Tech News for Thursday January 27th 2000.

Secrets behind Intel's new "Coppermine" CPU.
Posted: 01/27/2000     Source: Tech-Review  Added by: Kim Heise
Tech-Review looks at the differences between Intel's older Pentium II "Katmai" and the latest Pentium III "Coppermine" CPU's. This may help you clear up some of the confusion about what's under the "hood" on the new "Coppermine" based Pentium III CPU's.

In a nutshell here is the difference:

Table Source: The Tech-Review.

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Networking your Cable Modem.
Posted: 01/27/2000     Source: Absolute PC  Added by: Kim Heise
If you are lucky enough to get cable internet access in your area and you plan on sharing your speedy connection on more that one machine in your home/business then this article is for you.

Speaking of Cable Modems: SpeedGuide has posted a handful of new Windows OS patches to improve your cable modem performance.
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Microsoft prepares Service Pack1 and other fixes for Win 2000.
Posted: 01/27/2000     Source: CNET  Added by: Kim Heise
Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. It is true that Microsoft is prepping Win2K service pack 1, weeks before Windows 2000 hits the stores. 
The fixes, called Windows 2000 Service Pack 1, will apparently be released in June, timed to coincide with the release of Windows 2000 DataCenter edition. DataCenter is the highest-end edition of the operating system, designed to run data-intensive Web and e-commerce servers. It will also include a service pack code-named Asteroid, sources say.
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Construction of Intel's plant in Texas put on hold.
Posted: 01/27/2000     Source: CNET  Added by: Kim Heise
Intel has tried to calm PC manufacturers by stating that they are building more fabs to ramp up production on Pentium III and Celeron processors. But there are problems:

Tax issues have put construction of an Intel chip factory in Fort Worth, Texas, on hold, Intel said today.

Intel started construction of the Fort Worth plant in 1997, but initially put the project on hold in 1998 because of the slump in the semiconductor business, spokesman Chuck Mulloy said today. Now, because of a penalty Intel would have imposed on the local school district, the Fort Worth plant is no longer in Intel's immediate plans.
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Dell hit by Intel shortage on P3's and Celerons.
Posted: 01/27/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise
Even as Dell Computer Corp. was blaming chip shortages for a fourth-quarter shortfall Wednesday, Intel Corp. was saying it expects difficulty meeting demand for its Pentium III and Celeron processors over the next few months.

Tech News for Wednesday January 26th 2000.

Iwill Slocket II Socket-370 to Slot-1 Adapter.
Posted: 01/26/2000     Source: AnandTech  Added by: Kim Heise
Three articles back posted on this web site we looked at the problem of the changing motherboard architecture for CPU sockets. One solution instead of purchasing a new motherboard to go from "socket-1" to "socket-370" or "FC-PGA" for the new Pentium III chips, is to use an adapter. 

Iwill has developed a "Slocket II" adapter that allows you to use the new Pentium III FC-PGA chips on your older slot-1 motherboards. Read the review on Anandtech for more details.
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Intel Refines I/O In Solano Chip Set Design.
Posted: 01/26/2000     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise
Intel has made some changes to their upcoming i815 or "Solano" chipset and the new chipset is now officially named "Solano-2". Here's the main part of the article: 

Observers said they expect the second-generation Solano's ICH-2 to contain USB version 2.0 technology -- a 360- to 480-megabit per second standard that observers said is now positioned as a direct competitor to IEEE 1394, or FireWire, technology. The spec should be ratified this quarter; peripherals are expected in the second half. Intel's ICH-2 should include a 100-Mbyte ATA-100 hard drive interface, sources said.

However, the Solano's interface to PC133 SDRAM has been left unchanged.
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Sharp Readies First 30-Inch Digital TV.
Posted: 01/26/2000     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise
Japanese electronics maker Sharp said on Wednesday that it will launch the world's first television with a liquid crystal screen that provides digital satellite broadcasting services. The 30-inch screen is 2.4 inches thick, making it also the world's largest LCD TV. It can also be used as a monitor for PCs. It will be available next month in Japan for 1.1 million yen ($10,380). A rollout is planned for the United States, Europe, and Asia later this year.
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Intel plans phase out "slot-1" sooner than expected.
Posted: 01/26/2000     Source: The Register  Added by: Kim Heise
I couldn't help but wonder what Intel is up too by possibly phasing out slot-1 CPU's this early in the game. The Register points to this web site from Intel that lists the upcoming Pentium III CPU's and if you look at the source code of the page you will notice that the designers have "prepped" the page to substitute several "slot-1" entries for "FC-PGA". Not sure how the Register stumbled on this but I wouldn't be at least surprised since this means reduced manufacturing costs for "FC-PGA" CPU's over the traditional "slot-1" CPU's.

