The Register schrijft dat het Andover.net, eigenaar van o.a. Slashdot en Freshmeat, over is gekocht door pc bouwer VA Linux Systems:

VA Linux is to buy Andover.net, owner of Slashdot.org, Freshmeat.net and a clutch of disparate Linux web sites, for $1 billion in shares and some cash.

Speaking at LinuxWorld Expo, Larry Augustin, VA Linux CEO, said the company would pull the Andover sites into a "great developer community and resource online to drive Open Source".

Well it’s certainly a way of building bulk rapidly -- so far as Linux-friendly eyeballs are concerned. The combined web sites will account for "two thirds of the total traffic of major Open Source sites, putting the combined network in the top 100 web destinations world wide". Andover.net brings 50 million page impressions per month to the party.

In terms of the acquisition price, the deal's a more questionable proposition. Andover is a titchy company, turning over $2.1 million and losing $15.7 million (IPO costs account for most of the red ink) in Q3. [break] Zie voor meer info ook de press release: [/break] Feb. 3, 2000--VA Linux Systems (Nasdaq:LNUX), a leading Linux and Open Source solutions company, today announced the acquisition of Andover.Net (Nasdaq:ANDN), the leading Linux destination on the Internet, in a transaction that could revolutionize the Linux market space. VA Linux will own and operate the most popular Open Source developer network. This reinforces VA Linux's position as the only public company in the United States to offer exclusively Open Source systems, software, service and Web-based developer solutions.

Under the terms of the merger agreement, which was approved by the Boards of Directors of each company, each share of Andover.Net Common Stock will be exchanged for 0.425 of a share of VA Linux Systems Common Stock, reduced by an aggregate of $60 million in cash payments to Common Stock holders of Andover.Net.

The transaction is expected to be completed during VA Linux Systems' third fiscal quarter and will be accounted for as a purchase. Based upon analyst's estimates, the Company expects the transaction to be accretive to revenue and gross margin this year.

Hercules begint weer aardig op te leven! Op hun website kun je nu nieuwe drivers vinden voor hun Dynamite TNT kaart:

Hercules is pleased to announce that a new driver for the Dynamite TNT graphics card is now available here, on the Hercules web site. This is Guillemot’s first step in servicing Hercules customers since the purchase of Hercules late last year. In addition, this is the first of a series of drivers to come since company engineers are presently working on drivers that will support TNT2 based products. These drivers will be released shortly.

At this time, our tech support team is providing support for the 3D Prophet DDR-DVI and the Dynamite TNT drivers. We will inform you of new developments in our continued support of older Hercules products.

De drivers kun je hier rechtstreeks downloaden. Voor Dynamite TNT2 bezitters is het dus nog even wachten.

Linus Torvalds heeft op zijn toespraak op de LinuxWorld Expo sterk uitgehaald naar de DVD-industrie, die volgens hem de eigen consumenten voor de rechter haalt in de strategie om de markt te controleren. Een voorbeeld hiervan is de klopjacht die werd opgezet tegen verspreiders van het DeCSS proggie (thanks Bram Heerink voor de tip):

"DVD-bedrijven willen de markt controleren, niet door een goed technisch product aan te bieden, maar door hun eigen consumenten voor de rechter te slepen", aldus Torvalds in zijn keynote. Onlangs werd de 16-jarige Noorse Linux-programmeur Jon Johansen door de politie opgepakt vanwege het door hem ontworpen DVD.kraakprogramma DeCSS.

Volgens de Linux-gemeenschap en ook Torvalds was het enige doel van dit programmaatje DVD.s ook op Linux-platforms te kunnen afspelen. Een onbedoeld bijeffect was het omzeilen van de kopieerbeveiliging. Tot nu toe wordt Linux officieel nog steeds niet ondersteund door de DVD.industrie, Windows en Mac wel.

Torvalds gaf toe dat hij zelf ook DVD.tjes op Linux afspeelt, of hij daarvoor DeCSS gebruikt, wil hij echter niet zeggen.

