Op de frontpage van Ace's Hardware is wat meer info / geruchten gepost over de nieuwe K6-2+ en K6-III+ van AMD. Hieronder de soep:

"AMD K6-2+ and K6-III+. . . are starting to sample based on .18 µm technology. Anticipated clock speed will be 533 at debut but scale up towards 700 MHz during H1 2000. The new processors will keep the SuperSocket7 platform alive into 2001. Plans are though that, because of the on-chip L2 the on-board cache will be abandoned in favor of higher bus speed, that is 133 MHz standard going up to 150 MHz. Rumors are also condensing that there may be a rebirth of SMP even though the current bus protocol is not very suitable for multiprocessing.

In addition Athlon Socket 642 (Spitfire) are sampling as well as "Thunderbird" to break the 1GHz barrier." [break]KH Yeap heeft er zelf ook wat commentaar op geleverd:[/break]Ok, usually MS is pretty accurate about the info he puts up. But I do have my doubts. I have heard repeatedly from sources close to AMD that the aging K6-x core can barely make it to 600 Mhz even with the CS50 .18 AL process. Also it seems like Socket-A Athlon Select will arrive around mid-2000 and by then there will not be much room left for the K6-X/K6-x+ in the desktop market. So why even bother abusing the good old K6 core further and hoping to crank it up to 700 Mhz?

On the other hand, AMD does appear to be favoring the dropping of L2 cache from the motherboard and moving to 133 Mhz FSB with the debut of K6-2+, so that "future" SS7 platform will remain competitive and similar to the Celeron systems: 128k L2 on-die cache with a L2-less motherboard. Hmm... that reminds me, SiS530 based SS7 motherboards do have the option of running 133 Mhz FSB with PCI bus and AGP bus within spec (using 1/4 divisor for PCI). Here's some benchmarks Specialty Tech ran with K6-III running at 133 Mhz FSB on a Soyo-5SSM (SiS530 based), L2 motherboard cache disabled.

As for the rebirth of SMP SS7 rumor, yeah, I have heard it too and I don't mind it turning true. Until then though, I am just gonna believe it as a rumor at best. . . Finally, according to Idiot, Socket-A is 462-pin, not 642-pin.

Bij CNET Gamecenter hebben ze een handige round-up gepost van drie GeForce kaarten, namelijk de Creative Labs 3D Blaster Annihilator, Guillemot 3D Prophet en de Leadtek WinFast GeForce 256. Vanwege de lage prijs en meegeleverde utilities verdient de Annihilator de editor's award:

All the GeForce cards we looked at are pretty much the same. Shop around for the best price and take your pick. You can't go wrong with any of them, and none of them really stand out that much from the pack.

That said, we award Editors' Choice to Creative's 3D Blaster Annihilator. You don't get TV-out, but you do get a nice set of display utilities reminiscent of Diamond's InControl Tools. The card also has a relatively low price tag.

If you think you might use TV-out, the Guillemot 3D Prophet is a good choice, but the TV-out implementation is only fair. If that's a really important feature for you, you're better off getting a card such as ATI's Rage Fury Pro, which has outstanding TV-out capabilities, not to mention video-in as well. But, of course, you'll have to sacrifice some 3D performance in the bargain.

Leadtek's WinFast GeForce 256 is the only card we looked at that offered digital flat-panel output; if that is important to you, we'd recommend this card.

Asus heeft wat info gepost over de nieuwe moederborden die eraan zitten te komen, waaronder de P3M-DLS, P3C series, CUWE series, de P3W series en de P3B-1394.

