Tech News for Tuesday February 29th 2000.

New Windows Media Player for Palm-size PC.
Posted: 02/29/2000     Source: ActiveWin  Added by: Kim Heise
Saw this screenshot and news article regarding Microsoft's portable media player for palm sized PC's. You can now play MP3's and AVI's directly from your palm PDA.

Start enjoying your music wherever you go today. The Microsoft® Windows® Media™ Player for Palm-size PC is free software from Microsoft that pumps high quality stereo music through the Palm-sized PC you already own -- without any additional adaptors.

Take your music with you on the road or to work, and leave your CDs at home. Download the latest music by hot new artists from the Web in Windows Media format or even MP3. Personalize your player with your own photos, graphics and creativity. Easy and flexible, the Windows Media Player for Palm-size PC could quickly become your favorite feature on your Casio, Hewlett-Packard or Compaq Palm-size PC.

TOP

Microsoft Introduces DirectX for Windows CE.
Posted: 02/29/2000     Source: Microsoft  Added by: Kim Heise
Just when you think you've heard everything something unusual comes along....
Microsoft is releasing DirectX for Windows CE based systems! DirectX is the software API level between an application and the underlying devices such as video/sound cards. Not something I would have expected on Palm top devices.

CHICAGO -- Feb. 29, 2000 -- Today at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) Spring 2000, Microsoft Corp. introduced its new DirectX^® Platform Adaptation Kit (DXPAK) for the Windows^® CE operating system. This new DXPAK enables OEMs to create Windows CE-based devices that take advantage of the latest multimedia capabilities, including accelerated graphics, and streaming audio and video with full playback capabilities, delivered via the Web to applications ranging from game consoles and set-top terminals to factory-floor HMI devices.
TOP

AMD slashes Athlon K7 800mhz by 25%.
Posted: 02/29/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise
And the war is on. Can you also hear the trumpets blowing? AMD turns up the heat on Intel's latest round of price cuts. Here's the bottom line.

AMD's (NYSE: AMD) largest price cut came on its 800MHz Athlon processor. The chip was reduced by 29 percent, from $849 to $599, making its per-1000 cost $47 lower than competitor Intel's 800MHz Pentium III. AMD officials said the price cuts were planned as part of the Athlon lifecycle and coincide with new product introductions, such as the 850MHz Athlon, introduced earlier this month.

K6-2 chip price slashed
AMD also cut prices on its 750MHz Athlon by 29 percent. It is now priced at $489. Remaining Athlons were reduced by between 21 and 25 percent. The Athlon 700MHz, for example, fell 25 percent, from $519 to $389.

AMD is no longer selling its 550MHz Athlon chip, company officials said. Filling in the space for the 550MHz Athlon is a 550MHz K6-2 chip, also introduced earlier this month.
TOP

AOL, Time Warner pledge open cable.
Posted: 02/29/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise
AOL says it will open its cable-television lines to multiple Internet-service providers after the Time Warner merger is completed. AOL and Time Warner unveiled a memorandum of understanding designed to create a framework where other ISPs can use Time Warner's cable pipes. The companies said the memorandum is likely to lead to a binding agreement.
TOP

Huge Intel CPU price cuts.
Posted: 02/29/2000     Source: CNET  Added by: Kim Heise
Here are some of the major price cuts announced by Intel on their CPU's:

The 800-MHz Pentium III was dropped 24 percent form $851 to $647, while the 750-MHz went down 29 percent from $744 to $530 and the 733-MHz went from $594 to $455, a 23 percent drop. The 700-MHz Pentium III dropped 25 percent from $449 to $337. The cheapest Pentium III, the 500-MHz version, sells for $193.

The 533-MHz Celeron dropped 24 percent from $167 to $127 while the 500-MHz went from $128 to $93, a 17 percent drop. The cheapest Celeron is the 433-MHz, which is priced at $69. All prices are for volume quantities. Actual retail price may vary.

The company did not cut mobile processor prices, which were cut last month with the introduction of new Pentium IIIs for laptops.
TOP

Tech News for Monday February 28th 2000.

Intel to release 566mhz and 600mhz Celerons.
Posted: 02/28/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise
Intel is going to release 566mhz and 600mhz Celerons this March to help boost the lower end CPU market. I suspect this is a direct move by the CPU giant to help curb the threat of Transmeta's new CPU and Via's new "Joshua" CPU. Newer 633mhz and 667mhz Celerons are planned for late April.

On a related note, Intel will be releasing the new 850mhz and 866mhz Pentium III on March 27th.

