Bij Puissance PC vond ik twee plaatjes van de nieuwe AMD Thunderbird Socket A. De plaatjes schenen eigenlijk van Virtual Zone te komen, maar deze site kon ik helaas niet bereiken. Hier zijn ze:

Bij 3D Accelerated heeft men een review klaarliggen van de Palm IIIxe. Voor zover ik kan zien is dit een Palm IIIx met 8MB geheugen i.p.v. 4MB. Dezelfde vorm als de rest van de III-serie, dus helaas nog niet het sleeke design van de Palm V en de Vx. De reviewer is zeer te spreken over dit apparaatje:

Certainly, the Palm IIIxe isn’t for everyone. But I could hardly see a profession or hobby that could not benefit somehow from it, with perhaps the exception of a scuba diver or radiation test subject. But even then, you could keep track of your expenses.

As a full-time student and full-time computer geek, I grew addicted to the Palm IIIxe. Seriously, I could not put it down. There were so many uses for it; from keeping track of my calendar to changing the channels on television to catching a game of "Zap2000!" during a class, its versatility and usefulness make the Palm a wise purchase.

Interessant: deze review is gepost op 26 april 2000... wij hebben echt het nieuws van morgen vandaag!

The Register meldt dat Pat Gelsinger, hoge bobo van Intel's microprocessor divisie, tegenover de Nikkei Business Wire heeft verklaard dat Intel momenteel al samples van de Willamette in produktie heeft. Tevens zijn er plannen om PIII's met kloksnelheden boven 1GHz te introduceren. Begin deze maand schreef ZDNet al dat er mogelijk een 1,2GHz Pentium III komt:

According to the Asian wire, Gelsinger also said that Intel will continue to up the frequency of Coppermine Pentium IIIs beyond the 1GHz it has already achieved.

[...] Although Gelsinger would not give an exact date for volume production of the Willamette, according to Nikkei it could be between July or December. Those dates seem unnecessarily vague, if the chip is already sampling.

Met een snelle release van de Willamette kan Intel het verlies van marktaandeel aan AMD beperken. Volgens de meest recente Intel roadmap staat de release van Willamette gepland voor het vierde kwartaal.

Intel schrijft in dit persbericht dat zij een nieuwe mobile hebben klaarliggen: de mobile Pentium III 700. Dat moet wel lekker liggen in je notebook...

Intel Corporation today introduced its highest performance mobile PC processors that will enable today's thinnest, lightest notebook computers. The new mobile Pentium® III processor featuring Intel® SpeedStep™ technology at 700 MHz will power mobile PCs that can deliver desktop-class performance without compromising mobility. [break]Verder werd ook de nieuwe mobile Celeron bekend gemaakt:[/break] Intel today also announced the new mobile Intel® Celeron™ processor at 550 MHz, which delivers an exceptional value for consumers looking to buy a low-cost mobile PC. Both processors are shipping in volume today.

BXBoards heeft een review gepost van de Tyan Trinity K7 plank met VIA KX133 chipset en 6 PCI slots, null keer AMR en 4xDIMM. De Trinity K7 doet aan voltage tweaking, maar helaas zijn er boven 100MHz slechts 2 busspeeds van 120 en 133MHz, die bovendien via jumpers ingesteld moeten worden. Op beide snelheden weigerde de plank te booten. Afgezien daarvan functioneerde het bord probleemloos:

Tyan have designed a board that offers excellent expansion, and carries the indefinable mark of Tyan quality. The major brickbat with this board, is that the board is not a good overclocker. Its rather strange, but if this was a typical Tyan board, with no overclocking support at all, then I could accept this. The fact that Tyan have tried to include overclocking features - but failed to pull it off - makes this a hard board to rate, because the disappointment of the board as an overclocker overshadows the good points. So we'll say this - if you want an overclocking Athlon board, both the Epox K7XA and Abit KA7 are much better boards. If bus overclocking is not a requirement and you want a board with good expansion, the Trinity K7 does a good job and is worthy of consideration.

Tweak3D heeft een preview in elkaar gesleuteld van de Matrox G450, zoals bekend een G400 op .18 micron met DDR SDRAM geheugen en een 64 bit (i.p.v. 128 bit) geheugenbus. Over de verschillen met de G400 schrijven ze:

The main differences between the G400 and the G450 are enhanced features such as 0.18u fabrication process, core speed increase, native DDR memory architecture, a second RAMDAC for increased resolution and refresh rate support for the secondary display, TV-out encoder able to be set at a different resolution than your main display, support for DirectX EMBM, DVI support, and increased 2D/3D performance.

Matrox has once again introduced a follow up worthy of recognition. Many of the features of the G450 were introduced in the G400. Unlike other semi-annual graphics card updates that usually deal with speed increments, Matrox decided to throw in a few new features while increasing speed. This is one product to watch out for. Expect Matrox to do a similar MAX version of the G450 and a Marvel version.

Met dank aan vsmb@superweb.nl" rel="external">ovs voor de tip.

