SimHQ.com kreeg van 3dfx een ge-FSAA'd Falcon 4.0 screenie toegestuurd. Het bovenste screenshot is mét anti-aliasing, de onderste zonder:

MacOS Rumors heeft interessant nieuws over de beschikbaarheid van MacOS X voor het x86 platform. Drie grote OEMs zouden overwegen om MacOS X als optie bij hun PC's te leveren:

Reliable sources at three separate major Wintel computer makers have all reported in the past week hearing some surprising news around the water cooler.

Apparently, Apple has initiated talks with these corporations over their interest in offering Mac OS X as an option on their computers, and their willingness to support efforts to maintain a high-quality Intel-compatible version of OS X financially.

All three have promised more detailed reports (with objective evidence) post-haste; we can only hope that these will bear out the most interesting element of the initial hearsay -- the possibility that Apple may open-source significant new parts of OS X in order to facilitate third-party development of Intel versions of those components....including Carbon.

Zend heeft erg interessant nieuws voor de PHP developers: afgelopen week hebben zij een beta van de Zend Optimizer voor PHP 4.0 beta 4 patch level 1 uitgebracht. Met de optimizer kunnen PHP scripts 40 tot 100% sneller uitgevoerd worden:

Zend Technologies Ltd. has released the Zend Optimizer, now available for free download from www.zend.com. The Zend Optimizer speeds up the execution of PHP code, and is now available in a version compatible with the current beta 4 release of PHP 4.0. The Zend Optimizer uses multi-pass code optimizations to double the running speed of PHP 4.0 applications. This is done by running several optimization passes on the code, created by the run-time compiler, before the code is executed.

An application that uses the Zend Optimizer typically executes 40 percent to 100 percent faster than one that doesn't. This means visitors to Optimized sites get faster download times, translating to more transactions per second and higher customer satisfaction. Faster response also means that businesses may be able to save on server hardware or increase the services offered. In short, using the Zend Optimizer means an increase in profits for those engaged in eBusiness.

The Optimizer has obvious benefits for all PHP users. The increase in speed for running PHP code reduces the CPU load for the server, and cuts in half latency time, that is, the time between the instant the user clicks on a link and the time the processors begins to retrieve the page.

Zend heeft trouwens nog meer interessante produkten in ontwikkelingen, zoals Zend Cache. Nu zou ik alleen wel eens willen hoe hoe stabiel de PHP4 beta's momenteel draaien. Firingsquad lijkt het volgens Netcraft al een tijdje te draaien op een produktieserver.

Sinterklaas 82 tm bracht ons een link naar Overclockers' Workbench, waar men de specificaties van de Abit KA7 online heeft staan: "Dit is naar mijn weten een van de eerste Athlon borden van de grote merken zonder AMR en onboard sound. Doordat al deze - naar mijn mening - overbodige shit ontbreekt zal de KA7 rond de 30 gulden lager in prijs uitvallen. Op de plank zitten 4 Dimm slots in plaats van de gebruikelijke 3. En voor de paniekzaaiers onder ons: hij is millenium-proof! ":

Specifications:

- CPU

• Supports AMD-K7 Athlon Slot A 200MHz FSB Processors

- Chipset

• VIA VT8371(KX133) /VIA 686A
• Supports Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface (ACPI)
• Supports AGP 2X/4X
• Supports 100/133MHz Memory Bus Settings

- Memory

• Four 168-pin DIMM sockets support PC100/PC133 SDRAM module
• Supports up to 2 GB MAX. (8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512MB SDRAM)
• 6 chips Data Buffer Set
• ECC support

- System BIOS

• SOFT MENU^TM Technology
• Award Plug and Play BIOS
• Write-Protect Anti-Virus function by AWARD BIOS
• Year 2000 Compliant

- Multi I/O Functions

• On board Bus Master IDE Ports supporting UDMA 33/66
• PS/2 Keyboard and PS/2 Mouse Connectors
• 1x Floppy Port (up to 2.88MB)
• 1x Parallel Port (EPP/ECP)
• 2x Serial Ports
• 2x USB Connectors
• On board USB header for Two extra USB channels

