Forbes heeft een interview gehad met Jerry Sanders, de welbekende CEO van AMD. Verwacht in dit interview helemaal geen technische details en ook geen nieuwtjes over de Thunderbird en de Duron: het interview gaat over de carrière van Sanders en hoe hij daarmee is omgegaan. Hier een stukje over de concurrentie met Intel:

ASAP: It seems as if you're trapped in entrepreneurial hell. Twenty-five years ago you started AMD; 15 years ago you were still in startup mode, competing against Intel, and now you're still, in many ways, an entrepreneurial upstart.

SANDERS: Well, it's an interesting observation. I guess the first thing I'd say is, you know, we're a $2.5 billion to $3 billion company. So that doesn't quite feel like an entrepreneurial startup when I see companies which have no revenues, or little or no revenues, and they consider themselves entrepreneurs. Here we are, a $2.5 billion to $3 billion company, and yet you're right. There's a certain kind of entrepreneurial quality about AMD. I hope there always will be.

ASAP: And now you're betting the store again. Is this the last roll?

SANDERS: In order to build an alternative platform to the Intel monopoly, we had to have independent products which were different than Intel's but still executed all the software under the Microsoft operating systems. No one else has been able to do it. In the 1980s, there were 15 licensed Intel alternatives for x86 instruction-set microprocessors. We're the last man standing.

Het zat er al aan te komen, en nu zijn de DX8-beta's ook echt naar de testers gegaan. Wij wachten op resultaten! Crack schrijft: "Dx8 zit er nu echt aan te komen: Nadat al eerder de W2K-versie gelekt was, is de W98-versie nu ook verstuurd aan de betatesters":

DirectX beta testers were notified yesterday that version 8.0 of Microsoft's DirectX graphics rendering program would be available to begin testing today. This latest release of DirectX is expected to ship with Windows Millennium later this year, and will feature a new graphical input device control panel in DirectInput along with a multitude of other enhancements to its rendering capabilities. Runtime releases for Windows 9x and 2000 are expected this summer. For more information about DirectX visit the DirectX Web site.

iXBT verblijdt ons op deze wel heel erg rustige dag met een review van de Leadtek Winfast GeForce2 GTS. De kaart was eigenlijk een rechtstreekse kopie van het reference design van NVIDIA, en de conclusie van deze review was dan ook hetzelfde als die van hun eerdere stuk over de GeForce2:

So, Leadtek WinFast GeForce2 GTS is a mass piece, which never yielded to the reference card from NVIDIA and proved its worthy successor. Although Leadtek WinFast GeForce2 GTS is a full copy of the reference design, it turned out more overclockable. We are sure that low chip overclockability is typical of this particular graphics card (of this particular piece). And if there is any larger choice than we had, you should undoubtedly be able to find a card, which will allow fine graphics processor overclocking as well.

We have every right to recommend this graphics card, Leadtek WinFast GeForce2 GTS, for all of you who like to buy new, fast and modern gaming equipment.

If your computer has one of NVIDIA Riva TNT2 Ultra based cards or NVIDIA GeForce256 based cards with SDR memory, then Leadtek WinFast GeForce2 GTS will be a good upgrading solution.

If you have a graphics card based on NVIDIA GeForce256 with DDR memory, we wouldn't hurry with the final decision. The benchmarks showed that the performance difference is not too huge to pay extra money for a new graphics accelerator. Besides, the largest part of the GPU GeForce2 GTS's potential remains undemanded (there are not enough games making use of all new chip's cool features).

De mensen van iXBT Labs hebben nu ook hun GeForce2 GTS FSAA resultaten gepost met de Detonator 5.22 driver. Hier volgt een tabel met de framerates in Q3A:

FSAA uit, S3TC uit FSAA uit, S3TC aan FSAA aan, S3TC uit FSAA aan, S3TC aan 800x600x32 101 102 56.7 60.7 1024x768x32 77 83.3 32.4 34.1 overclocked naar 225/390MHz 800x600x32 103 104.4 65 70 1024x768x32 87.3 92.5 37.7 40

Conclusie mag zijn dat 800x600 FSAA best speelbaar is op een GeForce2, maar volgens iXBT zag het er nog niet echt perfect uit.

