Hilko schrijft: "Onze Finse mobiele-vrienden stoppen met het maken van monitoren. Hoewel niet erg bekend, maakt Nokia ook zeer goede (voornamelijk professionele) monitoren.":

NOKIA made a decision to get out from monitor business and to concentrate all it's forces on mobile phones and communication devices production. NOKIA closed their factories in Hungary, Mexico and Finland and it seems that these production lines will be sold. This info was confirmed by the officials in Nokia's representative office.

Nieuws afkomstig van iXBT.

Een aantal britse scholen zullen binnenkort gevrijwaard zijn van illegale software, de tent gaat daar namelijk draaien op gratis open source software . Hier de info van onze engelse kameraden bij The Register:

Here's a way to stamp out rampant software piracy in British schools -- move over to Linux. It's easier, of course, when you're opening up on a greenfield site, like Red Hat Linux adopter Parrs Wood High School, the first school in Britain to be opened in the 21st Century.

[...] "We are delighted to be launching phase one of Parrs Wood school today with the support of Red Hat," he says. "Red Hat Linux enables educational institutions to save money and broaden the opportunities of information technology to all schools - something to which we are committed as an organisation. It also offers better performance than can be achieved with traditional operating systems." [break] Ook grappig is dit eerdere artikeltje van The Register: [/break] Almost half the nation's schools are unwittingly using dodgy software. This shock revelation comes via a report from Microsoft, a well known software vendor that likes doing business with the education market.

Half of all primary schools and one in four secondary schools claimed to be blissfully unaware that it was illegal to make copies of software after buying just the one licence.

Microsoft and the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) got 40 per cent of the 1,500 schools surveyed to admit to possible guilt of software piracy.

nmgn1 tipte ons dat Narwal Computers een moederbord met VIA KX133 chipset in de prijslijst heeft staan. De plank wordt onder eigen naam verkocht en kost FL 419,- incl. BTW:

Nieuw bij Narwal®: eigen import moederborden en videokaarten. Goede performance, 3 jaar garantie en dat voor een superprijs! Het assortiment omvat o.a. een AMD Athlon moederbord met de nieuwste VIA KX133 chipset.

abraxas schrijft: "Jawel, de so called hacker, die eerder deze maand 25.000 credit card nummers verspreidde, heeft aan NBC News te kennen gegeven dat hij binnenkort weer toe zal slaan":

An e-mail author claiming to be the thief who released as many as 25,000 stolen credit card numbers earlier this month told NBC News he'll soon start distributing more card numbers on a new Web site. "Maxus", aka "Maxim", claims to have stolen 300,000 credit card files from online music retailer CD Universe.

The site he set up to hand out stolen card information was shut down over the weekend, but a writer identifying himself as the thief told NBC he'll open up a new site "soon." In a separate note to MSNBC, the same writer hinted part of his motivation was to criticize e-commerce companies that don't do enough to preserve users' privacy.

The heist sent shockwaves through the e-commerce world over the weekend. The intruder, who claims to have plundered 300,000 credit card numbers from an Internet music retailer's computers, posted thousands of numbers on a Web page after failing to force the company to pay him $100,000. The FBI is investigating the theft and attempted extortion, and the company, CD Universe, said it was advising customers that their credit card data could have been compromised.

Check
dit artikel van ZDNet voor het complete verhaaltje.

Martijn Klingens schrijft: "Quantum heeft specificaties gepost voor de opvolger van de Atlas 10K, die zij heel droog Atlas 10K II genoemd hebben. Met een zoektijd van 4,7 (!) ms en een piek-doorvoer van 40 MB per seconde is een simpele Ultra-Wide adapter zeker niet meer voldoende .

Er is keuze uit een Ultra160/m SCSI versie met 160 MB/s busdoorvoer, of een Fibre Channel versie met 200 Mb/s doorvoer (dan kan je dus maximaal 5 van deze jongens op piekniveau laten blazen ). De SCSI versie is downwards compatible met oude controllers, maar dan zal-ie niet optimaal presteren":

Quantum Atlas™ 10K II disk drives—with huge capacities of up to 73.4 gigabytes (GB), a 10,000 RPM rotational speed, a 4.7 millisecond (ms) seek time, and a 478 megabit-per-second (Mb/sec) internal transfer rate set a new standard of performance for enterprise and workstation drives.

