ZDNet weet te vertellen dat de release van de Intel Coppermine op de 25ste van deze maand plaats zal vinden. De nieuwe PIII's variëren in snelheid van 533 tot 700MHz:

Intel, sources said, will make its Coppermine announcement Oct. 25. On that day, the company is expected to introduce desktop Pentium III chips based on Coppermine at 533MHz, 600MHz, 650MHz, 667MHz and 700MHz. A 733MHz should follow by the end of the year.

Pentium III Xeon chips for workstations and servers are expected at 600MHz and 667MHz on Oct. 25, and later 700MHz and 733MHz versions of the chip are due, sources said. These chips will include larger amounts of Level 2 cache.

Intel says the 600MHz Coppermine Pentium III, when combined with its forthcoming 820 chip set, perform between 12 and 20 percent faster than the current 600MHz Pentium III chips on performance benchmarks. An 800MHz Coppermine Pentium III will perform 40 to 42 percent faster than the current 600MHz Pentium III chips

Volgens een nieuwsartikel van Forbes zal AMD in november een 800MHz model van de Athlon introduceren. In de tussentijd kunnen we ook nog een 750MHz versie verwachten:

AMD stock jumped 12 cents to $17.25 per share on the news. This is the second consecutive time that AMD has beaten Intel in the race to release a faster chip. AMD will soon announce the 750-MHz version of its chip, only to be followed by 800-MHz versions in November.

[...] Intel (nasdaq: INTC) on the other hand is not sitting idle and is expected to roll out 733-MHz and 667-MHz versions of its Pentium III chips later this month. In total, about nine new versions of the Pentium III are due out in the fourth quarter.

AMD's speed attack has not really affected Intel's revenue growth. According to U.S. Bancorp, Intel's microprocessor sales in the third quarter topped 30 million units, up 20% from the previous quarter. Revenue for the third quarter ended September 30 is likely to be up 8% from the previous quarter to about $7.3 billion. Intel is likely to have earnings of 60 cents per share. It will announce third quarter earnings after October 10.

Ik fietste toevallig langs bij ComputerNerd en kwam daar een plaatje tegen van de nieuwe Cool-it-Dude! FAK7X2B Athlon heatsink. De heatsink lijkt verdacht veel op de standaard Athlon heatsink, alleen zitten hier 2 ventilators op:

AMD Insider heeft een paar scans van de Asus K7M manual te pakken weten te krijgen:

Last week I bought an Asus K7M Athlon - Board at the German store http://www.madex.com I has scanned some pics of the handbook, and think you like it.

Here are the pictures:

Cover Page
Features (1)
Features (2)
Hardware Setup
Bios Setup
CD

Trouwens, die K7M vind je hier voor DM449,- (229,57 Euro) in de prijslijst van Madex. Misschien mogelijk om die dingen daar online te bestellen?

Bij Deez Tech staat een review online van de 3DCool Twin Turbo Cooler. Dit ding schuif je in een 5.25" bay waarna er een koel briesje door je kast zal waaien

All I can say is WOW! When the claims were posted on their site I really didn't believe it. This is why I wanted to try it out, to put it to the test and see what is really going on. This is something that I will have to commend 3dCool on, they made some pretty outrageous claims like alot of hardware companies out there except 3dcool can back it up and boy did they! On top of this I had some heat problems with my Creative Labs TnT card in benchmarking. Although I have overclocked the front side bus to 75mhz which is already stressing it, I also have its core/mem at 95/115 respectively. After installing the Twin Turbo into my system circulating the air out of my case I have seen a noticeable difference in the performance in various benchmarking programs and other graphic intensive games! As you can probably tell I will be keeping this little gem in my case for quite a while. Say, that reminds me I have a case downstairs with an extra 5 1/4" bay.....he he he he. So, in conclusion, although you may think it is overkill, I say what is a little overkill going to hurt anyways? This is definitely on the "to buy" list if you are looking for a quality cooler to cool that inferno of a case most of us overclockers have . [break]En zo ziet de Twin Turbo Cooler eruit:[/break]

Bij AGN Hardware hebben ze een review gepost van Microsoft's nieuwe Sidewinder Gamepad Pro. Hieronder een gedeelte over deze gamepad, en een screenie.