DSmarty schrijft: "Tijdens het surfen kwam ik op de site van ChainTech, die haar nieuwe Slot A plankje met Via Apollo KX133 chipset released" Over het algemeen is het een zeer doorsnee Slot A moederbord, met 5 PCI, 1 ISA en 3 DIMM slots/sockets. Het enige opvallende is de mogelijkheid het bord uit te rusten met een dubbele BIOS-chip. Deze bevatten allebei dezelfde informatie, zodat je de reserve chip kunt gebruiken als de eerste de pijp aan maarten geeft.

Kijk hier voor meer informatie.

vsmb@superweb.nl" rel="external">ovs stuurde ons via AMDZone naar EPoX alwaar een nieuw BIOS te vinden is voor de de 7KXA. Het nieuwe BIOS zorgt onder meer voor probleemloze support van de Athlon 900 MHz en de mogelijkheid een AGP Aperture size (het gedeelte van het systeemgeheugen dat door de AGP-videokaart kan worden gebruikt) van maar liefst 256 Mb in te stellen.

Fixed AMD Athlon 900MHz recognition issue.
Fixed AGP speed(2X/4X) automatic detection by reading AGP voltage. (Such as S3 diamond AGP card issue.)
Updated AMD CPU L2 cache configuration table.
Added support for PCI Latency timer option in the CMOS.
Fixed "HCT unreported memory test" issue.
Added 256MB AGP Aperture Size support.
Increased IDE performance.
Onchip MR (modem riser slot) is disabled as default value.
Awdflash utility is updated to Ver 7.61.

De file kun je hier ophalen.

Tom's Hardware Guide heeft een beta Cyrix III gekregen en daar een 'leuk' artikeltje over geschreven, de CPU is misschien wel leuk voor de low budget market maar als je kijkt naar het onderstaande (niet kijken als je hartproblemen hebt ) grafiekje dan heeft het weinig uitleg nodig om te weten dat dit niet iets voor een tweaker is...:

The Cyrix III also holds its own in business applications like Excel, Paradox, PowerPoint and Word, so it could serve satisfactorily in very inexpensive computers intended for these purposes. Keep in mind that Celeron powered i810 systems and the Intel Timna are largely intended for this same segment, so there is a market here, albeit crowded.

Despite poor OpenGL performance, in DirectX tests the Cyrix III is a little stronger, making it sufficient for the frugal, casual gamer not needing to run the most demanding games.

In brief, if you are a serious gamer on a budget, the Cyrix III is not for you; AMD's Spitfire version of the Athlon will likely be your best bet. The Cyrix III is even worse for people running scientific FPU intensive applications and should not be considered at all (to be fair, VIA doesn't market the Cyrix III to this market segment). If, however, you are shopping for a low-priced system intended for web browsing and running business applications, the Cyrix III is competitive and should be considered if the system price offers significant savings. A web appliance would also be powered very well with the Cyrix III.

Een kleine voetnoot bij deze benchmarks: Via claimt dat de peformance soms nog met 30% omhoog kan als er een Cyrix geoptimaliseerd Bios wordt gebruikt.

Voetnoot nummero 2: Dit is een Cyrix versus de Celeron, probeer je eens voor te stellen hoe grafiek voor de Cyrix versus de Coppermine benchmark eruit ziet .

8(@D3 schrijft dat de koers van Microsoft na geruchten over een mogelijke opsplitsing gezakt is met 16% en meteen de hele Nasdaq procenten lager heeft laten sluiten:

Zijn twee monopolisten minder gevaarlijk dan eentje? Het Ministerie van Justitie zal deze week het precieze voorstel aan de federale rechter opsturen. Hoe het voorstel eruit ziet, is nog onduidelijk. De speculaties verschillen van twee of drie aparte bedrijven. Microsoft zelf wil hiervan nog steeds niets weten.

De bewegingen maandag op de Nasdaq-beurs – het aandeel Microsoft zakte met 16 procent – waren even hevig als paniekerig. Het is niet bepaald voor het eerst dat de geruchtenmachine rondom het antitrustproces met een opsplitsing op de proppen komt. Voor beleggers gaf het 'nieuws' kennelijk toch genoeg aanleiding massaal Microsoft-aandelen te dumpen. Microsoft is inmiddels al 45 procent in waarde gedaald sinds haar beurshoogepunt.

De Microsoft-ellende sleepte en passent de hele technologie-beurs mee naar beneden. Veel IT- en internetfondsen stonden onder zware druk. Het uiteindelijke verlies van ruim vier procent viel uiteindelijk nog mee, met dank aan de koopjesjagers die aan het einde van de dag kwamen opdagen.

Als de koers nog een klein beetje zakt kan Billie vaarwel zeggen tegen de titel "rijkste persoon van deze wereld", hij heeft maar 49,4 miljard dollar en Larry Ellison van Oracle heeft 48 miljard .