Review News heeft een review online gepleurd van de Diamond Rio 500 portable MP3 speler. Hieronder een gedeelte:

Overall, I'm happy with my Rio500. I know it's not for everybody, bore for the hardcore mp3 listeners. It doesn't have some features like a radio, but I don't feel that's a crucial part of player. Most CD and MD players don't include a radio, and nobody seems to complain about them. As always, it would be nice to have more memory, but 100MB is good enough for me right now, especially with the fast transfer rate to help me change songs quickly. Also, a remote would have been nice. A lot of MD players are shipping with remotes nowadays. You may say, "It's a portable player! What do you need a remote for?" Well it's hard to operate the device from your pocket, so having a small remote that clips to your backpack or shirt is nice to have. In the end, I would recommend this player to anyone that likes listening to MP3's on their computer and would to take it on the road with them. As a sidenote, the current earthquakes in Taiwan has created a large shortage in Rio's across the nation. The only place I could find the player at was Best Buy, and they only had 3 player, TOTAL. I paid a premium and pick one up for $300. If you can resist the temptation and pick it up as a chritmas gift, the price will be around $200 w/o shipping at electronics.cnet.com.

Degenen die een Abit Hot Rod ATA-66 controller in hun systeem hebben hangen moeten effe hierheen fietsen, er is namelijk een nieuwe driver uit voor Win9x. Hij is ook voor de Abit on-board UDMA/ATA/66 controller.

Bij AnandTech is de eerste review gepost van een monitor, en wel de 19" Iiyama VisionMaster Pro 450 met Mitsubishi's DiamondTron NF beeldbuis. Hieronder een stukkie:

iiYama has produced a high quality monitor. There is no questioning that. This monitor can be purchased for as low as $629, which in my opinion, is a decent price for an outstanding monitor. Granted, you can spend a lot more and probably get even better quality, but isn't that the case with everything? When you are talking value for your money, I think the VisionMaster PRO 450 delivers a high quality picture to the consumer. My only complaint is the lack of a USB hub, which the Mitsubishi 900u has. I have not seen a Mistubishi's picture, so I cannot really comment on how it compares to the iiYama; however, they do share the same CRT, yet the electronic components are not the same. As for who should buy this monitor? I think it would suit the home and business user very, very nicely. Will graphic designers like this monitor? I think it will satisfy a good portion of graphic designers. Although, some will want the absolute best, which of course, costs more. In conclusion, I would highly recommend this monitor if you are in the market for a high quality 19" monitor.

Cableguy schrijft: "Hieruit blijkt maar weer het nivo van de verschillende computer-verslaggevers. Onderstaand bericht werd gepost naar aanleiding van klachten in een lokale nieuwsgroep van bART over poortscans bij abo's":

Beste Johan en iedereen die zich druk heeft gemaakt over deze scan,

Donderdagavond heb ik alle adressen in het 195.38.***.* en 195.38.***.* bereik gescand. De reden was niet om in jullie computer in te breken maar om te zien welk percentage van alle pc's die op dat moment online waren ook daadwerkelijk toegankelijk waren voor onbevoegden. Deze gegevens heb ik verzameld voor een later dit jaar te verschijnen artikel in Computer Idee waar ik als freelancer regelmatig voor werk.

De enige reden dat ik een portscan heb gedaan is dat dat wat sneller gaat dan het handmatig pingen van al die adressen. Bovendien was ik vooral geinteresseerd in hoeveel machines kwetsbaar waren door het open laten van poort 139. Als ik had gepingd dan had eventuele beveiligingssoftware waarschijnlijk niet zo'n kabaal gemaakt.

Ondertussen heb ik uit betrouwbare bron vernomen dat bART aan al haar klanten (dus niet alleen van Espressoweb) het programma E-safe ter beschikking wil stellen. Hiermee kun je je pc tegen indringers beschermen. Andere methoden om je pc te beveiligen - vooral bedoeld voor mensen die niet deze nieuwsgroep lezen - bespreek ik in mijn artikel.

Uiteraard maak ik bij deze mijn excuus aan iedereen die de scan als een bedreiging heeft ervaren. Wees gerust, er is niets gebeurd. Je bent niet genuked, er is niets gestolen of beschadigd. Het was gewoon een scan, that's all.

Ap de Smits

Bij Full On 3D hebben ze er een review bij van de Matrox Marvel G400-TV, een een video-editing kaart met 16Mb geheugen en hardwarematige MJPEG codec. De review is erg uitgebreid, dus als je interesse in dit kaartje hebt zeker het lezen waard.