Meer info over de keynote van Linus lees je in dit artikel van Webwereld.

Overclockin.com testte de Ninja Micro FreeSpeed Pro Athlon Gold Finger Device. Dankzij dit printplaatje werd een Athlon 500 opgefokt tot 750Mhz.

Since this is an Athlon 500MHz processor, the obvious first place to start would be at 500MHz and 1.6V. As you would expect, it worked just fine. The system continued to recognize the processor as a 500MHz processor and the voltage was set properly at 1.6V. So far, so good. Next up was 550MHz. Again, no problem. The processor was recognized properly. Same story for 600MHz, 650MHz, 700MHz, and 750MHz. Keep in mind that this is a 500MHz Athlon processor (even though the core is rated at 650MHz....). No voltage changes were required to get this processor to run at up to 750MHz.

The next step was obviously 800MHz. In previous testing, this processor wouldn't run 800MHz at all. It would POST at that speed, but would lock up at the Windows splash screen. With the FreeSpeed Pro, I had the same results (as expected....). Regardless of the voltage I chose (didn't go over 1.80V...), the processor wouldn't get past the Windows splash screen. This is a very good indicator that the L2 cache is holding this processor back. With a core that is stable at 750MHz at the default voltage, you would expect to be able to push it a little higher even if you had to bump up the voltage a little. One thing to note is that I wasn't able to use the new L2 cache setting program from H. Oda with the processor at 800MHz because it wouldn't boot all the way into Windows.

Lees hier de rest van de review. De Freespeed vind je overigens ook hier in onze pricewatch.

GamePC brengt ons een review van het Intel Vancouver i820 moederbord. De VC820 is een vrij standaard i820 model met 5x PCI (geen ISA), Creative 128 onboard audio, AGP 4x en 2 RIMM sloten. Qua performance scoort hij ook vrijwel gelijk als andere i820 moederborden (trager dan een BX dus). Hieronder een gedeelte:

It also seems that basically, all I820's will perform similarly, just as all BX boards performed within a single frame of eachother. One reason why the Asus P3C-E performed slightly faster is because Rambus DRAM Napdown mode was turned on, whereas with the VC820, it's turned off by default. This feature runs the RDRAM a little warmer than normal, but gives a slight edge in performance (just check out the Quake II : GL Benchmarks between I820 boards, wow!). These benchmarks also show, quite obviously, that I820 with SDRAM is inferior to I820 with RDRAM.

The VC820 does perform well, but it sure doesn't stand out from the crowd in any way, which is what we've come to expect from Intel. If you want the most stable, down to earth Intel 820 that money can buy, keep your eyes fixated on the VC820. The board design is well done (No ISA slots, thank god!), and it just plain works without a hitch. Most gamers will want to look to the I820 boards from Asus, AOpen, and Abit rather than Intel, which frankly, is what we would do too.

Voor mensen met een moederplank met een VIA chipset zijn er nieuwe 4-in-1 drivers gereleased (v4.19). De drivers zijn voor elke VIA chipset en werken onder Windows 95, 98, en NT. Hieronder de info:

The 4-in-1 driver is suitable for all VIA chipsets using Windows 95, 98, NT. This driver will install the:

IDE Busmaster
VIA AGP Driver
IRQ Routing Driver
VIA ACPI Registry

If you are using Windows 98 SE, you do not need to install the 4-in-1 driver as the IRQ Routing Driver and the ACPI Registry are already incorporated into the operating system. Users with Windows 98 SE may update the IDE Busmaster and AGP drivers by installing them individually.

Klik hier om ze te downloaden. (Thanks [DFF]The DuDe voor de tip)

3DGPU heeft een review klaar van The Card Cooler, een handige plaat met twee 80mm fans die je bv. boven je videokaart kan hangen voor extra koeling.