The drives provide superior shock durability and reliability with Quantum's breakthrough Shock Protection System II (SPS II), which guards against one of the leading causes of hard disk failure—mistreatment during handling and integration. To manage their incredible throughput, Atlas 10K II drives feature two of today's most advanced interfaces—Fibre Channel (FC-AL2) and the industry's first backward-compatible Ultra160 SCSI.

Storage Capacity: 9.2 GB, 18.4. GB. 36.7 GB, 73.4 GB

Average Seek Time: as low as 4.7 ms

Rotational Speed: 10,000 rpm

Interface Options: Fibre Channel , Ultra160/m SCSI

De Atlas 10K II werd overigens al eind vorige maand aangekondigd, maar op een of andere manier hebben wij nooit een press release voorbij zien vliegen. Kleine inhaalslag .

Sander Prinsen schrijft: "Een hoop mensen buiten de US hebben erom gevraagd, maar nu is het eindelijk officieel: Klipsch komt met een 230 Volt versie van hun nu al beroemde Promedia V.2-400 speakerset!":

I should tell you that 230 V is very definitely in the plans for the v2-400. The decision was made today, in fact, to do it. Despite rumors to the contrary, it's not possible to give a delivery schedule just yet.

Tell everyone that their "cards and letters" made the difference!

En hier gaat dit dus allemaal om :

Microsoft en Caldera Software hebben voor FL 330 miljoen een rechtszaak geschikt over het fossiele operating system MS DOS, meldt de Telegraaf (thanks Xing voor de link):

De kleine concurrent Caldera krijgt $154 miljoen (ƒ330 miljoen) in ruil voor het afzien van verdere juridische stappen.

Caldera was in 1996 naar de rechter gestapt omdat Microsoft MS-DOS als standaard had opgenomen in zijn nieuwe besturingsprogramma Windows. Daardoor kreeg DR DOS van Caldera geen kans, zo luidde de klacht.

Het QDR SRAM Consortium, bestaande uit Cypress Semiconductor, IDT en Micron Technology, heeft aangekondigd dat de eerste Quad Data Rate SRAM chips worden gesampled. QDR SRAM heeft een data rate tot 333MHz en kan kan onder meer toegepast worden in snelle switches en routers (thanks D3ton4tor voor de tip):

Demand is growing rapidly for memories optimized for high bandwidth. The relentlessly expanding amount of information that travels over the Internet is creating the need for more and faster systems capable of routing and switching data across the globe. Higher-bandwidth memory is a requirement for these systems, and the QDR standard is specifically designed to address this need.

The development of the unique QDR SRAM architecture included extensive input from networking industry leaders. The devices are designed to greatly increase memory bandwidth compared to existing SRAM solutions in applications such as switches and routers, and will typically be used for look-up tables, linked lists and controller buffer memory.

The popular Zero Bus Turnaround™ (ZBT®) and No Bus Latency (NoBL™) products meet the needs of today's communications systems operating between 66 MHz and 200 MHz. Targeting emerging systems operating beyond 333 MHz data rates, QDR SRAMs have dedicated input and output ports that independently run at double data rate (DDR), resulting in four data items per clock cycle. Depending upon the application, the QDR SRAMs more than double the SRAM bandwidth. The dedicated input and output ports free designers from grappling with bus contention issues.

Each vendor designs and manufactures the devices in its own technology and fabrication facilities, and will deliver products according to its own internal development schedules. All expect to make specific product availability announcements in 2000. More information on the QDR SRAM technology can be obtained at www.QDRSRAM.com.

DieHard laat weten dat het BP6 FSB proggie, waarmee de busspeed van de Abit BP6 on-the-fly vanuit Windows aangepast kan worden, officieel gereleased is. De soep van BP6.com:

This program will enable you to change the Front Side Bus on your Abit BP6 dual Celeron motherboard, it works in windows 98, windows NT, and windows 2000.

Het programmaatje kan hier neer beneden gehaald worden.

wildhagen schrijft: "Network Associates heeft een beta van VirusScan 4.5 uitgebracht. Eén van de vernieuwingen is dat er één executable is voor zowel Win9x, WinNT als Win2000, dit in tegenstelling tot de huidige 2 versies":

All platforms include new VShield scanning technology and "allow you to install optional modules that look for viruses and other malicious code that arrives via Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) mail systems, file downloads from the Internet, potentially dangerous Web sites, and other sources." The VShield technology in this release brings robust protection from harmful Java applets and ActiveX controls to the Windows NT and Windows 2000 platform for the first time.