To test this controller out I played Need for Speed 3, Collin Mcrae Rally, Freespace 2 (demo), Quake 2, Motoracer, Demonstar, Motocross Madness, and a few other titles. The proportional control worked best in games like NFS3 and MCM but was too sloppy for games that require more precision like Freespace 2 and Viper Racing. For shooters like Demonstar the standard control mode worked perfectly. The gamepad fits well in your hands and the thumbpad is fairly comfortable for long gaming sessions but was a bit too stiff perhaps. This makes your thumb feel tired as you get a bit of a workout from games that use proportional steering and require varying levels of pressure. The first 30% or so of the proportional control is somewhat light and the remainder is much stiffer. This lets you make small directional changes without accidentally turning too fast.

One problem I found was that many games like to figure out if your controller is a gamepad or a joystick and they decide for you that it will work that way. In Motoracer for example, the steering refused to work like a joystick even when I set the control options in the game to joystick. The game still forced the abrupt LEFT/RIGHT control like a gamepad even though I had it setup as proportional in the Sidewinder control panel. This was definitely game related as NFS3 had no problems with letting me use the Sidewinder Gamepad like a joystick and the control was pretty good for that game. Viper Racing worked as a joystick but the control was much too jittery. The car would jerk every time I made a slight steering correction and following the racing line was impossible. Freespace 2 was the worst of the lot with basically unuseable control. Fine aiming was just impossible so I ended up overshooting every target by at least an inch. Quake 2 didn’t impress either, control was quite bad and I would never give up my mouse for it.

The High-Performance PC Guide heeft een review gepost van de Soyo SY-6VBA mobo met Via Apollo Pro133 chipset. Naast een ATA/66 controller heeft-ie ook een gezonde reeks busspeeds:

As for configuring the SY-6VBA, we head straight for the "Soyo Combo Setup" menu, but a glance towards the jumpers are a good preamble. Jumpers JP8 and JP9 determine the base frequency of the processor, while jumpers JP2 and JP7 set the base frequency for the system bus and determines the bus ratio for the AGP port. The options provided by these jumpers are 66Mhz, 100Mhz, and 133Mhz, and 1, 1.5, and 2 for the AGP bus ratio. Depending on the option selected by jumpers JP2 and JP7, its possible to modify the clock frequency in the "Soyo Combo Setup" menu to between 66Mhz and 83Mhz (if JP2 and JP7 are set at 66Mhz), between 90Mhz and 122Mhz (if they're set at 100Mhz), or between 124Mhz and 155Mhz (if they're set at 133Mhz). The clock frequencies thus available are: 66/75/78/81/83/90/95/100/105/110/112/113/115/117/118/120/122/124/ 126/133/135/137/140/142/144/150 and 155Mhz.

By the way, in my opinion, the "Soyo Combo Setup" is beginning to look alot like "Soft Menu II" from Abit, as far as features provided. It's now possible to vary the latency of the L2 Cache from between 1 and 15 - much like with recent BE6, BF6, and BP6 boards from Abit. It's also possible to adjust the processor's core voltage with a versatility not yet equal to "Sot Menu II", but including: +2.5%, +5%, +7.5%, and +10%. It's also possible to select the clock multiplier and change the AGP bus frequency which, is equal to the processor frequency divided by 10, 15, or 20. The working frequency of the memory can also be set according to a few choices: equal to CPU frequency, CPU frequency - PCI frequency, or CPU frequency + PCI frequency.

Klik hier voor de rest van de review.

Ook bij Sharky Extreme hebben ze een preview online gezet van de Diamond MX400 soundcard. De MX400 krijgt de Canyon3D chip mee van ESS Technology en zal in november gaan verschijnen. Hieronder vast een gedeelte uit de preview.

First the enabling of the 32 simultaneous audio streams is made clear, as is the focus on "True Quad Playback", meaning that, unlike the MX300 which used a panning technique to produce sound to the rear speakers, the MX400 is able to fully utilize four speakers with digital clarity.

The next spec on the MX400's sheet you'll notice is the "Rio Upgrade" which is basically a daughter card that will allow for true digital encoding and playback of MP3 files, along with the addition of a stereo FM receiver within your PC. While the cost of this add-on board isn't yet known, we've been told that a range of $25 - $40 seems likely at the time of its launch (Q1/2000).