The Card Cooler delivers more "Bang for the Buck" than any other video card cooling device on the market. At $20 for the sleeve bearing model and $24 for the ball bearing version (spring for the extra $4, ball bearing fans last longer and it has a better warranty) including shipping, it is a deal that can't be beat. Not only will it help you squeeze those few extra fps out of your GeForce, but it will move along with your system, helping to cool that upcoming NV15 or anything else down the pipe. Simplicity of design, ease of installation, a lifetime warranty as well as a zero hassle money back guarantee make this purchase a no brainer, well worth the $25. This earns The Card Cooler our first 3DGPU.com Editor's Choice Award.

CPU Review heeft een review klaarliggen van de Altec Lansing ACS54 speakerset. De ACS54 set bestaat uit 4 satellite speakertjes en een subwoofer, goed voor 40W in totaal. Hieronder wat meer info over zijn kwaliteit:

And I was surprised at how (relatively) well it did. Any music that had a heavy bass line took good advantage of the subwoofer, which managed to avoid being too "boomy" - unfortunately the mid-to-high range was a bit "bright".

Due to the poor 0.8% THD at 1W mentioned in the specifications you could hear a significant amount of hiss at high volume levels; especially if you had the volume control on the sub cranked to more than 70%. I'd recommend keeping the volume control at 70% or less on the sub, and use the sound cards volume control widget under Windows to control your volume.

Let's face it; its not an audiophile's dream, but it does a surprisingly decent job of playing music.

Ben zelf overigens zeer te spreken over dit vergelijkbare Labtec setje .

K&T, de kabelafdeling van Eneco, word overgomen door UPC, zo weet WebWereld te vertellen. Daarnaast koopt UPC ook Tebecai over, kabelexploitant in het oosten van het land. Hiermee krijgt UPC er zo'n 670.000 abonnees bij!

Kabelbedrijf UPC neemt voor 2.35 miljard gulden de K&T-groep – de kabelafdeling van Eneco – over. Ook kabelaar Tebecai komt in handen van UPC, voor 157 miljoen gulden.

Met de twee overnames krijgt UPC er in één keer 670.000 abonnees bij. De Nederlandse Mededingings Autoriteit (NMA)moet de transacties nog wel goedkeuren.

Het overnemen van K&T houdt in dat UPC ook de beschikking krijgt over Eneco Call Services en het glasvezelnetwerk van K&T in de regio Den Haag. UPC gaat het netwerk gebruiken om spraak-, video- en datadiensten aan te bieden.

K&T exploiteert kabelnetwerken in de regio's Rotterdam en Dordrecht, heeft 590.000 kabel-TV abonnees en 6.000 internetgebruikers.

UPC ziet in Rotterdam en Den Haag belangrijke markten. Het kabelsysteem van K&T vertegenwoordigt 40.000 potentiële zakelijke klanten.

WebWereld heeft een artikel gepost waarin verteld wordt dat AOL gebruikers in totaal een slordige 8 miljard dollar eisen van de ISP. De meegeleverde AOL 5.0 internetsoftware zou niet deugen en ongewenst systeemveranderingen aanbrengen.

In de zogeheten Class-Action-zaak eisen de advocaten van de groep consumenten 1000 dollar schadevergoeding per persoon. Het zou om 8 miljoen consumenten gaan die de AOL 5.0 internetsoftware hebben geïnstalleerd. Totaal gaat het dus om een bedrag van 8 miljard dollar.

Class-Action-zaken zijn rechtszaken waarin advocaten een machtsblok vormen door een grote groep benadeelde consumenten te vertegenwoordigen. Eind vorig jaar kreeg Microsoft ook met een dergelijke zaak te maken, vanwege de te hoge prijs die voor Windows zou zijn gevraagd.

Bij America Online luidt de klacht iets anders. De software is niet te duur – want gratis – maar wel slecht. Gebruikers van AOL 5.0 stellen dat de software rampzalig samenwerkt met andere internetsoftware. Met name het inbellen bij een andere ISP dan AOL zou niet meer gaan.