- Miscellaneous

• ATX form factor
• 1 AGP slot, 6 PCI slots and 1 ISA slot
• Built-in Wake on LAN/Wake on Modem
• Built-in IrDA TX/RX header
• One Thermal Sensor Cable Included

The Register meldt dat Sony een DVD driver update uitbrengt waarmee het onmogelijk wordt om regio 1 DVD's op de Japanse Playstation II af te spelen. Slimme harries zullen na een klein beetje denkwerk tot de conclusie komen dat het niet verstandig is om deze update te installeren :

Spoilsport Sony Computer Entertainment is to plug the grey market hole that enables its Japanese-market PlayStation 2 to play US DVDs. Gaming wizards last week discovered a way of playing Region 1 DVDs on the Region 2 console by entering codes in the machine.

Today it seems Sony has already made plans to stop this activity. According to British retailer Computer Exchange, the manufacturer is to produce an updated version of the DVD driver - the 1.01 – which will only play Region 2 and Region Free DVDs.

Ondanks het feit dat er ten opzichte van simpel DDR SDRAM amper een voordeel te vinden is voor het veel complexere Rambus, is onderzoeksbureau Dataquest van mening dat de RIMMen een glorieuze toekomst tegemoet gaan. Volgens Dataquest zijn de huidige geheugentechnologiën in de nabije toekomst niet meer geschikt voor toepassingen waarbij veel bandbreedte nodig is. Tel daarbij het verplichte huwelijk van Willy + Rambus en Dataquest komt tot de verwachting dat tegen het eind van volgend jaar 50% van de desktops met RDRAM worden geleverd:

The future for Rambus memory in PCs is bright, a senior analyst at Dataquest forecast today. Richard Gordon, at Dataquest said that last year the future of Rambus was unclear because of conflicting messages sent out by market leaders. "Intel left the whole market in limbo," he said. But now Intel has made its position clear on Rambus, partly because existing memory technology will run out of steam.

"We'll see a fairly rapid move from 1GHz to 1.5GHz by the end of next year," said Gordon. "In that time frame, current memory technology will run out of speed at 1.2GHz."

He said there were also signs that large memory manufacturers were now convinced they had to take the Rambus route. "Hyundai has done a 180 degree turn on DDR (double data rate) memory," he said. "They've said they are backing Rambus."

Gordon said Dataquest estimated that Rambus memories could occupy as many as 50 per cent of corporate desktops by the end of next year, although that figure could be higher.

Check dit artikel van The Register voor het complete verhaaltje (thanks insane voor de tip).

Yohannes schrijft dat The Register een bericht heeft neergekieperd over de aankondiging van de Pentium III 850 en 866MHz. Intel zal dit maandag doen maar ook in dit geval wordt verwacht dat alleen de grote OEM's geringe supplies zullen ontvangen. AMD kan dus mooi blijven profiteren van deze situatie :

The 866MHz and 850MHz Pentium III Coppermines which Intel delayed so it could rush a 1GHz processor out of the door will be formally announced next Monday.

The prices are around $760/1000 and $660/1000 respectively, but sources both in the channel and at second tier OEMs suspect that they won't be able to supply systems using the processors for quite some time.

As with the 1GHz microprocessor, supplies are likely to go to the Dells, Compaqs, HPs and IBMs of this world before they percolate down to smaller system builders and to distributors and dealers.

One OEM who declined to be named said: "AMD is chasing Intel down now. Sales of Athlons now represent over 80 per cent of out slot based systems."

Intel will not comment on unannounced products

The Register meldt dat door een foutje bij Microsoft er 100.000 volledige Windows 2000 cd's aan PC blaadjes zijn geplakt. Het was natuurlijk de bedoeling dat dit 120 dagen werkende trial versies zouden zijn, maar al snel bleek dat dit niet het geval was. Het betreffende blad had nog nooit zoveel exemplaren verkocht .

