Tech News for Tuesday
March 7th 2000.
Microsoft
and nVidia join forces.
Posted: 03/07/2000
Source: EETIMES Added by: Kim Heise
If you were watching
nVidia's stock and wondered why they almost jumped 17 points per share then this
news article might give you some clues. Microsoft has agreed to use nVidia's
based video processors for the soon to be released X-Box. The X-Box is a gaming
console aimed squarely at Sony and the Playstation II.
SAN MATEO, Calif. — Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates will announce the
company's long-rumored X-Box game console at the Game Developers Conference (San
Jose, Calif.) on Friday (March 10). Still in its final stages of development,
X-Box is touted as a killer consumer platform designed to compete against Sony
Computer Entertainment's recently-launched Playstation 2. And Microsoft has
decided to work with Nvidia Corp., its graphics chip partner, on the X-Box
architecture.
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MS
adds Word, Excel to PocketPC.
Posted: 03/07/2000
Source: ZDNET Added by: Kim Heise
All I can think is
"Watch out Palm Computing" as Microsoft raises the stakes on their
latest PocketPC handheld computers with Word and Excel. The upcoming PocketPC's
from Microsoft's already have Internet Explorer and Outlook Express.
The price for these PocketPC's start at $199.00.
Microsoft Corp. wants to take handheld devices beyond their role as personal
information managers. The
Redmond, Wash., software maker said Tuesday it plans to ship new business
productivity applications including Word and Excel with its forthcoming PocketPC
personal digital assistant platform.
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Site
News Update.
Posted: 03/07/2000
Source: N/A Added by: Kim Heise
With all the news out
there I'm looking for someone to help update the web site with news posts. If
you are interested, you can send me an email.
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New
nVidia Detonator drivers with S3TC support.
Posted: 03/07/2000
Source: VoodooExtreme
Added by: Kim Heise
Voodooextreme has
posted a link to the latest nVidia reference drivers (also called Detonator
drivers) for the TNT/TNT2/TNT2-Ultra and GeForce video cards. These new drivers
support S3TC (S3 Texture Compression) under OpenGL. Download the new driver here.
The S3TC texture compression engine allows for larger textures to be rendered in
a 3D environment. Not only does this translate into better picture quality but
also better performance for 3D based applications.
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Internet
access over power lines nears reality.
Posted: 03/07/2000
Source: CNET
Added by: Kim Heise
It must have been
several months ago when we first heard that there was a company who was planning
to test broadband network connections over power lines. Now, back in the
spotlight again, CNET post an article by a company called Enikia
who is gearing up to test internet connections over power lines this summer.
Your average electrical
socket could prove to be another competitor in the high-speed Net access
sweepstakes.
Following years of
skepticism about the technology's future, German energy conglomerate Veba,
working with U.S. home networking firm Enikia,
says it is close to launching a service offering high-speed Internet access over
power lines.
Under the auspices of a new
communications company dubbed Oneline AG,
the service is scheduled to go into European market trials this summer, with a
full commercial release by the end of the year. The company also hopes to launch
a trial project in the United States this summer, says Enikia vice president
David Healey, who until recently managed Veba's Oneline project.
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Tech News for Monday
March 6th 2000.
nVidia
announces 64MB DDRAM GeForce video card.
Posted: 03/06/2000
Source: Yahoo
Added by: Kim Heise
Picked up this press
release originally from nVNews.net about a
clip directly from nVidia regarding their 64MB version of the GeForce video
card. Read the full press release here.
Not sure whether the extra price is worth the minor performance you gain by
doubling the memory.
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS
WIRE)--March 6, 2000--Continuing to raise the performance bar, NVIDIA(TM)
Corporation (Nasdaq:NVDA
- news) today announced that it
has set a new industry milestone by being first to offer 64 MB Double Data Rate
(DDR) Synchronous RAM graphics solutions.
Working with the leading DDR manufacturers
Hyundai and Infineon, NVIDIA's 64 MB DDR GeForce 256-based add-in cards are
currently available through Dell Computer Corporation. The architecture of the
NVIDIA DDR technology almost doubles the usable bandwidth and provides the
industries fastest frame rates at higher resolutions and color depths.
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DRAM
prices jump 37%.
Posted: 03/06/2000
Source: TechWeb
Added by: Kim Heise
I must have purchased
RAM just in time. Just last Friday I purchased 133mhz 128MB DRAM for $115.00 and
the seller told me that prices had already jumped by 40%. Then this article
appears on TechWeb's news site confirming the price jumps. If you were planning
on purchasing some addition/new RAM then it would most likely be a good idea to
wait for the next price "freefall".
The erratic DRAM spot
market took another sudden U-turn last week as average prices jumped 36 percent
in four days.
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Maximum
Linux web site launched.