VirusScan 4.5 also contains the newest AutoUpdate technology, allowing the user to download incremental DAT file updates without having to replace the entire virus library.

VirusScan 4.5 kun je downloaden via het FileForum van Betanews.

Seniorbro schrijft: "Als 3dfx de problemen met de Voodoo3 3500TV niet kan oplossen, dan doen de gebruikers dat toch gewoon zelf? Op Voodoo3 Users kan nu de stereo enabler gedownload worden, waarmee de Micronas FM tuner geherprogrammeerd kan worden voor gebruik in stereo":

Ales Volcini has written a small program that will reprogram the Voodoo3 3500 TV to play stereo sound on the international version of the card. It will even solve some loss of sound issues. It is called the Stereo enabler.

EETimes bericht dat LightSpeed als eerste een PCI-X controller op de markt heeft gebracht. Hoewel wij PC gebruikers hier op zich weinig mee aan kunnen vangen, is het wel interessant om te zien wat deze nieuwe PCI standaard ons in de toekomst zal brengen (thanks Abraxas voor de tip):

The PCI-X standard, adopted last fall, extends the 66-MHz PCI standard to include 32/64-bit, 133-MHz performance and is targeted at high-bandwidth applications such as Gigabit Ethernet, storage area networking (SAN), routers and switches.

"As processors get faster, external bus speeds need to increase as well," said David P. Lautzenheiser, vice president of marketing at LightSpeed, based here. "The PCI-X standard addresses this with a 133-MHz, 64-bit bus, while remaining backward-compatible with the slower PCI standard. Designers wishing to take advantage of the benefits of the PCI-X standard need to access it at full speed."

Winbond is er met succes in geslaagd om 256Mbit DRAM chips te fabriceren op een nieuw 0,175micron proces. De huidige 0,20micron produktielijnen voor 64, 128 en 256Mbit chips zullen binnenkort overgezet worden naar dit nieuwe proces (thanks insane voor de tip):

Winbond Electronics Corporation, the largest branded IC company in Taiwan, today announced that it has achieved a new process technology milestone -- the successful ramp-up of its 0.175-micron technology for 256Mb DRAM products. The announcement comes in anticipation of the semiconductor boom widely forecasted by analysts for the new millennium

In mid-1999, Winbond achieved manufacturing capability for 0.2-micron 128Mb DRAM technology. Last month, the Company successfully staged the pilot production of the first 256Mb DRAM using 0.175-micron technology. Yield rates were satisfactory and initial performance results were far better than initially expected.

Winbond's main products, 64Mb and 128Mb DRAMs, are currently manufactured using 0.2-micron technology in Winbond's Fab 4 and Fab 5 facilities located at the Science Based Industrial Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The Company plans to migrate all of its 64Mb, 128Mb and 256Mb DRAM production to 0.175-micron by early 2000. By the end of 2000, the Company expects that the output of DRAMs will increase from 22,000 to 30,000 wafers a month, an increase of 36 percent.

vsmb@superweb.nl" rel="external">ovs stuurde een link naar de nieuw beta drivers, die Matrox voor de gelukkige bezitters van een Millennium G400 heeft klaar gezet:

Notes and known issues:

Supports Millennium G400 only.

This driver is a BETA version and requires DirectX 7.

Fixes corruption in 3D WinBench 2000 & 3DMark 2000.

Please uninstall your current driver using this procedure before installing the above driver. To uninstall 5.xx drivers you need our uninstaller utility.

Drivertje 5.50.005 mag je hier van de Matrox site wegharken.

Richard schrijft: "Met de Voquette's Media Manager kan je streaming audio in je Diamond Rio MP3 player stoppen. Naast MPEG Layer 3 worden o.a. Real Audio en Windows Media ondersteund":

Voquette today announced a beta release of the Voquette Media Manager v1.3 for Rio 300 and 500 Portable Digital Audio Players. With Voquette's new software version, more than a half million projected Rio users can now extend the use of their players beyond MP3 music and record the wide collection of streaming audio available on the Web. Content such as news broadcasts, financial updates, concert webcasts, web radio shows and audiobooks can now be securely downloaded onto Rio devices and played while away from the PC.