Microsoft faces something of a licensing issue in Spain, following the accidental free distribution of an estimated 100,000 copies of full, non time-limited Windows 2000. The code was cover-mounted by the Spanish edition of IDG's PC World, which we understand has had record-breaking sales for the month.

In the wake of the Windows 2000 launch Microsoft has been liberally sprinkling 120 day trial versions of the product around the industry (very decently stumping up to do so via The Register, among other places). This was the version that was intended to go out with PC World, but finger-trouble somewhere let the real thing escape instead.

Working on a retail price for Win2k of Pts 57,000, or $330, and assuming circulation of 100,000, that puts Microsoft's loss at a cool $33 million. We know that's not really what Microsoft has lost, because few, probably very few, of the now proud owners of a gratis Win2k would actually have bought it. But as certain software companies habitually just multiply the number of counterfeit copies by the price in order to estimate their piracy "losses," there's an exquisite irony associated with doing the sums this way.

Bedankt movemoor voor de tip.

GamePC heeft een review geschreven van de Addtronics 6896A, da's een full tower case met zeer goede extra koelingsmogelijkheden voor overklokkers. Hieronder wat meer info:

As you slide open a door revealing the innards of the case, the first thing you notice is that there are lots fan mounts, seven in fact. While Addtronics only includes one 80 mm input fan by default, they're sure leaving you the options to add more at a later date. There are two 80 mm 5 1/4 drive cooler fan slots, three 80 mm case input fan slots, a hanging 80 mm CPU fan, and a 60 mm exhaust fan at the back of the case.

As you can see, Addtronics' latest and greatest has incredible airflow capabilities, but there are a few negatives that can come from this. First off, if you have your HD fan positioned like the diagram states, it may actually heat up the case temperature, since it will be blowing the hot HD air right into the direction of the CPU fan. To correct this, you'll want to swap the fan around so that it's actually an exhaust fan, grabbing any HD heat in the air and sucking it out of the case.

And of course, if you stock your case with all of the available fan slots, you'll be guaranteed to have one of the loudest cases on the block. Of course, you don't have to use all the available fan slots, but if they're there, why not use them? Even with all the slots filled, the noise wasn't unbearable, but if you're trying to concentrate on say, oh.. writing a review, with all the fans going, you might get a little distracted.

3dgn heeft een interview klaarliggen met een mannetje van AMD met daarin wat info over de nieuwe Mustang, Thunderbird en Spitfire. Hieronder vast een gedeelte:

Q5--- Can you give readers an Idea of the clock speeds that the various upcoming AMD chips will release at, and point out some of the primary differences between product waves?

Here is a quick rundown on each of the upcoming Athlon core derivative products.

* Thunderbird is planned to be a high-performance version of the AMD Athlon processor with integrated, full-speed L2 cache. Both Slot and Socket A implementations are possible. Thunderbird will be targeted at the performance workstation and desktop markets.

* Spitfire is planned to be a value version of the AMD Athlon processor with integrated, full-speed L2 cache. Spitfire is planned for Socket A implementation only. Spitfire will be targeted at the value desktop market.

* Mustang is planned to be an enhanced version of Thunderbird, featuring a reduced core size, lower power requirements and large, full-speed, on-die L2 cache. Multiple versions of the Mustang core are planned to be targeted at the high-performance server/workstation, and high-performance desktop, and mobile markets. As for frequencies, we think we can offer processors that operate at competitive frequencies.

araselsius@hotmail.com" rel="external">Paraselsius schrijft: "Ace's hardware maakt melding van een 1000MHz mobile Athlon processor. Er zouden al samples in omloop zijn en binnen 4 maanden zouden ze beginnen met leveren: "

IT Home Taiwan reports that AMD has finally launched the 1 Ghz Athlon in Taiwan yesterday. What catches my attention is the report also mentions that AMD has already started talking to mobile computer makers, and -- mobile computers spotting 1 Ghz Athlon will debut in 3 to 4 months from now. Whoa! Now, as JC would say, "Can anyone confirm this?"