Ars Technica heeft een aardig diepgaand stukje geschreven over de verschillen tussen de Playstation 2 en de PC op system level niveau. Er wordt uitgelegt waarom de Playstation 2 zoveel meer bandbreedte heeft en minder cache en wat de voordelen, nadelen en gevolgen zijn van deze verschillen op de performance en de aanpak die moet worden gebruikt om te programmeren voor deze machine:

Well, it seems I'm not alone in my struggle to understand the capabilities and limitations of one of the most painfully innovative pieces of hardware to hit the consumer market in quite a long time. I got some good feedback from PS2 developers who are also having a hard time with the new hardware. In fact, to get an idea of just how bad the situation is, check out this article on MSNBC, which discusses the difficulties that even the most experienced of console programmers are having in learning how to code for the PS2. When the programmers responsible for some of the greatest console games ever made say that the PS2's learning curve is steep, you know something's up.

[...] The PS2's approach is causing developers to rethink how they move data inside the machine. In a comment in the /. thread about my PS2 article, one ex-PS2 developer noted that the VU caches are too small to store a whole model or 32-bit texture, so programmers were pulling their hair out trying to figure out how to deal with the size limitation. He pointed out that one group that had had PS2 development units for a while took the strategy of constantly downloading textures and models into the VU and processors, instead of downloading them once, caching them, and working on them inside the cache. This approach was running the 10-channel DMAC at 90% capacity! This kind of aggressive use of bandwidth resources is exactly the kind of thing PS2 developers will have to do. Between the RAMBUS memory banks, the 10-channel DMAC and the 128-bit internal data bus, the PS2 has bandwidth to burn--what it doesn't have is internal cache. Currently, developers are thinking in terms of 3D cards with large on-board memory that can cache large models and textures, and modestly sized L1 and L2 caches for storing code and data.

Je kan het hele artikel hier vinden samen met allemaal mooie diagrammen .

Goed nieuws voor de trotse (?) eigenaars van een Viper II: S3 heeft eindelijk de zo lang beloofde drivers met T&L gereleased.
Jim Hafner-Eaton, Director of Technical Support van S3/Diamond, zegt er het volgende over op het forum van Savage Daily News:

Version 4.12.01.9004-9.50.05 of the Viper II Win9x drivers are now available for download from our ftp server at ftp://ftp.s3.com/pub/display/viper/viper_II/

These are being posted as Public Beta.

Improved 2D and 3D performance. Adding of T&L support (though some benchmark tools do not show it as supported). A score of game fixes (including some with Half Life).

Give it a try.

I am collecting feedback. If you have specific, detailed information about issues we should look into, please do the following:
1) Post your message to the Savage 2000 forum on this message board. Consult with others who use similar computers to you to ensure that it is not JUST YOU having this issue.
2) Once you are sure you are not alone in the universe, send me detailed, specific information about the problem you have encountered.
3) Use email only (not this forum) and use the subject line VIPER II BETA. That's it folks.

Enjoy.

[one last thing...I promised someone that I would let them know if they needed the most current bios to use this driver. The answer is no, unless you need TV Out. However, we generally recommend that you use the most current bios version.] [break]Ergens anders heeft Jim het ook nog even over FSAA:[/break]The new drivers will add in T&L. I don't know about FSAA (but it is something I will confirm today). [break]De readme meldt verder het volgende:[/break] 4. Issue Addressed
==================================================
Resolved issues with the following games:

Force Commander (graphical corruption)
Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed (graphical corruption)
Homeworld (clipping in OpenGL)
Half-Life (locking in OpenGL)

5. Features Added
==================================================
OpenGL options now included on Diamond 3D property page.

Bedankt LopeZ voor het submitten van dit nieuws!

Matrox heeft vandaag de G450 aangekondigd, een G400 geproduceerd op 0.18 micron en met een geïntegreerde flat panel transmitter, TV-out encoder en een tweede RAMDAC. Het geheugen is van SDR naar DDR gegaan maar ze hebben de geheugen interface van 128 bit naar 64 bit gebracht wat een winst opleverd van 0,0 Gb/s aan bandbreedte :

Montreal, Canada, April 25, 2000—Matrox Graphics Inc. today announced the new 0.18-micron Matrox G450 2D, 3D and DVD graphics chip. The Matrox G450 AGP 2X/4X chip leverages a die shrink of the 0.25-micron Matrox G400 chip technology to integrate a digital flat panel transmitter, TV-out encoder, second RAMDAC and 64-bit DDR memory interface. By integrating these components directly on the chip, the company has re-architectured its award-winning Matrox G400 graphics technology into a full-featured accelerator that is set to standardize DualHead Display across more markets than ever before. Matrox's exclusive DualHead Display is a state-of-the-market technology that provides immediate and valuable benefits by allowing users to double their display real estate by pairing two display screens (RGB monitor, flat panel or TV) as many as eight different ways.

Display versatility is further enhanced by the Matrox G450's 165 MHz Transmission-Minimized Differential Signaling (TMDS) transmitter, which outputs to a DVI-based digital flat panel at resolutions as high as 1600 x 1200, in 24-bit color. Business professionals currently using high-resolution analog monitors, as well as users who plan to take advantage of increasingly popular digital flat panels, will benefit from the chip's 256-bit DualBus architecture. This well-balanced architecture powers razor-sharp, crystal-clear 2D graphics, even at taxing resolutions as high as 2048 x 1536 at 85 Hz, in 32-bit color on the primary display screen. And with two RAMDACs built directly into the chip, the Matrox G450 ensures a superior-quality analog output signal-not just to one, but to two displays simultaneously.

