Coen Rijkaart schrijft: "Zoals bekend van de KA7-100 brengt ABIT nu de losse High Point IDE ATA-100 controller op de markt met volledige RAID 0,1,1+0 support":

Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. Monday, June 5st, 2000—The Hot Rod 100 Pro--Ultra DMA IDE/RAID Controller Card is the latest in ABIT’s series of Hot Rod IDE controllers, and gives your system two extra channels of Ultra DMA (ATA) 100. Employing the HPT370 Ultra DMA IDE Controller Chip from High Point, it uses the local PCI bus. To these features, similar to those seen on previous Hot Rod cards, ABIT has added one more feature, ever more important for today’s mass storage needs: RAID.

The Hot Rod 100 Pro gives your system support for a data transfer rate of Ultra DMA 100 MB/second, and is backward compatible to UDMA/66 and 33. The card provides two independent ATA channels at 256 Byte FIFO per ATA channel with concurrent PIO and bus master access and compliant with Plug & Play with up to 4 IDE devices supported.

The Hot Rod 100 Pro card can be used with any mainboard with a free PCI slot. Ultra ATA/100 hard drives are 100 percent compatible with existing ATA (IDE) hard drives, CD-ROM drives, and host systems and the Ultra ATA/100 protocol and commands are designed to be compatible with existing ATA (IDE) devices and systems. And with ABIT’s Hot Rod 100 Pro, you get automatic recognition and compatibility for any combination of UDMA/66, UDMA/33, EIDE, or ATAPI devices. The result is maximum disc performance using the current PCI local bus environment.

The “Pro” in the name designates RAID, a completely new functionality in PCI IDE controllers. With this feature, not only do you drives run faster; they also run more safely. RAID makes a simultaneous backup copy of your hard drive. Of the different RAID modes available, the Hot Rod 100 Pro provides RAID “0,” “1,” and “0+1.” RAID 0 (“striping”) allows your data to be distributed to and accessed from two separate hard drives. RAID 1 (“mirroring”) causes two hard drives to duplicate each other identically. RAID 0+1 (“striping and mirroring”) gives you the most security of all: two sets of striped drives mirror one another.

Voor pics van Abit's nieuwe BX plank met onboard ATA-100 kun je trouwens hier terecht, (thanks downtime).

[CoSD]Headbanger schrijft: "Hoewel het goed bedoeld is van rockband The Offspring heeft Napster hen toch per email verzocht om de verkoop van Napster-stuff via hun homepage te stoppen. Wel bedankt Napster The Offspring voor de steun die ze kregen":

The email, which RollingStone.com obtained a copy of, came from Napster Business Development Manager Chris Phenner. It reads: "We noticed the sale of Napster-related merchandise on the Offspring.com site, and wanted to ask for the removal of all offers relating to the sales of our merchandise. I have contacted the folks at ArtistDirect as well, and wanted to thank you in advance for your compliance in this matter."

The Offspring were said to be startled by the notice, according to the source, who wished not to be named.

"The band were totally taken by surprise and reluctant to do anything to disappoint Napster fans and the Napster community," said the source. "They are gonna think about [the order] over the weekend."

There was no comment from Napster on the matter by press time.

Lees verder bij Rolling Stone. Als je niet weet waar dit over gaat lees dan eerst dit nieuwsbericht even .

[CoSD]Headbanger schrijft: "In deze tijden waarin wij worden overspoeld met AMD-nieuws komt The Register met positief nieuws over Intel. Vandaag, een aantal weken eerder dan verwacht, is Intel begonnen met het leveren van de nieuwe i820E-chipset."

Intel's revamped i820E chipset starts shipping today, a couple of weeks earlier than expected. Featuring a new ICH2 I/O controller hub supporting four USB ports, the 820E also has an integrated LAN controller, dual Ultra ATA/100 IDE controllers and Dolby surround-capable six-channel audio.

The new chipset uses the same RDRAM Memory Controller Hub (MCH) found on the original 820, meaning there will still be a maximum of two RIMM slots on the mobo. A reworked (aka functional) Memory Translator Hub (MTH), enabling SDRAM support is still on track for Q3, said an Intel Europe spokesman.

The ICH2 offers 24 Mbps of bandwidth across four USB ports and an enhanced AC'97 interface supporting full surround-sound for DVD Dolby Digital audio.

The 820E is priced at $35 in 1,000-unit quantities.

Nu.nl meldt in dit nieuwsbericht dat Casema in een poging om de concurrentie met UPC aan te gaan de kabelpoot van energiebedrijf Essent wil gaan overnemen. Thanks ranzige_pad voor de tip.

DELFT - Kabelaar Casema wil nog dit jaar de kabelpoot van de energiefirma Essent overnemen. Het kabelbedrijf hoopt na de acquisitie groot genoeg te zijn om de concurrentie met het gigantische UPC aan te gaan.

"Over vijf jaar zijn er nog maar twee grote kabelbedrijven over", stelt een woordvoerder van Casema. "Wij willen daar een van zijn". De andere overlever is ongetwijfeld marktleider United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC), die ruim twee miljoen aansluitingen telt.

Essent komt boven de anderhalf miljoen en Casema zelf telt 1,27 miljoen abonnees. Het kleinere Casema kan de grotere kabelpoot van Essent behappen doordat de financiële moeder van de kabelaar uit Delft, France Télécom, een flinke oorlogskas heeft. " Die is goed gespekt", bevestigt de woordvoerder.

[...] De gesprekken met het grootste energiebedrijf van Nederland bevinden zich nog in de oriënterende fase. Financiële details kan Casema nog niet geven. Het kabelbedrijf houdt er overigens rekening mee dat Essent nog met andere gegadigden in gesprek gaat. Met UPC bijvoorbeeld? "Dat zou niet zo mooi zijn".

Lees hier verder.

De mening dat heatsinks op de ram chippies geen effect hebben moet denk ik eens herzien worden: dankzij de AMK heatsinkjes voor de videokaart waren ze bij The Techzone in staat hun geheugen op een GeForce2 zonder problemen naar 400 MHz te zetten (max. snelheid zonder heatsinks 375 MHz) :

The sinks are made of aluminum and use finely cut fins. There are two rolls with nine fins per row. Under the sink you'll find the double side thermal tape. The RAM sinks are sold in single units instead of as a kit. Each sink can cool one to two video card RAM depending on the type of RAM your video card has. On my Elsa Gladiac, each sink covered one memory chip. If you have an older Viper 770 with SDRAM, the sink will cover two RAM units. I needed eight RAM sinks to do my Elsa Gladiac. That's $16 just for cooling the RAM. Is this worth the money? Or is this just a show piece like the Hercules 3D Prophet II? Let's find out.

