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| Tech News for Thursday August 31st 2000Intel
adds patent infringement to suit against Via. Intel's tactic is to sue the competition whenever possible. Via has a new motherboard chipset that offers more features than Intel's most current chipset and so instead of playing fair - the "big guerilla" decides to sue. I hope the judge throws this one out! Intel today updated its legal action against Taiwanese chipmaker Via Technologies to include new claims of patent infringement.The two companies settled many of their differences last month, but Intel is still pursuing charges that a Via chipset supporting Advanced Micro Devices processors violates Intel patents. A chipset is a series of semiconductors that connect a processor to other components such as memory. KingMax
PC133 v1.2 and PC150 SDRAM. Overclockers Australia takes 133mhz and 150mhz RAM for a test drive. KingMax have been a player in the Australian RAM market for a while now. I've been aware of their existence for a few years, but they never quite garner the same respect as the larger brands such as Corsair, Mushkin and Micron. This is a shame - in Australia there seems to be a real "just buy generic ram" culture, no doubt because it's quite hard to get the big name products here. KingMax are actually a Taiwanese company, and what I didn't know is that, besides a huge array of memory products, they also make a wide range of networking and communications gear ranging from network switches to mobile phones, PCMCIA modems+NIC's etc. Their Australian headquarters were kind enough to let me check out some of their new RAM products. Iomega
& I-Jam develop PocketZip disk MP3 Player. Eventually you will be able to record and stores MP3's on your wristwatch. Using the Microsoft Windows Media Player 7, the new Win-Jam II digital audio player can record and play roughly 80 minutes of music on each 40MB PocketZip(TM) disk, the disk formerly marketed under the Clik! trademark. The Win-Jam II player's internal PocketZip drive is designed for skip-free playback, fast USB downloads, and up to 12 hours of continuous operation on its rechargeable lithium ion battery. In addition, Win-Jam players support the Microsoft Windows Media Rights Manager for secure music downloads and pre-recorded content from the major record labels. Adaptec
Ships PCI-X & Ultra320 SCSI. It's a pity that SCSI never had a major foothold in the home consumer market because SCSI is hands-down unbeatable in terms of performance and reliability. Unfortunately the extra cost for SCSI devices make them less appealing to the average user and in the end SCSI devices are left for server systems. Adaptec announced today that its Crossbow Ultra160 SCSI ASIC (model named AIC-7899W), which incorporates the same pin-out as its forthcoming PCI-X Ultra320 SCSI controller, is now available. OEMs that incorporate this controller in new server motherboard and PCI RAID adapter designs will avoid the expensive and time-consuming process of redesigning their products to accommodate the upcoming next generation PCI-X and Ultra320 SCSI technologies.Crossbow's packaging is designed for Ultra320 SCSI signaling which is much more demanding than Ultra160 SCSI. The packaging provides cleaner signals and greater design margins over the previous Ultra160 SCSI ASIC. In addition Crossbow is backwards software compatible and runs with all currently released Adaptec drivers. Thus Crossbow provides the highest performance for current designs as well as a migration path to Ultra320 SCSI. The current PCI bus has enough bandwidth for today's dual channel Ultra160 SCSI controllers. However, the forthcoming dual channel Ultra320 SCSI controller will saturate the PCI bus. PCI-X doubles the bus throughput to a full one Gigabyte per second meeting the need for increased bandwidth. Ultra320 SCSI is the next generation of SCSI, the I/O protocol standard for mainstream direct attached storage requirements. Ultra320 SCSI, due out next year, will transfer data at the rate of 320 MB/sec per channel or 640 MB/sec with dual-channel SCSI controllers. This performance is twice the speed of the current SCSI standard. By offering its Crossbow ASIC now, Adaptec is helping to ensure that OEMs are able to migrate seamlessly to Ultra320 SCSI technology when it becomes available in early 2001. Tech News for Wednesday August 30th 2000Sony
launches much-anticipated Palm device. The basic monochrome personal digital assistant is the first product from the Sony-Palm alliance announced last year. The Clie resembles a Palm V with the addition of a Memory Stick slot and a jog dial for navigation. Clie--which stands for Communication Link Information Entertainment--was demonstrated by Michael Vitelli, president of Sony Electronics. "Sony has the vision, the resources and the content to realize this vision," Vitelli said. "Sony also has the brand." Sony may be heavily relying on brand to sell the device, which in its first iteration offers no obvious or meaningful hardware enhancements over existing products. The Clie will be available for pre-order starting tomorrow from the Sony Web site for $399. It will be available nationwide in September. Microsoft