Het volk achter Planet Hardware maakt ons blij met een shoutout tussen drie high end speakersetjes, te weten de Altec Lansing ADA880R, de Cambridge Soundworks DTT2500 Digital (wie kent 'm niet?) en de mooie THX gecertificeerde Klipsch ProMedia v.2-400. Laatstegenoemde bleek het mooiste geluidje te produceren, zoals we dat eerder ook al in vele reviews hebben kunnen lezen:

Once you first listen to music on these speakers, you'll wonder how you ever stood those tinny speakers that you had on your computer before. The high notes are awesome thanks to the four 0.75" tweeters, the mids are just as good because of the four 3" long throw woofers. The bass from this system will rattle your desk and shake your windows thanks to the 160 watts of power going to the two 6.5" woofers. These speakers really have to be heard to understand just how powerful and clear they are. Fortunatly, you can return these things within 30 days if you want (I doubt that thought will cross your mind once you hear them though).

There's really not more to say about the sound of the ProMedias - they're simply better than anything I've ever hooked up to my computer (let alone some other stereos!).

Jon Simon van Sharky Extreme is naar Taipei gefietst om daar wat info los te peuteren bij Abit. Hij kwam o.a. te weten dat Abit binnen een maand een VIA Apollo Pro 133A based plank (de VT6) zal releasen. Verder heeft Abit het reference design voor de i815 chipset van Intel al afgeleverd. Ergens in juni zullen de eerste borden geïntroduceerd worden. Athlon fans mogen blij zijn met het feit dat Abit een VIA KX133 mobo gepland heeft voor eind mei / begin juni.

ABIT is working on a VIA KX133 Athlon motherboard. While they didn't have any specific announcements to make regarding the product, we would expect to see this board sometime in late May or June 2000.

ABIT is well known for their SoftMenu technology, which makes overclocking so easy even my mother could do it. We were curious as to how ABIT would handle overclocking an Athlon, so we asked whether or not they would have a "Magic Fingers"-like solution built into their Athlon board, which would hopefully be controlled by SoftMenu III. The reply we received, accompanied by some sheepish looks, was a statement along the lines of, "Our customers have written in and told us what they want."

When we asked about other possible Athlon chipsets being used, we received a straight answer of "No." Either way, this is good news for Athlon adopters.

Thanks Magnetism voor de tip!

Over bij C|NET's Gamecenter is een GeForce DDR roundup te vinden met daarin de Guillemot Hercules 3D Prophet DDR-DVI, Creative Labs 3D Blaster Annihilator Pro, ELSA Erazor X², en de Leadtek WinFast GeForce 256 DDR kaart. Hieronder een stukkie over de Erazor X² die vanwege zijn snelheid als beste werd getest:

Two features set ELSA's GeForce 256 DDR-based card apart from the others in this roundup: one is its slick display utility suite, and the other is its manual.
Neither of these may seem overly important, but when the products within a roundup are as evenly matched as these DDR cards are, even minor advantages become noteworthy. The Erazor X² is outstanding, and it edged its way past the others in many of our benchmarks (though the differences were basically negligible).

The Erazor X² comes with two out ports, one for your standard VGA monitor and the other for your TV. Unfortunately, the image quality isn't any better than that of the Hercules 3D Prophet. Action-heavy games look great, and they're infinitely more fun to play on a big-screen TV than on a 19-inch monitor, but don't buy this card for the TV-out feature if you want to be able to read text. As we've said before, if you want TV interoperability, get an ATI card.

Bij PC Rave is een interview online gekicked met nVidia's PR manager Derek Perez. Helaas niet echt baanbrekende info, hier wat over de NV15 ter vergelijking met de grafische chip die de X-Box zal bevatten:

Joe: Will the NV15 for PC measure up to the performance we saw on the X-Box?

Derek: No, NV15 is just a small percentage of what the X-Box can do...

Joe: You said earlier that the NV25 will be exclusive to the X-Box. Since the X-Box will use an NV25 chipset, will we not see NV25 on PCs? Will the PC have it earlier than the X-Box next year Spring 2001 or just skip it and go to the next version up - for example NV30?