The bundled software is also good. The PC-VCR matrox utility is excellent. Avid Cinema, although targeted at the home movie market, does have unlimited time-line output. Photo Express is nice and there are even a couple of full game titles thrown in for good measure. Perhaps my only criticism is the lack of output options from the Matrox edition of LSX MPEG-2 transcoder. An upgrade can be acquired, but I think it should have been included with the bundle. Luckily the output options of Avid Cinema reduce this shortcoming. Also the Matrox DVD player was not one of the best I’ve ever seen—but you can’t have everything ;-)

Good software; G400 performance; superb desktop image quality; excellent capture & playback quality—no wonder Matrox is calling this bundle their "Swiss Army Knife" package!

Unfortunately this "all-in-one" approach is somewhat of a double-edged sword. I have no doubt that the video capture quality of the Marvel G400-TV will suffice for a very long time to come, but can the same be said for its gameplay performance? I only wish that the Marvel connector box came separately as an extension to any Matrox card. I guess that we really are starting to enter a time when two AGP slots are required.

But I don’t want to finish on a negative note, and the Matrox Marvel G400-TV certainly doesn’t deserve it.

If you intend on doing some top quality home-movie making in the near future and you don’t want to sell your daughter into slavery to raise the capital, then the Matrox Marvel G400-TV is the hardware for you. Especially if you’re not fussed about playing 21st century games at 100fps!

Edward schrijft: "Eindelijk is dan ook de WinFast van Leadtek gereviewed, wat betreft de benchmarks geen schokkende resultaten. Verder heeft men het kaartje tot 133/180 overgeklokt, gezien het feit dat er 5 ns ram aan boord is, moet dat nog wel hoger kunnen":

The Leadtek WinFast is a well built card and an excellent stable performer in its class. We were able to overclock this card as high or higher than some other manufacturers cards that we have seen reports of on the net. Leadtek also does a nice job of working with NVidia's drivers and really adds value to the package with their tweaks and utilities. The card should retail between $229 and $269 at various retailers.

sake schrijft: "Er zijn al genoeg testen waaruit blijkt dat een Athlon mobo goed werkt met een GeForce. Er schijnt echter bij sommigen toch een "hickupje" te zijn. Aangezien Athlon/GeForce een erg gewilde combinatie combinatie is, wordt van alle kanten hieraan gewerkt. AMD/nVidia hebben het al kunnen reproduceren. En naar mijn "Senior Support Engineer" mening is een oplossing snel nabij, als de oorzaak gevonden is. Een tijdelijke fix is gepost op Riva3D":

A big thanks to Bob at Creative Labs for forwarding the follwing information, which I tested for them.

1. Install ANY NVIDIA Reference driver
2. Run Regedit
3. Goto H Key Local Machine/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Class/Display/
4. Goto the LAST entry under Display (It's a number like 0000003, 0000004, etc...)
5. Open NVIDIA
6. open System
7. Create new DWORD, name it Super7Compat.
Changing this DWORD value to 1 or 2 seems to solve many of the lock-up issues with the Athlon/GeForce combination, but does result in a performance hit of 0-30% depending on the game.

Please forward your experiences to me on whether this helps you or not.

Bij RPOV hebben ze een interview gepost met Scott Miller van 3D Realms. Zoals meestal lullen zo voornamelijk over Duke Nukem Forever, maar ook wat over Max Payne. Hieronder een stukkie:

stonewall: Duke Nukem 3D had an arsenal that was imaginative and a blast to use. So much so that the weaponry, in my opinion, has yet to be equaled in a first person shooter. Which of the original DN3D weapons are currently still in the plans to be included in Duke Nukem Forever?

Scott: Duke will have several improved versions of his basic DN3D arsenal, as well as several all- new weapons. Our philosophy with weapons, beginning back with DN3D, is that more is not necessarily better instead, weapon balance and variety are the two most important factors. Weapon balance means that weapons should not get increasingly more powerful. We design the top five or six weapons to be equal in power, but each weapon has a unique strategic use, as well as an Achilles' heel.

stonewall: Is the rest of the DNF development plan basically mapped out or are there still a lot of cool ideas and "what ifs?" floating around that add on to the development time?