Net als in Nederland gebruiken ook veel Amerikanen verschillende providers naast elkaar. America Online zou dit tegenwerken. Ook wordt geklaagd over het niet meer functioneren van Internet Explorer als bij een andere provider dan AOL wordt ingebeld.

Het ergste vindt men nog dat AOL 5.0 ongevraagd allerlei veranderingen in het systeem aanbrengt. AOL ontkent dit alles: de software zou niets veranderen zonder toestemming van de gebruiker.

Bij Overclcokers' Workbench staat wat info over de PowerLeap PL-S370, een converter waarmee je Pentium III Coppermines of Cyrix Joshua CPU's op je Celeron Socket 370 plank (zoals je BP6) kan prikken. Hieronder wat meer info, thanks ToMaSZ voor de tip.

Looks like socket370 users like BP6 are in luck. Powerleap is releasing a converter for everyone of us.

The PowerLeap PL-S370 is a cost-effective FC-PGA to PPGA converter that allows you to install an Intel Pentium III "Coppermine" or Cyrix (VIA) "Joshua" CPU (in the FC-PGA package) into a Socket 370 computer designed for an Intel Celeron CPU.

Although the FC-PGA and Celeron CPUs are designed for Socket 370, there are differences in the pin definitions and voltage requirements for these CPUs. For this reason, an FC-PGA CPU will not run when directly inserted in the processor socket of a motherboard designed for the Celeron. The PL-S370 adapts the pin signals of FC-PGA CPUs so that they can run on motherboards with the PPGA form factor.

Special Features

• Supports the Intel Pentium III (100/133MHz) and Cyrix (VIA) "Joshua" (when available) CPUs in the FC-PGA package. (Note: In order to use the Pentium III at 100MHz or 133MHz, your motherboard must support the 100MHz or 133MHz frontside bus, respectively.)
• Allows drop-in CPU replacement, with no software drivers to install.
• Compatible with the PowerLeap PL-PII and other SSAs (Slot-to-Socket Adapter).

Anand Lal Shimpi heeft een review gebakken van de Gigabyte's Matrox G400 kloon, de GA-MG400. Zoals al bekend werkt deze kaart alleen in samenwerking met bepaalde Gigabyte moederborden die met een speciale BIOS uitgerust zijn. Kom je hiervoor in aanmerking blijkt de GA-MG400 toch een vrij goedkope en goede oplossing te zijn:

If you currently have a Gigabyte motherboard that supports the VGA BIOS on Motherboard feature required by the MG400 and are looking for a new video card with performance in the TNT2 range, then the MG400 is definitely for you. The one recommendation we will make that stands across the board is that if you are going to be purchasing the MG400, go for the 32MB version which should perform identically to the 32MB Millennium G400 used in our tests. As our benchmarks consistently show, the 16MB of the base MG400 just doesn't cut it at most resolutions especially if you are running in 32-bit color. The extra $30 is worth the performance gain you get out of it.

Compared to the regular G400s from Matrox, the MG400 is a steal. At $120 for a 32MB card, the MG400 comes in a full $60 cheaper than a 32MB Millennium G400. The only thing that $60 buys you is DualHead support with the Millennium G400, if you don't really care about DualHead support then the MG400 is a pretty good deal. Unfortunately if you don't already have a supported Gigabyte motherboard, then the deal loses some of its appeal because you now have to purchase a new motherboard for your new video card. If you were going to upgrade your motherboard regardless, this may be an added incentive to go with a Gigabyte board, but then it does severely limit your motherboard choices.

In the end, the MG400 is an added benefit granted to Gigabyte motherboard owners and if you happen to own one of those motherboards then the MG400 isn't a bad deal at all. If you don't happen to own a supported Gigabyte motherboard, and aren't in the market for a new Gigabyte motherboard, then the MG400 is stripped of its attractive cover and becomes nothing more than a video card without a BIOS.