Derek: No, there is no NV25 - we are calling [it] the X-Box GPU and rest assured, we are not ignoring the desktop market - we are still laser focused on delivering the world's best 3d graphics for the desktop PC.

[break] En dit is wel een leuk stukje uit het nVidia vs. 3dfx hoofdstuk [/break] As for Brian Burke, he should really focus on 3dfx and the VSA - 100 (does that stand for Very Slow Architecture - 100 MHz?) and leave NVIDIA alone - but of course I think he has what we call GPU envy.

Yohannes kwam een linkje afgeven naar de Gigabyte site waar de specs gepost zijn van het GA-7VX KX133 moederbord. Zoals je hieronder kan zien was er naast de 5 PCI sloten ook plaats voor een ISA en AMR slot. Verder is de GA-7VX ook voorzien van Gigabyte's Dual Bios feature:

Processor

• Slot A for AMD-K7 Athlon 200MHz FSB processors
• 100/110*/115*/120*/124*/129*/133*/138*/143* MHz FSB
• AUTO detect CPU voltage

Chipset

• VIA KX133 North Bridge
• VIA 686A South Bridge
• Creative CT5880 PCI sound

Memory

• 32MB to 1.5GB memory size
• 3 x DIMM sockets
• Supports 32/64/128/256/512 MB SDRAM DIMM module
• Supports ECC type DIMM module (72bits)

Slot

• 1 x AMR (Audio Modem Riser) slot
• 1 x AGP slot supports 2X/4X mode
• 5 x PCI slot supports 33MHz & PCI 2.2 compliant
• 1 x ISA slot

I/O

• 2 x Ultra DMA 33/66 Bus Master IDE ports on board
• 1 x FDD, 2 x COM, 1 x LPT, PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse on board
• 1 x Joystick, 1 x Line-in, 1 x Line-out, 1 x MIC on board
• 2 x USB ports on board
• 2 x USB ports by cable (cable optional)
• IrDA TX / RX Header (optional)

Van Smith van Tom's Hardware Guide heeft een artikel gepost waarin hij alle nadelen van Rambus op een rijtje harkt. Van de hoge latencies en de seriële schakeling van RIMMs (waardoor een systeem met meerdere RIMMs door het langere signaalpad trager is dan een systeem met 1 RIMM) tot de hogere produktiekosten, de hoge warmteproduktie en het feit dat de 133MHz GTL+ bus van de i820 chipset op dit moment slechts 66% van de (PC800) Rambus bandwidth kan benutten: alle Rambus ellende wordt nog eens een keertje uitgebreid op ons bordje geserveerd :

As mentioned in the recent article, "A Titan Falls," the outlook for Rambus and RDRAM is not good. Despite the meteoric rise of Rambus's stock price the last few months, there is little evidence to indicate that RDRAM, the heart and soul of Rambus, Inc., will achieve any significant level of success in the foreseeable future. Given Thomas Pabst's latest tests showing that RDRAM actually degrades system performance while doubling the system price, from our vantage point Rambus does not have much to recommend it.

It may be time for loyal Rambus investors to think about investing in parachutes as well.

Waarom hij daar zo over denkt kun je hier lezen.

Wired News schrijft dat het open source Gnutella project van Nullsoft mogelijk in de ban is gedaan door AOL, de grote baas van Nullsoft. De beta versie van Gnutella (een alternatief voor Napster) werd afgelopen maandag vlak na de release weer van de site getrokken. Volgens Wired spelen de commerciële belangen van AOL bij de platenmaatschappijen Warner Music en EMI een rol bij deze beslissing:

An open-source project started by members of AOL's Nullsoft music division has been closed down just hours after it was announced to the Net public.

Justin Frankel and Tom Pepper, founders of Nullsoft and the popular Winamp MP3 player, have been developing a file-sharing software tool which could be even more potent than Napster in letting users share MP3 files over the Net.

But the "Gnutella" project may never get past its current beta stage if AOL determines the project is a threat to record labels Warner Music and EMI, which would become part of AOL this year if pending mergers are approved.