faces class action. Here we go again: A judge has opened the doors for consumers to file (in this case) frivolous lawsuits. If you think you are paying to much for Windows operating system then pick from the many free operating systems on the market. A judge has allowed the first class-action
suit to proceed against Microsoft Corp. on allegations that the software giant's
monopoly harmed California consumers. Dozens of similar suits linger nationwide. Microsoft
Releases Office 10 Beta. Groan - I hope the new Office 10 will not be more than four 650mb CD's as in the 2000 edition. Then again with the lost cost on drive space anything is possible. Just yesterday I visited CompUSA and they had 60GB drive on sale for $269.00. Microsoft is releasing the first beta-test version of the promised successor to Office 2000 to a limited number of users, the company said Tuesday. Code-named Office 10, the upcoming release of the company's widely used Office applications includes enhanced Web collaboration features and user interface changes, such as support for speech recognition. (See "Microsoft Previews Office Upgrade.") The commercial release of Office 10 is expected to be ready for shipment in the first half of next year, or about two years after Office 2000 first became available. (See "Office 2000: What Microsoft's Hiding Inside the Box.") The new software--which is expected to be the last version of Office based on the current set of code--will be sold both as a packaged set of applications and as a rented service via the Internet. (See "Microsoft Plans Rent-An-App.") The expanded collaboration capabilities that are being built into Office 10 include native support for XML in Excel and Access, an addition that Microsoft officials said will let end users visualize and manipulate XML data from within those applications. That will put Excel and Access on an equal footing with Microsoft Word, which can already be used to create XML-based documents. 3dfx
& Results for Quarter End. I can't say that it is a major surprise to see 3dfx's earning slide dramatically over this period from last year. The late releases on their Voodoo5/6 series video cards and their unstable drivers has taken a toll on the video card maker over the last couple of months. Not to mention that competition is fierce and nVidia is releasing some superb products that outperform any 3dfx model currently on the market. I sincerely hope that 3dfx does not go out of business as the only reason nVidia has excellent quality video cards is by pressure from competition. Usually too many "cooks in the kitchen" is unfavorable but when it comes to competition, it must be encouraged. 3dfx Interactive Announces Results for
Quarter Ended July 31, 2000 3dfx
defends itself against suit. Not sure if you had heard that nVidia has filed a patent-infringement lawsuit agains 3dfx. Now it's 3dfx's turn to defend itself: 3dfx Vows to Defend Patent Infringement
Lawsuit Tech News for Tuesday August 29th 2000Via
forms deal with 3Com. Motherboard chipset maker Via strikes a deal with 3Com to add networking functions to their upcoming chipsets. TAIPEI, Taiwan - Via Technologies Inc. here today moved to bring Ethernet capabilities to its PC chip set lines by announcing a major alliance with 3Com Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif.Under terms of the agreement, Via will integrate 3Com's Ethernet-based media access controller (MAC) IC technology in a future line of PC chip sets to be marketed and sold by Via. 3Com's MAC is a 10/100-Mbit technology, which will be integrated in the "South Bridge" portion of Via's chipset. The deal will enable Via's PC chip sets to support Ethernet, home networking, and related communications functions on the same device, said Wenchi Chen, president and chief executive of Via, a supplier of processors, chipsets, and networking chips. "This provides us with an ideal opportunity to help our customers reduce system costs by enhancing the communications capabilities of the South Bridge," Chen said. Trojan
horse rears its head on Palms. Phillip Bell sends sent me this link from Yahoo discussing a new virus aimed at Palm Pilots. You can be rest assured that the future of "palm" top computing will not be except from malicious programmers. A software programmer has created the first known Trojan horse for a Palm, raising questions about a possible downside to the company's legions of loyal software developers. A malicious program masquerading as an illegal, but free, version of the popular gaming application Liberty has been making the rounds of Palm newsgroups and chat rooms since late last week. The arrival of the software, which has the potential to wipe out all the programs stored on the device, is believed to be the first Trojan horse for the Palm. There are no reports of damage resulting from the Trojan horse, but the event marks the first time the handheld computers have been hit with a major security threat. According to Palm, which is downplaying the Trojan horse's significance, anyone who executes the malicious application can reset the device and re-synchronize with data stored on the PC. A Trojan horse is a type of code that tricks a computer user into downloading or installing it by masquerading as legitimate software. Palm, which has credited its widespread success in the handheld computer market in part to its legions of third-party software and hardware developers, has been largely immune to these types of problems despite the popularity of these applications. Recall