The MX400 offers support for PC-based DVD home theater setups through its inclusion of the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio format via the MX400's included S/PDIF digital out port. Previously MX300 owners had to purchase the MX25 daughtercard to get this level of support with their card, we're glad to see that Diamond has included it right out of the box in the MX400.

De rest van het verhaaltje kun je hier vinden.

In navolging van Steve en IBM gaat ook Compaq handelen in gekleurd kunststof. Michael Capellas, Compaq's nieuwe CEO, heeft z'n onderdanen opgelegd dat zij voortaan coole produkten moeten maken...

Taking a cue from Apple's success with the iMac and Sony's with its Vaio portables, Compaq will unveil two new products today--the Presario 3500 slimline PC and ultra-portable Presario 305 notebook-- that emphasize color and design, as well as a new desktop that incorporates the 700-MHz Athlon from AMD.

Compaq's shift toward style, which comes down as an edict from new CEO Michael Capellas, underscores a booming trend among PC manufacturers to give their products distinctive personalities through size, shape, and hue--rather than simply beat each other up over performance and price.

"It's come down from our new CEO Michael Capellas that we must make cool products, with passion behind them, and connection to the Internet," said Trey Litel, Compaq's marketing manager of Internet services for U.S. consumer products.

Check News.com voor meer info.

Ook ZDNet hobbelt gezellig mee met het SledgeHammer feest. Hier wat info uit hun nieuwsartikel over deze 64-bit AMD processor:

Dana Krelle, vice president of marketing at AMD, acknowledged that the company will have to overcome skeptics who have grown wary of its financial struggles. But he pointed to AMD's success with its currently shipping chip, the Athlon, which is faster than anything Intel is fielding today. AMD anticipates some small benefits in the third quarter, from sales of its Athlon chips, which sell for as much as $849, compared with AMD's average prices of about $60 a chip. In 2000, AMD plans to enhance the Athlon for workstation and server computers with a new data pathway, known as a bus, that runs at 266-megahertz, or twice as fast as what Intel offers today.

Krelle said AMD's SledgeHammer chip will be designed to run the older 32-bit software at high speeds, in contrast to the relatively slow performance that is expected for the 32-bit software on the Merced chip. And since AMD's new "x86 64" architecture will offer a less radical style of computing than Merced, Krelle said, it will be far easier for programmers to write 64-bit versions of the software.

Exact hetzelfde artikeltje vind je trouwens bij MS NBC (kun je kiezen ).

Ace's Hardware heeft een tabelletje gepost met de warmte ontwikkeling van de verschillende Athlon modellen. Interessant is dat de nieuwe Athlon 700 minder hitte produceert dan de oudere versies:

	K7 500	K7 550	K7 600	K7 650	K7 700
Max thermo power	42W	46W	50W	54W	50W
Typical thermo power	38W	41W	45W	48W	45W
Stop grant max	3W	3W	3W	4W	3W

JC heeft bij een anonieme source wat info los weten te peuteren over de overklokkers-vriendelijke Slot-A plank van Asus:

I suspect you'd think that something cool is about to be said. I found a fellow (who wishes to remain anonymous, bless his [or her -- remember, I can't tell you what gender he is due to his anonymousity] heart) who has got his hands on the Asus Slot-A board. Now that you're paying attention, lets start with the boring bit: The K7-600 on this board grabs 57.2 CPUMarks, that's the only thing my source is willing to share from a benchmarking point of view. Oh, except that when you set the memory to 111MHz via the BIOS and the cpu<-->chipset to 222MT/s, the resulting 666MHz that the processor obtains returns a score of 58.7 CPUMarks. Lemme let that sink in for a while ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Okay, that's enough time. Yup, it seems absolutely clear that the Asus board makes it trivially easy to overclock. It's a form of softclocking, so there's no need for those annoying jumpers. Anyway, according to this anonymous guy (of undisclosed gender, I remind you), he got his system up to 115MHz memory clock (230MT/s cpu<-->chipset), which is 690MHz for the cpu -- no luck at 120/240, but I've no idea whether that's the fault of the processor, the board, or the memory, and my source just went into "oops, I forgot that all this I shouldn't be talking about" mode. No wait, there he is. He thinks it's the L2 on the K7 that prevented further overclock. Now, if we could only figure out how to drop that L2 multiplier or raise the latency a little or something.

