review van FiringSquad hier.

What's really cool is that Theme Park World will allow players to explore their park from a first person perspective! That's right, you'll be able to run around the park you design, Quake style (without the guns of course). Not only that, but you'll actually be able to board one of your rides and ride it from the first person! Imagine getting all the thrills of loops and dives without the nausea. How about the excitement of log flumes and water rapids without the soaked socks and drenched jeans? Sweet! It remains to be seen how detailed this will be (how about buying a drink and a burger first person? Heading to the bathroom?), but just the promise of getting on the rides you design is exciting enough!

Ook bij AnandTech, een review van de uitgestelde i820 chipset van Intel. Hier heb je vast een gedeelte, alle info vind je in de review.

One thing is for sure, the i820 platform won’t be cheap and the cost is a very important factor to keep in mind. If a Coppermine + 820 platform ends up costing more than an Athlon system then Intel better hope that their Coppermine outperforms the Athlon by a good percentage. It looks like AMD may have won this battle, although a Coppermine 700 with 64KB L1 and 256KB integrated L2 cache could give the Athlon a run for its money.

So what about the weakness of the i820 chipset? RDRAM?

The theory behind RDRAM is that the only time faster memory transfer rates are necessary is when you are running an application that can’t fit entirely within a chip’s cache. In those applications, the theory holds true as we’ve proved in the benchmarks from the Photoshop and 3D Studio MAX scores in particular. When the Coppermine comes around with its 256KB of on-die L2 cache, it should be interesting to see how the matchup of the i820 and the Coppermine turns out, in terms of performance.

For overclocking, with the inclusion of the œ AGP clock divider, a number of overclocking options once confined to our dreams have now been resurrected. Hitting the 150MHz FSB frequency shouldn’t be that big of a problem, but the main thing to remember is that the limiting factor here will again be the AGP frequency, so reaching the 160MHz FSB frequency will probably not be too successful.

Anand van AnandTech heeft een review gepost van de nieuwe 533B en 600B Pentium 3 processors. Het enige verschil met de 'gewone' Pentium 3 is dat deze twee ondersteuning hebben voor een 133MHz FSB. Voor de rest zijn ze dus identiek. Bijkomend probleem is meteen dat er op het moment geen goede moederborden zijn met 133MHz FSB. Je zult óf moeten uitwijken naar de low-end i810E (de i820 is brak en komt pas over een paar maanden) óf een plank met de Via Apollo Pro 133 chipset. Sinds de snelheidswinst ook nog eens nihil is is zijn deze twee nieuwe Intel processors totaal niet interessant. Check Anand's review hier.

The Pentium III 533 and the 600B are both based on the same 0.25 micron core that all of the previous Pentium III processors were based on. Keep in mind that these are not the Coppermine processors that we have been waiting so long for. Hopefully, those chips will be out within the next month or so.

The chips still feature the same 32KB L1 cache and 512KB L2 cache (operating at œ clock speed) as their predecessors. In fact, the only difference between these two chips and those that have come before them is that the Pentium III 533 uses a 4.0x clock multiplier and the Pentium III 600B uses a 4.5x clock multiplier. This is because these are 133MHz FSB processors and thus use lower clock multipliers to achieve their clock speeds. Intel could have just taken a regular Pentium III 600 and reprogrammed the multiplier lock to default to 4.5x instead of 6.0x and they’d have a 600B. As usual, both processors are clock multiplier locked at the respective multipliers.

It seems like Intel is having some problems pushing the Pentium III to 600MHz, which explains why the core voltage on the Pentium III 600 is actually 2.05v and not the standard 2.0v. The same is true for the Pentium III 600B, whose 2.05v core voltage is necessary for proper operation. Unfortunately, this leaves the Pentium III 600 (and the 600B) as an essentially overclocked processor, since the core was designed to operate at 2.0v not at the 2.05v Intel has spec’d the latest CPU at.

The Pentium III 533 operates at the same 2.0v core voltage as all of the other Pentium III processors so there are no problems here. Your motherboard will have no problem supplying either the 2.0v or 2.05v core voltage to the processor provided that you are using the latest BIOS.

Keep in mind that unless you are using these processors on a motherboard with official support for the 133MHz FSB, you won’t be able to use them at their intended frequencies since they use lower clock multipliers than the 100MHz FSB Pentium IIIs. Remember, there is no difference between the Pentium III 533/600B and the regular Pentium III other than "official" support for the 133MHz FSB and lower clock multipliers at equivalent clock frequencies.