may hurt Intel's effort to defend market. Of course the OEM market is going to forget Intel's little mishap regarding the recall on the 1.13GHZ P3 CPU. Competition from AMD contributed to Intel's recent production problems, but AMD's limited chipmaking capacity will prevent it from cashing in on the embarrassing mistakes, according to analysts. Pressure to outrace AMD led Intel to crank its Pentium III to 1.13 GHz, a speed that was not on its initial road map, analysts said. Unfortunately, the chip's design apparently wasn't ready to go that fast. "Intel has been pushing the clock speed on Pentium III really hard to keep up with AMD," said analyst Linley Gwennap of The Linley Group. "When you push a chip beyond what it was designed to do, you run into problems." Intel would not comment directly on whether the speed race with AMD caused it to stumble. But a spokesman said: "It's a disappointment if (a chip) is introduced and has a quality issue" associated with it. The two chipmakers have been battling to offer the fastest PC processor since AMD debuted its Athlon chip last year. While Intel has stumbled, AMD has turned from a gang that couldn't shoot straight to a formidable competitor. Exclusive:
Winamp3 Shots Discovered. Beta-News has posted some exclusive pictures of WinAmp 3.0. Unfortunately the link to the screenshots has been taken offline but a quick reader has posted pictures on his/her web site. Take a look at the pictures here. BetaNews has discovered
screenshots of Nullsoft's upcoming Winamp3, codename Wasabi. The new look to
Winamp is much more streamlined, yet leaves the original Winamp look and feel
intact. Users will notice the addition of a visualization button on the player
and a new still-unknown button next to shuffle. Winamp3 is still in beta with an
expected release in the coming months. The team assures BetaNews it will be well
worth the wait. Next
generation Palm's next CPU will use "StrongARM"? Ars-Technica discusses the rumor that Palm's next PDA will be using the StrongARM CPU. Ars also reports that Intel has a proto-type StrongARM CPU clocked at 1ghz. Imagine your Palm PDA speeding at 1ghz. Well rumors are flying that Palm's next generation processor will be a StrongARM-based CPU called the XScale. Intel has demonstrated a prototype running at 1 Ghz (1.5 W) but emphasized that the XScale will have a dynamic power management system similar to its SpeedStep technology for mobile CPUs, allowing it to run on as little as 10 mW (of course with lower performance). In addition, the XScale will have some built-in DSP functions, allowing it to perform SIMD-type instructions and things like the number crunching required for cell phones. Compared to the CPU that Palm uses today - Motorola's Dragonball - the XScale is estimated to have up to 20 times the performance and uses less power. MICRON
Technology files lawsuit against RAMBUS. It appears that the DDRAM VS. RAMBUS wars are heating up. Both companies are competing for the market share on the next generation memory modules for mainstream PC's. Boise, Idaho, August 28, 2000 - Micron Technology, Inc., today filed suit against Rambus Inc. of Mountain View, California, in U.S. District Court in Delaware. The suit asserts violations of the Federal antitrust laws, and also asserts invalidity, non-infringement, and non-enforceability of Rambus patents pursuant to a number of different bases. Micron, Technology, Inc., and its subsidiaries manufacture and market DRAMs, very fast SRAMs, Flash, other semiconductor components, memory modules, and personal computer systems. Micron's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol MU. To learn more about Micron Technology. Inc., visit its web site at www.micron.com. Nortel
shows off fiber-optic breakthrough. To be demonstrated at a Denver trade show this week, the technology allows network carriers to sell or lease the individual streams of light in fiber-optic networks that transport voice, video or image traffic. In turn, customers such as Internet service providers will be able to buy only the network bandwidth they want, when they want it. Microsoft
redesigns Windows. ZDNET reports on Microsoft's latest release of Windows "Whistler" and how the company is making major changes to the interface plus adding a whole slew of new features. I'm not overly impressed with the new menus as they strike me as rather "kludgy". Take a look at the new menus here. Expect Windows 2001 AKA "Whistler" sometime in second half of 2001. Microsoft Corp. may still be more than a month away from releasing the first beta build of its Windows 2000 successor. But the latest alpha build of "Whistler" shows how Microsoft is changing the look and feel of Windows.Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) posted to its private Web tester site late last week build 2257 of Whistler, the second developers' preview. The company posted the first, build 2250, in mid July. Build 2257 demonstrates how Microsoft is changing the look and feel of Windows via new drop-down menus, similar to the ones it is building into its next version of Office, code-named Office 10. NVidia