Let me rephrase that in English: Current motherboards use a "slot-1" connector for Pentium II and III CPU's. "Slot-1", "FC-PGA" or "Socket-7" is just the name for the edge-connector that physically connects the Pentium II and Pentium III CPU's to the motherboard. Now Intel has created a new socket design called "FC-PGA" which looks very similar to the older Pentium I design. This means that if you plan on purchasing a new Pentium III CPU for your "slot-1" motherboard you are out of luck unless you purchase a "slot-1" to "FC-PGA" converter.

Motherboard manufacturers have been complaining bitterly over the lack of "slot-1" CPU's and this could easily be explained by Intel's plan to change the socket architecture for how the CPU physically connects tot he motherboard. 
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Windows 2000 Detonator drives 3.75.
Posted: 01/26/2000     Source: nVNews  Added by: Kim Heise
If you own a TNT/TNT2/TNT2-Ultra or are lucky enough to have found a GeForce in stock and plan on using Windows 2000 you can download Win2K compatible Detonator drivers here.

These Win2K Detonator drivers for nVidia video cards are not officially posted on nVidia's site so use with caution.
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Massive CPU price cuts.
Posted: 01/26/2000     Source: CNET Investor  Added by: Kim Heise
You can thank AMD for the massive price cuts on processors due to strong competition. Here are some of the major price drops from Intel: 

The price cuts, which went into effect on Sunday, fell mostly in the 20 percent range. The 733-MHz Pentium III, for instance, dropped 21 percent, from $754 to $594, in volume quantities, while the 650-MHz dropped from $562 to $423, a 25 percent discount.

Among other cuts, the 700-MHz Pentium III was dropped 23 percent, going from $733 to $562, while the 667-MHz version dropped 23 percent, from $583 to $449. At the low end, the 500-MHz Pentium III went from $229 to $193.

Last but not least, over at Ars-Technica I saw that the AMD 550mhz has dropped to $189!!.
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Updated 3dfx Voodoo3 drivers.
Posted: 01/26/2000     Source: 3dfxGamers  Added by: Kim Heise
3dfx has released updated video drivers for the Voodoo3 series video cards. There are whole slew of bug fixes so download them now if you own a Voodoo3 PCI/AGP card. Download them here.
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AMD picks up new CEO.
Posted: 01/26/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise
On Tuesday AMD named Hector de Ruiz, a former Motorola Inc. executive, as its new president and chief operating officer.

De Ruiz, 54, had been president of Motorola's Semiconductor Products Section in Austin, Texas, where he was in charge of the company's $7.3 billion computer chip business and some 30,000 employees.
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Tech News for Tuesday January 25th 2000.

Microsoft cancels "Neptune" OS and unveils new "Whistler" OS.
Posted: 01/25/2000     Source: BetaNews  Added by: Kim Heise
Huh,  "Neptune" and now "Whistler" operating systems from Microsoft. What is this all about? What happened to Windows 2000 and Windows Millennium? It looks like the "one OS for all" is further away than we suspect and Microsoft plans on releasing more sequels to both Windows 98 and Windows 2000 sometime soon.

Here is the main part of the article over at BetaNews:

In a surprising turn of events, Microsoft has combined development of Neptune, its upcoming consumer version of Windows NT, and Odyssey, the successor to Windows 2000, into a new operating system dubbed 'Whistler.'

For over two years Microsoft has intended to migrate all version of Windows over to the Windows NT kernel, but with new editions of Windows 9x continually waiting in the wings, it was not until this past summer that Microsoft announced Neptune - the first NT-based consumer OS. Neptune began development on August 13th of last year, with a prototype based upon Windows 2000. The Neptune team worked on adding user interface enhancements to daily Windows 2000 syncs and sent out Developer Release 1 to testers in late December. Neptune was slated to show off a new user interface that allowed for easy digital media management and included 'Activity Centers' that were cut from Windows Millennium.

While Neptune development continued, Microsoft was also planning the next business Windows, codenamed Odyssey. Odyssey was to succeed Windows 2000 for the business environment and contain the same code-base as Neptune.