De verkleining van de die naar .18 micron moet ervoor zorgen dat de kaart op een hogere clocksnelheid kan lopen dan de G400, maar hoeveel hoger is nog niet bekend aangezien Matrox daar zelf nog niet helemaal uit is .

Na de stapel Voodoo5 5500 previews van gisteren lijkt het vandaag een mooie dag voor ATI Radeon 256 previews, elke zichzelf respecterende site heeft vanochtend een preview online gezet :

Anand heeft een van de langste previews geschreven en die kan je hier lezen:

The biggest downfall to the Radeon 256 will be its release time frame, which is scheduled for “this summer,” but more realistically, we can expect it in the late August timeframe. Considering that the 3dfx Voodoo5 and NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS are both due out in the next few weeks, waiting until August may be painful for those users that are itching to upgrade now.

At the same time, we can’t help but remember ATI’s history with major product releases like this. The Rage 128 would have been an instant hit had it come out in the Christmas timeframe it was set to debut in, but because most of the shipments went to OEMs, the retail consumers didn’t see boards until late February the following year. Radeon 256 shipments to OEMs should occur during the summer, and if all goes according to plan, we’ll see retail availability of Radeon 256 based products in August…let’s hope that everything goes according to plan.[break] Sharky Extreme heeft ook een preview geschreven:[/break]As the second processor on the market to be touted as a "GPU," the Radeon 256 isn't going to be caught short on its own naming conventions. The "Charisma Engine" includes "advanced" hardware transform, lighting and "clipping" support (this last necessary operation is also part of NVIDIA's T & L implementation but no one there thought to call it a feature before) and the Radeon's "Pixel Tapestry Architecture" provides "advanced multi-texturing support and blending operations for more realistic cinematic effects".[break] Dan heeft Thresh's Firingsquad natuurlijk ook nog een preview.... [/break]The chip that we saw at GDC did have a little heatsink on it, but it didn't run hot to the touch. In contrast to the NVIDIA Quadro or 3dfx Voodoo5, the ATI Radeon 256 does not require an AGP PRO slot or an external power connection. This will allow an easier upgrade experience for most users and should also mean less heat floating inside computer cases.

Dan kan je hier nog een preview vinden van Gamers Depot.
En GamePc heeft ook nog een preview liggen.
Hete Hardware heeft ook een preview, en die kan je hier vinden.
En als laatste heeft iXBT Hardware ook nog een preview klaar liggen die je hier kan lezen.

Om dit even samen te vatten in 1 zin: Deze kaart kan zeker goed worden als hij optijd uitkomt met goede drivers .

(Marc): Ik wilde hierbij Oeziewoezie en Arjan B hartelijk bedanken voor het posten van de stats overzichten tijdens mijn afwezigheid. bedankt! (Ook namens alle statsverslaafde DPC'ers.)

DPC had gisteren 1657 leden (13 nieuwe), wil jij ook lid worden, of begrijp je er niets van waar we het hier over hebben, kijk dan hier.

De DPC Hitparade Top 30 van 24 april 2000

1. 71,089 [Dutch Power Cows] wiho(1, Totaal:8,253,074)
2. 49,594 [Dutch Power Cows] Interior Lulu(2, Totaal:2,904,285)
3. 15,441 [Dutch Power Cows] BaDMaN(106, Totaal:147,503)
4. 11,856 [DUTCH POWER COWS]USRFORCE CLAN(28, Totaal:481,824)
5. 9,653 Shellshock & Sir Soes [Dutch Power Moo's!](29, Totaal:481,764)
6. 9,534 2fast4u [Dutch Power Cows](20, Totaal:571,177)
7. 6,028 [Dutch Power Cows] SYTE|X(234, Totaal:61,914)
8. 5,757 [Dutch Power Cows] Jobe(22, Totaal:552,962)
9. 5,320 [Dutch Power Cows] ActionQuakers United(194, Totaal:80,184)
10. 5,112 [Dutch Power Cows] Oezie Woezie(68, Totaal:226,366)

En de nummers 11 tot en met 30:

11. 4,711 Richard Zuidhof(26, Totaal:494,063)
12. 4,513 [Dutch Power Cows] DPC Civility Team(58, Totaal:243,464)
13. 4,271 [Dutch Power Cows] Sub-Team Hack BV(27, Totaal:493,682)
14. 3,710 [Dutch Power Cows] Eddict(24, Totaal:503,717)
15. 3,700 marco.brugman(434, Totaal:23,414)
16. 3,647 [Dutch Power Cows] Graasland(596, Totaal:13,344)
17. 3,139 bjonkhart(129, Totaal:120,416)
18. 3,103 grimlock0(190, Totaal:81,355)
19. 3,074 [Dutch Power Cows] ThE RaVeR(32, Totaal:384,914)
20. 3,043 [Dutch Power Cows] NoRRoD Computers(785, Totaal:7,788)
21. 3,024 [Dutch Power Cows]_______PcDealer(284, Totaal:44,878)
22. 3,005 [Dutch Power Cows] Viedz(421, Totaal:24,428)
23. 2,780 skox(332, Totaal:35,503)
24. 2,572 [Dutch Power Cows] Theo Nieuwstraten(63, Totaal:235,103)
25. 2,543 [Dutch Power Cows] TEX(54, Totaal:262,507)
26. 2,525 [Dutch Power Cows] franklin(82, Totaal:189,883)
27. 2,520 [Dutch Power Cows] #hekje team(25, Totaal:495,432)
28. 2,433 nutson(162, Totaal:95,075)
29. 2,384 [Dutch Power Cows] Jeroen Basten(209, Totaal:73,478)
30. 2,349 [Dutch Power Cows] The Guard(776, Totaal:7,920)