suing 3dfx. I would be curious to know what the following patents entail. I will post an update if I hear something new. Most often these lawsuits are dismissed either through court proceedings or both members settle out of court. NVIDIA Files Patent
Infringement Suit Against 3dfx Corporation Ctrl-Alt-Del.com
has a new look. The Saint sent me an email indicating that his web site "ctrl-alt-del" has undergone a major facelift. The web site reviews and tests various programs and posts extensive comparison tests. Most recently they compared Windows 2000 and Windows Millennium performance. Take the site for a test drive. Thanks to you, The-Ctrl-Alt-Del is growing! If you have any comments on the new look, or ideas on how we can improve, please let us know. You can email us or visit our public forum. On behalf of the entire staff of The-Ctrl-Alt-Del, welcome and enjoy your stay! At some point I may consider redesigning Hitechbits again but the last time I tried that several visitors emailed me that they preferred the old look. Tech News for Monday August 28th 2000Mobile
phones to begin carrying radiation labels. Finland's Nokia, U.S.-based Motorola and Sweden's Ericsson are working on developing a standard for measuring specific absorption rates (SAR), a measure of radiation from mobile phones. We are…waiting for a SAR measurement standard, which is expected to be finalized by early next year,'' Nokia spokesman Tapio Hedman said. "Once that standard is in place, we plan to publish SAR value consistently for all our phones globally.'' The move comes as questions still linger about whether there is a link between mobile phone use and cancer. "This is an issue consumers feel strongly about and we want them to get the relevant information,'' Ericsson spokesman Mikael Westmark said. "With the huge increase in mobile phone users, more and more people want information about the products they use.'' Years of research have not found health risks from mobile phone radiation, but experts say more research is needed. There are currently about 570 million mobile phone users globally, and Ericsson expects this figure to grow to 1.4 billion in another five years. Intel
recalls 1.13GHz Pentium III. Now of course this will not harm their stock market value at all: Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) is recalling its 1.13MHz Pentium III processor in order to fix a problem that could cause certain applications to freeze. Intel officials said that some 1.13GHz chips showed the problem, but that it will recall and fix all of the processors that have shipped. Intel
Announced AGP 8x. Today Intel announced that they have enhanced AGP interface by adding one more mode – AGP 8x. As you can understand from the name of this new mode, AGP 8x is none other but an overclocked AGP 4x. here is a quote from the official Intel’s press-release: AGP8x is the specification for the next-generation parallel AGP interface. Like AGP4x, it implements a 32-bit wide bus, but the new specification allows a doubling of speed to 533MHz and supports a data rate of two gigabytes per second (2GB/s).AGP 8x is aimed mainly at the systems on Intel Pentium 4 CPU, because only in these systems the processor bus bandwidth (3.2GB/sec) and the memory bus bandwidth (dual-channel RDRAM or DDR SDRAM) will be higher than the AGP 8x bandwidth. In other words, only in systems of this kind the bandwidth of AGP 8x may be used to the full extent. Such 3D chips manufacturers as NVIDIA, ATi and Matrox have immediately granted new interface their support. As far as the real products supporting AGP 8x are concerned, nothing is definitely known yet. In fact, we are very unlikely to see them up to H2 2001, especially since Intel is releasing only the rev 0.9 specifications in August 2000. However, NVIDIA claims that they will be the first to provide a new product to support AGP 8x interface. New
CD-RW From Yamaha. Yamaha introduces the CRW8824FXZ external CD-RW ReWritable CD recorder with IEEE 1394 FireWire interface. The unit is expected to begin shipping on August 25, 2000. The CD-RW drive can be added to and removed from a system without powering down while the bus is still active. And, unlike the legacy serial interface, FireWire supports free-form daisy chaining and branching for peer-to-peer implementations, allowing any two devices in the chain to transfer data to each other. FireWire also supports a tree (parallel) connection of devices. The CRW8824FXZ is designed for both IBM PC Compatible and Macintosh platforms and includes an impressive software bundle. The unit will carry an estimated street price of $349.99. AMD
releases 1.1GHz Athlon. I still can't figure out why AMD's stock is doing so badly again after all the successful products they have released over the last six months. It reminds me why I should not involve myself with the stock market. Advanced
Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD),
Monday, announced that its 1.1GHz Athlon chip is available from PC makers. The
new chip, for desktops, will be offered in PCs from 10 manufacturers, including Compaq
Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ),
Gateway
Inc. (NYSE: GTW),
Hewlett-Packard
Co. (NYSE: HWP)
and IBM
(NYSE: IBM).