According to Microsoft representatives, "'Whistler' is the code name for the next iteration of Windows. In an effort to streamline our Windows development efforts, the work being done on 'Neptune' and 'Odyssey' were combined to a singular effort now known as 'Whistler.'
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BIOS Tweak guide updated.
Posted: 01/25/2000     Source: Adrian's Rojak Pot  Added by: Kim Heise
Ever wondered what all those options are in your computer's BIOS? If so and you would like to learn how to tweak those options then you need to look no further. Adrian has updated his highly acclaimed BIOS Optimization guide which brings his latest revision up to 6.0. Here are some of the new added sections:

• Read Around Write
• 32-bit Disk Access
• PCI IRQ Activated By
• USWC Write Posting
• AGP 2X Mode
• AGP Master 1WS Write
• AGP Master 1WS Read
• SDRAM Cycle Length
• SDRAM Bank Interleave

This article is well worth the read but it works best when you print a copy and sit in front of your PC and tweak the BIOS while reading the guide.
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nVidia responds to HardOCP's claim that T&L is "Over-hyped". 
Posted: 01/25/2000     Source: nVNews  Added by: Kim Heise
I knew the testers over at HardOCP had done something incorrect since the benchmarks did not look correct. Every benchmark I had seen in the past (including my own experience) showed hardware T&L (hardware and transformation) making a significant performance gain. Here's nVidia's reponse:

3DMark2000 uses a custom Transform and Lighting (T&L) engine.  Since it's a custom and proprietary engine to 3DMark2000, it can only give an accurate estimate of how games would perform if they use this custom engine.  We are not aware of any games based on this engine.  If the goal of the test is to estimate how real games would perform with a particular graphics card, the more accurate approach would be to choose a common and widely available T&L engine.  Unfortunately, 3DMark2000 chooses its custom T&L engine as the default for all cards that rely on software for T&L.  We consider this a major flaw in 3DMark 2000.
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Unofficial nVidia Detonator V3.72 released.
Posted: 01/25/2000     Source: nVNews  Added by: Kim Heise
Just late yesterday some new unofficial updated drivers for the TNT/TNT2/TNT2-Ultra & GeForce were released. The words "unofficial" simply mean that nVidia did not officially "post" them on their web site and the updated drivers were most likely leaked via one of the video card manufacturers.

You can download them here. 
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Tech News for Monday January 24th 2000.

HardOCP claims GeForce T&L is over-hyped.
Posted: 01/24/2000     Source: N/A  Added by: Kim Heise
I saw on several web sites the post referring to HardOCP's detailed GeForce 256 testing and their claim that the T&L hardware support can actually slow down your PC. 

The GeForce does T&L (Transformation and Lighting) via hardware which has been accomplished via software in the past. See for yourself on nVNews's review on the 3D ExerciZer benchmark. nVNews did "not find any  performance loss as the number of lights were increased".

The bottom line is that I suspect that something went amiss with the results posted by HardOCP somewhere and their benchmarks should be taken lightly until we see more results. There are literally twenty or thirty reviews benchmarking T&L  hardware VS. software and none showed any performance hits. Most cases show when T&L hardware support is enabled you can expect almost double the performance. TOP

Time Warner and EMI merger.
Posted: 01/24/2000     Source: NewBytes  Added by: Kim Heise
Time Warner Inc.] and EMI Group PLC [OTC:EMIPY] are talking about a $20-billion merger that industry observers say would create the world's largest music consortium, according to various news reports this weekend.
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SUN Solaris 8.0 to be launched on Wednesday.
Posted: 01/24/2000     Source: BetaNews  Added by: Kim Heise
The upcoming release of Windows 2000 has turned up the heat for several OS vendors like Be and Sun. First Be announces that the latest version of BeOS will be available free to single-users and now Sun has moved the launch date of Solaris 8.0 to this Wednesday.

Here's the article from BetaNews:
Sun Microsystems has pushed up the release date of its new operating system Solaris 8 to this week, as Windows 2000 computers go on sale today. Originally, it was to be launched in February, concurrently with Windows 2000, but in an effort to beat Windows 2000, Sun decided to launch earlier. Claiming that Solaris 8 is years ahead of Windows 2000, Sun stated that later this year, consumers should expect to see support for up to 16 servers in a cluster, as well as 100 processor support in Sun machines by the end of this year. Visit Sun Microsystems for more information.
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Mexico's Sanborns to Acquire CompUSA.
Posted: 01/24/2000     Source: Yahoo  Added by: Kim Heise
Not much to add here except that it appears to be a major trend that major mergers occur on Monday mornings.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mexico-based retailer Grupo Sanborns SA de CV (GSANBORB1.MX) said on Monday it plans to acquire computer retailer CompUSA Inc. in a tender offer worth $10.10 per share.
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SETI 2.0 released.
Posted: 01/24/2000     Source: SETI@HOME  Added by: Kim Heise
Saw this article over at Ars-Technica that SETI 2.0 has been released. It looks like the SETI main page has not been updated yet but you can connect to their FTP site here and download the 2.0 client.

On a SETI related note: I reformatted my system this weekend and it appears my SETI progress rate has returned to normal. It still remains a mystery at this time why my system was processing over 200 units a day.
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