The Voquette Media Manager PC client software provides an intuitive tool for managing and recording Web Audio content. Users can now select, download and play all popular formats of web audio including streaming media in the leading Real Audio and Windows Media formats, and MP3 music - as well as text-to-speech - for listening anywhere, anytime. For a limited time, Voquette's new Media Manager Beta v1.3 for Rio players will be available to the first 10,000 users for free. The software can be downloaded from Voquette's web site - www.voquette.com.

A unique feature of the Voquette Media Manager is the Scheduled Automatic Recording capability. With this feature users can pre-schedule the recording of upcoming broadcasts - such as daily radio or financial conference calls - as well as schedule the download of MP3 music and other audio content, in order to take advantage of Internet off-peak hours. The Voquette software will automatically download and record the playlists onto the user's portable audio device.."

Onder de bijzonder inspirerende naam 'IJ-828' brengt I-Jam een MP3 speler op de markt die MP3's leest vanaf recordable CD's. Het apparaat heeft een anti-shock buffer van 10 seconde en zal vanaf het tweede kwartaal verkrijgbaar zijn, voor een prijs van 129 dollar (thanks heijx voor de tip):

I-Jam Multimedia L.L.C. today introduced a portable CD player --the IJ-828 --. The IJ-828 is designed to playback music from compact discs, as well as MP3 and other audio content downloaded from the Internet.

The IJ-828 measures 1 x 5.5 x 6.5 inches, loads on top and is compatible with both standard and CD-R media, with music encoded in MP3 format. It uses two AA batteries for eight continuous hours of play, delivers 50mW audio output, and comes with two Line-Out and DC input jacks and car kit and/or AC-DC adapter to enable the device to be hooked up to a home or car stereo.

It has an LCD screen to display track numbers and elapsed playtime, has standard controls including stop, play, fast forward and rewind, as well as repeat and shuffle options and a 10 second digital anti-skip protection system. Available at selected retailers early 2Q 2000, the IJ-828 has a suggested retail price of $129.

De dagelijkse DPC update van Marc:

And another one bites the dust! Yep, we sijn 39 overall! De Texas Longhorns zijn we voorbij, op naar de "Japan Celeron Users Group", die nog maar 1.053.064 blokjes voorsprong hebben.
Voorspelling: 11 dagen en dan is DPC die japanners ook voorbij
(Hun gemiddelde van de afgelopen 7 dagen is:68,655 blokjes, wij deden gemiddeld 170,580 per dag!)

De DPC Hitparade Top 10 van 11 januari 2000

1. Marcel, Jeroen en Rino(8, Gisteren:23,402, Totaal:515,396)
2. Ruwe Bit RC5 Sub-Team (rc5(24, Gisteren:9,770, Totaal:188,749)
3. [eNeRGy](39, Gisteren:8,180, Totaal:154,134)
4. blimmel(10, Gisteren:7,195, Totaal:407,714)
5. Jorma(5, Gisteren:5,743, Totaal:693,975)
6. Chainsaw(21, Gisteren:4,499, Totaal:205,334)
7. obiwan(18, Gisteren:4,173, Totaal:245,595)
8. Robert Reuser(200, Gisteren:3,789, Totaal:28,346)
9. Katsov(27, Gisteren:3,211, Totaal:179,778)
10. HarryB(13, Gisteren:3,143, Totaal:306,743)

En de kanshebbers:

11. milware(20, Gisteren:3,058, Totaal:209,868)
12. wildhagen(12, Gisteren:2,988, Totaal:335,628)
13. sienema(2, Gisteren:2,793, Totaal:858,962)
14. Marius (RAiDEN)(14, Gisteren:2,777, Totaal:273,570)
15. hendrik(56, Gisteren:2,735, Totaal:124,028)
16. niels(62, Gisteren:2,599, Totaal:111,060)
17. femme(9, Gisteren:2,487, Totaal:448,594)
18. mad.eddy(195, Gisteren:2,394, Totaal:29,827)
19. DiGiSTORM(155, Gisteren:2,360, Totaal:44,550)
20. Bram(77, Gisteren:2,076, Totaal:86,092)

De Top 5 teams van 11 januari 2000

1.( ) AnandTech (463,710)
2.( ) HackZone Team -- Combined power of Russia and exUSSR countries (433,889)
3.( 1) Slashdot.org (371,587)
4.( 1) Russian Team (353,434)
5.( 4) #DeathMatch (300,337)
12.( 6) Dutch power cows (196,355)
51.( ) HIT2000 Linux, Hack & Crack event of 1999, the Netherlands (49,326)
55.( 3) The #koffie Team (46,788)