PCs using the chip will cost about $2,500, according to AMD. The new Athlon
features 256KB of integrated Level 2 cache and a 200MHz bus. It is priced at
$853 in 1,000 unit quantities. --John G. Spooner, ZDNet News Comparing
the Pentium 3 to the Pentium 4. Intel has posted a table depicting the main differences between their new Pentium 4 and the current Pentium 3. This will give you a good overview of what has changed.
NVIDIA
First To Deliver AGP 8X Card NVIDIA Corporation announced today will be the first 3D graphics company ready to deliver a product to benefit from Intel's new AGP 8x interface, the next generation of the parallel AGP interface. Like AGP4x it is a 32 bit wide bus, but the new specification allows a doubling in speed to 533MHz. Intel is releasing the rev 0.9 specifications in August 2000. NVIDIA and Intel have been engaged to gather feedback and validate the implementation in the AGP8x specification. ``Intel has worked closely with NVIDIA to deliver high-performance 3D graphics capabilities to the desktop PC market segment,'' stated David Fair, Intel Visualization Technologies Initiative manager. ``By combining our two roadmaps, we hope to move consumers, generation-by-generation, closer to Pixar level graphics on the desktop PC.'' Tech News for Thursday August 24th 2000Nintendo
unveils N64 successor. I think it's going to be a little late for the Nintendo "Cube" to compete to the imminent Sony Playstation2. I wonder if Apple is going to slap Nintendo with a lawsuit - take a look at the picture:
From a technical standpoint, Nintendo's GameCube is unparalleled in the console industry. At its heart is a hybrid of IBM's (NYSE: IBM) Power PC architecture. The 0.18-micron, 405MHz copper wire central processor dubbed "Gekko" includes 16MB of NEC embedded dynamic RAM. ATI has developed the custom 202.5MHz graphics processor with 24MB of embedded Mosys 1-T synchronous RAM for a total system memory of 40MB. GameCube's on-board features include fog, subpixel anti-aliasing, HW light x8, alpha blending, virtual texture design, multitexture mapping/bump/environment mapping, MIPMAP, bilinear filtering and real-time texture decompression (S3TC). GameCube is reportedly capable of displaying 6 to 12 million polygons per second with both textures and effects enabled. SGI
chief executive trying to cure past ills. SGI's board of directors wanted Bob Bishop to replace the departing CEO and to steer the company in a new direction. He took the weekend to think over the offer and started work that Monday--one year ago today. That's the story according to Bishop, who met with CNET News.com today at the offices of the company's federal government division outside of Washington, D.C. A year following his ascension to CEO, Bishop runs a very different SGI than predecessor Rick Belluzzo. It's been a gut-wrenching year of tough decisions, many of which put Bishop in the hot seat with investors and Wall Street analysts. The 18-year-old server maker, once known as Silicon Graphics, became a star among movie studios, government agencies and mechanical engineering departments by the early 1990s. In the mid-1990s, the company tried to expand from its core customer base, but it has since been forced to scale back its ambitions. Lucent
Technologies Announces High Bandwidth USB 2.0. Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) Microelectronics Group, the world leader in communications semiconductors, today announced a highly integrated Universal Serial Bus* (USB) 2.0 single-chip solution that moves data between personal computers and peripherals up to 40 times faster than today's widespread USB chips 1.1 specification. The announcement coincides with this week's Intel Developer Forum Conference here. Lucent's USS-2000 host controller chip can support higher-bandwidth peripheral devices, such as high-resolution printers and scanners, digital video cameras, and DSL and cable modems, using a much faster data transfer without compromising the performance of other USB peripheral devices. The chip also will reduce time-to-market intervals and lower component and design costs for PC, PC card, and set-top box manufacturers because of its high level of integration and superb USB bandwidth capabilities. Red
Hat and Amiga Join to Promote Multimedia for Linux. Red Hat, Inc. and Amiga have joined forces
to give the Linux community access to Amiga's new software development kit.