"The Gnutella software was an unauthorized freelance project and the Web site that allowed access to the software has been taken down," said Josh Felser, general manager for AOL's Spinner and Winamp projects.

Thanks Diederik voor de tip.

Aha, onze allmighty burgerpapa heeft iets zinnigs verkondigd over internet! Marger, SiGNe, Tachyon en SnoW brachten vrijwel gelijktijdig een linkje naar Teletekst pagina 105, alwaar te lezen is dat premier Kok pleit dat de kosten van internet "tot bijna nul" gereduceerd moeten worden:

Premier Kok wil dat de kosten voor het gebruik van internet dalen "tot bijna nul". Jongeren moeten volgens hem zowel thuis als op school eenvoudig toegang hebben tot de nieuwe media, zodat ze er goed mee leren omgaan.

De premier zei dat in Londen na een gesprek met de Britse premier Blair. Volgens Kok kan de overheid niet veel doen om de kosten voor internet omlaag te brengen. Maar hij hoopt dat de markt reageert, nu de regering de wens voor een kostenverlaging heeft uitgesproken. Kok en Blair voerden een gesprek met enkele Britse internetondernemers, dat live te volgen was op internet.

Dirk schrijft: "Na lang wachten is FreeBSD 4.0 eindelijk uitgebracht. Er is nog geen ISO-image beschikbaar, maar de installatiefiles zijn al te downloaden op ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/4.0-RELEASE":

Well, it's a bit late and hopefully all the better for it, but here it is. It gives me great pleasure to announce the release of FreeBSD 4.0-RELEASE. This is our first release along the 4.x-stable (RELENG_4) branch and contains a number of significant advancements over FreeBSD 3.4. Please see the release notes for further information as the list of new features is too long to list here.

FreeBSD 4.0-RELEASE is available from ftp.freebsd.org and various FTP mirror sites throughout the world. It can also be ordered on CD from The FreeBSD Mall (http://www.freebsdmall.com), from where it will be shipping soon on a 4 CD set. There will also be two such sets available for 4.0, one containing installation bits for the x86 architecture (as well a lot of other material of general interest to programmers and end-users alike) and another for DEC Alpha architecture machines.

As usual, disc #1 from Walnut Creek CDROM's official distribution (for both architectures) will also be available via anonymous FTP as soon as it's been compiled in its final form. Please monitor the master FTP site for details. We also can't promise that all the mirror sites will carry this rather large (660MB) installation image, but it will at least be available (once ready) from: ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/ISO-IMAGES/4.0-install.iso ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/alpha/ISO-IMAGES/4.0-install.iso

These files allow one to install the base system and all of its most important add-ons from a single bootable image, one which can be written as a raw ISO 9660 image by most CD creator software.

Even though we make our installation CDs freely available, we also hope that you'll continue to support the FreeBSD project by purchasing one of its official CD releases from the FreeBSD mall. A portion of each sale goes to support FreeBSD's development and general infrastructure and is thus highly appreciated.

The official FTP distribution site for FreeBSD is: ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD

Newstraders.com meldt dat Steve en Bill in een uitzinnige bui van vrijgevigheid hebben besloten om nVidia een bedrag van 200 miljoen dollar te schenken. Microsoft doet deze betaling om de ontwikkeling van de X-Box video chipset te ondersteunen:

Nvidia (NVDA) will receive $200 million from Microsoft (MSFT) in April as an advance payment for its development of high-performance 3D graphics chips and a multimedia subsystem for the software giant's eagerly awaited X-Box game console, Nvidia said Monday afternoon in a regulatory filing.

The cash will function as an advance against graphics chips purchases and for licensing the Nvidia technology, according to Nvidia's Form 10-K, covering the company's fiscal year ended Jan. 30.

After speculation swirled concerning Microsoft's X-Box product, Nvidia announced last week that it would be the supplier of the graphics chip to Microsoft; the chip is said to be able to pull off a trillion operations per second, more than current game consoles on the market.