[...] This is the highest 3D Mark 2000 score The Tech Zone has ever achieved with any video card. Quake 3 benchmarks were off the map as well. How does 87 frames per second at 1600x1200x16 bit color sound? This is a good 25 frame per second increase over the Gladiac running at stock speed. Not bad for a $16 investment!

The AMK Video RAM sinks work really well. There is really no performance improvements going with the taller sinks. The short sink wasn't even getting warm with the RAM at 400Mhz so I doubt you'll be able to overclock higher with the taller sinks. Not that you could go higher even if you wanted to since PowerStrip was already set to the maximum. The taller sinks do look more impressive however and does wins in the "WOW" factor. Other than that, there is really no reason to go with the taller RAM sinks.

eGosh schrijft dat de Duitse distributeur van de MamboX MP3 CD speler een review heeft geschreven van een sample. Helaas bleek de unit erg brak te functioneren; MP3's werden afgedraaid met veel gekraak, multi-sessie CD's en CD-RW's werden vaak niet of niet volledig gelezen en playlistst werden niet herkend. Een grote teleurstelling dus, zeker nadat eerder functies als ID3-tag display al wegvielen. Hier een paar gedeeltes:

1st Test CD
Single-Session CD-R containing 185MP3s, popluar bitrates of 96-192kHz (no VBR):
MamboX scans the CD-R for MP3s and finds all 185 tracks. Playback starts ... first track is fine, we skip to the next: Second track is played back with cracking sounds and noises. Okay. It can happen that a MP3 gets corrupted but as we scan through the tracks, 30-40% of all tracks are played back in this bad quality cracking sound. It seems that the MamboX P300 cannot synchronize with quite a lot of MP3s. We encoded most of them ourselves using either Musicmatch Jukebox (Fraunhofer algorithm) or Audiocatalyst (Xing algorithm). Letting the MamboX scan for MP3s a second time (by opening the top and closing it again), it only finds 180MP3s ...

2nd Test CD
Multi-Session CD-R containing 50 MP3s (which of 40 are stored in the first session), bitrates of 96-192kHz (no VBR), 2 playlists:
MamboX is not certain: It finds 31 tracks, then again 17 tracks and sometimes it just displays "no disc" (after scanning the disc). From that we can conclude MamboX does not like multi-session CDs very much ... But unlike cheaper players, it does not stick to the first session and play it, but rather makes up a random choice of MP3s to playback. So, we burn the content of this CD onto a CD in one single session ...

When Tagram Inc. announced MamboX in 1999, they promised everything a MP3 enthusiast can possibly want out of a portable device for that price. What Tagram come across with six months after the scheduled release, is by far not worth 200US$ / 253Euros (including duties / VAT). Even if the mass production devices of MamboX should work stable, Tagram have not left any features left to justify the high price, nor to male buyers happy who have waited since Nov. 1999.

Scans van de manual van het ding kun je overigens hier vinden. De Nederlandse MamboX site vind je op Mamboxfans.com.

De eerste preview van de Kyro met benchmarks en plaatjes is online en als alles klopt wat daar staat dan ziet het er goed uit .

De kaart die een fillrate heeft van 300 MPixels/sec en gebaseerd is op een 0.25 micron procede kan prima concureren met een GeForce SDR. De ongeveer 25% hogere snelheid dan een GeForce SDR, die toch een hogere fillrate heeft is te verklaren door een hele leuke techniek, 'deferred texturing', wat ervoor zorgt dat de niet zichbare delen van een scene niet gerenderen worden. STMicro claimt dat hun kaart dan een effectieve fillrate van 900 MPixels heeft.

Naast een redelijke performance gaat deze kaart een nog betere prijs krijgen (nog niet bekend) maar zeker niet in de buurt van de FL 1000. Als het dus een beetje meezet zou dit wel een de kaart kunnen worden die je wil hebben als je toch snelheid en kwaliteit wil hebben voor een betaalbare prijs:

The STG4000 chip, or KYRO as STM would prefer it to be described, is the first of a family to use PowerVR technology. KYRO has been designed for the mass market. Due to PowerVR's unique and memory efficient tile-based rendering technology KYRO boards do not require expensive components such as DDR memory. Consequently the price can be set at a 'street friendly' level, probably around the cost of a Neon250, yet still deliver high performance graphics and unprecedented image quality.

[...] All of KYRO's pixel operations are rendered on chip at full 32-bit Internal True Colour resolution, maintaining the best possible image quality irrespective of the number of image layers or frame buffer bit depth. When operating in 16bpp frame buffer, KYRO avoids the colour banding or grainy effects seen on traditional hardware, and the consumer receives best game performance without sacrificing visual quality. Internal True Colour also saves memory bandwidth whatever the colour depth, thus enabling KYRO to provide class-leading performance in 32bpp modes.

-Jack- schrijft: "De popgroep The Offspring biedt op haar website Napster goodies aan (T-Shirts, petjes, etc.) met het officiële Napster logo erop . Hiermee schendt The Offspring het copyright van Napster, en men is natuurlijk erg benieuwd naar een reactie van hun.":

De firma Napster, die via Internet software aanbiedt voor het afspelen van gedigitaliseerde muziek, heeft een probleem. Een popgroep, The Offspring genaamd, heeft een eigen website geopend, waar allerlei Napster-hebbedingetjes worden aangeboden. Het gaat om T-shirts, aanstekers en dergelijke, allemaal met het Napster-logo.

Een koekje van eigen deeg, zo noemen waarnemers de nieuwe situatie. In het recente verleden heeft Napster namelijk slaande ruzie gehad met artiesten, platenmaatschappijen en dergelijke over auteursrechten. Via de Napster-software kan namelijk ieder muziekstuk (of daar nu copyright op zit of niet) via een netwerk worden gedistribueerd.