Using the SDK, Amiga claims developers can quickly and easily develop games,
multimedia applications, and Java-based software for the Linux platform. The SDK
will retail for $99 USD, and can be used to "to port your favorite
development tools or applications to the new Amiga." For more information
on the SDK, including licensing information, visit Amiga's
Web site. Intel
Timna Details. Intel Timna processor after a long delay will be available in the first half year of 2001 on the market. This highly integrated chip contains a Graphics controller and a Northbridge together with processor core (" 0.18 µm Katmai ") with so far 128 KByte L2-Cache. The Graphics controller supplies RGB (24-Bit-DAC, 230Mhz, Max. 1600×1200 with 85 cycles per second), Digital VideoOut (DVO, 12 bits doubled pumped, 112Mhz, max. 1280×1024) and TV Out. The Northbridge contains a RAM bus interface running with 400Mhz, for which Intel develops a new building block after the disaster with the MTH named MPT, which transfers the RAM bus log on SDRAM. Furthermore however disappointed with it the rate of the MPT. Timna further limited to PC100 communicates by 266 MByte/s to fast interface with the ICH2 I/O controller Hub , which on some i815 main boards (Solano) is already used.
First
Serial ATA Drives Unveiled. Seagate Technology, APT Technologies, Inc. and Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation today unveiled the first Serial ATA disc drive, giving a glimpse into the future of ATA disc drive technology. The drive is natively attached to an Intel® Pentium® 4 processor system through an APT Serial ATA PCI Host Bus Adapter, featuring a 1.5 Gbps transfer rate. The prototype demonstration combines technologies from Seagate, APT, Intel Corporation and Vitesse. It features a Seagate disc drive with its Serial ATA board, using APT's Serial ATA Link and Transport layers logic and Vitesse's 1.5 Gbs CMOS transceiver, attached via Serial ATA to APT's Serial ATA to PCI host bus adapter. This new technology will allow for platform cost reductions and performance improvements while supporting a seamless transition from Parallel ATA technology. Serial ATA will supply storage interface headroom for many generations to come, beginning with 1.5 Gbps, scalable to 2x, 4x and beyond. Seagate, APT, Intel and Vitesse are among the members of the Serial ATA Working Group developing the Serial ATA storage interface specification for the next-generation computing platform. This interface is used to connect storage devices, such as hard discs, DVDs and CD-R/Ws, to the motherboard and is the replacement for today's Parallel ATA physical storage interface. Serial ATA is compatible with existing ATA software drivers and will run standard operating systems without modification. Tech News for Wednesday August 23d 2000Intel
870 Chipset To Support DDR, Direct Rambus. Executives at the Intel Developers Forum disclosed that the upcoming Intel 870 chipset for next-generation servers will support either Direct Rambus or double-data-rate (DDR) SDRAMs. Mike Fister, vice president and general manager of Intel's enterprise platforms group, said the 870 will debut in late 2001 or early 2002 to support the 64-bit McKinley server that is the successor to Itanium. About a quarter later, the same 870 chipset would be available for the next-generation 32-bit Foster servers, he said. It would be the first DDR chipset made by Intel itself. It would not be affected by Intel's licensing agreement with Rambus Inc. that bars Intel DDR chipsets for desktop PCs before 2003, since the 870 supports servers only. Fister said the totally different formats of Direct Rambus or DDR are handled by simply changing a few components in the 870 chipset. Intel
demos 2.0GHz Pentium 4 chip. During the morning keynote of Albert Yu, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Microprocessor Products Group, several Pentium 4 demonstrations were shown, including a 1.4GHz and a 1.5GHz chip. The Pentium 4 demo showed the chip running at 1.5GHz, then scaling up in clock speed to 2.0GHz. Intel did not specify whether special cooling was used to reach that speed. The Pentium 4 is due this fall, at 1.4GHz, according to Intel. --John G. Spooner, ZDNet News Tech News for Tuesday August 22nd 2000New Intel price
cuts. JC's news has posted a table depicting Intel's new price cuts. Note that the new Pentium 4 CPU is also listed. I also noted the Pentium4 shows a 400mhz!! front-side bus speed.