De Top 15 teams van 24 april 2000

1.( 2) 927,785 Russian Team
2.( 1) 816,467 AnandTech
3.( 1) 813,861 Slashdot.org
4.( 0) 796,593 HackZone Team -- Combined power of Russia and exUSSR countries
5.( 0) 484,434 Dutch Power Cows
6.( 0) 462,348 #DeathMatch
7.( 4) 396,148 Japan Windows NT Users Group
8.( 0) 384,622 Team Warped (OS/2)
9.( 0) 383,176 Team EvangeLista (Macs Rule! :-)
10.( 3) 375,195 The Amiga RC5 Team effort
11.( 1) 315,519 Libertarians for Privacy (Freedom Works!)
12.( 2) 284,085 Japan FreeBSD Users Group
13.( 54) 244,781 Winbiff Users Group
14.( 0) 236,178 L0phT Heavy Industries
15.( 0) 219,951 Team Slacker

Teams om ons heen (total stats):

15.( ) Czech RC5 Team (Tot:98,084,407, Gis:144,375)
16.( ) CCC.de (Tot:90,238,881, Gis:205,724)
17.( ) Team OS/2 Japan (Tot:83,285,599, Gis:194,107)
18.( ) #DeathMatch (Tot:81,677,615, Gis:462,348)
19.( ) Dutch Power Cows (Tot:75,645,950, Gis:484,434)
20.( ) PINGUIM: Portugal Is Now Going Up In Megakeys (Tot:73,855,301, Gis:152,340)
21.( ) Team FreeBSD (Tot:70,200,714, Gis:207,534)
22.( ) SysOpt.com/Tweakit.com (Tot:70,104,225, Gis:200,564)
23.( ) LinuxNET RC5 (Tot:68,106,206, Gis:66,585)
(Teams waarvan de score van gisteren ontbreekt, hadden geen score in de top 100!)

Wanneer halen we ze in:

Czech RC5 Team: 66 dagen
CCC.de: 53 dagen
Team OS/2 Japan: 27 dagen
#DeathMatch: 274 dagen

Dutch power cows is vandaag 5e en heeft een kans van één op 85 om de sleutel te vinden!

ATi Technologies heeft vandaag de Radeon 256 aangekondigd. Hiermee worden eerdere vermoedens over de officiële naam van de Rage6 bevestigd. De specs van de Radeon 256 zijn niet fout: max 128MB/200MHz DDR SDRAM, 30 miljoen triangles per sec en een theoretische fillrate van 1,5Gigapixel/s. Hierbij moet wel rekening gehouden worden met het feit dat de twee rendering pipelines van Radeon 3 texels per kloktik kunnen verwerken. Bij gebruik van multi-texturing komt je dus uit op een theoretische fillrate van 1Gigapixel/s, wat in vergelijking met de GeForce2 GTS en Voodoo5-6000 al weer een stukkie minder heftig overkomt. Verder heeft de Radeon 256 wel een aantal interessante beeldkwaliteit bevorderende features, zoals 3D texture support, EMBM en dot product 3 bumpmapping, 3D shadows en pixel shaders:

ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE: ATY, NASDAQ: ATYT) today introduced the most powerful graphics processor ever designed for desktop PCs, the RADEON 256™ at Microsoft's annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WINHEC).

The new chip is a quantum step forward in 3D acceleration for both high-end gaming and 3D workstation graphics. RADEON 256 has the world's fastest hardware transformation, clipping and lighting (T&L) geometry engine and will drive the creation of an entirely new generation of 3D applications and content.

[...] The new chip supports the following firsts:

• Most advanced graphics chip ever designed, featuring 30 million transistors, in an .18 micron technology, giving it a higher transistor count than CPUs such as the Pentium III and Athlon.
• First chip to support up to 128MB of double-data rate (DDR) memory at 200MHz
• ATI's Charisma Engine™ which incorporates a 30 million triangle per second geometry engine as well as radical new 3D character animation techniques
• First graphics chip to break through the Gigatexel barrier with an awesome 1.5 Gigatexel per second rendering engine
• First PC graphics chip to include an on-chip hardware HDTV decoder

[...] At the core of the RADEON 256 GPU is a trio of new technologies unique to ATI: The Charisma Engine for geometry processing, Pixel Tapestry™ for rendering, and Video Immersion™ for digital video.