3dfx PR gastje Bubba Wolford meldt dat we allemaal gewoon moeten chillen want vrijdag 26 mei komt de Voodoo5 5500 uit :

"For the last time!!!

GEEZ!!

How many $4 an hour idiots are you going to allow fool you into thinking that the boards won't be out until mid June? Your getting the scoop from the horses mouth!!! Stop talking to $4 an hour kids at K-Mart reagarding your Voodoo5!!

Seriously....

Guys....DEEP BREATH PLEASE.... hehe....it's 9:39 here in Houston right now on a Saturday night... holy cow, what am I doing home answering this stuff...anyway, in SIX (6) days (That is Friday for you giuys who cannot count -May 26th) all stores are released to put the boards on the shelves.

Chris- Often the computers at the store don't know they have crap until it's AT the store. Relax bro. May 26th is all you need to know...

Are we clear now?

Bubba Wolford
3dfx Interactive" [break]Het zal dus niet lang meer duren voordat de betere PC boer in ons kikkerlandje de kaartjes kan leveren. Bij AnandTech wordt trouwens gemeld dat de Voodoo5 6000 gepland staat voor 15 juni:[/break] If Windows 2000 is your bag, then you will be pleased that in about two weeks after Voodoo 6000 ships (June 15th), the Windows 2000 drivers will be out.

[CoSD]Headbanger schrijft: "Bij Gamespy staat dat nVidia voor de mensen met wat minder geld een low-end GeForce2 GTS op de markt zal brengen. De kaart zal zowel in AGP als in PCI-uitvoering te verkrijgen zijn. Een prijs wordt nog niet genoemd":

nVidia, already in full swing with their GeForce2 GTS line of video cards, nVidia announced that they will be releasing (no date announced), a line of cards aimed at the budget gamer. They will, we presume, be lower clocked version of the GTS with less on-board memory, and none of the bells that come with the full GTS high-end cards. Rich Black of nVidia also mentioned they will come in both AGP and PCI flavors. "Avoiding the PCI market," Black stated, "was an oversight." This hardware cycle, nVidia is poised to compete with 3dfx for the low-end of the market with these bad boys.

Being that nVidia has been on the top of the video gaming heap during the last few hardware cycles, Rich assured us that they are hard at work readying yet another video generation to come our way shortly. But you already knew that.

Dit zal dan waarschijnlijk de NV11 zijn die iXBT Hardware een paar maanden geleden al aankondigde.

[CoSD]Headbanger schrijft: "Pcextremes heeft een review van de Alpha CO-6030MFC Cooler op hun site staan. Volgens een aantal testen is dit zekers geen slechte cooler":

With coppers properties of quick absorption of heat, coupled with aluminums quick release of heat, the Alpha CO-6030MFC absorbs and dissipates heat efficiently. Of Course the Alpha is only as good as the fan that cools it, the CO-6030MFC comes with a YS Tech 26cfm fan. Another ruling factor in any heatsink is the pin/fin design; the general rule is more is better. The CO-6030MFC has approximately 363 pins.

Groot voordeel van deze koeler is zijn grootte: de koeler is klein genoeg om bij een Slot1-mobo de DIMM-sockets vrij te houden.

Bij Akiba's PC Watch is te lezen (nou ja, te lezen... je kunt het proberen) dat zij in Japan de FC-PGA Celeron 633 en 667MHz in de verkoop zagen liggen. Opvallend is dat deze processoren op 1.65V lopen, tegenover 1.5V bij de 533 en 566MHz versies. De Celeron 667MHz kost $243.