Posted: 03/06/2000
Source: Maximum Linux
Added by: Kim Heise
Maximum Linux has
launched their official web site that contains plenty of online information for
Linux users. Topics range from installation, configuring network settings and
reviews on all the current Linux operating system titles.
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AMD
Athlon 1GHz, 950MHz, 900MHz review.
Posted: 03/06/2000
Source: Anandtech
Added by: Kim Heise
Anandtech takes a look
at the latest tempting offers from AMD on the latest high speed CPU's. Now that
AMD has officially won the 1ghz race it will be interesting to see what Intel
will do next to keep the competition going. I remember my first Commodore 64
computer clocked at 0.16mhz (I think) and my later Amiga running at 7.14mhz
which I thought was blazingly fast. Just the thought that next week you can
order a 1ghz machine is mind bending.
As an FYI, the prices on the new CPU's are as follows:
1000 Mhz:$1299
950 Mhz:$999
900 Mhz:$899
Expect these prices to fall fast
by months end.
It is somewhat unbelievable that you
will be able to go online and purchase a 1GHz system by the end of this week,
but for us and most AnandTech readers, the big question is when can we see an
Athlon with a full speed on-die L2 cache? The answer is just around the corner,
as it has been rumored that the Thunderbird will be released within the next 2 -
3 months. But how well will the Thunderbird perform?
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It's
official: AMD hits 1,000MHz first.
Posted: 03/06/2000
Source: ZDNET
Added by: Kim Heise
Folks, the race is
over. AMD scores first with the first 1,000Mhz (1ghz).
AMD just broke an important processor
clock speed barrier.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. announced Monday
that it is shipping a 1GHz, or 1,000MHz, Athlon processor. PC makers, including Compaq
Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ)
and Gateway
Inc. (NYSE: GTW),
followed suit, announcing 1GHz systems based on the chip.
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Tech News for
Friday
March 3d 2000.
Intel's
1ghz CPU to be launched next Wednesday.
Posted: 03/03/2000
Source: TechWeb
Added by: Kim Heise
Looks like next
Wednesday (March 8th) is D-day when the first 1ghz production CPU is available.
It could be weeks after that before you can buy one for an outrageous price.
Early price reports put the 1ghz Intel CPU at a whooping $1,100.0.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. --
Intel will formally launch its 1-GHz Pentium III microprocessor next Wednesday
(March 8), according to sources such as computer manufacturers.
The launch, to be backed by
Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM, willalmost certainly come in the form of
limited-production "special editions," according to the sources, who
said they were briefed by Intel.
Now we will wait and see what
AMD is planning.
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nVidia
NV-15 specs revealed.
Posted: 03/03/2000
Source: The Register
Added by: Kim Heise
I knew this was
inevitable. nVidia plans to release a sequel a little sooner than any GeForce
owner would wish. The Register has posted some details on nVidia's next
generation video processor, dubbed the NV-15. Please remember that this is not
official news from nVidia so anything could change but the specs look
reasonable.
Here are the NV15's key
features. It will have a 135MHz 3D core, 333MHz memory clock (obviously DDR),
transfom and lighting set-up and rendering, a 256-bit rendering engine, a 540
million pixels per second fill rate, and support up to 128MB RAM. In addition to
T&L, the NV15 will offer a new feature called clipping.
It will have
two texture per pixel, four pixels pre-clock, memory flexibility, 128-bit
SDR/DDR, 64-bit SDR/DDR, 96/48MB support (dissimilar memory sizes), an
integrated single-link TMDS transmitter, support up to 1600x1200 panels. Cards
based on the NV15 will use a VIP 2.0 port, the palette will have DAC/w Video
overly and a digital interface for HDTV encoding.
The NV15
will support both AGP and PCI buses. Based on 0.18 micron technology, it will
pump out less than half the power dissipated by the GeForce 256 with which it
will be 100 per cent software compatible. The NV15 should offer up to three
times the performance of the GeForce. At teh same clock speed it will be faster
than the GeForce, but when it's running athigher clock speeds, it will offer a
two to three times improvement for multi–textured applications (like Quake
III) and a 45 per cent improvement on T&L performance.
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DirectX
8.0 Update.
Posted: 03/03/2000
Source: Savage News Daily Added by: Kim Heise
For those of you
tracking Microsoft's latest developments in the DirectX area, here is a tasty
piece of information:
Just to let you guys know that DirectX 8.01a is now out "privately"
of course. It comes out to allow newer drivers more response to T&L
commands for the most part. Whats nice about this release is that its now
for Windows 9x/2000 unlike DirectX 8.0 which was Win9x independent. Well I can
honestly say it boast about 45% more speed and functionality over DirectX
7.1. Its a very nice product overall and I can't wait for Build 2035 (il let
that one out;-).
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3dfx posts
financial loss.