Charisma Engine: ATI's Geometry Engine

Charisma combines the world's fastest geometry engine along with revolutionary new techniques for bringing 3D characters to life. The geometry engine supports full transformation, clipping, and lighting (T&L) at 30 million per second processing capability, resulting in a 10x improvement in 3D modeling detail relative to current CPU based geometry. Charisma supports cutting-edge character animation features, such as advanced vertex skinning and key frame interpolation. These effects are required in bringing game characters to life with realistic behaviors, fluid movements, and believable facial expressions including lip-synching.

Pixel Tapestry: ATI's Rendering Engine

Pixel Tapestry combines the world's fastest rendering engine along with an unprecedented new set of 3D special effects. It is the first graphics chip to break through the Gigatexel barrier with an awesome 1.5 Gigatexel per second rendering engine. The new chip's ability to process up to 3-textures concurrently, means unsurpassed performance in accelerating the coming wave of multi-textured game content. Because of its awesome rendering capability, RADEON 256 enables full performance in 32-bit color, which finally makes 16-bit color obsolete.

The list of unique features in Pixel Tapestry includes:

• First with 3D texture support for new volumetric effects
• First with all DX7 bump mapping effects (emboss, dot product 3 and EMBM)
• First with hardware support for 3D shadows
• First with advanced DX8 pixel shader effects
• Comprehensive support for full scene, order-independent anti-aliasing

Voor de complete press release kun je terecht op ATi.com.

De Bezilla developers melden in een post op Mozilla.org dat er weer gewerkt wordt aan de BeOS port van Mozilla. Wegens een probleem met de BeOS R4.5 compiler was het lange tijd onmogelijk om Mozilla voor BeOS te compilen. Met de komst van BeOS Release 5 is dit probleem opgelost, zodat het Bezilla team weer aan de slag kan. Wel is men momenteel naarstig op zoek naar developers die mee willen helpen:

Mozilla on BeOS is NOT WORKING YET! (forget M8 or M11). If you're looking for a binary, please check back in the future (best guess: 1 to 2 months). The Bezilla team has been waiting the past few months to recieve BeOS R5. The R4.5 compiler contained an error and was unable to compile Mozilla. Needless to say, this all but halted development. Now that Be has released R5, and the complier works, the Bezilla team is back at work, making up for lost time.

Richard Hess has started working on other projects as well, so he will be less involved but will still monitor the progress and help from time to time. Duncan Wilcox is busy working on Be Inc's related project. This means he is not able to spend as much time on Mozilla as we would hope. While we do need Duncan a lot, we also need to get new developers on board very quickly.

At the moment I'm trying to get this project up to speed, with the help of Duncan and Matthew. We will try to update this page frequently while helping new developers, such as Justin Morey on the netscape.public.mozilla.beos newsgroup, get up to speed and join our team. In order to get this project back on track.

Ik lees bij Betanews dat ICQ 2000 officieel de beta status heeft bereikt (de vorige releases waren alpha's). Beta v4.29 build #3140 mag je via deze link van het Betanews FileForum wegtanken (thanks Moll Man voor de tip):

ICQ 2000a has officially reached beta status after a long period of alpha testing. Today's beta launch was initially scheduled for last week, however a couple last minute bugs delayed the release. ICQ 2000a features a new contact list design, redesigned option menus, an ICQ quick launch bar, redesigned preferences, help cards, an answering service, and countless other additions. An advanced address book now allows you to easily search through your contacts. Version 2000a is definitely worth checking out if you want to take advantage of the new features, however some may find 2000a's interface cluttered.

Jeff Lee van GamePC heeft een review gepost van de nieuwe Asus CUBX. Zoals de naam van deze plank al suggereert gaat 't om een mobootje met de aloude 440BX chipset, die als gevolg van het falen van de i820 chipset nog steeds erg populair is. Wat betreft layout steekt de CUBX erg sterk in elkaar: 6xPCI, 1xISA, 0xAMR, 4xDIMM, FC-PGA socket en additionele ATA66 controller van CMD Technologies! Overklokkers kunnen zich bovendien vermaken met een uitgebreide range busspeeds:

Moving on to the BIOS, the CUBX uses Medallion version 6.0 from Award. Along with the Medallion BIOS, the CUBX also provides a secondary backup for setting up the CPU's clock multiplier and FSB speed, via onboard dipswitches. The dipswitches are nice to have on the motherboard but are very rarely used in our opinion. In any case, the Medallion BIOS comes with many features to tweak and setup the motherboard in various ways. For example, the PCI slots can be enabled or disabled to support PCI 2.1. The ATA66 controller can also be enabled or disabled under the BIOS. Multipliers begin from 2.0 and ends at 8.0 while FSB settings starts at 66 and stops at 150 MHz. Although the multiplier range may seem small, the CUBX is able to read the multiplier lock off the newer CPUs like the Celeron 2 (all of which have multipliers over 8.0). But on a sad note, we were quite disappointed how ASUS included such meager FSB settings.