...nu nog wachten tot dat ding eindelijk eens een keer geshipt wordt.

Naast AMD en Intel heeft ook IBM iets leuks in de pipeline: de Power4 processor, waarvan de release verwacht wordt in 2001, verenigd twee CPU cores op snelheden van 2GHz, met een 500MHz busspeed. De chip zal uit meer dan 170 miljoen transistors bestaan (hoe wil IBM dat ooit tegen redelijk yields gaan produceren?!). Hier nog wat vrolijke specs van The Register:

It will, as reported here earlier, run at 1.1GHz and deliver 11,000 MIPS at launch, when it will be fabbed in 0.18 micron. IBM however intends to shift it to the dream combination of 0.13 micron, copper and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) by 2002-3, which is expected to kick clock speeds up in the direction of 2GHz.

That alone should be enough to make Power4 a monster, but IBM argues that its design, which places a great deal of emphasis on the routing of data within the CPU and on smart caching, is inherently more efficient. Power4 will execute up to five instructions with each clock cycle.

The Register heeft een nieuwsartikel gepost met meer info over de AMD SledgeHammer. Vooral het software verhaaltje achter deze 64-bit x86 CPU is nog wazig, de x86 instructieset is immers 32-bit. The Register geeft opheldering:

But if Intel expects 32-bit to remain king through 2001 and maybe beyond, what should AMD do? It's currently collecting 32-bit speed trophies for Athlon, and if it can build on this up to the Sledgehammer rollout then it might just be in a commanding position. SledgeHammer, marketing VP Dana Krelle tells us in a blatant leak to the WSJ this morning, will be 64-bit, but will be designed to run 32-bit apps at blisteringly high speeds. Alongside that AMD's x86-64 architecture is intended to be simpler to deal with than Intel's.

So here's the script, as we see it. AMD sees a possible window whereby it can carry and increase current Athlon momentum through 2000, and then capitalise on that with what will in operation effectively be a faster 32-bit chip in 2001. The possible gotchas here are first, that the Athlon mo gets blunted (it is a long way to run, and AMD doesn't usually manage to stay ahead for long), and second, that any delays in SledgeHammer would give Intel the opportunity to establish its own roadmap instead.

Bij GamePC hebben ze een DVD-Rom roundup in elkaar geknutseld. Meegenomen in de test zijn 2 Pioneers, een Sony en een Toshiba DVD speler. Hieronder een gedeelte, lees de hele review hier.

CPU utilization is pretty solid around the board, less than 10% in all cases at the fastest each of the drives can go, not too shabby at all. No drive really shined as the less CPU dependant model, the numbers are pretty much as we expected.

What we didn't expect is how poorly the Sony 6x drive performed in relation to the other 6x drives. We checked and double checked all the settings on the drive to make sure we weren't mismarking, but after three complete test runs, the same results were provided. It looks like this aging drive is finally showing some wrinkles in comparison to some of the newer 6x drives. That's a shame too, since Sony consistently puts out fabulous products.

After using all these DVD drives and through all the tests, these slot-loading DVD's have won over my approval. They tested the fastest, have a sleek look, and the slot-loading technology is just plain cool to use. If you're still insistent on a tray-loading DVD, the 10X Pioneer Tray loading and 6X Toshiba both are top-performing drives as well.

CPU Review heeft zijn Athlon / Pentium 3 prijsvergelijkings artikel weer eens van een update voorzien. Als gevolg van de Athlon prijsdalingen is een Athlon + Mobo combi goedkoper dan een P3 + Mobo op 550 en 600MHz. Voor alle info en prijstabelletjes, klik hier.

CURRENTLY THE ATHLON IS CHEAPER AT EVERY SPEED GRADE! AMD launched a MASSIVE second strike at Intel. No other way to describe it, with price drops like that Intel will have to respond with large price cuts of its own. Expect Pentium 3's to drop at least 5% below same megahertz Athlons this week.

[..] The Atlon+motherboard is now cheaper than a P3+motherboard at both 550Mhz and 600Mhz! Note that the Athlon does not have a price advantage at 500Mhz yet after motherboard costs are added; this will probably change when Athlon motherboard production ramps up and competition forces prices down.