GamePC heeft een artikel geschreven over de nieuwe cB0 stepping. Ze schrijven hoe je een Coppermine van deze stepping kan herkennen en wat er allemaal verbeterd is (er zit o.a. geen serial number meer op ):

As well as the ability to be in multi-processor environments, the new FC-PGA chips have a few internal changes as well.

1) - No More Processor Serial Number. Yes, the much-hated and controversial 96-character Intel processor serial number is now gone with the latest cB0 chips. Now all of you privacy freaks can use your Pentium III's in peace, knowing that big brother isn't watching over your shoulder.

2) - Tighter Heatsink. Even in the midst of reports of FC-PGA processors literally cracking under sub-temperature conditions, Intel is shipping a MUCH tighter heatsink/fan with their older models. This heatsink is supposed to fix problems with the metal clip not being tight enough to apply enough pressure to the processor, and now is equipped with a tighter clip to do so. While the older heatsinks were relatively easy to snap on, these new ones are quite tough, and usually require a pen or a flat head screwdriver to get the cooler on correctly. Does it cool better? Not really, but it sure does feel more secure on the processor.

3) - Various Errata Fixes. Basically, Intel fixed some minor bugs with the original FC-PGA's this spin around. While most of them don't matter to everyone, these fixes may add more stability to the chips under certain situations. Fixing bugs never hurt anyone, except maybe the bugs.

[CoSD]Headbanger schrijft als eerste dat 3D Chipset de gelekte 5.22 Detonator drivers heeft. Deze drivers zorgen voor FSAA support in alle Direct3D games maar dan met een flink verlies aan framerate:

Did you have any doubt that they would not end up here? My boy Generic Brand has passed along to me which am now passing along to you the v5.22 Beta Detonators. Here is the scoop:

5.22 Beta Detonators Win9x
v5.22
Date: 05/20/00
Size: 2.44mb
Download Here

Release Notes:
- Drivers enable FSAA support in Direct3D
- 8 settings for FSAA are able to be enabled in 5.22
- No other notes have been released so far

We zijn weer van de 5e plek af, nu zijn we 4e, met 635.609 blokjes

DPC heeft 1920 leden, dat is 6 meer dan gisteren.

Heb je geen idee waar dit over gaat, klik dan hier

De DPC Hitparade Top 30 van 20 mei 2000

1. 50,017 [Dutch Power Cows] Interior Lulu(, Totaal:4,168,585)
2. 25,683 [Dutch Power Cows] wiho(, Totaal:9,112,682)
3. 21,685 [Dutch Power Cows] BeeSmart(, Totaal:122,875)
4. 15,943 ruben(, Totaal:31,243)
5. 12,358 [Dutch Power Cows] Tuur(, Totaal:86,007)
6. 12,028 nigel_jitske(, Totaal:243,006)
7. 11,884 [Dutch Power Cows] Sub-Team Hack BV(, Totaal:603,762)
8. 11,418 [Dutch Power Cows] The LawnMooh'er Men(, Totaal:1,335,314)
9. 11,258 [Dutch Power Cows] BaDMaN(, Totaal:505,279)
10. 9,975 dutch_power_cow(, Totaal:21,059)

