Got Apex? heeft er een review bij van Leadtek's WinFast Geforce 256 kaart. Hieronder wat info over zijn overklokbaarheid:

All in all, the Leadtek GeForce 256 is a great performer. We expected nothing less from nVidia's Geforce chip nor from Leadtek. It's easily the fastest video product on the market today (the GeForce that is). As far as overclocking goes, I was able to achieve 150mhz out of the core (a 25% increase over default) and 183Mhz out of the ram (only a 10% increase). Overall, there was about a 10-15% increase in the performance of the card when overclocked. Strange as it seems, overclocking the RAM seemed to make a bigger difference than the core. The more I think about it though, the more it makes sense. If you look at the benchmarks the card begins to slow down pretty noticeably around 1024x768 when using 32bit color. This is where the memory bottleneck comes into play. This is ALSO the reason why Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR DRAM) based cards are being made available. DDR doubles the data rate of the ram. How one would guess that from the name, I have no clue. In effect, 166Mhz DDR runs roughtly equivalent to 333Mhz SDR DRAM. So if you're planning to frag at 1024x768 and above using 32bit color, plan on dropping another $100 or so on a DDR based GeForce 256 card.

Check de rest hier.

Ook Hardware One heeft een exemplaar weten te bemachtigen van de onverwachte Abit VA6 moederbord met de VIA Apollo Pro 133 chipset. Overall blijkt de performance toch wat tegen te vallen tov van Abit's BX borden zoals de BX6-II. Voor vergelijkings benchmarks en meer info, lees de review hier.

After days of use, I was comfortable with the board in the system and everything worked as it should have. Games like Unreal Tournament and Q3A performed with no unexpected glitches whatsoever and Windows applications worked just great.

Retailing at about S$168 in Singapore, this is one cheap board to own, coming with onboard audio and support for ATA/66, as well as PC133 SDRAM.

It is a pity that the VIA Apollo Pro 133 chipset is still unpolished in terms of delivering fast game performance, as both synthetic and real-world benchmarks show. Nevertheless, this is a viable alternative to the BX chipset and its stability and low price will be its selling point.

To end off, there are absolutely NO compelling reasons to get this if you are on a BX (which is plenty good!). Then, if you are in the market for a new board and have a suitable CPU that can possibly utilize the 133Mhz FSB, the VA6 is a safe bet.

Bij CTNews hebben ze een review in elkaar geflanst rondom de K7M Athlon plank van Asus. In de test zijn verder nog benchmarks opgenomen van een 3D Blaster Annihilator en een V3-3000 PCI videokaart. Hieronder een plakkie:

We discovered that the Over-clockability of this board was limited by the AMI Bios and the Jumpers. You have to use them as a team to make the system stable enough to work. There are limits to the FSB (Front Side Bus) setting. Those that are available work once you learn the easy set-up configuration of the AMI BIOS and the Jumpers. A point to remember. This might change in the final shipping version. It might have fixed setting and auto detect for the Speed setting!

How fast can you get this baby? We achieved stable setting by setting up our system using the printed manuals selectio process. On the 'published' External Frequency Settings we chose the DSW1 and DSW2 dip switches to every setting. Those setting are 100, 103, 105, 110. You may find more if you look! Try your hand at speeds up to 133 MHz! We got excellent results at the maximum published settings of CPU=110 MHz and RAM= 110 MHz.

Voltage Regulator Outputs are set automatically but can be changed by using the Jumpers at the base of the CPU mount. The setting range from CPU Default to 2/2.05 Volts. Wow, that is a large spread. Using the AMI BIOS Advanced function keys you can set up your RAMs timing by SPD. Use of this can cause power timing problems if you don't have the proper rated RAM. We had no problem bring on CAS latency timing of 2 and 2. Again, Wow!

Bij FPS3D kwam ik nog een review tegen van de bekende DeskTop Theater 5.1 DTT2500 Digital speakerset. Hieronder een gedeelte, lees de hele review hier.

The very first thing I did after getting everything setup was to jump into a game of Rogue Spear. For those of you who don't know, Rogue Spear is the sequel to Tom Clancy's highly popular Rainbow Six title, and it sports some of the most awesomely accurate 3D surround sound available in any game available. The game is EAX only, which was not a concern as I used a Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer for testing.

In gameplay, the DTT2500 is utterly and completely awesome. Using the digital output of the X-Gamer, hearing the quick and wavering "click" of a silenced MP5 bullet hit right over my shoulder is a whole new experience. By far, the best surround-sound games out there are Rogue Spear, Half-Life, and Unreal Tournament. Of course there's Quake III for the EAX-impaired. With full surround sound, tracking the source of a shotgun blast isn't a grueling task, but much rather a simple use of instinct one uses every day.

Although these speakers may be overkill for gaming, I can guarantee you that you will not feel the need to buy new speakers for a very very long time if gaming is your main resource for squandering time.