Posted: 03/03/2000
Source: nV News Added by: Kim Heise
3dfx posted their
financial results yesterday and they do not look good but this is typical when
any company spends significant resources on R&D (research and development)
with limited sales focus. Take AMD for an example.
For the full year, revenues were $360,523,000, compared to $202,601,000 in the
year ended December 31, 1998. The increase in revenues was attributed primarily
to the sale of board level products as compared to chip only sales in the
previous year. The net loss for the year was ($63,287,000), which compares to
net income of $21,703,000 in the comparable 12-month period.
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Windows
Blinds 1.2 released.
Posted: 03/03/2000
Source: Stardock Added by: Kim Heise
On some occasions you
will see software updates or posts regarding some very innovative software on
this web site. Windows Blinds definitely falls under the category of being
highly innovative. Windows Blinds is a program that allows you to change your
Windows desktop to look so completely different that you could have a tough time
thinking it's Windows just by looking at it.
To be impressed yourself, simply download the shareware version and take it for
a test drive. The web site contains hundreds of themes that include Solaris,
KDE, BeOS, Amiga and Macintosh desktop themes right on your PC.
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WinAmp
2.61 released.
Posted: 03/03/2000
Source: Nullsoft Added by: Kim Heise
If you were to only
install one single audio player on your Windows PC then this is the one to
choose. I do wish they would improve the interface. Download the new version here.
Here's a list of fixes:
- SuperPiMP installation is cleaner and has
more options
- Winamp Advanced Visualization Studio 2.0 (in
Full Version only)
- Support for .wsz files in your skin
directory as well as .zip files
- Bookmark playlists and SHOUTcast streams
- Massively improved CD Audio support
(enhanced CD support, etc)
- Updated Mjuice and Audiosoft code
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AMD
confirms 1ghz launch in March.
Posted: 03/03/2000
Source: Ace's Hardware Added by: Kim Heise
Here's the
official FAQ direct from AMD:
Question:
How did AMD reach 1GHz so much earlier than your projected introduction date?
Answer:
AMD’s process and manufacturing abilities, coupled with the AMD Athlon™
processor's advanced seventh-generation architecture has enabled AMD to reach
this significant industry milestone, and successfully enable a leading
manufacturer to bring 1GHz AMD Athlon systems to the marketplace in March.
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Tech News for Thursday
March 2nd 2000.
SGI
sells Cray supercomputer unit.
Posted: 03/02/2000
Source: ZDNET
Added by: Kim Heise
New owner Tera Computer
buys the once famous brand for an undisclosed amount of cash, notes and common
stock.
SGI Inc. Inc. said on Thursday
it would sell its Cray vector supercomputer business, one of the most noted
names in the computer industry, to far smaller Tera Computer Co.
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Palm
charges out of IPO gate.
Posted: 03/02/2000
Source: CNET
Added by: Kim Heise
Either you are kicking
yourself for not purchasing this stock (or not enough of it) or you crying
because it's dropped significantly from a all time high of $160!!!
The original share was priced at $38 a share when it opened for trading today.
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Mozilla
Releases Final Pre-Beta Milestone.
Posted: 03/02/2000
Source: BetaNews
Added by: Kim Heise
Several delays and
months behind, Mozilla is approaching pre-beta. Mozilla is the heart of the new
Netscape web browser that can be downloaded in beta for Windows or Linux.
Mozilla.org has taken another
large step towards shipping a full beta version of it's open source Web browser,
by releasing Mozilla Milestone 14 this afternoon. Milestone 14 is considered the
last milestone until Mozilla's genuine beta version, which has been timed to
coincide with the project's second anniversary a month from now.
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Citroen
claims first production WinCE car.
Posted: 03/02/2000
Source: The Register Added by: Kim Heise
Now here is a scary
thought: You are driving down the freeway at 55mhp (or faster) and suddenly your
car shouts "Windows has performed an Illegal operation.......".
Citroen claims to have become the first
manufacturer to go into volume production with a "communicating car."
It's got email, it's got voice recognition and control, GSM, GPS and in-car
navigation, and it was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show yesterday.
It is, says Citroen, "the first Windows
car," and with the flair for marketing that has made Citroen what it is
today (i.e., a subsidiary of Peugeot), the company has named it the Xsara
Windows CE. Yes folks, it's the biggest CE appliance so far. It'll be available
in two successive series of 250 (the level of volume production that made
Citroen what it is today) in the first half.
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Intel
to ship 1ghz Pentium III this month?
Posted: 03/02/2000
Source: ZDNET Added by: Kim Heise
I must say that I'm
rather skeptical about this news release. It is still impossible to find the
latest Pentium III 866mhz CPU anywhere because the FABS are still playing "catch-up".
Now they want to introduce a new processor already?
Consumers will likely be able to buy PCs
containing 1-GHz chips later this month, a lurch forward in the release date of
these systems, sources said today.