[...] So to top it off, once again ASUS has a winner with the CUBX. Going with the 440BX wasn't a bad decision on ASUS's behalf, but again, the age of the 440BX may scare off some potential buyers. Intel should be proud how the 440BX is working out so well still, even after all these years. If there was ever a hall of fame for computer components, the 440BX chipset should be accepted with out a doubt.

News.com meldt dat captain Steve de tweede beta van SQL Server 2000 heeft uitgebracht. Microsoft denkt met SQL Server 2000 te kunnen concurreren met de SQL servers van Oracle, IBM en Informix, die qua marktaandeel voor liggen op Microsoft:

The second test version of SQL Server 2000 gives Microsoft's software developers their first look at the technology. Microsoft expects about 200,000 of its customers worldwide to test the product before the final version is released this summer. An initial test version was released last fall but was limited to several hundred Microsoft customers and partners.

Microsoft executives are touting the new database as powerful and reliable enough for large businesses and e-commerce Web sites and hopes it can better compete against rival offerings. Microsoft currently ranks fourth in total database sales, behind Oracle, IBM and Informix, according to analyst firm International Data Corp.

Barry Goffe, Microsoft's lead product manager for SQL Server, says the new SQL Server database offers more Web support, more security and improved analysis for business information.

Motorola heeft op de WinHEC een demonstratie gegeven van zijn SoftDSL technologie, waarbij de processor misbruikt wordt om DSL signalen te (de)moduleren. Het grapje is vergelijkbaar met AMR audio: kostenbesparend voor low-end PC's, maar ongewenst voor de überklokker. Positief is wel dat SoftDSL is geoptimaliseerd voor 3DNow!:

Motorola (NYSE: MOT - news) today announced the first public demonstration of Motorola's SoftDSL(TM) communications technology running on an AMD Athlon(TM) processor. Leveraging the latest PC processor advances, Motorola's SoftDSL technology gives PC OEMs a glimpse into next-generation low-cost broadband communications.

The demonstration is taking place this week at WinHEC in New Orleans where attendees will be able to view Internet surfing and full-screen streaming video demos that show SoftDSL modem performance capabilities and power. See the demonstration at Motorola's booth 100-102 and AMD's booth 400.

Motorola's SoftDSL technology represents the next phase in software communications. Using the power of the computer instead of a dedicated modem chipset, software communications eliminates the need for costly fixed-function hardware and enables PC OEMs to deliver next-generation PCs without compromising performance or functionality. According to VisionQuest 2000, software modems captured one-third of the PC modem market in 1999 with roughly 20 million unit shipments. VisionQuest also expects software modems to exceed 50 percent of the PC modem market in 2000, making them the dominant technology for PC communications. As PCs continue to offer more power at lower cost, PC OEMs can look to SoftDSL technology as a viable communications solution to meet consumer demand for the latest high-speed technology while keeping margins up. Motorola's SoftDSL technology offers dynamic upgradeability and reconfigurability to bridge multiple DSL standards and provides users with a smooth migration path from V.90 analog modem to broadband Internet access.

Het ontbreken van SSE support kan mogelijk verklaard worden door de close relatie waarin Motorola en AMD verkeren?

TurboLinux heeft vandaag aangekondigd dat het een OEM deal met IBM heeft gesloten waardoor de TurboLinux distributie kant-en-klaar geleverd kan worden op IBM Netfinity servers:

Under the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement with TurboLinux, IBM has been given tremendous flexibility in how it offers TurboLinux to its customers. With the widest range of hardware platforms in the world, IBM is helping customers manage Linux within heterogeneous environments.

"TurboLinux is pleased to work with IBM in offering Linux solutions to our customers around the world," said Cliff Miller, CEO of TurboLinux. "Pre-installation of Linux offers significant cost savings for corporate and government customers deploying TurboLinux solutions throughout an enterprise or in business work groups."

"Our partnership with TurboLinux will make it easier for IBM customers to take advantage of the affordable new opportunities Linux offers," said Sandy Carter, d irector, Netfinity Partnerworld for Developers, IBM. "Offering our systems factory-installed with TurboLinux reduces the time and expense for our customers to d eploy their e-business solutions."

AMD heeft op de WinHEC in New Orleans een prototype van de AMD760 Irongate 4 chipset gedemonstreerd. Deze opvolger van de oude AMD750 heeft een 266MHz busspeed met support voor PC2100 DDR SDRAM en zal waarschijnlijk deze zomer gereleased worden. De WinHEC presentatie vond plaats in samenwerking met een groepje DRAM fabrikanten, waaronder Micron, Samsung en Hyundai:

--AMD today demonstrated a prototype AMD Athlon™ processor platform featuring support for high performance double data rate (DDR) memory. DDR memory is the highest-bandwidth and lowest latency PC memory technology currently available, and is planned to enable the AMD Athlon processor platform to deliver new levels of performance on math-intensive applications like video editing, CAD/CAM, scientific applications, and Internet content creation.

The technology demonstration was done in conjunction with the leading memory manufacturers that plan to produce DDR memory this year, including Micron, Samsung, Toshiba, Hitachi, NEC, Hyundai, and Infineon Technologies. Both the AMD-760™ chipset and DDR memory modules are planned to be available in the second half of 2000. DDR memory heavily leverages existing Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM) technologies, the most common memory found in today's leading PCs. Next-generation DDR memory is thus expected to be manufactured at cost levels that are in line with today's mainstream PC memory costs.