Volgens Napster 'viel het allemaal wel mee' met de piraterij. Nu de firma zelf wordt geconfronteerd met handige lieden die er met hun eigendom vandoor gaan, is de markt zeer benieuwd naar de officiële reactie.[break]Update: De Automatisering Gids zit er flink naast: The Offspring is een fanatiek aanhanger van Napster, zoals blijkt uit de onderstaande quote geript van dit artikel:[/break]"I don't know what Metallica's motives or reasons for what they're doing are, but as far as we're concerned, I support the exchange of MP3 files online," Offspring frontman Dexter Holland says. "Napster facilitates people being able to share music . . . it's like trading cards. And something like Napster is like having the convention."

Als je denkt dat ze daar op hun lauweren gaan rusten na de release van de Thunderbird en de Athlon 1 GHz heb je het mis: ze maken vandaag duidelijk in een press release dat ze een nieuw SuperG systeem gaan leveren, gebaseerd op de Athlon, om weer de snelste en koudste PC's te gaan verkopen . Ze gaan de cache chippies van de Athlon speciaal koelen om zo hogere snelheden mogelijk te maken. Hoe hoog dat is staat er jammer genoeg niet bij maar dat het snel wordt is zeker:

COLUMBIA, SC, June 5, 2000 /PRNewswire/ -- -- KryoTech, Inc. announced today at COMPUTEX Taipei 2000 that it will introduce a new model of its highly acclaimed SuperG™ bare bones system based on the AMD Athlon™ processor with performance enhancing cache memory. In addition, Sys Technology, Inc. announced it would market the new SuperG model in Greater China (Taiwan, the PRC, Hong Kong, and Macau) under an exclusive distribution agreement with KryoTech. Sys will also integrate and market systems based on the new SuperG under the SYS Technology brand in the United States.

[...] The AMD Athlon processor's cache performance will also be further enhanced by KryoTech's "Cold Cache™" feature. Because the SuperG cools the cache memory along with the processor core, the cache will also run at the processor's higher thermally accelerated speed. This will provide dramatically better performance for data intensive applications such as web development, digital content creation, scientific imaging and graphics, entertainment and extreme gaming, and advanced engineering applications.

"The new model will reestablish the KryoTech SuperG as the world's fastest PC system," said Al Quick, KryoTech's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "In addition to integrating the latest and greatest AMD Athlon processor, we are also using this opportunity to transition to a Socket A implementation as well as to introduce other improvements. One such improvement is the new nRT™ evaporative cold plate which incorporates KryoTech's know-how in actively cooling computer components. This innovative new cold plate is more thermally efficient and inherently more upgradeable than earlier designs."

3D Chipset heeft uitgelekte Win9x, NT en Win2k Voodoo3 drivers opgestuurd gekregen. Hieronder de info:

3dfx leaked driver
Version: Unknown
Date: 06/02/00
Size: 12.2mb
Download Here

Release Notes:
- I believe Win2k, WinNT, and Win9x are supported
- Seems to add display tabs for V3 users that V5 has
- Has been tested on V3 3500TV and works fine [break] Daarnaast heeft Soyo weer hele emmer nieuwe bios'en klaar voor haar moederborden familie. Download ze vanaf deze page.[/break] K7VIA BIOS files
file name: k7vi2aa2.bin
checksum: 9230
release date: 06/05/2000
BIOS revision: K7VIA_2AA2
Changes: Fix this issue of Matrox G400 can not workIn win98. 5EH BIOS files
file name: 5eh1da1.bin
checksum: 421D
release date: 06/05/2000
BIOS revision: EH-1DA1
Changes: Update Award source code. Support windows 2000. 5EH V1.0 BIOS files
file name: 5eh1da1.bin
checksum: 421D
release date: 06/05/2000
BIOS revision: EH-1DA1
Changes: Update Award source code.Support windows 2000. 5EH V1.1 BIOS files
file name: 5eh1da1.bin
checksum: 421D
release date: 06/05/2000
BIOS revision: EH-1DA1
Changes: Update Award source code.Support windows 2000. 5EH V1.2 BIOS files
file name: 5eh1da1.bin
checksum: 421D
release date: 06/05/2000
BIOS revision: EH-1DA1
Changes: Update Award source code.Support windows 2000. 5EH V1.3 BIOS files
file name: 5eh1da1.bin
checksum: 421D
release date: 06/05/2000
BIOS revision: EH-1DA1
Changes: Update Award source code.Support windows 2000.

Thanks [CoSD]Headbanger voor de tip.

AnandTech heeft de press release gepost waarin VIA officieel de KT133 chipset aankondigt voor de Duron en Athlon 'Thunderbird' Socket A processors:

Taipei, Taiwan, June 5, 2000 – VIA Technologies, Inc today announced the launch of the VIA Apollo KT133 chipset, enabling the migration from Slot A to the new Socket A AMD Athlon™ and AMD Duron™ processors. Featuring the proven architecture of the highly-acclaimed VIA Apollo KX133 chipset, the VIA Apollo KT133 chipset delivers the same advanced performance benefits to the Socket A platform, including a 200MHz Front Side Bus, AGP4X, and support for PC133 memory.

We are proud to enable the AMD Socket A platform with the VIA Apollo KT133 chipset," said Wen Chi Chen, President and CEO of VIA Technologies, Inc. "The combination of VIA’s industry-leading chipset technology with the AMD Athlon™ and AMD Duron™ processors makes for a formidable platform encompassing all the value, mainstream and performance segments of the PC market."

AMD is excited to continue our close relationship with VIA, and to have VIA produce its dependable chipset solutions for the AMD Athlon™ and AMD Duron™ processors," said Richard Heye, Vice President and General Manager, AMD's Texas Microprocessor Division. "Combining the VIA Apollo KT133 chipset with an AMD processor, system manufacturers can build powerful and feature rich PCs.

The VIA Apollo KT133 is a two-chip set, consisting of the VT8363 North Bridge and VT82C686A “Super” South Bridge. It comes with a full set of advanced features specifically designed to optimize the performance of the Socket A AMD Athlon™ and AMD Duron™ processors, including a 200MHz AGP4X, and support for high-speed PC133 SDRAM.