The 566MHz and 600MHz Celerons will debut with a number of improvements aimed at speeding performance. Those changes include moving Celeron from its current .25 micron manufacturing process to a 0.18 micron process, resulting in increased clock speed for the chip. Intel will also add the Intel SSE (single-instruction, multiple data extensions) multimedia instruction set, sources said.
TOP

Intel To Cut Chip Prices Up To 25 Percent.
Posted: 02/28/2000     Source: Tech-Web  Added by: Kim Heise
It must feel like Christmas. DRAM prices and CPU are falling. Intel has decided to cut CPU prices by another 25% to keep up competition with AMD.

Intel next week is expected to cut prices of its processors up to 25 percent, industry sources said.

The chip giant, based in Santa Clara, Calif., will reduce prices of its Pentium III and Celeron processors for desktop PCs and its Pentium III Xeon chip for workstations, sources said.

Discounts on the Pentium III chip will vary from 10percent to 25 percent, depending on frequency, sources said. Reductions in the Pentium III Xeon line are expected only for versions of the chip with smaller cache sizes. No discounts are slated for processors for mobile PCs, sources said.

The new prices are expected to take effect Sunday. Intel declined to comment.

Intel, which routinely reduces processor prices, last adjusted prices Jan. 23
TOP

DRAM prices continue to fall.
Posted: 02/28/2000     Source: Tech-Web  Added by: Kim Heise
DRAM prices are falling through the roof so if you were holding off on purchasing some memory then now is the time. Prices are expected to climb again shortly once the stock dries up. Get it while it's hot, folks!

"There's just too much inventory in the channel that must be burned off before prices bottom out," de Dios said. "The major DRAM manufacturers have reduced their production costs to under $4 [for 64-Mbit SDRAMs]. That's where they'll hit their pain threshold and [will] have to cut production to stop the pricing free fall."
TOP

Reports From the First Three Days of CeBIT2000.
Posted: 02/28/2000     Source: Tom's Hardware  Added by: Kim Heise
Tom's hardware visited the CeBIT 2000 (I guess that's the way it's spelled) computer show in Hanover, Germany and reports back with some very interesting news bits. I highly recommend this article if you wish to catch a glimpse of what's coming down the pipeline in the computer industry. News bits cover AMD's new chipset and CPU, 3dfx's production problems and nVidia's next generation video cards. (Not surprised, since I just purchased a GeForce!) Read the report here.

Here's a quick quote regarding the new 3D chipsets from nVidia:

NVIDIA's NV15-silicon is already up and performing well for more than two months and its performance as well as features will most likely make a stillbirth out of all the funky Voodoo 4000, 5000, 5500 cards.
TOP

Intel "Willamette" CPU review.
Posted: 02/28/2000     Source: Tech-Review  Added by: Kim Heise
So what makes Intel's new "Willamette" CPU tick so that it can be clocked at 1.5ghz? Just last week Intel demonstrated the first 1.5ghz "Willamette" processor to a private group. Tech-Review takes a closer look on the upcoming CPU from Intel that should ship sometime in late Q2 2000. 
TOP

Pioneer announces 16x DVD ROM drive.
Posted: 02/28/2000     Source: Tech-Review  Added by: Kim Heise
Pioneer announces the first batch of 16x DVD ROM drives that should be shipping sometime in the April-May 2000 timeframe.

LONG BEACH, Calif., February 22, 2000 - - Pioneer New Media Technologies Inc., a leading manufacturer of DVD technology-based products, announced today the industry's first 16X (max.) DVD-ROM drive, "Sweet 16". As with its introduction of the 10X drive, Pioneer is again the first to bring the fastest DVD-ROM drive to market.

Read the full press release here.
TOP

3dfx silicon production woes.
Posted: 02/28/2000     Source: Ars-Technica  Added by: Kim Heise
Several days ago a news post mentioned that 3dfx was having some technical problems producing the new VSA-100 silicon chipset. The VSA-100 chipset is the main 3D engine behind the upcoming Voodoo4's and Voodoo5's. When I first read the article it appeared as if it may have been drummed up by some people wanting to throw mud at 3dfx. 

Now Ars-Technica has posted an official link to Silicon News that has a quote from 3dfx stating that there were some problems but that it should not delay the release of the Voodoo4's and Voodoo5's.

We believe we are still on track for April production for the first VSA-100 products. While the nature of the processing problem with A0 is disappointing in that it makes early demonstrations less than spectacular, we feel very good about the health of the A1 product and as a result silicon production has begun...
TOP

Two new Asus Athlon motherboards.
Posted: 02/28/2000     Source: K7M  Added by: Kim Heise
There is a new web site that dedicates itself only to the Asus AMD series motherboards appropriately called K7M. The web site depicts two sequel motherboards in the works by Asus supporting the latest Athlon chipsets. You can read about all the latest specs on these two new AMD Athlon motherboards by Asus right here.
TOP

Sega Warns of Loss As Dreamcast Disappoints.
Posted: 02/28/2000     Source: Yahoo  Added by: Kim Heise
I wasn't expecting Sega's financial loss - but then again with the upcoming Playstation 2 there has to be many people who are holding off purchasing a Dreamcast. Myself included.