Sinterklaas 82 tm komt even uitleggen hoe je het Sub7 virus uitschakelt (voor als je 't het nog niet wist):

"Als opeens je cd deur open gaat, je scherm hele raren kleuren krijgt, je scherm in spiegelbeeld gaat staan of je harde schijf opeens leeg is heb je waarschijnlijk last van sub7 een trojan horse die niet door virusscanners gedetect wordt.

Als je ooit via icq of email een bestand van rond de 367k hebt ontvangen en je hebt het geopend en er gebeurde niets is dat waarschijnlijk sub7.

Ik heb ook zo'n bestand geopend (je krijgt het dus niet alleen van onbekenden maar ook van mensen die je denkt te vertrouwen) en ik heb even gekeken hoe je het kunt uitzetten en dat op mijn homepage gezet http://virtualgsm.cjb.net

PS. een goede firewall doet natuurlijk ook wonderen"

Ruben Pruim schrijft dat er nieuwe drivers gereleased zijn voor de Diamond Viper V550 en V770 TNT kaarten. Ze zijn gebaseerd op nVidia's Detonators 3.53. Hieronder de links:

Diamond has released new drivers for their Viper V550 and V770 Ultra boards, based on the latest nVidia reference driver (v3.53).

GamePC heeft een Rambus artikeltje gebouwd, met een aantal i820 vs 440BX chipset die wederom aantonen dat de VC820 met RDRAM nauwelijks of geen prestatievoordeel levert. Verder in het artikel een interessant stukje over de toekomst van Rambus:

DDR looks like a decent alternative to Rambus, but by the time DDR chipsets and DDR DIMM's hit the market, Rambus prices should be brought down enough that they're actually affordable. If all goes as planned, we should see DDR chipsets and modules on the market sometime between the first quarter and first half of 2000, perhaps by than Rambus will have higher speed modules to combat DDR. Recently we've heard Rambus speculation of upcoming modules with memory bandwidth of up to 6.4 GBps, which we suspect will be powering future Intel Itanium 64-bit systems. There is so much untapped potential with the RDRAM technology, it's biggest weakness is the slow bus that it runs on (Intel's good ole' GTL+), personally we can't wait for Athlon systems with Digital's EV6 bus to support Rambus. An Athlon chipset that supports Rambus is currently in the works, but no one knows what kind of time frame we'll see it by.

Red5 stuurde een linkje naar AOpen MX64 review bij Active Hardware: "Weinig uit te breiden, maar daarvoor zal de prijs ook niet te hoog uitvallen!":

Configuration of the MX64's clock frequency, and clock multiplier is done from the "Chipset Features Setup" BIOS menu. Also, on the motherboard itself are two jumpers (JP23, and JP29) that permit the setting of the reference frequency that may be ranged from in the BIOS.

Available choices include: automatic adjustment by the system, 66Mhz to 83Mhz, 100Mhz to 124Mhz, and 133Mhz to 150Mhz. Also within the BIOS, it is possible to set the operating frequency of the memory bus equal to that of the system bus, with the option of adding or subtracting 33Mhz from that value. No ability to adjust the processor's core voltage is provided.

Available clock frequencies, include: 66 - 75 - 83 - 100 - 105 - 110 - 112 - 115 - 120 - 124 - 133 - 140, and 150MHz. Clock multiplier are available from 1.5X to 8X in steps of .5X.

Thijs B schrijft: "Meer nieuws rondom de geweldige provider Casema. Het volgende bericht kwam ik tegen in de newsgroep casema.internet":

Persbericht 11-12-99

Na overleg met leden van de Vaste Kamercommissie voor Verkeer en Waterstaat, is het volgende besloten:

Het CasemaZwartboekteam gaat het Zwartboek, vooruitlopend op de aanbieding aan de Vaste Kamercommissie voor Verkeer en Waterstaat, aanstaande dinsdag 14 december om 14.00 officiëel aan de directie van Casema ter hand stellen.

Dit wordt gedaan, om Casema officieel op de hoogte te brengen van de verzameling klachten, eisen en aanbevelingen daarin vermeld.

De overhandiging zal plaatsvinden in/voor het Casema Hoofdkantoor aan het Brassersplein, ten overstaan van de Pers en Radio- en TV-verslaggeving.

Er wordt een grote toeloop van mensen verwacht, dus daar zullen we ook zonodig organisatorisch maatregelen nemen

We vertrouwen ieder met het bovenstaande naar behoren te hebben geïnformeerd.

Carel en Dick
__________________________________
Theorie = als men alles weet, en niets klopt.
Praktijk = als alles functioneert, en niemand weet waarom.

Bij Casema zijn theorie en praktijk verenigd. Niets klopt, en niemand weet waarom.

EETimes komt met een berichtje uit Eindhoven, waar Cor en zijn makkers een super compacte 6 Megapixel CCD hebben gebakken. Het protopy van de sensor is op dit moment nog monochroom, wat in RGB neer komt op een resolutie van 2 Megapixels:

Herman Peek, a senior scientist at the company, presented a paper on the prototype device at this week's International Electron Devices Meeting. "This is the largest number of pixels and the smallest pixel size for a digital still camera ever published in the world," Peek said during the presentation of his paper.