We zien de laatste tijd nogal veel reviews van harddisk coolers oppoppen, zo ook bij Game Forces, waar men ons verblijdt met een review van de Inclose BayCooler II. Volgens Game Forces verbeterd de BayCooler II niet alleen de koeling van de schijf, maar wordt de performance daardoor ook beter:

Since I didn't expect to see a huge increase in drive performance, I performed a test that would take at least a moderate amount of time. After performing the looping of the Quake II demos, I quit out of the program and loaded Photoshop 5.0. Without the BayCooler II, it took a reasonable 6.3 seconds from the time that I clicked the shortcut to the time that it was ready to go. With the BayCooler II, the same test brought forth results of only 5.1 seconds.

To conclude these benchmarks, the BayCooler II will give you some slight performance increases, but the main purpose of adding this cooling solution to your system would be for long-term gains.

Ace's Hardware heeft een review van de SuperMicro PIII SCE 820 op het net gemikt. Het gaat hier om een i820 plankje met 3 RIMM slots (waarvan je er dus eigenlijk maar 2 mag gebruiken). Ace's Hardware heeft een paar interessante benchmarks gedraaid op een i820 en BX bord op 133MHz en een Athlon op 100MHz FSB. De Athlon-600 blijkt nog steeds sneller te zijn dan de PIII-600@133MHz FSB, hoewel het verschil in Quake3 klein is:

Quake 3 was one of the few games that really performed better on the i820 motherboard than on the BX-board. As you can see the i820 features gave the PIII-600 a 10% boost at high quality. This boost pushes the PIII closer to the Athlon. What feature, however, makes the difference? The Viper 770 enables you to choose between AGP 2x and AGP 4x. If you put a jumper on position 2-3 and you close three other jumpers you get AGP 4x, otherwise you get AGP 2x. AGP 2x is the default. So if you have a Viper 770, pay to attention to this : )

Trouwens wel grappig om te zien dat de Camino plank met AGP4x ingeschakeld een lagere framerate tevoorschijn tovert dan wanneer AGP2x wordt gebruikt (typisch Intel ). Check 't allemaal hier.

ZDNet heeft een artikeltje in elkaar geklust over de nieuwe features in Windows Millennium, de opvolger van Windoos 98SE. Millennium zal gebaseerd zijn op de rotte Win9x kernel en krijgt o.a. Jomanda-achtige zelf helende krachten. Ook heeft Bill besloten dat legacy support voor o.a. de ISA bus overboord gekieperd dient te worden:

With Millennium, Microsoft will seek to make it easier for users to gain access to the Internet and to employ home networking. At the same time, the company will aim to improve the operating system's multimedia support.

Millennium will also support the Easy PC initiative, which is a joint venture between Microsoft, Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC) and PC makers to remove older hardware components from PCs and at the same time make the products simpler to use. Under the initiative PC makers will, for example, eliminate the 16-bit ISA bus for communications and video boards and rely on newer technologies, such as universal serial bus.

One way Microsoft hopes to make PCs simpler to use is by adding new “shells” or user interfaces into Millennium. One such shell will be the Web-savvy hypertext markup language-based Desktop Version 2. It will aim to make the Windows desktop and start menu easier to navigate. By splitting the screen to offer tasks on the left side and data on the right. [...]

A number of other features will aim to ease set up. Microsoft will also add self-healing features to the operating system: This feature automatically reinstalls certain key Windows files if they are deleted accidentally.

Ik kwam bij Coolinfo nog wat nieuwe info tegen over de geheimzinnige X-Box game console van Microsoft. Opperhoofd Bill wenst global world domination en daar vallen de gamertjes blijkbaar ook onder:

Microsoft has discussed plans for a new video game console system with U.S. and Japanese game publishers, a Japanese executive involved in the talks said. Microsoft could make an announcement about a new console system by the end of October, said Yoshihiro Maruyama, the vice chairman of a U.S. joint venture between game makers Square and Electronic Arts. The system would feature common personal computer components, including a version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, an Intel microprocessor and graphics chips such as those made by 3Dfx Interactive, he said. Any move by into the video game market would come as competition intensifies and sales soar.

Console maker Sega Enterprises unveiled its Dreamcast system in the United States earlier this month and has sold more than 500,000 units. Sony plans to introduce a successor to its dominant PlayStation next year, and Nintendo is working on a new system. "The biggest player cannot ignore this market anymore," Maruyama said. "If they decide to come in, their commitment will be very firm. They could potentially be the biggest competitor to Sony."

Next Generation, a magazine for video game fans, reported recently that Microsoft is developing a set-top game console under the code name X-Box that would be powered by an Intel or Advanced Micro Devices computer chip that could make it as powerful as Sony's PlayStation 2 to be unveiled next year. "We have no announced plans to develop a separate set-top box," said Craig Mundie, senior vice president, consumer platforms. He declined to elaborate. Maruyama said he was unsure if Square, the maker of the Final Destiny series, would agree to make games for a Microsoft console. The company has had difficulties converting its PlayStation software into games, which can be played on a PC.