CNN vertelt stoere verhalen over de Playstation II, die volgens hun informatie twee keer zo snel zal zijn als een Pentium III 733. Waar moet al die power heen, als het doosje slechts low-res TV beelden uit kan poepen?

How adept is it? According to MicroDesign Resources, the processor can handle 6.2 gigaflops at 300MHz. A single gigaflop equals one billion floating-point operations per second. MDR says that makes the chip two times faster than a 733-MHz Pentium III and 15 times faster than a 400-MHz Celeron at handling tasks like full-motion video. For the statistics-minded, the processor can handle 75 million 3D transformations per second, and can render images at 2.4 billion pixels per second.

If these numbers translate into real-world performance, this should be one hot processor.

"It's nothing short of amazing," says Keith Diefendorff, editor-in-chief of the Microprocessor Report. The new PlayStation 2 will possess "extraordinary processing power in a sub-$400 game console."

Thanks Flamez voor de tip.

Jurjen komt vertellen dat er een nieuwe versie van de popi mIRC relay chat client uit is. Versie 5.7 heeft de nodige bugfixes ondergaan en kent een aantal nieuwe features, waaronder een verbeterd interfeesje en nieuw spul om de mIRC scripters bezig te houden. Hier heb je het complete overzicht, schaamteloos geript van de mIRC nieuwspage:

A great new mIRC version has released. We are absolutely sure you'll love it :-) In the past months we have been steadily working on new features and better code and we performed a lot of testing to solve the tiny buggies some of you found in the previous version. We really recommend you to download and try this new mIRC v5.7!

mIRC's new version 5.7 fixes most, if not all, of the small but nevertheless anoying buggies found in the previous version 5.61. mIRC's new version 5.7 has far too many improvements and new features and functions to mention here in detail. I'll point to some of the simple ones here - these are the ones you might encounter right away;

• A new, fresher interface, cute buttons - brighter colors!
• Support for the Microsoft Agent has been added to the 32 bit version of mIRC under Windows95 or greater. An agent is an animated character that can speak text and perform actions. With a little fiddling and tweaking you will be able to have this agent speak to you, warn you about things happening on IRC, or even read-up entire discussions to you! See http://www.mirc.co.uk/agents.html for more info. Also, if you have Speech Recognition software installed, mIRC can be made to listen to voice commands!
• A network listbox has been added to the connect dialog. You can now easily select a network and then quickly select the desired server within that group of servers. By default a selection of all random servers is shown. It is now also possible to specify a range in the Ports settings of an IRC server, eg. 6660-6669. This will spread the load on the IRC servers ports a lot more, thus giving faster access!
• The mIRC Installer now sets up support for .chat files in your registry file. Tooo many new users had difficulties in setting this up, we do it for you now
• You can now right-click on the alias, popup, remote and DCC toolbar buttons to pop up the new Quick Access menus. This will improve access to frequently used settings a lot.
• The channel central dialog (/channel) now uses a tabbed dialog to accomodate support for the new +e (ban exeption) and +I (invites) channel modes as found on IRCnet. With the new 'Display' tab in this dialog you can redirect or disable all sorts of channel event messages. This allows you to see the join, part, quit, mode and other messages exactly where you want them, or not at all!
• Yiihoooo - you can now completely disable the "ping? pong!" messages in the File/Options/IRC dialog.
• mIRC now allows you to select a font script for a font in the font dialog. This is needed to support arabic, cyrillic and chinese characters. People who speak these languages will understand how this works
• When you're DCC Sending a lot you might like the new option that sets the "max cps per user" in the File/Options/DCC/Fserve dialog. This allows you to limit the send speed used by a DCC Send to a user in a Fileserver, but is also applied to /dcc sends initiated in a remote script.
• We changed the Identd server behaviour back to how it worked before version 5.61. Not all IRC servers liked the (correctly implemented) new communication and considered you un-idented.
• Various other small changes have been made; you can automatically sort incoming files by nickname into folders, restart logfiles per day, week or month, and set a completely custom timestamp format for all messages, logs, etc.