Although the prototype sensor is monochrome, and the use of red, green and blue filters would reduce resolution to 2 million tricolor pixels, Peek said the small size of individual light sensing elements, 3-micron x 3-micron, would allow such a sensor to rival small format film photography.

[...] Images produced using the sensor and displayed by Peek, albeit through an overhead projector system, were indistinguishable from images obtained from film. Individual hairs could been seen on the heads of head-and-shoulder portraits, which prompted congratulations from the audience.

Als we het verhaaltje op deze site mogen geloven heeft de webmeister aldaar een Athlon 500 op 900MHz lopen, bij een voltage van 1,9V met 1/3 L2 cache divider. Gezien de extreme lucht koeling die gebruikt wordt (een tot de nok toe met fans volgetimmerde Enlight miditower) kan ik met voorstellen dat dit systeempje 900MHz trekt...

After doing some more tweaking and the addition of a better cooling setup for the heatsink this bad boy is now humming along at 901 Mhz! To finally break the 900 barrier took an additional .5 volts to keep the processor stable. Here is a description and picture of a better cooling solution for my Athlon. In the pictures below I was using a YS Tech 60mm and a small fan from a Pentium II heatsink. What I decided to do was replace the 60mm with a 80mm and remove the small Pentium II fan and place the 60mm on the side of the heatsink. This increased the amount of air flow through the fins on the heatsink itself. Below are some more pictures of case and processor.

GA-Source bericht dat de Libanese douane import van Intel produkten blokkeert, omdat een deel van de Intel produktie plaats vindt in Israël (Intel heeft daar vorig jaar een nieuwe fab van $1,6 miljard neergeplant). Zoals bekend zijn Libanon en Israël niet bepaald vriendjes, bovendien is het in veel Arabische landen wettelijk vastgelegd dat bedrijven die investeren in Israël geboycot kunnen worden:

CNEWZ is reporting that Lebanese customs authorities have blocked imports of computers bearing the name Intel, the world's biggest chip maker, in deference to an obscure law that targets firms with links to Israel.

``Lebanon is racing to solve the Y2K bug problem. This is a very dangerous action that could bring the whole country to a halt,'' Sami Nuseiri, president of industry group the Professional Computer Association, told Reuters.

Urgent orders, some destined for banks and government, had been stuck at borders since customs officials decided last week that bringing in Intel products violated a law banning goods made by firms with a presence in Israel, the importers said.

``Intel is not on the black list. A decision to place it there should be taken only by the council of ministers, not by customs,'' Nuseiri said after meeting Minister of Economy Nasser Saidi. Saidi, who has argued that Lebanon should aim to become a high-tech center for the region, was not available for comment.

Intel has been investing in Israel since 1974 and last year it opened a $1.6 billion plant there, its largest outside the United States.

Rambus Inc. heeft z'n plannen voor het komend jaar bekend gemaakt. Op het programma staat een Double Data Rate versie met een data rate van 1,6GHz en verder zoekt Rambus nieuwe toepassingen voor Rambus DRAMs (blijkbaar loopt het Intel/PC feest niet helemaal volgens planning ). Semiconductor Business News heeft er een nieuwsartikel over:

Rambus Inc. here today revealed plans to double the speed of its high-bandwidth memory technology to data transfer rates of 1.6 GHz during next year. Rambus' new technology roadmap also targets development of memory module bandwidth of 6.4 gigabits per second beyond 2000.

[...] Rambus also said it has begun working with chip and system companies to apply its high-bandwidth technology to areas outside its initial focus of processor-to-memory bottlenecks. The Mountain View company said it is trying to address many other chip-to-chip data transfer bottlenecks that hinder costs and performance in computer, consumer and communications systems. Rambus said it expects to disclose the first results of these efforts in 2000. [break] News.com heeft tevens nieuws over de reorganisatie bij Rambus: [/break] Rambus also said it will move beyond memory into other chip-to-chip technologies, but would disclose no details.

"Rambus has made the point for quite some time now that their technology is not limited to DRAM," said Cahners In-Stat Group analyst Steve Cullen. "Basically, what they have is a way of passing signals at high speed between two chips. The networking applications they're looking at is a good place to look into next, where high speed is becoming more and more problem."

One problem facing communications and networking companies is the large number of pins on some chips. "The approach of Rambus is to make a smaller number of pins go faster," Cullen said.

Onze vrienden van The Register vroegen een aantal Engelse resellers naar de verkoopcijfers van hun Athlon systemen. De resultaten die zij bijeen harkten zijn hoopgevend voor AMD:

One source said AMD was stealing customers from Intel thanks to the Athlon range and Intel supply chain problems.

"Customers who wouldn't usually look at AMD are definitely buying the Athlon. AMD seems to be a bit ahead of the pack at the moment," he said.

One system builder said AMD now accounted for 50 per cent of its sales, compared to being virtually 100 per cent Intel last year at this time.