Ik lees ook bij VE dat er nieuwe BETA drivers zijn gereleased voor nVidia based kaarten (TNT/TNT2/Vanta/M64/GeForce256?) onder Windows 2000. Fiets even naar deze site om het zaakie te downloaden. Hieronder wat info.

This is a beta driver from nVidia that will enable Direct3D and OpenGL (But disables DirectDraw) on nVidia TNT/TNT2 based Video Cards.

These drivers are BETA, so please, handle with care, and use only at your own risk.

Please do NOT bug people in #WiN2000 asking "Why don't these drivers work?"

These drivers are BETA, they have problems, and if you do intend using them, EXPECT a few BSoD (Blue Screens of Death) from time to time.

There are two directories, one is called 201, and the other is 401. The later of which is the later driver set.

I have tested the drivers in the directory 401 under Win2000 RC2 (Build 2128) and have had D3D and OpenGL running successfully (albeit a few blue screens)

These drivers DO NOT have DirectDraw support, so either use the old drivers that came with RC2 (DirectDraw/OpenGL) or live with D3D/OpenGL but NO DirectDraw.

Ik lees bij Voodoo Extreme dat er nieuwe BETA drivers zijn voor de S3 Savage3D en de Savage4 kaarten. Klik hier om ze neer te halen.

Tom de uitverkorene keert terug op aarde met een review van de Intel i820 chipset. Voor de benchmarks vergelijkt Tom drie i820, 440BX en Apollo Pro 133 systemen. De Camino blijkt over het algemeen net iets sneller te zijn, maar echt opgeilend zijn de resultaten niet...

Since our last dealings with the 'Camino' or i820 chipset it is clear that Intel was able to clean up some of their performance. In all of our tests the i820 was able to keep pace with the i440BX based platform, sometimes even outperforming it. A lot of new features and increased bandwidth have been squeezed into this newer chipset. Unfortunately, most of today's software and hardware don't take advantage of it and I dare to ask for the benefit of RDRAM. I guess the answer will be the same marketing-hype we're used listening to for years: "You may not see any advantage yet, but future software will make a difference."

I wonder how long we'll have to wait for that, possibly longer than the short life span of Intel's CPUs and chipsets. So far I'm still waiting to see a decent amount of software that takes advantage of the oh-so-wonderful 'Streaming SIMD Extensions' or even MMX. It could be that as time passes, some of the increased bandwidth will start to show through in the new HUB architecture. As new USB devices become popular, such as USB networking, some of the bandwidth advantages will become apparent. It's about time that the PCI bus got relieved from the I/O-traffic between the chipset's north and south brigde. I also like AGP4x, which I consider the most if not the only meaningful advance of i820.

(thanx Henk-Jan Smit voor de tip)

FPS3D.com heeft een review gepost van de FIC SD11. Fikkies Athlon plank maakt gebruik van een supersnel AMI BIOS (dat is iets wat sterk zuigt bij Award; het duurt 3 jaar voordat het ding voorbij z'n POST routines is):

The AMI BIOS startup is very, very fast. Watching this baby boot up is enough to instill a case of the speed-giggles in even the most hardened tweakmonkey. Windows will start loading literally within a second of hitting the power button. Usually we don't talk about "BIOS speeds" in motherboard reviews, but this still deserved a mention.

By default, the AMI BIOS autodetects everything. Processor, RAM, and bus speeds. Still, there is an abundance of tweaking options available for the more advanced user. The board by itself does not support overclocking, but simply download the patch on the AMI website and you're good to go. Unfortunately, even with monster cooling, I was unable to get the Athlon to post at anything faster than the default.

Deze naam geeft Reuters in een nieuwsposting over een 64-bit AMD processor (K8 dus):

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD - news) plans to unveil Tuesday a new microprocessor that would compete with a new chip Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news) named Monday, the Wall Street Journal said Tuesday.

The 64-bit ``SledgeHammer,'' designed to compete with Intel's new ``Itanium,'' represents a change in strategy for Advanced Micro, the Journal said.

Rather than copying Intel, with the new chip Advanced Micro is introducing a chip that isn't compatible with software written for chips made by its larger rival, the paper said.

Intel's ``Itanium'' is expected to debut in the second half of 2000, while Advanced Micro won't launch its chip until 2001, the Journal reported.