Scott: Most of the top level design is in place, but we design games with the flexibility to add and remove elements at any time. For example, in DN3D, the engine was improved to allow for sloping surfaces only a few months before the game's completion, but it was such a striking improvement that we chose to revamp all the game's levels to add slopes, which we thought substantially improved the game, but added two more months to the game's release date.

Generally, if an idea is cool enough, we'll find a way to add it to the game unless it would shift the release date too far back. This doesn't mean that every single cool idea is added, only those that add to the game in a meaningful way.

Extreme Hardware heeft nog effe gekeken naar de Elsa Erazor III eXtreme, een standaard TNT2 kaart met 32MB geheugen. De meegeleverde 3D Revelator bril is ook getest. Check het hele verhaaltje hier.

ELSA has done a good job by adding lots of features to their TNT2 card to try and set it apart from the others. While a slower performer than most of the TNT2’s out there, you can do a lot with the card if you are more than just a gamer. The 3D glasses are something you probably won’t use everyday, but it’s a nice peripheral to go to when you want to experience something different or just to show off a cool gadget to your friends. Games that don’t move many objects fast, such as High Heat or Rogue Spear do better with the glasses. The drivers are pretty good and the menu options are top notch. It’s too bad ELSA didn’t put better ram and a better cooling system on the card. Also, an Ultra TNT2 chipset would’ve really made this card one for the serious gamer. As is, the Erazor III eXtreme isn’t a bad buy and you can find it for a very decent price since faster chips are coming out now. While not the strongest performer, the Erazor III is a decent buy for any gaming system and for those who want some extras to play around with.

Reverend heeft een interview afgenomen met Kevin Galocy van 3dfx. Minder suf dan deze standaard PR crap ("T-Buffer is goed en geweldig") lijkt me deze reaktie van John Carmack:

Q: Are there any plans to implement what Gary Tarolli/3dfx described in this article (at my site here), in particular this one :

"One neat special effect that the T-Buffer can create is double (or triple) vision. This is basically the same technique as depth-of-field except the blur is greatly exaggerated resulting in multiple visible images. Think of a first-person shooter type game – you get hit with a rocket or grenade blast and not only do you lose health points but your vision becomes blurred for a short period of time. At first, your vision may be very blurry, slowly returning to normal focus. This effect could also be used right after a potion is consumed. As you can see, the T-Buffer is not only useful for eliminating aliasing artifacts during rendering, but is also useful for creating a new class of special effects."

JC: I gave 3dfx the Q3 source to experiment with, so they may have that running in-house. I have no intention of integrating such features into Q3 right now, though.

Q: Additionally, is/are there any hardware capable of doing "proper shadows" i.e. prevention of light hitting shadow-part surfaces instead of current-implementation of "taking way" light from such surfaces?

JC: Stencil buffer hardware with a different (slower) rendering architecture can do "proper shadows".

AMD huppelt gezellig achter de zuurstokkleurige iMac trein aan en heeft bekend gemaakt dat het op de Comdex de 'EasyNow' concept PC zal demonstreren. Het doosje is ovaal van vorm en is - hoe verassend - transparant gekleurd:

The oval-shaped "EasyNow" PC, which will be offered in several hues, is AMD's entry into the world of stylized computers, a hot market that was inspired by Apple Computer's iMac and Sony's portable Vaio. The EasyNow box will sport a colorful translucent case and shed traditional features such as a built-in floppy drive.

And more are on the way. "We certainly have plans on the road map to release similar products based on the Athlon in the not-too-distant future," said Gary Bixler, marketing manager of the initiative at AMD. In addition to concocting its own designs, the company will work with major manufacturers so that their own futuristic designs will be compatible with AMD parts, he said.

And, as with other new-wave computers, these systems will attempt to bring style on a budget. The new computers will cost between $499 and $699--a thrifty range made possible by its K6-2 chips, which are AMD's budget processor, according to Stephen Lapinski, the company's director of product marketing.