Key Features

• Supports AMD Athlon and AMD Duron processors
• 200MHz Front Side Bus
• AGP4X
• Supports up to 2.0 GB of 100/133MHz SDRAM and VCM memory types
• PCI 2.2
• ATA 33/66
• 4 USB ports
• Integrated AC-Link for AC-97 audio and HSP Modem
• Integrated Super I/O and Hardware Monitoring
• Integrated KBC, RTC
• Advanced system power management with ACPI and OnNow
• North Bridge: 552-pin BGA VT8363
• South Bridge: 352-pin BGA VT82C686A

Price and Availability

The VIA Apollo KT133 chipset is manufactured at TSMC in a .35 micron, 3 metal layer process. The VIA Apollo KT133 chipset is in volume production now and is priced at $34 in OEM quantities. Motherboards featuring the VIA Apollo KT133 chipset are available from all leading mainboard vendors. Please contact VIA for more information.

MiWa® schrijft dat Overclockers Workbench de specs heeft van de Abit KT7, een Socket A moederbord voor je Duron en Thunderbird gebaseerd op de VIA KT133 chipset. Het plaatjes was nogal wazig dus ik heb (voor zover mogelijk) de specs effe over getypt. De belangrijke features zijn in ieder geval de vrij relaxte layout (geen AMR, 6xPCI en 1xISA) en Soft Menu III.

CPU

• Supports AMD K7 Athlon Socket A 200MHz FSB processors
• Supports AMD K7 Duron Socket A 200MHz FSB processors

Chipset

• VIA KT133 / VIA 686A
• Supports Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface (ACPI)
• Supports AGP 2x, 4x
• Supports 100MHz / 133Mhz Memory Bus Settings

Memory

• Three 168-pin DIMM sockets support PC100, PC133 SDRAM Module
• Supports up to 1.5GB MAX.
• ECC support

System BIOS

• SoftMenu III Technology and DCP Switches
• Award Plug and Play BIOS
• Write-Protect Anti-Virus

Multi I/O Functions

• 2 Channel Bus Master IDE Ports supporting Ultra DMA 33/66
• PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse
• 1 Floppy Port
• 1 Parallel Port
• 2 Serial Ports
• 2 USB connectors
• On board USB header for two more USB connectors

Miscellaneous

• ATX form factor
• 1 AGP slot, 6 PCI slots and 1 ISA slot
• Hardware monitoring including Fan Speed, Voltages, Thermal Headers for CPU
• Built-in Wake on LAN

Bij InQuest staan een interessant artikel waarin ze een reference VIA ProSavage PM133 bord met geïntegreerde S3 Savage4 Pro graphics vergelijken met een i810E plank (ook met onboard video). Uit de talrijke benchmarks blijkt dat de VIA chipset geen moeite heeft om de i810E compleet weg te vagen, iets wat eigenlijk ook wel op z'n minst te verwachten was. Het is afwachten hoe de PM133 chipset zich zal houden ten opzichte van de i815 / i815E die we 19 juni kunnen verwachten.

VIA’s ProSavage PM133 seems to have the ability to obsolete the 810 and 810e platforms. Severely lacking performance and upgrade options, the 810/810e may only hold on to its market share through aggressive price cuts and deal making on Intel’s part.

After a year of blood on the walls over Intel’s 820, RDRAM, the MTH and other chip set debacles, even previously staunch ‘Intel loyal’ PC buyers are softening to their alternatives. For many customers, the 810 was only taken seriously as an escape route from the 820 and as one of several options to cover Intel’s BX chip set shortages. As Intel continues to wean an unwilling customer base away from the legendary BX chip set, the market will seek a more flexible, feature rich, lower cost platform for the mainstream.

The acceptance of SMA into the mainstream offers the most significant system level cost reduction in recent history. Until other competitive chip sets arrive on the scene, the market will have to square off between Intel's 810/815 and VIA’s new ProSavage PM133. It will be interesting to watch.

De mannen van iXBT-Hardware hebben een zeer uitgebreide roundup gepost van de meest populaire KX133 Athlon borden, de ABIT KA7, AOpen AK72, ASUS K7V, Chaintech 7ATA, EPoX EP-7KXA, Gigabyte GA-7VX, LuckyStar K7VA133 en de Tyan S2380 Trinity K7. De twee onderstaande modellen kregen een aanbeveling vanwege stabiliteit en performance:

• Gigabyte GA-7VX. This high quality mainboard proved the most stable of all and showed nearly the best performance. And the unique DualBIOS technology makes the board even more attractive, because it protects the mainboard against such viruses as CIH and against errors during new BIOS versions reflashing. The only drawback of GA-7VX is processor overclocking, which is practically impossible. So, Gigabyte GA-7VX will be the best choice for those users who appreciate system stability and reliability above all.
  
  
• ASUS K7V. ASUS stuffed its mainboard with the whole bunch of features, which are pretty valuable for dedicated overclockers. Vcore settings, wide range of supported FSB frequencies and progressive hardware
  monitoring will hardly remain unnoticed by those of you who are used to squeezing the maximum out of your PCs. Besides, this board proved one of the fastest, which is also a definite plus. However, you will have to put up with a couple of design inconveniences: extremely large size and the absence of ISA slots.

Naast Anand's review zullen er vandaag nog wel heel wat meer AMD Thunderbird artikelen het net op worden geschopt. Hier alvast een kleine verzameling:

Tom's Hardware guide

"Athlon was good, but the new Athlon is even better" is the best thing to summarize AMD's new Thunderbird processor. The new integrated L2-cache is able to boost Athlon's performance to a level that's now fully able to compete against Intel's Pentium III in almost any benchmark that's not one-sidedly enhanced for Intel's ISSE-instructions only. The attractive pricing of Thunderbird will ensure the continued success of the Athlon CPU. However, those of you who expected that Thunderbird would leave Coppermine far behind may be a bit disappointed. AMD is facing quite a bit of work if Athlon is supposed to compete well against Intel's upcoming 'Willamette' processor.

Full On 3D (inclusief AMD, VIA e.a. interviews)

3DMark 2000 shows a marginal 4-6% increase depending on Software T&L and Hardware T&L modes. In the 3DMark CPU Software T&L tests, the K75 stays close to the Thunderbird but in hardware T&L CPU tests, the Thunderbird pulls ahead by 7%.