• Really lots and lots of scripting things have been added. A bulkload of Identifiers, Dialog improvements and a lot more. Dear Scripters; READ the versions.txt included with the new mIRC for all info and crawl through the help file for the details. Watch out for the new %helper mode, it is easily confused with variables since % is also the %variable prefix! Enjoy the support for while loops that has been added. (This repeats a loop while some expression is true) Multiple while loops can be embedded. You can use /break to break out of the current loop. You can also use the /continue command to jump to the beginning of the loop. Have fun! Oh, and beware of old scripts; We finally removed support for the very old $parm and *N identifier format!

mIRC's new version 5.7 has far too many new features and functions to mention here in detail. I'll try to show the best here, in a nutshell. Dont forget to read the versions.txt when you want to get fully informed of all changes.

Voor een mirror om de hoek kun je dit lijstje met download locaties nachgucken.

Volgens bronnen van JC beschikken alle Athlons die op dit moment de fabriek uit komen wandelen over een 0,18micron core. Dit is uiteraard erg prettig nieuws voor overklokkers die binnenkort een Athlon willen binnen hamsteren:

Suffice it to say, you can consider this info to be fact and not idle rumour (he's not a PR/marketing type, so he isn't just restating drone talk or anything like that):

In terms of product coming out of the fab, all Athlons were 180nm as of some time last week, when the last quarter micron parts shot out. My friend here notes that "the lower speed grades should disappear rather rapidly at this point" (okay, so I lied, it's a quote). Neato confirm of the day: Athlon's construction time is about ten weeks from start to finish (on average -- you'll notice that about twelve weeks passed before AMD got all the quarter micron parts out, that's because sometimes some runs take longer or shorter than others). [break] Verder beweert deze bron dat AMD op dit moment in staat zou zijn om 1GHz aluminium-interconnect Athlons te produceren. Als deze informatie betrouwbaar is dan mogen we nog erg veel goeds uit Dresden verwachten : [/break] This fellow, by the way, was fairly sure that AMD will be able to stay a step ahead of Intel's Pentium III in terms of frequency ramping for a while (though I'm sure this person is not as certain about the P7, but I didn't ask about that). To wit, "Fab 25 could ship 1 GHZ parts at any time the marketing department wants to introduce them (note, these are not Cu, but Al interconnects!). Currently there is no incentive for AMD to do this because Intel is falling all over themselves trying (and failing) to meet 800 MHZ demand".

ZDNet heeft een artikel gepost met details over de Intel Willamette, de opvolger van de inmiddels 5 jaar oude P6 core. Volgens ZDNet zal de Willamette eind dit jaar tegen een kloksnelheid van 1GHz geïntroduceerd worden. De processor wordt op een 0,18micron procédé gefabriceerd en krijgt een verse set SIMD instructies. Tegelijkertijd zal de Tehema chipset zijn debuut maken, deze chipset heeft Rambus support en een busspeed 'sneller dan 133MHz':

Intel officials have been mum on other details, but the chip should be significant to consumers because it will replace Intel's Pentium III and bring 1GHz-plus speeds to the desktop by the end of the year. Intel's Pentium III chip will top out at about 1GHz in the second half of the year.

Willamette, however, is a brand-new 32-bit processor design, Intel's first such new design since introducing the Pentium Pro processor in late 1995. This core, referred to as the P6 core by Intel, has been the basis of every processor since then, including the Pentium III.

[...] The chip, in addition, is expected to include Willamette Processor New Instructions -- a new set of single instruction, multiple data or SIMD multimedia instructions. These instructions are used to help enhance the processing of certain multimedia data, such as video.

Willamette will be supported by a new chip set, code-named Tehama, which will support Rambus Direct RAM with a high-performance bus, which will be faster than the current 133MHz bus used with Pentium III, sources said. The bus acts like a pipeline for moving data between the processor and system components, such as memory. The faster it is, the more data a processor can move, increasing overall system performance.