Teams om ons heen(total stats):
35.( ) The #koffie Team (Tot:31,472,127, Gis:46,788)
36.( ) Michigan State University (MSU Spartans) (Tot:31,134,602, Gis:118,231)
37.( ) Team HP (Tot:29,699,478)
38.( ) Japan Celeron Users Group (Tot:29,102,329, Gis:57,036)
39.( 1) Dutch power cows (Tot:28,049,265, Gis:196,355)
40.( 1) Texas Longhorns (Tot:28,047,956, Gis:43,700)
41.( ) Wonder Monkeys (Tot:26,641,186)
42.( ) Singapore RC5 Effort (Tot:26,037,935, Gis:105,111)
43.( ) Quakenet RC5 Team (Tot:25,836,296, Gis:59,320)
(Teams waarvan de score van gisteren ontbreekt, hadden geen score in de top 100!)

Dutch power cows is vandaag 12de en heeft een kans van een op 120 om de sleutel te vinden!

Adaptec heeft bekend gemaakt dat het vier nieuwe Ultra160 SCSI controllers op de markt heeft geplant. Topmodel 39160 beschikt over een dual channel Ultra160 interface en is evenals de single channel 29160 controller bedoeld voor zware servers met 64-bit PCI. De minder heftige Adaptec 29160N en 19160 werken in een normaal 32-bits PCI slot:

Adaptec is launching a full line of Ultra160 SCSI products that meet I/O requirements in systems ranging from enterprise servers to professional Windows desktops. The Adaptec SCSI Card 39160 provides the ultimate dual-channel Ultra160 SCSI performance and scalability for enterprise server configurations with internal and external hard disk drives. This card offers maximum throughput by using a 64-bit interface and by connecting up to 30 devices. New Ultra160 devices and legacy devices can run concurrently while maintaining maximum throughput.

The Adaptec SCSI Card 29160, targeted at the mainstream server market, provides the highest performance on a single channel 64-bit PCI card with both internal and external connections to Ultra160 SCSI hard disk drives. The card also provides an internal connection to all legacy devices through legacy wide and narrow connectors. This SCSI card offers the greatest configuration versatility by enabling Ultra160 SCSI and legacy SCSI device connectivity, both internally and externally, in any combination.

The Adaptec SCSI Card 29160N is targeted for use with workstations and entry- level servers. It features a 32-bit PCI interface, and provides a high-performance internal connection to Ultra160 SCSI hard disk drives, and internal and external connections to narrow SCSI devices including tape backup, CD-RW drives, scanners, and removable drives. This card is ideal for environments where the fastest SCSI drives are inside the box and external narrow devices are required. The 39160, 29160 and 29160N support all major operating systems, including Linux.

Adaptec SCSI Card 19160 is for high-performance desktops and provides connectivity to both internal SCSI hard drives and external narrow SCSI devices. The SCSI Card 19160 supports Windows 95, Windows 98 and NT 4.0.

For more information about Adaptec's Ultra160 SCSI cards visit http://www.adaptec.com/ultra160.

Storage Review bouwde een review rond de Seagate U8 ST317221A ATA66 harddisk. Dit exemplaar uit de onlangs door Seagate geïntroduceerde low-cost U8 serie geeft space voor 17Gb data en heeft een toerental van 5400rpm. De drive is geen snelheidskampioen, maar opereert wel geluidsloos:

In the budget-OEM market, low heat and noise levels are arguably more important than raw performance. The U8 is a quiet drive, seeking away unobtrusively. When it comes to temperature, however, the U8 shines. Though some critics question our subjective heat impressions, we can say with complete confidence that the U8 is bar-none the coolest drive we've ever tested. We couldn't feel a difference in temperature between operation and powerdown. The Seagate U8 isn't a performance leader. It isn't one even when the field is restricted to value-class drives.