In the OpenGL-based Quake3A, the Thunderbird seems to benefit by 11-13% over the K75, which is a markedly great improvement compared to Direct3D.The K75 manages to marginally outperform the Thunderbird in 3D Winbench although the Thunderbird wins in the CPU test by 6%.

PC World

The bottom line: In limited testing, the new Athlon processors, with 256KB of full-speed on-die L2 cache, appear to offer modestly better performance than do existing Athlons with 512KB of slower, off-die L2 cache. It might not be the boost some chip fanatics hoped for, but it's there, and it won't cost you anything extra.

Gamers Depot 1GHz Thunderbird review

Once the new AMD chipset comes out that supports DDR memory and the 266Mhz (DDR 133Mhz) bus, Intel will really only be able to rely on its touted Willamette processor which isn't due out till late fall. In the mean time it looks like AMD will certainly hold the performance crown, and they don't appear to be losing any momentum from here on out.

A huge Kudos goes out to AMD for sticking to their guns and not only holding pace with Intel, but in some cases even beating them as they did by releasing the first 1Ghz chip a couple of months ago. However, all this newfound power isn't without its price, and for current Athlon owners the price of upgrading into a new CPU and motherboard might be too much. If you're in the market for an Athlon, and haven't bought one yet, then it makes all the sense in the world to grab one.

Hardware Central 1GHz Thunderbird review

From a performance point of view the Thunderbird is a big improvement over the original 1 GHz Athlon CPU; its full speed on-die L2-cache does away with the disadvantages of the original Athlons' discrete caches. Although the Compaq platform supplied by AMD didn’t really utilize the CPU’s full potential, we’re confident that once other manufacturers introduce their Socket-A platforms we'll see a substantial increase in performance. Looking at the benchmarks we’ve run, it looks as if the Thunderbird is easily a match for Intel’s Pentium III Coppermine, even with the slow memory throughput of the Compaq's 100 MHz FSB. We will, however, not pass final judgement until we can compare CPUs head-to-head in identical setups. Nevertheless, AMD’s Thunderbird combined with VIA’s KT133 chipset looks really promising.

CPU Review wist wat interessante nieuws over de AMD 760MP multi-processing chipset bijeen te harken. Uit onderstaande kunstwerkje (afkomstig van AMD, dus niet het produkt van Mr. CPU Review's eigen creativiteit) kunnen we opmaken dat AMD ondersteuning voor alle belangrijke I/O standaarden in gedachten heeft. Zowel voor het huidige 64-bit 66MHz PCI als voor de toekomstige PCI-X en Infiniband standaarden is ondersteuning gepland.

Ook opmerkelijk zijn de twee lijntjes tussen northbridge en geheugen. Deze suggereren dat de 760MP chipset over dual channel DDR SDRAM beschikt, wat zou betekenen dat de CPU's, AGP poort en DMA devices in totaal 4,2GB/s bandbreedte kunnen verbruiken. Beide processors zouden hun busbandbreedte van 2,1GB/s dan optimaal kunnen benutten:

FullOn3D onderhield een vragensessie met AMD PR manager Drew Prairie, over de vandaag geïntroduceerde Tbird processsor. Het interview leverde wat interessante feitjes op, waaronder de bevestiging dat de L2 cache van de Thunderbird via een 64-bit smalle bus aan de processors is geknoopt:

We designed the large 128Kb L1 cache to deliver optimal processor performance by ensuring that the majority of performance-intensive memory requests are serviced by accessing the L1. the 128Kb L1 is 2-way set associative, and the L2 cache is 256Kb 16 way set associative. we use an exclusive cache architecture that delivers 384kb of effective cache memory on the CPU. Exclusive cache architecture contains only the copy-back cache blocks to be written back to the memory sub-system, so there is no redundancy between the L1 and L2. Because of the exclusive cache architecture, the L2 adds a full 256Kb of additional cache memory --- for the 384kb total of effective cache. The L2 has a 64-bit data path with an 8 cycle latency between an L1 miss and the first critical word received from the L2. what does it all mean in terms of overall CPU/system performance? Check the AMD website for a comprehensive set of benchmark results that demonstrate the benefits of our architecture in terms of delivering leading-edge performance.

Verder laat Drew weten dat AMD zichzelf tot doel heeft gesteld om tegen eind 2001 30% van de markt veroverd te hebben. De relatie met VIA zou nog steeds oké zijn, de AMD 760 en 760MP chipsets staat nog steeds lekker vaag voor de tweede helft van dit jaar gepland en er zijn geen plannen voor een Socket A naar Slot A convertor. Check het interview voor de details.

SlotA.com kreeg van VIA een demo Athlon MicroATX bord opgestuurd gebaseerd op de KM133 chipset wat basicly gewoon een KT133 chipset is met geïntegreede graphics en sound. Helaas geen benchmarks in het artikel maar verwacht wordt dat deze uiteraard niet veel zullen verschillen van de huidige Socket A oplossingen van VIA. Wij tweakers zijn natuurlijk wel geïnteresseerd in de overklok features:

Due to the  nature of the board being a demo or test board there is a very wide array of over-clocking features.  The clock multiplier, voltage, and bus speeds are all controlled by 5 banks of dip switches.

Bus speeds include the following for the W210 or C9706 clock generator chip:

66.8/75/79/83/100.2/110/115/120/124/129/133.3/138/143MHz

Bus speeds include the following when using the ICS 9248-114 clock generator chip:

66.8/75/83.3/100/103/105/110/112/115/120/124/133/140/150MHz

Clock multiplier settings include the following: 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 11.5 12.5

Voltage setting include between 1.100 to 1.850 in .025V increments. This board definitely is loaded with a lot of over-clocking features.  Now whether production boards will still include the ability to change the clock multiplier or not is still an unknown.  I most certainly hope that they do because without it we lose one of the things that makes the Athlon so overclockable.