'SledgeHammer' (niet de uiteindelijk naam, neem ik aan) klinkt in ieder geval al wel véél cooler dan dat idiote 'Itanium'.

Ik kwam bij 3DGPU.com deze info tegen van Bill Ball, marketing ventje van Creative:

"The Asian Region has begun shipping, as you know. We have been getting ready right along with them. The cards come out of Singapore and are allocated in varying lots to the Regions. Despite this, we have been the first to ship in the past, such as with the Ultra, as we finished our other preparations ahead of the other regions. So, launch dates can vary among the regions, often by a week or two. Sorry, I don't have a ship date for our region yet."

(Regarding posting the GeForce drivers, which are also for the TNT2 series)..."Well, we have to test them on all cards before we can do that. 2.08 will get posted ASAP. Who knows, 3.35 or whatever we ship could follow very quickly. Perhaps we could do a beta with that to give people an early look. I will tell you 3.34/3.35 are not the end of the road and we expect fresher drops from NVIDIA in a few days from now. There are some important optimizations we are waiting for. I can't say yet whether the coming drop has them, but I know that 3.34/3.35 doesn't."

Hardware One heeft een Annihilator van de Singaporese straat geplakt, en er meteen een review omheen gebouwd.

These are pretty astounding scores in my opinion. Don’t think they are jaw-dropping, but nevertheless still decently faster than my V770 non-Ultra at 162/192. But having said that, with the hype surrounding this chip, I was made to believe that a constant 60fps in 1024x768/32bit was indeed achievable in Q3Test. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case, but it’s still darn fast. At 1024x768/16bit, this manages 68.4fps!! And trust me, I’ve played Q3 online in this res for 15mins last night and I could actually feel the difference compared to my old TNT2 V770!! Typically, I believe whatever frame-rates were achievable on my V770 at 16 bit is achievable with the GeForce at 32 bit.

In addition, looking at the 3D Mark 99 Max scores does show that the D3D performance only shows a drop-off at 1280x1024/32 bit! The rest are typically saturated and remained constant!

We should also take note of the fact that these drivers may not be that mature. So perhaps, 60 fps in 1024x768x32bit Q3test in the near future is possible… ?? In any case, there are rumours of a new set of drivers to be released shortly that promises to double (fingers-crossed) the performance…

Hardware One heeft ook een overklok testje gedaan waaruit blijkt dat de kaart het meeste profijt heeft van een hogere memory clock. Dit bevestigd eerdere vermoedens dat de memory bandwidth op dit moment een grote bottleneck vormt (ik wil benchmarks van de DDR SDRAM versie).

Het design van de doos kickt trouwens major butt:

C3D Inc. heeft een 150Gig dikke ROM schijf gedemonstreerd die gebruik maakt van een drie dimensionaal storagesysteempje waarbij de data in meerdere lage wordt opgeslagen. Slashdot brengt het nieuws:

A fully working prototype of a 150GByte read-only disk has been demonstrated by C3D Inc. The clever part is their "Fluorescent Multilayer Disk" technology. Rather than having only one or two layers (as per CD-ROMs, DVD) these new disks have 10 layers, which can be read simultaneously giving data transfer rates exceeding 1 gigabyte per second. Now, if only they could produce a read-write version... "

Op de site van C3D vind je meer info over hun storage produkten. Ze hebben het daar ook al over 12cm RAM schijfjes met een capaciteit 1 Terabyte. Jammie!

Ook Samsung maakt zijn intrede in de 7200rpm IDE harddisk arena. De nieuwe serie harddisks hebben een platter size van maar liefst 10,2Gb, wat in combinatie met de snelle rotatiesnelheid en de 2Mb cache in een behoorlijk snel schijfje zou kunnen resulteren. Hier wat geblaat uit de press release:

Samsung Information Systems America's Storage System Division announces its entry into the Performance Desktop Hard Disk Drive Market with the introduction of its new 7200RPM SpinPoint P10200 Series.

The P10200 Series, which offers 40.8GB, 30.6GB, 20.4GB, 15.3GB, and 10.2GB capacity points, features an industry leading 10.2GB per platter, UDMA66 interface, fast 8.5msec seek time combined with high internal data rates, 2048KByte cache buffer, and proprietary ImpacGuard(TM) and Shock Skin Bumper (SSB)(TM) features for enhanced shock protection. The V10200 Series is scheduled to ship in volume this quarter.