Sega Enterprises Ltd warned on Monday of steep losses this business year from poor Japan sales of its Dreamcast game machine, casting doubt over its chances of survival as home video games enter the Internet age.

The news came even before a full-blown game machine war kicks off on March 4 with the launch of rival Sony Corp's PlayStation2, successor to the world's most popular game system with 70 million units sold in the past five years.

Sega's latest woes added credence to expectations that PlayStation2, with its capacity to play digital video discs (DVDs) and potentially tap the Internet, will cement Sony's number-one position in the industry.

Read the full article here.
TOP

Understanding 3D programming technologies.
Posted: 02/28/2000     Source: 3D-Unlimited  Added by: Kim Heise
If you're looking for a crash course on what exactly is DirectX and OpenGL then this is the article for you. Most current 3D gaming titles rely on one or the other 3D API and it's not a clear which is better than the other. Of course Microsoft's DirectX is well supported but OpenGL has been around a very long time.

This article compares OpenGL and DirectX with some very interesting graphs to help differentiate between the two 3D API's. To help you understand what OpenGL and DirectX is, just think of it as the software layer between your 3D graphics engine and the 3D video hardware. Simply put, it is what the 3D graphics engine uses to send instructions to your video card.

To make sure your system can run most 3D accelerated software titles you need to make sure you have both the latest OpenGL and DirectX software API layers installed. Also when purchasing a new video card you need to make sure the video drivers support both DirectX and OpenGL.
TOP

CPU Price list updated.
Posted: 02/28/2000     Source: HipHardware  Added by: Kim Heise
HipHardware takes a look at CPU prices for the week of the 26th of February. It seems this weeks best buys are the Athlon 600mhz (for $191), the Athlon 650mhz (for $235) and the Intel Pentium3 533B (for $238). View the full price list here.
TOP

Tech News for Friday February 25th 2000.

ATI's new T&L chipset.
Posted: 02/25/2000     Source: Voodoo Extreme  Added by: Kim Heise
ATI has announced a new video chipset that supports full hardware T&L (Transformation and Lighting).

Among the many amazing features of the ATI's S1-370 TL chipset is its support for transform and lighting technology, usually reserved for high-end graphics subsystems and add-in boards. T&L is one of the major elements required for next generation game titles and other applications to provide totally immersive and realistic environments with life-like characters that look and move like human figures.

With a through-put of 12.5 million polygons per second, four pixels per clock and greater than 330 million textured pixels/sec, ATI's S1-370 TL chipset delivers fast and realistic game performance. Major 3D features include accelerated floating point geometry; texture co-ordinate transformation clipping; perspective projection; accelerated specular, diffuse and ambient lighting; perspective-correct trilinear-filtered MIP-mapped textures; alpha blending; exponential pixel fog; depth and stencil buffering and anti-aliasing.

ATI's S1-370 TL outperforms Intel i810e

Performance is key to creating a compelling consumer experience. ATI's S1-370 TL provides 2X the 3D and game performance of an i810e as measured by WinBench 2000 and industry leading games like ID Software's Quake III Arena. The 128 bit architecture of the S1-370 TL provides significantly faster overall system performance.

Read the full press release here.
TOP

Linux-seller Caldera Systems sets IPO price.
Posted: 02/25/2000     Source: CNET  Added by: Kim Heise
Just an FYI for those of you planning to pickup some Caldera stock:

Caldera Systems, a seller of the Linux operating system, expects to raise between $35 million and $45 million in its upcoming initial public offering.

The company set a share price range of $7 to $9, Caldera Systems said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission today. The company, which first filed in January to go public, expects to sell 5 million shares.
TOP

Anti-Piracy MP3 Technology Debuts.
Posted: 02/25/2000     Source: BetaNews  Added by: Kim Heise
At the Cebit show in Hanover, Germany a company called Pine Music has introduced a new technology for protecting MP3 audio against piracy. Every time you download a song the system inserts a unique digital ID in the audio file that prevents you from playing the audio track on any other system.

Pine says that the unit has been designed so that each downloaded music file looks for the unique serial number in the player, which is taken back into the song, so that the file cannot be played on or transferred to any other machines.
TOP

Purchase Gasoline online?
Posted: 02/25/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise
When I first saw this headline I thought: "What do they do? You buy it online and then they ship the gasoline to you in a barrel?". The way it works is that you submit the lowest reasonable price you are willing to pay for gasoline and if you win the bid you get to fill up your vehicle at special designated gas stations. What a very unique idea, especially since gas prices are climbing quickly.