LoCaL bracht ons een linkje naar deze afbeelding van de vorige week aangekondigde Asus A7V moederplaat met VIA KT133 chipset. De plank differentieert zich van andere KT133 borden door de aanwezigheid van een Promise ATA100 controller en het voor Asus borden inmiddels vertrouwde AGP Pro slot:

Tweakmax heeft een leuke vergelijking gemaakt waarin zij kijken op welke snelheid CAS3 geheugen moet lopen om even snel te zijn als CAS2 geheugen. Uit de resultaten blijkt dat 112MHz CAS2 geheugen vergelijkbaar presteert als 133MHz CAS3 SDRAM. Het verslaan van 133 MHz CAS2 geheugen blijkt een moeilijke taak te zijn: je hebt daar CAS3 geheugen voor nodig dat op 154 MHz wil draaien:

Memory bandwidth. Most of us know that running the memory in Cas2 is faster than running it in Cas3. But just how much of a difference is there? I know many sites have posted the memory bandwidth in MB/sec in Cas2 compared to Cas3, in the same MHz, but what I haven't seen anywhere yet is how many more FSB MHz does it take from Cas2, to get the same bandwidth in Cas3 mode?

[...] Well, Cas-2 at 133 FSB is hard to beat. We (Frank & Thomas) are currently running our own CPU's in the 145-148FSB range and the thought of having our memory running Cas-2 at this speed is very tempting. Especially when we know what this would do to our Q3 FPS But that's another story...

3DWorkshop heeft een preview inelkaar gedraait van de een nieuwe videokaart van STMicro, de Kyro. Deze kaart gaat in iedergeval een stuk beter om met fillrate dan de meeste 3D kaarten die je nu op de markt ziet, de Kyro hoeft niet alle textures te renderen die niet zichtbaar zijn. Naast dat krijgt de chip ook nog een ontwerp wat erg goed moet kunnen scalen, het toevoegen van wat extra rendering pipelines of chippies hoeft geen problemen op te leveren :

'Deferred Texturing'. In PowerVR systems (KYRO) the hidden surface removal (read above) is completed in the first phase of the rendering pipeline, i.e before texturing and shading. The result is that only the visible pixels, to be finally drawn in the display memory, are texturing and shaded eliminating the redundant work performed (filling a pixel and then discarding it discussed earlier) and most importantly, the redundant texture fetches from external memory (which has a rather limited bandwidth) required by 'conventional' 3D systems.

[...] Scalability. As PowerVR systems (KYRO) split the screen into 'tiles' which are independent of each other it is easy to add more processing elements (either within one chip or using multiple chips) in order to increase performance.

[...] Tile based rendering is a very different approach to rendering and it is nice to see someone grasping its potentials. However we have yet to see a system using tile based rendering that can really compete with the top-players in the 3D arena (for example NVIDIA). Maybe KYRO will be the one? The bandwidth requirements are greatly reduced by using 'tiles' and 'deferred texturing'. With their Internal True Color(TM) technology (just a fancy name really) they can perform high-quality scenes without performance loss. Maybe we will see no, or very little, loss in performance when going from 16-bit to 32-bit rendering.

AnandTech was vannacht de eerste Amerikaanse site die na het vallen van de Thunderbird NDA een officiële Thunderbird review publiceerde. De benchmarks in het artikel van Anand zijn geen verassing voor diegenen die de uitgelekte Thunderbird benchmarks van de afgelopen week hebben gevolgd, dat wil zeggen: teleurstellend.

Uit de cijfers van AnandTech blijkt dat de Thunderbird over de gehele linie (Winstone, SysMark, Quake, UT, Expandable en SPECViewperf) slechts enkele procenten sneller is dan de Athlon Classic. Zelfs bij de 1GHz versie, waarvan verwacht werd dat het verschil met de oude Athlon vrij groot zou zijn, is er slechts een voordeel van gemiddeld 3%. De SysMark 2000 applicatiebenchmark profiteert met een verschil van 9,4% het meest van de snellere on-die cache van de Thunderbird. In de overige benchmarks gaat 't slechts om enkele procenten, bij de Viewperf benchmarks soms zelfs in het nadeel van de Thunderbird. Afgaande op de toch wel (erg) teleurstellende benchmark resultaten is het ook meteen duidelijk waarom de Thunderbird geen 'Athlon Professional' of 'Athlon Performance' heet, zoals dat aanvankelijk het plan leek te zijn. Het kleine verschil met de Athlon Classic rechtvaardigt deze benaming niet...

De oorzaak van de matige winst van de Thunderbird blijkt te liggen in de relatief smalle bus tussen processor en L2 cache. Deze is nog steeds 64-bit en heeft daardoor in theorie een vier keer zo lage bandbreedte als de supersnelle 256-bit brede bus van de Pentium III. De Thunderbird heeft wel als voordeel dat deze 'exclusive' L2 cache heeft, waarbij data in L2 en L1 cache elkaar niet overlapt. Hierdoor heeft de Thunderbird een totaal cachebereik van 384KB, ipv 256KB bij de Pentium III. Verder heeft de Thunderbird 16-way set-associative cache, wat een hogere cache hit-rate tot gevolg zou moeten hebben dan het 8-way set-associative L2 cache van de Pentium III. Je kunt stellen dat de Thunderbird over een geavanceerd L2 cache beschikt, dat gemankeerd wordt door een smalle busbreedte. AMD laat hier een behoorlijke kans liggen, anderzijds heeft de hogere cache latency wel tot gevolg dat de Thunderbird beter geschikt is voor hoge kloksnelheden.

Een mix van de AnandTech bechmarks leverde de volgende percentages op:

Overall is de 1GHz Thunderbird sneller dan de 1GHz Pentium III met i820+Rambus plank. Uit de i820 vs 440BX verhalen van Ome Tom weten we inmiddels dat de i820+Rambus combo vergelijkbaar presteert als een 440BX op 133MHz. Bij gebruik van bord met VIA Apollo Pro 133A chipset heeft de Thunderbird een behoorlijke voorsprong op de Pentium III. Wat betreft price/performance wint de Thunderbird het dus duidelijk van de Pentium III, hoewel je het wel triest zou kunnen noemen dat AMD verzuimd heeft om meer winst uit de on-die L2 cache te trekken.

Anand bevestigd dat de Thunderbird een multiplier lock heeft. Overklokkers dienen er daarom rekening mee te houden dat de Thunderbird slecht overklokbaar zal zijn tot de AMD 760 mobo's met 266MHz FSB op de markt komen. De huidige EV6 borden gaan meestal niet verder dan 110MHz. In het stenen tijdperk van de K5 en Cyrix 6x86 was een winst van 10-15% buitengewoon leuk, maar voor hedendaagse begrippen is 't gewoon erg mager.