Intel
invests in new connection technology. Start-up Banderacom isn't the only one making InfiniBand chips--IBM, Intel and Hewlett-Packard spinoff Agilent also have expressed interest in selling InfiniBand chips--but Banderacom is focused solely on InfiniBand, said Phill Grove, vice president of marketing and a former 12-year employee of Motorola. The start-up, with less than three dozen employees and based in Austin, Texas, was founded in December. But its chips will emerge soon: "We expect silicon by the end of the year," Grove said. InfiniBand, scheduled to debut in computers later next year, is a connection technology developed by Intel, Sun Microsystems, Dell Computer, Compaq Computer, IBM, HP and others. It's a critical element among the constellation of heavy-duty technologies trickling down from high-end computers to lower-priced models. DirectX 8.0
Beta 2 Nears. Microsoft has sent word to applicants that Beta 2 of DirectX 8.0 will be released shortly and chance for participation will soon close. Version 8.0 was expected for release this summer and inclusion in Windows Me, however delays have been extending the test and final release date alike. DirectX 8.0 will feature a new graphical input device control panel in DirectInput along with a multitude of other enhancements to its rendering capabilities. Along with the Beta 2 announcement, Microsoft today released an interim build of version 8.0, Build 0145, however details are unknown. For more information on DirectX 8.0 and final release dates, keep checking BetaNews. Microsoft Office 10 Beta
Preview. Winsupersite reviews the first beta preview of Microsoft Office 10. The recent release of Office 10 Beta 1 has unearthed a slew of new features, including a subscription software service, voice control, and numerous simplification improvements that will help shape this release into a compelling upgrade over Office 2000. Office 10 Beta 1, which Microsoft now says will be called Office 2001 or Office 2002 when it ships, includes the client software, an Office Web Server, the Office Resource Kit, two Language Packs CDs, and a ClipArt CD; it's not clear which of these products will be separated out from the main Office product. The current beta supports Windows 95/98, NT 4 SP5, or Windows 2000: Windows Me is not supported on this release, though it will be in subsequent betas and the final version. Microsoft recommends 64 MB of RAM or more, and 250 MB of free hard disk space. Each Language Pack requires an additional 50 MB of storage space. Adaptec New SCSI RAID ControllersPosted: 08/22/2000 Source: Adaptec Added by: Kim Heise Adaptec unveiled three powerful new, microprocessor-based Ultra160 SCSI RAID controllers for entry- and mid-range servers. The new offerings include two robust 64-bit Ultra160 SCSI RAID controllers, the Adaptec SCSI RAID 3200S and 3400S, that feature a 3/4-size form factor, and come in two- and four-channel versions, respectively, and the Adaptec SCSI RAID 2100S, a half-size, single channel Ultra160 RAID controller. All three products are based on Adaptec's proven Ultra160 SCSI technology.Adaptec's SCSI RAID 3200S is a two-channel controller that provides maximum performance and expandability for today's mid-range, conventional and 2U rack-mount server environments, where performance is paramount but cost is a consideration. Priced at $825 (SRP) for the complete kit. Features a 64-bit microprocessor with optional Battery Backup Module (BBM). Offers 32 MB of socketed SDRAM cache memory (expandable to 128MB). The Adaptec SCSI RAID 3400S is a four-channel version of the 3200S, and is targeted at mid-to high-end servers. Complete kit priced at $1,120. The Adaptec SCSI RAID 2100S, with its compact 1/2 size form factor, is ideal for use in conventional and rack-mount servers and workstations. Offers 32MB of socketed SDRAM cache memory (expandable to 128MB). Provides the same fault tolerance features and performance found in more expensive high-end RAID controllers at a fraction of the cost. Complete kit priced at $499 (SRP). Tech News for Monday August 21st 2000Windows
Millennium VS. Windows 2000 performance article. For those of you curious to wonder how Microsoft's new Windows Me holds up against Windows 2000, the Saint over at "The Ctrl-Alt-Del" has posted an article comparing the two. Business and pleasure. Can’t they work in harmony? Why is it your not supposed to mix the two? I can’t count how many times I have heard the phrase, “I never mix business with pleasure”. Why not? I mean it sounds fun to me! Is there some kind of mysterious chemical reaction that inevitably leads to disaster? Well, It looks as though Microsoft has decided to brave this new frontier and is trying to take one step closer to making the two work together, in harmony. More