En de nummers 11 tot en met 30

11. 9,593 [DPC] Quakers United | Cewle Coown' Cadavers(, Totaal:421,285)
12. 8,724 2fast4u [Dutch Power Cows](, Totaal:799,428)
13. 6,814 DPC Division Asten/Someren(, Totaal:145,586)
14. 6,333 [Dutch Power Cows] Kwallebal(, Totaal:37,833)
15. 6,279 [Dutch Power Cows] The Vinz(, Totaal:50,803)
16. 5,608 jlin(, Totaal:155,227)
17. 5,395 [Dutch Power Cows]RTo(, Totaal:136,573)
18. 5,350 [Dutch Power Cows] Dazn(, Totaal:57,854)
19. 5,298 [DUTCH POWER COWS]USRFORCE CLAN(, Totaal:768,501)
20. 5,096 [Dutch Power Cows] ThE RaVeR(, Totaal:553,994)
21. 5,051 [Dutch Power Cows] Insomniacs(, Totaal:504,654)
22. 4,946 [Dutch Power Cows] Marco & Bo(, Totaal:103,826)
23. 4,909 [Dutch Power Cows]Sang-Drax of Xanadu(, Totaal:14,572)
24. 4,564 [Dutch Power Cows] NCP-Viper(, Totaal:315,777)
25. 4,550 [Dutch Power Cows] Jobe(, Totaal:687,481)
26. 4,424 [Dutch Power Cows] Oezie Woezie(, Totaal:380,764)
27. 4,325 [Dutch Power Cows] AmgS(, Totaal:354,549)
28. 3,964 [Dutch Power Cows]De Kleuters(, Totaal:30,448)
29. 3,955 [Dutch Power Cows] franklin(, Totaal:286,863)
30. 3,920 [Dutch power Cows] Ronnie Tober(, Totaal:93,250)

De Top 15 teams van 20 mei 2000

1.( 3) 724,734 Slashdot.org
2.( 1) 687,039 AnandTech
3.( 1) 644,106 Russian Team
4.( 1) 635,609 Dutch Power Cows
5.( 4) 599,059 HackZone Team -- Combined power of Russia and exUSSR countries
6.( 0) 414,089 The Amiga RC5 Team effort
7.( 0) 362,644 Team Warped (OS/2)
8.( 0) 362,400 #DeathMatch
9.( 0) 348,632 Team EvangeLista (Macs Rule! :-)
10.( 2) 294,554 Japan FreeBSD Users Group
11.( 2) 265,680 Libertarians for Privacy (1-800-ELECT-US)
12.( 2) 254,977 Japan Windows NT Users Group
13.( 2) 236,211 L0phT Heavy Industries
14.( 3) 231,633 Team Hungary STB+
15.( 5) 227,813 Team Win32 (Windows)

Teams om ons heen (total stats)

12.( ) Japan Windows NT Users Group (Tot:123,931,115, Gis:254,977)
13.( ) Team Hungary STB+ (Tot:109,164,307, Gis:231,633)
14.( ) Team Win32 (Windows) (Tot:105,177,387, Gis:227,813)
15.( ) Czech RC5 Team (Tot:102,988,988, Gis:142,571)
16.( ) Dutch Power Cows (Tot:98,743,788, Gis:635,609)
17.( ) CCC.de (Tot:96,515,881, Gis:218,140)
18.( ) #DeathMatch (Tot:92,439,372, Gis:362,400)
19.( ) Team OS/2 Japan (Tot:88,701,424, Gis:155,380)
20.( ) PINGUIM: Portugal Is Now Going Up In Megakeys (Tot:78,375,885, Gis:145,229)
(Teams waarvan de score van gisteren ontbreekt, hadden geen score in de top 100!)

Wanneer halen we ze in

Japan Windows NT Users Group: 67 dagen
Team Hungary STB+: 26 dagen
Team Win32 (Windows): 16 dagen
Czech RC5 Team: 9 dagen

Mijlpalen

Sub-Team Hack BV: 600.000
BaDMaN: 500.000
Insomniacs: 500.000
GRiMLoCK: 300.000
Marco & Bo: 100.000

Dutch Power Cows is vandaag 4e en heeft een kans van één op 60 om de sleutel te vinden!

FRiWO schrijft: "deze drivers zijn vergelijkbaar met de reference 5.16-drivers maar hebben ondersteuning voor de tv in/out functies van de Asus kaarten. Ze zijn afkomstig van de driver CD behorend bij de Asus V7700 GeForce2 GTS

Met dank aan Cliffie voor de hosting van de files":

De file kun je hier downloaden.