[...] Industry Support for DDR Memory Standard Continues To Grow

"Micron Technology is pleased to be demonstrating an AMD Athlon processor-based DDR SDRAM system in our booth at WinHEC," said Jeff Mailloux, director of DRAM Marketing for Micron. "Recent industry benchmarks establish that DDR SDRAM systems deliver industry-leading performance. Plus, we believe that we will be able to produce DDR SDRAM memory at similar costs as PC100/133 SDRAM. DDR SDRAM is an evolutionary step beyond SDRAM, enabling us to leverage current manufacturing processes. By combining leading-edge performance and competitive costs, the DDR SDRAM delivers multiple advantages to our customers."

"Samsung is dedicating millions of dollars to the design, manufacturing, and validation of high-performance, next-generation DDR memory modules," said Bob Eminian, vice president of marketing and corporate communications at Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. "The performance advantage DDR memory delivers, coupled with our ability to leverage current SDRAM manufacturing processes to bring DDR memory to market at competitive costs, will help accelerate the adoption and proliferation of this exciting new technology."

"Hyundai Electronics strongly supports Double Data Rate memory technology and has invested considerable resources into the design, manufacturing, and validation of high-performance, next-generation DDR memory modules," said Mario Martinez, director of strategic marketing at Hyundai Electronics America. "DDR memory delivers performance advantages that when coupled with Hyundai's proven SDRAM manufacturing process and significant capacity, makes adoption of DDR very attractive--both in terms of time-to-market and low-cost."

Voor nog meer optimistisch marketing geblaat kun je de press release nalezen.

EBN Online schrijft in een artikeltje over de leveringsproblemen bij AMD en Intel dat AMD zijn produktiecapaciteit in het derde en vierde kwartaal kan verdubbelen wanneer de nieuwe fabriek in Dresden online gaat. Dit komt als geroepen nu AMD problemen heeft om te voldoen aan de grote vraag naar Athlon processors. AMD denkt dit jaar 12,6 miljoen Athlons te produceren, stijgend naar 31,8 miljoen units in 2001:

AMD is forecasting production of 12.6 million Athlon-core chips this year, jumping to 31.8 million units in 2001. Dresden initially will only produce the Thunderbird version, which is also being made in Austin, Texas. Thunderbird is a high-end processor expected to be unveiled next month.

AMD's Fab 25 in Austin will be the first to make the low-end Spitfire Athlon core for mobile and value-line PCs, also slated to be introduced in May. But Doran said Dresden might make that version as well.

“For the first time, AMD has the ability to shift production of several different microprocessors among several fabs to adjust to rapidly changing market demand,” he said. “Intel has used this strategy very successfully, and now AMD is able to play the same game.”

Over de problemen bij Intel schrijft EBN dat de top OEMs op dit moment nog voldoende processors krijgen, maar dat de supplies bij resellers aan de onderkant van de 'voedselketen' beperkt zijn.

Apple onderzoekt de mogelijkheid om de Australische PC bouwer FishPC een rechtszaak aan het broekje te lappen. FishPC verkoopt PC's die gebaseerd zijn op het EasyNow design van AMD. Volgens Apple is het ontwerp van deze pret PC's gediekstraad van de iMac. De AMD barbiehuizen werden trouwens als op de Comdex in november van de vorige eeuw gedemonstreerd, dus de actie van Apple lijkt een beetje laat te komen:

"I'm not a legal expert, so I'm not sure if there are copyright or trademark infringements involved," Apple representative Alec Rosen said on Friday. "But it looks pretty darn close to an iMac."

Timothy Sabre, general manager of FishPC, said in an email exchange yesterday that his product is not an iMac knockoff.

[...] The system appears to be based on Advanced Micro Devices' EasyNow PC design, which features systems with AMD K6-2 or K6-III processors, five USB ports and a translucent case. AMD licenses the EasyNow design to PC makers.

News.com meldt dat America Online, Gateway, Compaq, Sony en een aantal Taiwanese bedrijven een bedrag van 88 miljoen dollar in Transmeta pompen. Transmeta is fabrikant van de energiezuinige Crusoë mobile processors, die met behulp van code morphing x86 compatible zijn. Dankzij de poen van bovenstaand rijtje investeerders kan Transmeta zich verheugen in voldoende belangstelling voor de Crusoë processors:

Today's funding addresses the concern of analysts who noted in January the conspicuous lack of customers for Transmeta's chips.

"It's a pretty impressive list," said MicroDesign Resources analyst Keith Diefendorff. "It indicates a vote of confidence for the Transmeta approach."

So far, only relatively small companies such as S3 have announced that they will use Transmeta's processors in their Internet appliances. Today's investments indicate that the technology elite see a future for the company's chips.

Transmeta executives also indicated that deals with large manufacturers are in the works.

"The systems are in development," said Jim Chapman, vice president of sales and marketing. "The major product releases will happen around mid-year."