Maruyama said Square has sold 560,000 units of Final Fantasy VIII in the United States through its joint venture since the game was introduced on September 9. The title, which cost $30 million to make and comes on four CD-Roms, is the most popular PlayStation game in Japan, with more than 3 million units sold. Square and Electronic Arts have a similar joint venture selling Electronic Arts games in Japan. Square is focusing almost all of its development on games for the new PlayStation, Maruyama said.

Geen idee wat daar de exacte vertaling van zal zijn, maar het klinkt in ieder geval 'hoog' . IDG.net heeft er een nieuwsbericht over:

Stockholm University at a presentation ceremony here today awarded an honorary doctorate to Linus Torvalds for his accomplishments as the creator of the Linux open-source operating system.

Torvalds, a 29-year-old native Finn, became the Swedish university's youngest-ever recipient of an honorary doctorate, and was lauded in a statement from the university's Faculty of Natural Sciences as an "IT rebel" and "computer genius."

Verder info over Linux 2.4, waarvan de release begin volgend jaar verwacht wordt. De nieuwe kernel zal tot 8 processors ondersteunen en er zal USB support in verstopt worden. Check IDG.net voor de info.

The Register heeft een artikeltje gepost met meer info over de Microsoft MSN Web Appliance, een op Windows CE draaiend internet doosje dat voor allerlei simpele web-based toepassingen gebruikt zou moeten gaan worden. Een soort Network Computer dus, hoewel Bill het liever niet zo wil noemen:

Microsoft says the Companion will be used by consumers "for Web-based services, browsing and e-mail. It is designed for people who want a simple way to get on the Internet, and don't have a need for PC-based applications." It'll be available in desktop and laptop form factors.

So you can see the proposed uneasy compromises from there. It's not an NC, because it just does Web stuff. But what's a Web-based service? Well, we've got some remote application stuff going there, haven't we? And isn't Microsoft supposed to be Web-ising its apps? So this nice little device could maybe do remote-running rented apps as well, and it starts looking more like an NC after all. But it also looks a bit like a WebTV, particularly as WebTV is supposed to be moving onto CE as its base platform. And the expression "desktop and laptop form factors" is in the Microsoft release, incidentally, so it's clear the company itself is having trouble with the positioning.

We lazen er eerder al iets over bij JC en nu heeft InfoWorld er ook een uitgebreid artikeltje over: Intel delayed de levering van de PIII Xeon-550 in verband met een bug die de processor laat crashen in een 8-processor server configuratie (thuisgebruikers met slechts een quad-Xeon config hoeven zich dus niet ongerust te maken ).

Intel has put a hold on shipping two versions of its 550-MHz Pentium III Xeon 550 chips to OEMs for at least a couple of weeks because of a bug that is causing eight-way servers to hang, company officials confirmed.

Although company officials said they are still evaluating the full extent of the problem, to this point the glitch has been limited to versions of the chip containing the 512Kb and 1MB caches, which have a problem involving communication between the processor and Intel's Saber motherboard. Vendors who have chosen not to utilize the Saber motherboard, such as Compaq, have not experienced any problems to date.

In addition, the 2MB cache version of the chip does not appear to have the problem, and the company is continuing to ship that product.

Wie weet is het gewoon een vuil trucje om meer 2Meg Xeons af te zetten (die dingen zijn namelijk aaaah-sociaal duur).

Wazige Japanse site heeft in goede traditie weer een aantal plaatjes van de PIII-600B en PIII-533B online gezet. Tadaa...

Ace's Hardwae heeft meer info verzameld over de K6-2+ met 128Kb on-die L2 cache, waar eerder door c't magazine over gespeculeerd werd:

- Yes, there is indeed a K6-2+ plan and it has been there for a while already, but it is not a definite plan yet.

- If K6-2+ comes out at all, it will like what C't reported, not slated for 1999 release. In other words, it will have a relatively short lifespan, I am guessing 6 months, before AMD moves Athlon Select down to the low-cost market.

- No, K6-2+ is not meant to replace K6-III, but on the contrary, if it comes out, it will replace K6-2. So, we will see K6-III 500 and there are higher Mhz K6-IIIs planned

- Remember I said a while back that we may see K6-x family moving to 133 Mhz FSB? That may happen in conjuction with K6-2+: Rumor has it that we may see K6-2+ paired with Super-7 running at 133Mhz FSB but without the L3 (or L2) cache on the motherboard. Essentially a Celeron-like system. It is yet uncertain if we will see this configuration for the desktop or just for the mobile systems.

Verder zegt Ace's dat AMD op het Microprocessor Forum (8 oktober) de server en workstation versie van de Athlon voor zal stellen (Athlon Ultra?). Ook zal rond die tijd waarschijnlijk een 700MHz versie worden gereleased.