GameFan heeft het derde deel van hun Voodoo4/5 preview online gemikt. Dit keer worden we blij gemaakt met een artikeltje over de mogelijkheden van motion blur, een feature die onderdeel is van de 3dfx T-Buffer technologie. Hoewel stilstaande motion blur screenshots er in eerste instantie nogal bout uit leken te zien (vier mannetjes die achter elkaar lopen) schijnt het effect in de praktijk toch best wel cool te zijn. Eric van Fastgraphics.com sprak in zijn CeBIT artikel positief over motion blur en GameFan is ook positief over het demootje dat zij op de Game Developers Conference kregen te zien:

Now, you're probably wondering exactly what impact this will have in gaming, right? From what I saw in the demo, the biggest difference will come in racing and flight games with high-velocity vehicles and objects. Based on the demo I saw, a Ferrari F50 passing you on the right at 165 mph would look ultra-realistic and just plain impressive with motion blur in effect; really, though, anything, from lasers firing from a Tie Fighter to Sidewinder Missiles fired from your F-14, would look just fabulous. The one place I tend to think 'motion blur' will be effective is a game like Quake 3 Arena,-- which happens to be the exact game 3dfx demonstrated the 'motion blur' with. Bear in mind, of course, that this is just my opinion, and the effect was so exaggerated that it may have misrepresented the actual effects of motion blur on the game--but based on what I saw, it would be much easier to frag with the motion blur toggled 'off.' The game may not appear as "lifelike" that way, but I actually think that a statically produced moving object without the blur effect might be easier to hit. Again, this may be a hasty pre-judgment; ultimately, I'll have to wait and see the final results.

Johan De Gelas van Ace's Hardware heeft een uitgebreid artikel geschreven over het kopen en overklokken van de Athlon. Naast wat algemene info over de voltages, het stroomverbruik en de weeknummers van de diverse Athlon cores worden er twee Gold Finger Devices besproken, de TweakPlug van hwlab.de en de Powerchips PowerCharger. De conclusie van het verhaaltje:

The Athlon is an excellent overclocker, and thanks to the Golden Fingers card it is much easier now to squeeze a bit more speed out of it. Simply open the case, plug the card onto the Athlon's golden fingers, flip a few switches and the full power of the Athlon breaks lose!

Take a bit of time to choose one of the best Athlon's available (650-750 0.18 micron) and you will enjoy much more overclocking pleasure. Don't exaggerate, do not use more than 1.9V, and if you want to be absolutely safe, don't use more than 1.8V. We hope we have given you a little help to get more speed out of this this seventh generation overclocking wonder. Stay tuned for more.

De enorme koerswinst die nVidia na de opwinding rond de Microsoft X-Box vorige week boekte is inmiddels al weer grotendeels ongedaan gemaakt. De afgelopen dagen daalde de koers met maar liefst 25%. The Street heeft een artikeltje gepost over het hoe en waarom van deze daling. Helaas moet je een verplicht (trial) abootje nemen om dit artikel te lezen en daar heb ik niet zoveel trek in (na de vorige keer een maand lang te zijn lastig gevallen met onzinnige mailings). nVNews.net was zo vriendelijk om het ff op te sommen:

The article was written after yesterdays plunge and goes on to discuss the uncertainty around the X-Box. Some of this topics discussed include:

• The ability of NVIDIA to produce the NV25 chip for the X-Box on time
• The ability for Microsoft to make the X-Box on time
• If the X-Box can steal customers away from the already popular Sony PlayStation2
• If Nvidia can produce and sell the X-Box chip for a significant profit

In navolging van Dell komen ook Absolute Multimedia en Hewlett Packard met een 64Meg GeForce DDR videokaart. De HP kaart krijg je alleen als je er een Pavilion PC omheen koopt dus daar hebben we niets aan. De kaart van Absolute Multimedia zal volgens Planet GeForce vanaf 23 maart verkrijgbaar zijn:

Absolute Multimedia is now launching new products including a GeForce DDR 64MB, a new revised 32MB DDR graphic board solution with "Gaming Fan" allowing better overclockability, better picture quality and a new unique MP3 solution. [break] In een artikel met benchmarks van MaximumPC hebben we eerder kunnen zien dat de extra 32MB geheugen op hoge resoluties een behoorlijk groot verschil kan maken. nVidia hoopt dit ons ook in de press release te doen geloven: [/break] March 15, 2000--NVIDIA(tm) Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA, news, msgs) today announced that Hewlett-Packard Company will offer the 64MB Double Data Rate (DDR) version of NVIDIA's industry-leading GeForce 256 GPU as the ultra high-performance option for build-to-order HP Pavilion multimedia PCs. HP selected the NVIDIA DDR synchronous RAM graphics solutions to bring lightning-fast frame rates, higher resolutions, and increased color depth to the build-to-order HP Pavilion multimedia PCs. The new 64MB DDR GeForce option can be ordered through electronic kiosks at Best Buy, Circuit City, and Staples or through the HP e-commerce site located at hpshopping.com.

[...] The architecture of the NVIDIA DDR technology almost doubles the usable bandwidth between a frame buffer and a graphics controller. The DDR interface uses SSTL-2 signaling and has become the industry standard for advanced frame buffer applications. With the DDR technology reads and writes at both rising and falling edges of the clock, a two-times higher bandwidth can be achieved when compared against traditional RAM technology.

The HP build-to-order program lets customers personalize their HP Pavilion PCs with a choice of different components. NVIDIA's GeForce 256 GPU in 32 MB and 64 MB versions, TNT2 Pro and TNT2 graphics solutions are the only options offered for the HP Pavilion PC models sold through HP's e-commerce site and retail kiosks.

Bjorn3D.com wist op een Creative Labs press conference wat info over de Creative NV15 kaart los te purken. Geruchten over 4 dual-texture pipelines en een >1 Gigatexel fillrate worden hiermee bevestigd:

• 32 Mb DDR memory
• 0.18 micron
• Over 1 GigaTexel fillrate
• 4 dual-texture pipelines
• TV-out via daughter-card (the idea is that you will only ahve to buy the TV-out board once and continue use it on future Creative products. This isn't finalized yet)

When I asked about when it would be out they only smiled and said "soon".

ZDNet heeft een artikeltje gepost met nieuwe details over de IBM Power4, een zware 64-bit server processor die in oktober door IBM op het Microprocessor Forum werd gepresenteerd. <kwijlmode> De Power4 verenigd twee processor cores en een 'groot' L2 cache in één plak silicon. De communicatie met de chipset, het geheugen en andere Power4 processors vindt plaats over een 500MHz bus met een bandbreedte van een vrolijke 100Gigabyte per seconde. Dit hele grapje, goed voor 170 miljoen transistors, wordt gebakken op een 0,18micron koper-interconnect procédé en bereikt in eerste instantie kloksnelheden van 1GHz .</kwijlmode> Verwachte release date: tweede helft van 2001:

IBM's Power4 is unique in that it can offer multiprocessing from the confines of a single chip. Power4 chips will combine two processors on a single die -- the slab of silicon on which the processor is built. Power4 is also a 64-bit chip, meaning it processes data in 64-bit chunks, unlike most desktop chips, which tackle data in 32-bit chunks.

Power4 will serve high-end RS/6000 servers that perform large numbers of online transactions or host high-traffic Web sites, such as those involved with the Olympic Games, Tendler said.

[...] Power4 is on schedule to ship in the second half of next year in IBM's RS/6000 Unix servers and its AS/400 servers for small and medium-size businesses running Unix or Linux. Early versions of the chip have their processor cores running at 1GHz each. However, analysts expect the chip to debut at 1.1GHz and scale to 2GHz on a 0.13-micron process.

Interessant is verder dat in het artikel wordt geschreven dat AMD voor de Sledgehammer waarschijnlijk een single-chip multiprocessing design gaat gebruiken. Geruchten over een multi-core Sledgehammer hoorden wij eerder in december.