[...] The first 7200RPM hard disk drive in the industry to offer 10.2GB per platter, the SpinPoint P10200 matches Samsung's strategic vision of time to market, areal density leadership, and competitive pricing. ``Samsung anticipates price erosion in the 7200RPM market to continue for some time, even as the growth in storage hungry applications continues,'' said Logan Saverimuthu, Samsung's VP of Engineering.

[...] Mr. Saverimuthu pointed out that the performance of the new SpinPoint P10200 Series is at least 10% higher than the IBM Deskstar 34GXP product, IBM's currently available Performance Desktop solution. ``Meeting our customers' price points is important, but we must also be able to meet their performance expectations,'' Mr. Saverimuthu added.

[...] In addition to offering the highest areal density in the industry, Samsung's SpinPoint P10200 Series features GMR head technology with wireless suspension design, and offers an 8.5ms seek time, UDMA66 interface, and a 2048KB buffer. The Series also comes with ImpacGuard and SSB features that enhance non-operating shock resistance. Through these proprietary features, Samsung continues to lead the industry in hard disk drive shock protection.

NextGen Online heeft meer info over de Microsoft X-Box console gepost:

According to the magazine the new system will be a non-upgradable closed box, built using top-of-the-line PC components including a 4 Gb hard drive. Like Dreamcast, the new console's output will be either via a TV or a VGA monitor leading some people to call it a junior PC.

We all know the current name for the secret console is X-Box but the development program is currently going under the name of Mariner. An AMD Athlon has been hinted at being the processor powering of the machine while sources at Advanced Micro Devices have said the OS will be a customized version of Windows 2000 and not a modified version of Windows CE.

Hoewel Bill het nog steeds ontkend bestaat die X-Box dus gewoon (zo hoor ik uit verschillende bronnen, waaronder een mede ID student die werkzaam is bij Lionhead).

In navolging van Creative Labs heeft ook Guillemot een GeForce 256 kaart met Double Data Rate SDRAM aangekondigd. De verdubbelde RAM throughput kan errug interessant worden, vooral bij true colour op hoge resoluties (waar memory bandwidth op dit moment al een zwaar probleem is). Hier een paar snippers uit de press release bij 3DGPU.com:

Montreal - Monday, October 4, 1999- Pushing technology to new levels as ever, Guillemot now presents 3D Prophet DDR™, a 3D accelerator featuring NVIDIA’s new GeForce 256™ DDR design with DDR RAM. DDR RAM is a breakthrough memory type that boosts the speed of complex graphics operations and achieves higher bandwidth. By complementing 3D Prophet with 3D Prophet DDR in its hardcore gaming range, Guillemot is providing the perfect gaming solution for top configuration PCs, creating a new platform for those who want absolute power and an unrivaled gaming experience.

[...] DDR RAM DDR RAM stands for Double Data Rate RAM (as opposed to SDR RAM, which stands for Single Data Rate). DDR RAM doubles the data transfer rate per clock. It can go faster because it performs two instructions per RAM clock instead of a single instruction for SDR.

[...] Price and Availability 3D Prophet DDR™ will be available before Christmas at a retail price about $ 100 more than the 3D Prophet.

Jeremy van AGN Hardware heeft een review gepost van de nieuwe PIII-533B en PIII-600B CPU'tjes. Uit de benchmarks van AGN HW blijkt dat de PIII-600B met een VIA Apollo Pro 133 chipset nauwelijks sneller is dan een overgeklokte PIII-500@560MHz op een BX plank:

When Intel's 533B first showed up on my doorstep, I was sure that AMD was going to finally have some competition. After all native FSB speeds of a hefty 133MHz would seem to bring a new level of performance to our desktop. In the end though the 533B seemed to be nothing more than the same Pentium III line that has been on the market for some time now. Even with the FSB running at 150MHz the performance had not been raised by more than a small percentage.

Even though AMD is still in the front of the race with their Athlon, Intel may still have a chance to head to the front of the race with their upcoming Coppermine processor. This .18 micron process chip will have 256k of on-die L2 cache, lower core voltage (Overclocker's dream?) and more. But then again AMD is also coming out with a .18 micron version of the Athlon as well, so only time will tell.