Hier nog een interessante quote uit de review van Anand, over de brakheid van de VIA KT133 en Apollo Pro 133A chipsets:

If you compare the Thunderbird on a KT133 motherboard to a Pentium III on a VIA 133A motherboard you can see that the Athlon holds a large advantage over the Pentium III, but you can also see that the Athlon is being severely limited by the performance of the KT133 chipset. Compared to the BX and 820 chipsets the VIA 133A definitely lags behind, and since the KT133 is based on the same AGP core and features the same memory controller as the VIA 133A you can expect to see the same subpar performance with that part as well. If you compare the Athlon on a KT133 platform to an overclocked BX133 setup you will truly be able to see how much of a limitation the KT133 chipset is for the Thunderbird.

Unfortunately there is not much hope in the near future for the Thunderbird chipset situation. The next big chipset release that you'll want to watch out for will most likely be AMD's 760 chipset which will be released around the time of the Mustang core. The chipset itself, will support DDR SDRAM and the 133MHz DDR FSB (effectively 266MHz) and should provide everyone with the performance improvement we've been hoping for. If you currently have an Athlon, the release of the AMD 760 chipset is probably when you'll want to upgrade your setup if you were thinking about doing so.

In een tweede press release heeft AMD vandaag bekend gemaakt dat het is begonnen met de levering van Athlon processors vanuit hun nieuwe fabriek in Dresden. Dresden maakt gebruik van een geavanceerd 0,18micron koper-interconnect bakprocédé, wat hogere kloksnelheden en kleinere 'dices' mogelijk maakt. Volgens AMD zijn de yields in Dresden tot dusver 'excellent':

AMD announced today that it has commenced commercial shipments of AMD Athlon(TM) processors with performance-enhancing cache memory manufactured with 180-nanometer (0.18-micron) copper interconnect technology from its newest ``megafab,'' Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany.

The first product from Fab 30 is AMD's most advanced PC processor, an AMD Athlon processor featuring 256 kilobytes of integrated on-chip L2 cache and 128 kilobytes of L1 cache. With approximately 37 million transistors and clock speeds initially up to 1 gigahertz, the latest member of the AMD Athlon processor family is targeted at the performance sector of the PC market.

``The Free State of Saxony actively supported the AMD Fab 30 project from the beginning,'' said Saxony Prime Minister Professor Kurt Biedenkopf. ``We are happy to see that the Dresden microprocessor fab has started to ship product after years of planning, construction, and qualification. This is an important day, not only for AMD Saxony, but also for the entire region. Saxony is well on its way to becoming a modern industrial state, where successful companies research, develop, and manufacture products for the world market. On a day like this, we are taking a big step toward this goal,'' said Prime Minister Biedenkopf.

``The opening of Fab 30 is a major milestone on our journey toward our goal of capturing a 30 percent unit share of the semiconductor industry's largest market segment, PC processors,'' said W.J. Sanders III, chairman and chief executive officer of AMD. ``With two megafabs now positioned with the world's leading microprocessor technology, we can further improve our ability to meet customer demand for the world's highest-performance PC processors. Employing state-of-the-art 180-nanometer technology with copper interconnects, Fab 30 will enable AMD to continue to produce the world's highest-performance PC processors in volume. We are extremely pleased with the progress we are making in Fab 30. Yields and speed-grade distributions from our initial production of AMD Athlon processors on 180-nanometer copper technology in Fab 30 already match or exceed the yields and speed-grade distributions we are achieving on 180-nanometer aluminum technology in Fab 25.''

``Fab 30 has been designed to accommodate the most advanced process technologies and incorporates state-of-the-art clean room techniques,'' said Dr. William Siegle, senior vice president of Technology and Manufacturing Operations and chief scientist at AMD. ``The successful start-up and initial shipments from Fab 30 represent our first revenue-generating implementation of technology developed through the AMD-Motorola alliance begun in 1998,'' said Siegle. ``The efforts of our joint development team at Motorola's Austin facility are paying off. The latest member of the AMD Athlon processor family, with transistors featuring 100-nanometer gates and copper interconnect technology, is our first commercial product employing process technology resulting from this joint development effort. In particular, copper interconnect technology will not only provide immediate benefits, but will take on added importance in future processor generations employing finer geometry technologies,'' said Siegle.

``Yields and speed-grade distribution during our early production stages in Fab 30 have been excellent,'' said James Doran, vice president and general manager, AMD Saxony Manufacturing GmbH. ``These excellent results can be attributed to employment of the latest tool sets, the rigor of our copper interconnect technology, and the outstanding efforts of our Dresden work force.''

Construction of Fab 30, located on a 75-acre campus in the community of Wilschdorf on the northern edge of Dresden, was completed in the spring of 1998. Pilot production, using an AMD-K6® processor as a development vehicle, began in January of 1999. The first devices employing copper interconnect technology were produced in July of 1999, leading to the first commercial shipments of PC processors employing copper interconnect technology this month. The site also includes the Dresden Design Center, which is currently developing a new companion chip that incorporates communications features that will complement AMD's next-generation PC processors. When fully equipped, Fab 30 will represent a total investment of $1.9 billion. The AMD Dresden site currently employs approximately 1,150 people, including 70 at the Dresden Design Center. Total employment at the Dresden site is expected to reach 1,800 people by the end of 2001.

Zoals verwacht heeft AMD vandaag de Thunderbird processor met 'performance-enhancing on-chip L2 cache memory' geïntroduceerd. Tevens werd aangekondigd dat er is begonnen met de levering van Duron CPU's. Tweakers die vrolijk worden van marketing geblaat mogen zich te goed doen aan dit stukje knip&plak uit de officiële press release:

At Computex, AMD today introduced the new AMD Athlon(TM) processor featuring performance-enhancing on-chip L2 cache memory, and announced that it has begun shipping its new AMD Duron(TM) processor to computer manufacturers worldwide.

The AMD Athlon processor continues to power the next-generation in computing platforms, delivering the ultimate performance for cutting-edge applications and an unprecedented x86 computing experience. AMD is shipping the new AMD Athlon processors with performance enhancing on-chip L2 cache memory now. Compaq, Fujitsu-Siemens, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM and others plan to introduce systems featuring the processor. The new AMD Athlon processor is available in six speeds (1GHz, and 950, 900, 850, 800 and 750MHz) in both Slot A and the new Socket A packaging.