AnandTech maakt ons blij met een review van de Elsa Erazor X, een GeForce met 5,5ns single data rate SDRAM. De kaart bleek met behulp van de nVidia overclocking sliders tot een maximale core/mem setting van 150/183Mhz gepushed te kunnen worden:

he overclocking of the 32 MB of SEC SDRAM was typical of other 5.5 nanosecond (183 MHz) SDRAM chips in GeForce cards. In the AnandTech lab we were able to push the RAM speed up from a stock 166 MHz to 183 MHz, providing a nice improvement in card speed. Thus, by utilizing the cool running temperature of the testbed system, the ELSA ERAZOR X was able to clock in at a very fast 150/183 MHz. The high core speed achieved can be attributed to the rather large heat sink and fan placed on the card, in fact it is the largest heat sink seen on any GeForce video cards that have passed through the lab, measuring 5 cm x 5 cm (the other GeForce cards have a 4 cm x 4 cm heat sink on them).

Hardware Extreme heeft een review van de Pine D'Music portable MP3 player online gezet. De speler beschikt standaard over 32Mb geheugen en kent naast een ingebouwde FM tuner ook de mogelijkheid om geluid op te nemen:

Sound playback quality on the player is simply amazing. The vocals of Aerosmith's live "I don't want to miss a thing" were clearly presented with the highs and midrange delivered very well to the listener. On bassier tracks such as Britney Spears's (You drive me) Crazy, Stop Remix, the bass tends to sound rather hollow but this can be easily remedied by using one of the five preset EQ (Flat, Pop, Jazz, Ex-Bass, Classic) options present in the player. We found the Classic EQ setting to be a comfortable choice for all kinds of music desipte it's name

Specialty Tech heeft een preview gepost van de Soyo K7AIA moederplank, die deze maand leverbaar moet worden. Het bord is gebaseerd op de AMD 750 chipset en heeft, in tegenstelling tot de BX borden van Soyo, geen speciale overclocking features. Op zich is dat laatste niet zo erg, aangezien busspeed overclocking momenteel op geen enkele Athlon plank goed werkt. Verder bleek de plank stabiel te werken:

How does it run?? - Speed is just like any other current Athlon MoBo, stability is excellent. I've run the K7AIA under Win98, NT 4.0 (SP5) & Win2K (RC2) with no problems... even did most of my testing with 2 different brands of 64MB SDRAM DIMM's installed (did have some problems with IBM PC100 - but they cause problems with most MoBo's), used a few different video cards (TNT-2, Rage, Banshee, Voodoo 3, some old PCI cards), PCI modem, PCI NIC & PCI sound cards (Aureal & SB Live). Used both Quantum & WD HD, CDROM & DVD drives. Not one compatibility or stability problem during use or testing... very stable.

Volgens AGN Hardware begint Diamond vandaag (in de VS) met de levering van de nieuwe Monster Sound MX400. De MX400 is gebaseerd op de Canyon 3D audio processor van ESS en heeft support voor de 3D API's van Sensaura, Creative Labs en Aureal (A3D1.0):

Advanced Positional Audio Technology

Monster Sound MX400 takes PC audio to the next level of realism with Sensaura’s groundbreaking MacroFX™ and EnviornmentFX™ (EAX 1.0 & 2.0 implementation) 3D positional technology. Specifically engineered to enhance the industry standard Microsoft DirectSound3D API, interactive games come alive as the acoustic environment envelopes you.

Complete 360º horizontal and vertical positional audio…above and below you, to your left and right, in front and behind you, so now you can hear your enemies coming at you from any direction long before you actually see them.

Scorching 3D Sound with TRUE Quad Output

Enjoy the full benefits of 3D sound as independent audio streams are pumped into all four speakers simultaneously. Monster Sound MX400 incorporates Sensaura’s MultiDriveÔ 3D positional audio, a technology that integrates front and rear sound hemispheres with such precision that you will start looking over your shoulder for reassurance that there isn’t anyone or anything behind you!

Dolby Digital® for PC Home Theater

Bring DVD movies to life by connecting your PC Home Theater System to the Monster Sound MX400’s standard coaxial S/PDIF connector. Combined with an external Dolby Digital decoder and surround sound speaker system, the Monster Sound MX400 delivers full 6 speaker (5.1 channel) audio support. Or, with Zoran’s Soft DVD 5.1 to 2 speaker virtualization software (included), you can experience the quality of expensive Dolby Digital home theater systems for a fraction of the cost. Plus, record to any S/PDIF (RCA coaxial) compatible device for true digital clarity.