News.com bericht dat ATi zeer waarschijnlijk de prijzen van z'n video decelerators gaat verhogen. De gemiddelde tweaker zal dit worst wezen, want die zal zelfs na bijbetaling geen ATi kaart willen gebruiken, maar voor dozen-schuivers zoals Comapq, Dell en Gateway zal het wel gevolgen hebben (ATi is per ongeluk de meest verkopende videokaart bakker op deze aardbal):

ATI Technologies, the world's largest graphics chip company, may raise prices as a result of the component shortage developing in the wake of the recent Taiwan earthquake. The move by ATI, if taken, would follow similar actions by S3 last week and could portend a spike in PC prices for the holiday season. Price hikes may possibly also result in market share increases for graphics chip companies that lack Taiwanese connections, observers speculated.

[...] But Chang denied that they are telling some customers that supply of chips will be delayed because of the earthquake. Availability of the company's popular "3D Charger" add-in circuit board, for instance, is limited, but this came about before the Taiwan earthquake, she said. She also said that, to some extent, the increase in demand for memory, which can affect supply, happened before the earthquake. Analysts say the impact of the earthquake will differ, according to company and market. "The effect of the earthquake will vary among graphics vendors, since not all have their chip production in Taiwan," said Peter Glaskowsky, an analyst at Microprocessor Report.

Diamond heeft creatief lopen doen en is op het idee gekomen om de expertise die zijn daar inmiddels met portable MP3 players en wireless networking kits hebben opgedaan in een pot te prakken. Het resultaat is een MP3 jukebox, die via staartloze, digitale verbindingen een compleet huis van muziek kan voorzien:

The company now sees MP3 music played on digital jukeboxes as the most compelling application for home networking. Households who may see no immediate need for connecting their refrigerator to their television to their computer may very well be compelled to set up a network to enable high-quality audio piped to every room without additional wires or cables, the thinking goes. "This actually solves a problem people have," said Reed. "Music has a broad appeal--I bet that almost 100 percent of people like music." In a house with disparate music tastes, one digital jukebox could simultaneously pump different music into each room of the house, without rewiring the home for additional speakers or stereo equipment, he said.

The company is working on such a digital jukebox, he said, expected to be released in about a year. This type of home stereo would offer enough memory to house an entire family's music collection. This jukebox would be connected to digital speakers via power line network products-from Diamond, hopefully-which would then allow a family to play different songs in different rooms of the house simultaneously, from the same stereo. To be successful, the company must convince consumers that the ability to play digital music throughout their home is compelling enough to invest in the time and expense of creating a home network. But that proposition is increasingly innocuous: with the advent of power line and wireless networking, the task of connecting appliances and devices is much less arduous than it was even a few years ago, analysts say.

Onze vriend bij 3Com vonden het weer eens nodig om een nieuwe Palm te releasen. Numero VII kan draadloos het internet op en dat schijnt handig te zijn voor beleggers, althans zo zegt 3Com dat in de press release...

3Com Corp.'s (NasdaqNM:COMS - news) Palm Computing unit on Monday said it was rolling out its Palm VII handheld electronic organizer with Internet access nationwide and it cut the price by $100.

The nationwide rollout follows limited availability since May in the New York metropolitan area. Analysts have said that consumers may have been put off by the Palm VII's high price -- which has now been reduced to $499 -- and the limited availability of the wireless service.

The Palm handheld organizer is the No. 1 device in the field. 3Com has sold more than five million. It is 3Com's fastest growing business, although Santa Clara, Calif.-based 3Com recently announced its intention to spin off the Palm unit as a separate company.

The Palm VII uses a wireless connection coupled with its Palm.Net service to let users trade stocks, access special Web sites designed for the small-screened devices and also send and receive short e-mails.

Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. (NasdaqNM:AMZN - news), online auctioneer eBay Inc. (NasdaqNM:EBAY - news) and FMR Corp.'s Fidelity Investments have also partnered with Palm Computing to let consumers check their bids on auctions and trade stocks. Palm said material from 23 Internet content providers is available through wireless access to the Palm.

Palm also said it was introducing new versions of its Palm V and Palm III organizers. The Palm V, with an estimated price of $449, has more memory. The Palm IIIe, has an estimated price of $179 and a clear case and is targeted at students and entry-level users.