Priceline.com Inc. (Nasdaq: PCLN) will begin selling gasoline at its "name your price" Web site. The company's WebHouse Club division, which sells groceries through select stores, will allow consumers to name their price for up to 50 gallons of gas a month. After selecting the price, consumers go to specially selected gas stations to pick it up. The service is expected to launch later this year across the United States, the company said

TOP

EA buys Dreamworks Interactive.
Posted: 02/25/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise
Electronic Arts, preparing a big push into PlayStation II, will pay an undisclosed amount for the creator of Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Electronic Arts, an interactive entertainment software company, said Thursday it will buy multimedia developer DreamWorks Interactive, LLC.
TOP

Site News Update.
Posted: 02/25/2000     Source: N/A  Added by: Kim Heise
I decided to play around with the default fonts a little since it is high time that the website undergoes some cosmetic changes. Not being very artistically inclined, I ask you to please humor me while I try out several new formats.

Send me suggestions if you have any ideas on a new design. Maybe I should start a competition to design the best logo and the winner gets a prize. What do you think?
TOP

3dfx Launches Voodoo 4 and 5 at Cebit.
Posted: 02/25/2000     Source: BetaNews  Added by: Kim Heise
For those of you who have never heard of Cebit, it is the biggest computer show in Europe that always takes place in Hanover, Germany. It's going to be interesting to see how the new 3dfx cards stack up against the GeForce DDR. It's obvious the high end Voodoo5's are going to decimate the GeForce. 

Rest assured nVidia isn't sitting idle while 3dfx (or any other video card vendor) releases a new product. Expect a press release shortly on the next generation nVidia processor.

3dfx demonstrated the Voodoo 4 and 5 graphics cards in Europe today, at the CeBit convention. These next generation cards designed for advanced gaming can run on either PC and Apple computers, and should be at retail stores in Europe this spring. Along with the new cards, 3dfx unveiled a new multi-lingual Web site dedicated to information about OEM partners, distributors, and retailers in the region. Visitors can also download the newest versions of OpenGL, Glide, and DirectX from the site, along with runtime engines and authoring tools. The new site even comes equipped with an online store, where 3dfx merchandise such as t-shirts, bags, and other novelty items. You can learn more about the new Voodoo cards at 3dfx.com.
TOP

FIC To Demo New Athlon Boards At Cebit.
Posted: 02/25/2000     Source: AMD Zone  Added by: Kim Heise
I hope no one thinks this web site is dedicated to AMD because this is not the case. It's simply because AMD is making news headlines almost daily with their new Athlon series CPU's.

On to the story:

Following the August 1999 launch of the hugely popular AMD Athlon(tm) processor, the 1stMainboard SD11 was the focus of unprecedented levels of media and end-user interest, and was nothing short of a runaway success. Following on from the popular 1stMainboard SD11 are the ATX sized SK11 and the microATX sized SK31, which are both based around the advanced core-logic architecture of VIA's KX-133 chipset.

Offering processor speeds of up to 800 MHz, the SK11 and SK31 and the Athlon processor combine to provide the industry's highest levels of processor power for the performance and mainstream market segments. Both motherboards also support AGP 4X, bringing improved bandwidth and Audio/Graphic performance, as well as PC 100/133 SDRAM and Virtual Channel Memory (VCM).

If you want to keep an eye on these fancy new motherboards, keep checking with AMD Zone for updates since they are about to review and test some of these FIC motherboards.
TOP

"Irongate 4" Dual Athlon Chipset (AMD 770).
Posted: 02/25/2000     Source: Heise  Added by: Kim Heise
It's a small world. There's actually a web site in Germany called Heise.de (no, I am not related) that talks about AMD's upcoming dual CPU chipset which should be out sometime during the 2nd half of 2000. The new "Irongate 4" chipset will support dual Athlon's and DDR RAM.

If you can read German, then you can hop over and read the full article here. TOP

Microsoft Unveils Internet Explorer for the Pocket PC at CeBIT.
Posted: 02/25/2000     Source: Microsoft  Added by: Kim Heise
Read the full press release from Microsoft about the latest addition to the Internet Explorer line.

HANOVER, Germany -- Feb. 24, 2000 -- At CeBIT today Microsoft Corp. previewed Microsoft^® Internet Explorer for the Pocket PC, the most full-functioning Web browser software available for handheld devices to date. Pocket Internet Explorer creates the foundation for a rich Internet experience on Pocket PCs, enabling customers to easily access any Web site any time, anywhere - whether they are connected to the Internet or viewing content offline. Pocket PCs were first previewed by Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates at the Consumer Electronics Show in January and are expected to ship in the first half of this year from hardware manufacturers that include Casio Computer Company Ltd., Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Siemens Communications Devices, and Symbol Technologies Inc.

Windows 2000 G400/G200/G100 Matrox drivers.
Posted: 02/25/2000     Source: Beta News  Added by: Kim Heise
Matrox Gxxx users can smile now since the company has released a whole batch of Windows 2000 video drivers. You can download them right here.
TOP