High Quality Wave-Table Synthesis

Incredibly rich audio, featuring an advanced 320-voice DLS wave-table engine. Monster Sound MX400 supports up to 64 simultaneous hardware voices and 2MB and 4MB high quality sample set sizes. Also bundled with the Monster Sound MX400 is the YamahaÔ Soft Synthesizer S-YXG50Ô, turning your computer into a professional quality instrument. [break] Een overzicht van de specificaties: [/break] Audio Processing Chipset:

• PCI Controller - ESS Canyon 3D^TM
• Audio codec - Quad AC97 2.1 Codec
• Utilize up to 48 3D hardware accelerated channels, 64 hardware accelerated channels, or 1024 voices
• Powerful DSP for full 32 bit 48KHz audio signal processing

Bus Type:

• PCI 2.1

Sample Rates:

• Up to 48 kHz playback/record

Input/Output Connectors Brack Connectors:

• Line 1 output - front speakers or headphones
• Line 2 output - rear speakers
• Microphone input
• Line in
• Coaxial S/PDIF out
• MPU-401 MIDI/Digital Gameport
• Standard audio and digital joysticks/gamepads

Internal Connectors:

• Header for Rio PC upgrade
• I²S Control/data path
• MPC (CD, Modem, Aux.)

API Support:

• Microsoft DirectSound, Microsoft DirectSound3D
• Aureal's A3D 1.0

Operating System Support:

• Microsoft Windows 95/98 or Windows NT 4.0

Minimum System Configuration:

• Microsoft Windows 95/98 or Windows NT 4.0
• Pentium 90MHz or higher
• 8MB RAM (16MB recommended)
• 16MB free hard disk space
• One available PCI 2.1 compliant slot
• Powered speakers or headphones

Quad Playback Support:

• Games
• Games Cutscenes
• DVDs, AVIs, MIDIs, Music CDs

Mike Andrawes van AnandTech heeft een review gepost van de Tyan S1854 Trinity 400, een moederplank met VIA Apollo Pro 133A chipset. Bijzonder is dat dit bord voorzien is van zowel een slot1 als socket370. Verder zijn er dankzij de 6 aanwezige PCI slots voldoende expansie mogelijkheden voor de toekomst. Overklokkers kunnen zichzelf te goed doen aan de 12 beschikbare busspeed settings, die via het BIOS ingesteld kunnen worden:

problem that does exist with the Trinity 400 is that when using the FC-PGA Pentium III, there is no way to force the board to detect the CPU as a 133MHz FSB CPU (since there is no way to change the pin state on the CPU itself, i.e. no jumpers on a socketed CPU) so the AGP divider is always set to 2/3.

Unfortunately, because of this problem, we were unable to boot the Trinity 400 at anything above 124MHz with the FC-PGA in the socket. This renders the Socket-370 virtually useless for overclocking an FC-PGA CPU to 133 MHz FSB, one of the main purposes of this board in our mind. Since a Socket-370 to Slot-1 adapter can be used in the Slot-1 interface on the Trinity 400, this problem can be avoided. Simply configure the adapter to indicate a 133 MHz CPU and the motherboard will automatically set the AGP and PCI ratios and pick a 133 MHz FSB. From there, you can work with Tyan's jumperless FSB settings. It would have been nice if Tyan had included jumper settings to force the detection of any CPU used as a 66/100/133MHz FSB CPU.

The Heatsink Guide heeft info gepost over de nieuwe VOS32 heatsink van Global Win. Deze cooler beschikt over twee grote 60*32mm fans en komt komt uit in SECC1 en SECC2 versies, wat 'm geschikt maakt voor zowel de Athlon als de Pentium II/III:

The heatsink is very big 118x75x45mm! The fans are not located at the center, but aligned with the upper side of the heatsink. This way, the fans are less likely to inferfere with capacitors or other components on the motherboard. For this reason, the VOS32 heatsinks will provide better motherboard compability than the FKK32 (Global WIN's previous high end Athlon heatsink).

The heatsinks use a "ventsink" design, meaning that there are ventialtion holes in the lower side of the heatsink. This reduces air pressure inside the heatsink, and therefore allows better ventialtion. Also, in the case of the P3 version, it allows the cache chips to take advantage of some fresh air.

Exact specs are not yet available, but I suppose the units will be shipped with the YS Tech 26CFM fans we know from the VEK32 and the FDP32/FEP32.

The heatsinks will be available by the end of January.