Tech News for Wednesday November 24th
1999.
New 3Dfx Chief Prepares To Clean House.
Posted: 11/24/99 Source: TechWeb
Added by: Kim Heise
Just to quote the article on 3Dfx's
woes:
Alex Leupp, the newly named president and CEO of 3Dfx Interactive, is coming
into a job at a company that already has two strikes against it: The graphics
chip company is in the red, and its latest chip is running late and will not be
on the market in time for the critical holiday sales period.
Force Feedback mouse is now shipping.
Posted: 11/24/99 Source: VoodooExtreme
Added by: Kim Heise
Whatever will they think of next? A force feedback
keyboard? (You heard it here first). Here's a clip from the press release from
Logitech:
In addition to gaming applications, developers can now
provide tactile feedback as a user moves over an icon, button, menu or
hyperlink. In a similar manner, force feedback can enhance the online
experience. For example, web-based gamers playing force feedback-enabled games
will be able to feel the impact of actions taken by an opponent sitting
thousands of miles away, while Web developers can add touch sensations to their
pages in Netscape® Navigator(TM) and Microsoft® Internet Explorer.
Force feedback effects can be created and customized by
means of a powerful, easy-to-use toolkit from Immersion Corporation that
provides ``write-once, run-on-any'' force feedback device capability. The
Immersion developer toolkit is available for download at www.immersion.com and
is 100-percent compatible with the Microsoft (MSFT) DirectX software API, all
DirectX compatible force feedback gaming controllers, in addition to the WingMan
Force Feedback Mouse.
You can read the full press release here.
Motorola to demo 780MHz PowerPC G4+
Posted: 11/24/99 Source: The
Register Added by: Kim Heise
Let us not forget Motorola's very impressive
"G" series processors amongst all the AMD and Intel wars. The Register
reports that the chip manufacturer will be demonstrating their latest G4 CPU but
no details on a demo date were released. Specs on the chip are a dual 32MB L1
caches, 256K on-die L2 and support for up to 2MB of backside L3 cache.
Creative Labs announces "3D Blaster GeForce 256
Pro".
Posted: 11/24/99 Source: nV
News Added by: Kim Heise
If I had one wish and plenty of money in my Christmas
stocking I would be looking at a nVidia GeForce 256 video card with DDR memory.
To jump on the bandwagon Creative Labs has plans to release a DDR version of the
much anticipated "3D Blaster GeForce 256", aptly labeled the
"Pro" series.
Microsoft faces a fury of new lawsuits.
Posted: 11/24/99 Source: BetaNews
Added by: Kim Heise
Microsoft is facing more lawsuits by the day as
consumers and lawyers are lining up in droves to see if they can profit from
Judge Jackson's findings. The latest article posted over at BetaNews talks about
the current lawsuits filed in California where customers are complaining about
monopolistic tactics by the software giant. We currently have more and more
operating systems to choose from than ever - Be OS, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris
etc.... Some of these operating systems are vastly more reliable than Windows
but I get the feeling that consumers like to find a common ground to work with.
Nobody wants to convert their data over 5 operating systems or have to relearn
from one computer to another.
If Microsoft were to disappear today, consumers will begin to "circle"
a new operating system which would become the new standard.
Micron announces "SyncFlash" memory.
Posted: 11/24/99 Source: EETimes
Added by: Kim Heise
Micron has developed a new type of
memory that fits into the standard DIMM RAM socket. Please note that this only
applies for systems that load "flash" memory into main memory. Here's
a piece from the article:
SyncFlash has been designed for systems that
use flash chips to store code, but transfer the code to DRAM and then execute it
from the main memory. By moving the flash chip onto the main memory bus,
designers can eliminate some of the DRAM chips, saving both money and board
space, according to Micron. The systems can also activate the code faster from
the flash chip if it doesn't have to move the commands to another part of the
system.
This basically translates into cheaper hardware which is music to consumer's
ears.
Radical transistor breakthrough.
Posted: 11/24/99 Source: CNET
Added by: Kim Heise
With all the radical changes we are seeing in the
computer industry I think this one is worth pointing out. In Berkley, CA a
new semiconductor transistor so small that a single computer chip can hold 400
times more of the devices than before could help lead to significantly faster
and cheaper chip technology.
Here's more details from the article:
Chenming Hu, a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at the
University of California (Berkeley) said the tiny transistor is much smaller
than any other ever developed. "It's a new world record," Hu said of
the prototype, dubbed "FinFET."
Details of the invention, which was funded by the U.S.
Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, will be unveiled next month at the
International Electronic Devices Meeting in Washington.
The Berkeley breakthrough, announced in a news release,
changes the design of the "gate," or switch, on the transistor which
controls the flow of electric current in electronic devices. Previously the gate
was a flat conductor that controlled only one side of the passage through which
the current flows, but the Berkeley team has redesigned it as a fork-shaped
prong straddling both sides of the passage.
This gives much better control and reduced current leakage,
meaning the transistor can be made much smaller.
Hu said the FinFET's gate is 18 nanometers long, or about
the width of 100 atoms. While far too small to be viewed by the naked eye, it is
visible through a scanning electron microscope.