Anand schreef een review van de Gigabyte GA-6CX, een i820 plankje met 2 RIMM banken. Evenals de Gigabyte BX2000 is dit bord uitgerust met DualBIOS technologie, waarbij een tweede BIOS chip voor optimale betrouwbaarheid zorgt in het geval de hoofdchip dood gaat (wat in de praktijk dus nooit gebeurd ). De plank bleek stabiel te functioneren maar heeft de overklokker verder weinig te bieden: er is keuze uit slechts 6 busspeeds, die notabene ook nog eens op prehistorische wijze via dipswitches ingesteld dienen te worden:

As with most i820 motherboards, the 6CX does support a few overclocked FSB settings. In addition to the default 100MHz and 133MHz supported by the i820 chipset, the 6CX's clock generator supports the use of the following settings: 110 / 120 / 140 and 150MHz. The FSB frequency is controlled by a block of four dip switches located at the end of the first PCI slot. Setting the FSB frequency to 133MHz or above immediately triggers the use of the 1/2 AGP clock divider on the chipset, all other settings make use of the 2/3 AGP clock divider.

While the FSB frequency selection is taken care of via the dip switches on the motherboard, the clock multiplier is selected from within the AMI BIOS setup. This honestly makes very little sense since all Intel CPUs manufactured after around August 1998 feature locked clock multipliers that cannot be adjusted.

Terwijl AMD (en in mindere mate Intel) al vrolijk processors bakken op 800MHz, blijkt Motorola nog steeds met zware problemen te kampen bij de produktie van de G4. De huidige G4 architectuur, met name de korte pipeline, blijkt niet geschikt te zijn voor hoge kloksnelheden. Zowel van Motorola als IBM is het niet te verwachten dat zij de 500MHz G4 binnen afzienbare tijd in volumes kunnen produceren, daarvoor zullen we moeten wachten op de verbeterde G4+ met 256KB on-die L2 cache:

Motorola continues to experience major problems producing 500MHz PowerPC 7400 (aka G4) CPUs, with yields down to as little as one per cent, according to industry sources cited by AppleInsider.

Said sources claim that the problem lies with the G4's architecture and Motorola's copper fabrication process.

[...] Comment from IBM Microelectronics sources suggests tends to confirm there are major problems with the current version of the G4. IBM is, of course, now ramping up G4 production following an agreement to produce the CPU for Apple. IBM always said it would be Q2 2000 before the chip entered volume production, so there seems little hope for 500MHz or faster PowerPC G4s in the immediate future.

Motorola is said to be working on the next revision of the G4, which, it's hoped, will solve the problems limiting the production of the current iteration. What's not clear at this stage is whether the next release will be a modified G4 or the G4 Plus, Motorola's attempt to rebuild the G4's architecture to allow it to support clock speeds of 700MHz and up.

Zie voor meer info dit artikel van The Register.

Planet 3DNow! meldt dat NMC (nooit van gehoord) als eerste in Duitsland een KX133 plank op de markt heeft gezet (thanks nmgn1 voor de tip):

Mit dem NMC 7VAX ist nun das erste Athlon Mainboard mit der VIA KX-133 Northbridge auf dem deutschen Markt erhältlich ! Wenn ich mir dieses Bild des Boards so ansehe, dann habe ich den Eindruck, dass es sich beim NMC 7VAX eigentlich um ein Epox K7VA handelt. Naja, wie auch immer. Hier sind einige Features des Boards:

VIA KX133 + 686A Chipset

200MHz Host Bus, PC 133 ready

Onchip Audio AC-97

AGP 4x

UDMA 66

5 PCI, 1 ISA, 1 AMR, 1 AGP

ATX Formfaktor

Zoals de webmaster van Planet 3DNow! al schrijft lijkt het bord verdacht veel op de Epox K7VA.