``AMD has made great strides over the past year with the AMD Athlon processor, with both engineering and manufacturing executing well,'' said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst of The Linley Group. ``The new design delivers even better performance, and these chips will be formidable competitors in the marketplace. With the new AMD Athlon and AMD Duron processors, AMD is well positioned in both the performance and value PC segments.''

``Backed by our infrastructure partners, AMD has never been in a better position to deliver superior solutions to our customers. The new AMD Athlon processor sets the stage for AMD's further growth in both the commercial and consumer sectors,'' said Rob Herb, executive vice president at AMD.

Many of AMD's leading infrastructure partners today announced chipsets and motherboards optimized for AMD's Socket A infrastructure for the new AMD Athlon and AMD Duron processors, demonstrating widespread support for Socket A.

Met nog geen 2.500 blokjes meer dan team AnandTech is toch weer gelukt: DPC stond gisteren op nummer 1!
En dankzij 25 nieuwe leden heeft DPC er in totaal nu 2076.

Wil je ook meedoen met de hollandse krachtkoeien, kijk dan hier voor meer info.

De DPC hitparade top 10 van 4 juni

1. 58.895 [Dutch Power Cows] wiho (1, Totaal: 9.709.502)
2. 58.390 [Dutch Power Cows] Interior Lulu (2, Totaal: 5.004.022)
3. 23.775 [Dutch Power Cows] GEB Software (72, Totaal: 304.520)
4. 20.147 the_duke (385, Totaal: 48.011)
5. 19.576 [Dutch Power Cows] Tuur (66, Totaal: 336.557)
6. 17.111 [Dutch Power Cows] [-=!WE!=-] (265, Totaal: 81.813)
7. 15.879 [DPC] Quakers United | Cewle Coown' Cadavers (31, Totaal: 640.673)
8. 13.165 [Dutch Power Cows]\-Killemall eats cows for lunch- (80, Totaal: 267.011)
9. 13.162 [Dutch Power Cows] BaDMaN (26, Totaal: 675.364)
10. 11.114 2fast4u [Dutch Power Cows] (12, Totaal: 925.953)

En de nummers 11 tot en met 30

11. 11.028 [Dutch Power Cows] -=Marsman=- (43, Totaal: 454.316)
12. 9.503 chronos (670, Totaal: 19.522)
13. 9.135 [Dutch power Cows] Gamer.nl (50, Totaal: 401.124)
14. 8.990 [Dutch Power Cows]Sang-Drax of Xanadu (167, Totaal: 136.573)
15. 8.773 DPC Division Heteren City (63, Totaal: 354.578)
16. 7.700 [DPC] Cyber Cows Unlimited (81, Totaal: 265.680)
17. 7.470 [Dutch power Cows] Ronnie Tober (143, Totaal: 154.557)
18. 7.452 [Dutch Power Cows] The LawnMooh'er Men (5, Totaal: 1.515.289)
19. 7.206 [Dutch Power Cows] Superfriet (162, Totaal: 138.447)
20. 7.026 [Dutch Power Cows] Dutchbat clan (228, Totaal: 99.700)
21. 6.845 [Dutch Power Cows] Insomniacs (36, Totaal: 590.521)
22. 6.807 [Dutch Power Cows] BaDo (44, Totaal: 453.293)
23. 6.051 [Dutch Power Cows] Jobe (16, Totaal: 775.540)
24. 5.727 [Dutch Power Cows] - GRiMLoCK (62, Totaal: 364.439)
25. 5.420 [Dutch Power Cows] Sienema (6, Totaal: 1.454.985)
26. 5.366 Eddict Haven (4, Totaal: 2.186.123)
27. 5.320 [Dutch Power Cows] The Vinz (176, Totaal: 130.864)
28. 5.300 [Dutch Power Cows] Graasland (106, Totaal: 195.323)
29. 5.171 [Dutch Power Cows] ThE RaVeR (32, Totaal: 639.986)
30. 4.875 [Dutch Power Cows] Collin de Grazer! (356, Totaal: 52.716)

De Top 15 teams

1. (0) 844.207 Dutch Power Cows
2. (0) 841.796 AnandTech
3. (0) 714.550 Slashdot.org
4. (1) 611.332 HackZone Team -- Combined power of Russia and exUSSR countries
5. (1) 577.718 Russian Team
6. (0) 525.443 Infinite_Monkeys
7. (1) 415.152 The Amiga RC5 Team effort
8. (2) 356.811 Japan FreeBSD Users Group
9. (2) 321.539 Team EvangeLista (Macs Rule! :-)
10. (2) 315.158 Team Warped (OS/2)
11. (2) 294.393 Libertarians for Privacy (1-800-ELECT-US)
12. (1) 269.138 Team Hungary STB+
13. (1) 256.076 Japan Windows NT Users Group
14. (2) 234.135 CCC.de
15. (2) 233.417 Team Slacker <oow umop episdn>

Teams om ons heen (total stats)

10. () Japan Linux Users Group (Tot: 143.507.846, Gis: 184.489)
11. () @stake L0pht Labs (Tot: 143.150.386, Gis: 212.913)
12. () Japan Windows NT Users Group (Tot: 128.724.795, Gis: 256.076)
13. () Team Hungary STB+ (Tot: 115.329.198, Gis: 269.138)
14. () Dutch Power Cows (Tot: 112.362.343, Gis: 844.207)
15. () Team Win32 (Windows) (Tot: 108.969.673, Gis: 230.525)
16. () Czech RC5 Team (Tot: 105.777.861, Gis: 142.894)
17. () CCC.de (Tot: 100.097.425, Gis: 234.135)
18. () #DeathMatch (Tot: 98.095.691, Gis: 84.294)
(Teams waarvan de score van gisteren ontbreekt, hadden geen score in de top 100!)

Wanneer halen we ze in

Japan Linux Users Group: 48 dagen
@stake L0pht Labs: 49 dagen
Japan Windows NT Users Group: 28 dagen
Team Hungary STB+: 6 dagen

Mijlpalen

Dutch Power Cows is vandaag 1e en heeft een kans van één op 47 om de sleutel te vinden!