Dan ziet die iPaq van gisteren er toch wel stukken beter uit:

3DWars heeft een review van de Monsoon MH500 neer gemikt. Dit flat panel speaker setje bleek wat betreft 3D positionering een verassend goede performance te leveren:

As far as the 3D sound on these speakers goes...wow! The MM line from Monsoon has been known to have very nice 3D positional sound. The planar focus technology forces the sound to be extremely directional. This however, creates an upside and downside for an audiophile. For starters, this directional sound makes for great 3D positional audio, since it is so easy to position (makes sense, one direction = one position). Yet, this is bad for having speakers 'fill a room' with sound. The sound will bounce off of objects, but will maintain its general wave structure, not allowing for much flexibility. Now, here's the part that will show you why these speakers are so nice. Since the MH-500 has a hybrid design, you get the best of both worlds. The conventional cone allows for very nice 'room-filling' sound, while the Mylar Membrane gives you superb 3D positional audio. This is by far, an excellent design and has great performance.

GamePC heeft een review van de Creative Annihilator GeForce kaart gepost. Hier wat stuff uit de bespreking:

The first card with hardware T&L is officially on the shelves. The Creative 3D Blaster Annihilator (powered by the NVIDIA GeForce256) is easily the ultimate Quake card. It is really difficult to fully recommend a card, when there are relatively few titles in sight that will take advantage of it's true capabilities, but if you want the fastest frame rates you can get right now for deathmatching, get this card. Developers have promised support for hardware transformation and lighting, and NVIDIA's demos are truly stunning, especially when you see them running at full frame rates. However, with S3TC still lightly supported and 3dfx's T-bufferring on the horizon, it will really be a dogfight to see which way developers go. HW T&L definitely has its benefits, and if the trend of solid OpenGL titles continues, then investment in a 3D Blaster Annihilator will be well justified.

The Tech Zone heeft een artikeltje in elkaar geklust waarin ze beschrijven hoe zij hun (toch al niet slecht koelende) Alpha P3125 / PIII-450 setup gemodified hebben. Zo werd bijv. de backplate van de PIII weggesloopt en werd het gat tussen L2 cache chips en heatsink gevuld met een reep metaal en wat koelprut:

PC Benchmarks heeft een review van de Evergreen AcceleraPCI neer gepoot. Dit upgrade bordje verenigd een Celeron, ZX chipset en twee SO DIMM sockets op een PCI kaartje. Die mik je vervolgens in je fossiele P5 en dan heb je een brak systeem met snelle CPU :

Installation is very simple, and the documentation is excellent. First, you boot to the install floppy provided with the card. This program checks your system for compatibility and runs some quick benchmarks. If all is well, the program instructs you to shut down, install the card, and the boot to the floppy again. The AcceleraPCI is 8" long and has components on both sides of the card (one memory slot is on the front, one on the back). The Celeron CPU comes preinstalled with a heat sink and a fan on board. The fan's power comes through the PCI slot so there are no additional wires to connect. Just plug it into an empty PCI slot and boot up the machine. The computer will load it's original BIOS and run through it's normal startup checks, but then will transfer control of the PC over to the AcceleraPCI. This all went flawlessly on all three of my test computers (a Dell Pentium 133, Dell Pentium 90, and a no-name Pentium 133). The install disk's benchmarks indicating that the AcceleraPCI was working perfectly, and that an enormous speed boost had been realized.

The two Dell PC's booted to Windows 95 perfectly. I could immediately feel the increase in speed in terms of launching applications. With the AcceleraPCI installed, your old CPU and memory are not used and are replaced by the faster CPU and memory on the AcceleraPCI. It is important to note, though, that the CPU and at least some memory must remain on the motherboard, because the AcceleraPCI needs your computer to go through it's full normal start-up sequence before it takes over.

Check de review voor benchmarks.