Details on Windows 2000 release candidate 3.
Posted: 11/24/99 Source: NT
Magazine Added by: Kim Heise
NT Magazine has posted the details regarding the
various versions of Microsoft's upcoming OS and which new version were posted to
beta testers in the latest release candidate 3.
Here are the details on RC3 in no particular order:
• Windows 2000 Professional RC3 Build 2183 for x86-based systems
• Windows 2000 Server RC3 Build 2183 for x86-based systems
• Windows 2000 RC3 Build 2183 Customer Support Diagnostics (includes Books
Online and Debugging Symbols)
• Release Notes (read1st.txt and relnotes.doc)
• Windows 2000 Professional RC3 Build 2183 Bootdisk Directory (used to create
bootable floppy disk set)
• Windows 2000 Server RC3 Build 2183 Bootdisk Directory (used to create
bootable floppy disk set)
• Windows 2000 Advanced Server RC3 Build 2183 Bootdisk Directory (used to
create bootable floppy disk set)
• Windows 2000 Professional Checked RC3 Build 2183 for x86-based systems
• Windows 2000 Professional Checked RC3 Build 2183 Bootdisk Directory (used to
create bootable floppy disk set)
Troubled 3DFX names new CEO.
Posted: 11/24/99 Source: ActiveWin
Added by: Kim Heise
Struggling graphics chipmaker 3Dfx today announced
that board member and semiconductor veteran Alex Leupp will become the company's
new chief executive.
The appointment of Leupp, 59, comes at a time of wrenching change for the
graphics chipmaker. Once one of the performance leaders in 3D graphics chips,
the company has seen its market share and performance edge sag in the past 18
months because of competition and product delays.In October, former CEO
Greg Ballard abruptly resigned. The company's stock has essentially stayed
level today at just below $9.
If anything, Leupp could bring a greater degree of practical
operations skill to the company, said Peter Glaskowsky, graphics analyst with MicroDesign
Resources.
Linux RedHat 6.1: A First Look.
Posted: 11/24/99 Source: CPU
Review Added by: Kim Heise
Take a look at CPU Review's first look at RedHat's
latest incarnation of Linux. Looks like the Linux OS is now finally easier to
install.
Tech News for Monday November 22nd
1999.
Microsoft braces for class action suit.
Posted: 11/22/99 Source: ZDNET
Added by: Kim Heise
The New York times have reported that three California
lawyers plan to file a class action suit against Microsoft today. The paper said
the lawyers will accuse Microsoft of using its Monopoly powers to overcharge
users for Windows 95 and Windows 98.
750mhz AMD K7 Athlon shipping by the end of the month.
Posted: 11/22/99 Source: The
Register Added by: Kim Heise
The Register reports that AMD will be shipping 750mhz
CPU's by the end of this month. This puts AMD back in front as the fastest
processor on the street. Here's a piece from The Register:
Sources close to AMD's plans have told The Register that it
will introduce its 750MHz Athlon on the 29th of this month.
That will be prefaced by a further bout of advertising from
AMD on the 27th of this month, intended once more to contrast the performance
and price of its Athlon processor against Intel's Pentium III.
"InternetMETER" 2.0 Beta Build 4.109
Posted: 11/22/99 Source: BetaNews
Added by: Kim Heise
BetaNews has posted this very useful tool for
displaying your Internet connection speeds. If you are hooked to the internet
via a proxy or some other remote server this little tool will show you how fast
your connection is. While you are visiting BetaNews make sure you take their new
interface for a test drive.
Gateway will sell AMD K7 systems.
Posted: 11/22/99 Source: N/A Added by: Kim Heise
I don't recall where I saw this news article but
Gateway has turned 180 degrees and has decided to start shipping systems with
AMD K7 processors. Earlier reports from Gateway has stated that they were no
longer going to sell AMD based systems. Apparently the popularity and power of
the AMD K7 has changed their minds.
First Windows NT 4.0 service pack 6 bug encountered.
Posted: 11/22/99 Source: Ars
Technica Added by: Kim Heise
Microsoft's latest service pack 6 for Windows NT has a
bug with requiring admin rights to access a system to perform standard user
activities. Microsoft has posted hot fixes to take care of this problem.
Download the Intel version here
or the Alpha version here.
Intel "Coppermine" 733mhz preview.
Posted: 11/22/99 Source: The
Firingsquad Added by: Kim Heise
The Firingsquad has a preview on Intel's latest CPU
with a whole slew of benchmarks and other detailed specs. Here's a clip from the
article:
In addition to moving the L2 cache onto the core, Intel has also made a
couple of other cache changes to increase performance. The 64-bit L2 cache data
bus between the cache and the core has increased to 256-bits. Cache design has
also been changed from 4-way set associative to 8-way set associative.
Increasing the degree of associativity usually decreases the miss rate, but
increases the hit time.
First AMD K7 Athlon 1000mhz review.
Posted: 11/22/99 Source: Toms
Hardware Added by: Kim Heise
Thomas Pabst over at "Toms Hardware" takes
Kryotech's 1 GHZ AMD system for a test drive and has posted a full review on his
experience. Since this is by far the fastest PC in the world you may want to
read it.
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