Pentium 4 details revealed. The Pentium 4 will feature a completely new architecture called "NetBurst" designed to handle tasks--such as data encryption, video compression or Napster-like peer-to-peer networking--that have grown in popularity with the Internet, said Albert Yu, senior vice president of the Intel Architecture Group. "It will be the highest-performing processor for PCs," Yu said. "We're moving into streaming video; speech has become much more commonplace than a year ago. Peer-to-peer has been around for a long time, but it is now being recognized as the computing paradigm of the future." New subsystems inside the NetBurst architecture will enable the processor to churn more data at a faster rate, Yu said. A micro-engine called the "Rapid Execution Engine," for example, will run at twice the speed of the processor and will handle frequently repeated tasks, such as addition and subtraction calculations. In a preview of the chip at the company's headquarters, technicians showed how a Pentium 4 computer can rapidly render, or draw, 3D images downloaded from the Internet. That sort of processing power could make it easy for sellers on eBay to post virtual representations of their products, for example. The chip, which will debut at 1.4 GHz and arrive in the fourth quarter, represents the first complete architectural overhaul of the company's processor line since 1995, when the original Pentium emerged. It will contain 42 million transistors, compared with 28 million for the Pentium III. For Intel, the chip's arrival couldn't come sooner. Manufacturing missteps and increased competition from Advanced Micro Devices have eroded the chip giant's once-unassailable dominance in the market for processors for performance PCs. Netscape
4.75 Released. Netscape updated their browser over the weekend. For all Netscape lovers not wanting to deal with version 6.0 Preview Release 2 yet, Netscape has released version 4.75 of its popular browser. The latest version corrects the problem making Netscape vulnerable to the Brown Orifice backdoor, and makes improvements to mail functions. The UNIX release now supports version 2.2 of the Linux kernel and support for Macromedia Flash 4.0. Download version 4.75 of Netscape Communicator from their FTP, and read the release notes for more information. 3D
Laser Printer Prototype. TekFront has posted several pictures of a new 3D Laser Printer. Very little information is posted and the pictures are somewhat cryptic but interesting to look at. Transmeta,
AMD deal may be imminent. Chipmakers AMD
(NYSE: AMD)
and Transmeta Corp. are about to announce a relationship. AMD Chairman and CEO
Jerry Sanders confirmed an announcement would come soon, but remained mum on the
details. Sources say the two companies might swap patents in a manner similar to
AMD's past patent-swapping deal with Motorola Inc. Transmeta is particularly
interested in AMD's Lightning Data Transfer technology, sources said. Full
story.
AMD
receives 64-bit Linux support. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Tuesday announced support from several Linux players for its forthcoming SledgeHammer processor. The chip, due next year, will sport a 64-bit instruction set, known as x86-64, based on an extension of the current x86 instruction used in Athlon processors. Vendors Red Hat Inc. (Nasdaq: RHAT) and SuSe Inc. will work to port their Linux flavors to x86-64. Meanwhile, CodeSourcery will work with AMD (NYSE: AMD) to port GNU/Linux operating system to x86-64.org. AMD also established a new x86-64 simulator for developers, called www.x86-64.org. It will be available for free, starting next month. Transmeta
files for $200 million IPO. Upstart chip maker Transmeta
Corp. on Thursday registered a form S-1 for a $200 million initial public
offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Details remain
scarce, however. The number of shares being offered, as well as a proposed
per-share price range, will be included in later filings. IPO dollar amounts in
early filings are typically included solely for the purpose of calculating a
registration fee, and usually change as a company nears the actual offering
date. Full
story. Linux world
Wrap-up. CNET has posted a single page write-up on the highlights from this years Linux world. Read the highlights here. Despite diminished Wall Street enthusiasm, start-ups and established companies fought for the spotlight in San Jose, Calif., as the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo triggered a cascade of announcements and demonstrations of Linux technology. USB
Vibration Mouse. Folks, this is no April fools joke. See for yourself: The world's first sound-based vibration mouse, AVB's Vmouse is destined to shake up the competition.Via a connection to the sound card, AVB's Vmouse "listens" to sound effects emitted by any game, multimedia software or interactive website viewed on your computer. Each sound is accompanied by a synchronous vibration, thus enhancing your computing experience dramatically. Ordinary word processing becomes more stimulating; internet gaming more of an experience. Now you can "feel" the excitement, instead of only hearing it. Although disguised as an ordinary internet scroll mouse, its unique design and patented SoundSensual Technology make it possible to plug-and-play through the USB port of a PC, iMac, Power Mac, and even a Linux-based operating system. AVB's Vmouse is a true cross-platform peripheral. AVB's Vmouse is a strong and affordable portal through which you will enter into a new phase of computer interaction. Transmeta
launches new processor for PC notebooks. There is another CPU manufacturer on the market besides AMD and Intel. PALO ALTO, Calif. - Looking to grab the spotlight at this week's Hot Chips 12 conference, Transmeta Corp. formally announced its next-generation notebook PC microprocessor, which is compatible with personal computer MPUs from Intel Corp. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based startup also said it has begun shipping the new TM5600 series of its Crusoe processors to customers.
VIA
Upcoming Chipsets Launch Date. VIA is the motherboard chipset manufacturer that is starting to turn up the heat on Intel.
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