Hoppa, weer een Athlon plank erbij: America Megatrends (AMI, bekend van de BIOSsen) heeft een Athlon moederplaat met AMD 751 Irongate North Bridge en VIA 686A Super South Bridge aangekondigd. Het bord heeft de erg coole naam 'Megathon' meegekregen en zal door AMI op de server markt gericht worden. Hier wat spijs uit de press release:

American Megatrends Inc. (AMI), an industry leader in supplying multiprocessor server motherboards and basic server solutions, today announced the release of the Megathon(TM), a next generation 500-700 MHz AMD Athlon(TM) motherboard. "The high performance and state-of-the-art manageability features available with the Megathon(TM) make it ideal for Solutions Integrators whose customers demand only the best in x86 computing platforms," said Howard Johnston, Director of Channel Sales and Marketing at AMI. "The AMD Athlon motherboard's arrival to the server motherboard industry marks a significant event and we are confident that AMI's Megathon will bring new levels of performance to the industry." The Megathon supports the AMD Athlon system bus with Front Side Bus (FSB) speeds at 200 MHz. Based around the advanced architecture of a chipset comprising the AMD-751(TM) system controller for the North Bridge and VIA Super South (686A) for the South Bridge, the Megathon benefits from industry-leading levels of stability.

The Megathon includes three DIMM sockets for up to 768 MB ECC SDRAM memory support and features auto-detect or selection clock ratio from BIOS, auto-detect or selection FSB frequencies from BIOS and support for UDMA 66 and AGP 2X mode. With 1 AGP, 5 PCI and 1 ISA, the Megathon is the perfect solution for Systems Integrators, VARs and OEMs. API, USB, APM 1.2, SMI, CD ROM boot, Flexboot, silentboot, floptical and zip drive are also supported by the Megathon.

Azzo Computers heeft de Eclipse Mod dip switch control in z'n prijslijst opgenomen. Hiermee kunnen de multiplier, voltage en L2 cache divider van de Athlon getweakt worden. Een setje met Athlon 500 (met 600MHz core) gaat 379 dollar kosten. Hier een plaatje:

Hopelijk gaat iemand dit ding snel naar Nederland halen (Klein Informatica was er geloof ik mee bezig).

Riva Extreme heeft een review van BeOS Release 4.5 op het net gezet. Hier een hap:

BeOS R4.5 is a great operating system for all sorts of fun, but because it isn't windows it will of course have it's disadvantages. Mainly support by other companies. Not as many companies make programs for Be, and hardware companies are less likely to help out with drivers. Be is pretty much in the same boat with Linux, unless the drivers are open source, they aren't going to get much help. For the most part it seems to me, that the extent of hardware support is really much the same as Linux, so if you have hardware that works with Linux it will likely work in BeOS 4.5. But one advantage I've seen is they make little round-abouts for these hardware disadvantages. The main I have seen is with audio, I have an M80 a3d sound card, but it doesn't work in BeOS so I put in an ensoniq audio pci. The audio pci doesn't support multiple audio streams in windows, but in BeOS I can play as many audio streams as I like. Another hardware issue is that you will of course have to use a hardware modem, which usually means external these days, those little winmodems just don't work. Which brings up the issue of the BeOS webbrowers, NetPositive, right now netpositive doesn't support javascripts or any of that fun stuff, but support is coming soon. Plus a port of Netscape is the works for Be, so we should have just as good web support as Linux. Well I think that is the extent of my con's for BeOS 4.5. Over all it is a very like-able operating system.

djAzEtE schrijft: "Ik kreeg vandaag mijn RC2 Dutch hier op de deurmat, met een mooie brief van Billy Boy... Daarin stond dat de Nederlandse Windows 2000 naar verwachting in april 2000 uitkomt. Oja, opvallend aan de brief is dat ze bij MS een database probleempje hebben of zo. Hij was geadresseerd aan ene F. de Jong. Ik niet dus... Maar wel mijn adres, terwijl de vorige MS brief wel aan de goede naam geadresseerd was (beetje irrelevant nieuws, maar goed... )":

"De introductie van de definitieve Nederlandstalige versie vindt naar verwachting april 2000 plaats."

Wij wensen Bill veel succes met het oplossen van zijn database probleem (zelf gebruiken we MySQL, nooit problemen - en gratis ).

JanKees schrijft: "De Diamond Viper II met de Savage2000 chip heeft een adviesprijs van $199 maar is nu al gesignaleerd voor $158 bij HardwareStreet. Gaat lekker zo . Nu nog een review..."

Ter viering van dit heuglijke feit nogmaals een plaatje van de Viper II box :