Ik lees bij Computable dat de FNV onderzoek gaat doen naar het fenomeen 'computer-agressie', oftewel werknemers die leip raken omdat er weer eens een Windowtje aan diggelen gaat. In het ergste geval heeft dit tot gevolg dat betrokkenen letterlijk de ramen ingooien :

Computer-agressie komt vaak voort uit stress; op het moment dat de deadline nadert, loopt de computer vast. Met als resultaat: scheldende collega's, die in het ergste geval met apparatuur smijten. De helpdeskmedewerkers die te hulp schieten, krijgen de volle laag.

Deze ellende kost bedrijven tijd en geld. Uit onderzoek van Compaq blijkt in ieder geval dat deze agressie in Engeland aan de orde van de dag is. De Engelse psycholoog Professor Edelman noemde computer-agressie een groter gevaar dan RSI. FNV roept mensen nu op ervaringen te melden.

Volgens bronnen van The Register ligt de oorzaak van de Intel leveringsproblemen in een botteneck bij het verpakkingsproces van de FC-PGA Pentium III's:

"Supply is a little bit tight now," admitted Intel Taiwan spokeswoman Deborah Yen. She attributed the problem to a forecasting error. "Forecasts from OEMs and our internal forecasts were a little low."

However, sources at motherboard manufacturers claimed that the shortage is a result of a bottleneck at the CPU packaging stage, not just a forecasting error.

According to these sources, Intel has experienced difficulties putting the CPU into FC-PGA packaging, which will enable it to connect to motherboards that use Intel's newer, cheaper, Socket 370 design -- the Pentium III was originally designed for Slot 1 motherboards.

However, Yen emphatically denied this. "No, That's not true, in fact we had that product [Socket 370 Pentium III] available last year."

EETimes bericht dat Intel een in Colorado Springs gevestigde chip fabriek van Rockwell International heeft overgekocht. De produktiefacaliteit zal vanaf eind dit jaar in gebruik worden genomen voor de fabricage van 32- en 64-bit processors:

Intel plans to use the fab for advanced sub-quarter-micron CMOS processes for 32- and 64-bit processors, according to an analyst who asked to remain anonymous. A fairly rapid ramp for the fab is foreseen. While employees at Intel's Rio Rancho fab in New Mexico claim limited cutbacks have begun at the Fab 9 facility on the West Mesa near Albuquerque, an Intel spokesman said that any slowdown in hiring was related to equipment refurbishing, and that Rio Rancho remains on a fast growth path.

The former Rockwell facility at Garden of the Gods Road is one of the largest industrial buildings in the region, dwarfing Colorado Springs fabs owned by Atmel Corp. and LSI Logic Corp.

Corel heeft op de LinuxWorld bekend gemaakt dat WordPerfect Office 2000 komende lente gereleased zal worden. WP Office wordt geleverd met Corel's eigen Linux distributie en kost $109 voor de standaard en $159 voor de Deluxe versie. Hier de info van Betanews:

Today at LinuxWorld, Corel officially launched the new WordPerfect Office 2000 Suite for Linux. Stating that "The availability of applications like WordPerfect Office 2000 on the Linux platform will provide users with an end-to-end desktop solution and will accelerate the deployment of Linux for mainstream use," Dr. Michael Cowpland, president and chief executive officer of Corel Corporation was very excited to release pricing and other details to the public.

The Standard version of the suite, available for $109 USD or $149 Canadian, includes the Corel Linux OS based on the Debian 2.2 Kernel, WordPerfect 9.0, and Quattro 9.0, as well as Corel Presentations 9, and CorelCENTRAL 9.

For $159 USD or $249 Canadian, users will be able to purchase the Deluxe version of Corel Office 2000 for Linux, which also includes enhanced technical support, Paradox 9, and an entertainment pack with various games such as Railroad Tycoon and demos from Loki Games. Also included in the package is a Linux Penguin beanie toy.