Hewlett-Packard will start shipping consumer
PCs containing Intel's Pentium III running at 1 GHz (1,000 megahertz) later this
month, sources at HP said. Corporate computers containing these chips won't come
out until June.
Aha, here you go:
Of course, the value of these systems will
be largely symbolic. Intel is still slated to come out with 866-MHz and a
933-MHz versions of the Pentium III.
"No one is going to jump the gun on the
933-MHz," deadpanned Linley Gwennap, principal at the Linley Group, adding,
"The big question is who needs a 1-GHz processor."
On a somewhat related note:
ZD Net UK has heard that AMD
may roll out the next three processors on its roadmap, the 900, 950, and 1000
mhz K75 Athlon all at once, perhaps as early as this month. Here's the
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Dual
Socket 370 Coppermine CPU Card.
Posted: 03/02/2000
Source: CNEWZ Added by: Kim Heise
This little toy should
be available sometime in April 2000.
NEXCOM has announced a brand new Single Board Computer with breath-taking
performance — the world’s first SBC with Dual Coppermine CPU architecture
based on Intel's leading 840 chip set.
The PEAK 6422V uses the Intel 840 chip set. It features a dual processor
architecture that supports the dual coppermine with 100/ 133 MHz Front Side Bus.
The highest CPU speed tested is 133 MHz/ 733 MHz so far. It supports RAMBUS
memory up to 400 MHz external clock. With two memory channels built in, the PEAK
6422V can boost the memory bandwidth up to 3.2 GB per second! It quadruples the
SDRAM based architectures. Total 2 GB DRDRAM are supported on the PEAK 6422V
with 4 RIMMs reserved on board, which is also the largestof its kind. One of the
most prominent features on the PEAK 6422V is the 64bit/ 66 MHz PCI bus.
6422V delivers I/O bandwidth up to 533 MB/s, which is a good match to the Giga
Hz dual coppermine CPU operations! The PEAK6422V is running the Accton 1000 Base
T Giga bits/s Ethernet controller as well as the Adaptec Ultra 160/M 160 MB/s
SCSI controller in the Lab, all based upon the 64 bit/ 66 MHz PCI architecture.
Beside the SBC board, NEXCOM also offers several choices of the 64 bit/ 66 MHz
backplanes: the NBP 1412/64 for the 14 slot size with 12x64 bit/ 32 bit, 66 MHz/
33 MHz PCIs, or the NBP 2026/64 for the 20 slot size, dual segments with 7x64
bit/ 32 bit, 66 MHz/ 33 MHz PCIs each. The PEAK 6422V is compatible with the 32
bit PCI environment, of course.
To fully match the PEAK 6422V performance, the SMI 710/ 721 series high end VGA
is reserved on board. The SMI 710/ 721 series are footprint compatible with 1x/
2x AGP interface, and 2MB/ 4MB all the way up to 16 MB SGRAM on chip. This makes
the PEAK 6422V one of the most powerful graphic solutions in the world if
equipped with the top 721 configuration. The SMI 710/ 721 series also support
flat panel displays. NEXCOM also reserves ISA as well as the ISAMAX features for
the PEAK 6422V even though the Intel 840 does not support the ISA bus any
more.Common features like DOC socket, the 2S1P, the FDC and the IDEx2 with the
advanced ATA/ 66 are all standard on the PEAK 6422V.
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Cable
modem/DSL router review.
Posted: 03/02/2000
Source: GamePC Added by: Kim Heise
If you are lucky
enough to get Cable or DSL internet connections in your neighborhood and you
wish to share your single connection over several machines then a cable/DSL
router is the path to choose. GamePC reviews the Linksys BEFSR41
Cable/DSL Router. The little box will cost you less than $200.00
It's really hard not to like the Linksys BEFSR41 Cable/DSL Router. It is
priced at less than $200, about the same price as an unlimited user version of
WinProxy. Having worked with industrial-grade Cisco routers before, I was very
pleased with the amount of advanced features, especially the ability to create
routing tables and DHCP functions. IT professionals for smaller businesses who
need to have control over network groups and Internet access will find this
product to be more than adequate.
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Tech News for Wednesday
March 1st 2000.
Microsoft
Announces Three New Hardware Products.
Posted: 03/01/2000
Source: ActiveWin Added by: Kim Heise
ActiveWin has posted
some information and pictures on Microsoft's new hardware gaming products. I
must admit the "SideWinder Strategic Commander" looks very appealing
to help offload some of the "finger-knots" while playing some of the
latest software titles.
Also introduced here is the new Microsoft Force-Feedback Joystick 2.0.
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GeForce
OpenGL with S3TC.
Posted: 03/01/2000
Source: Bjorn3D Added by: Kim Heise
Found this link over at
nVNews that previews beta drivers from
nVidia that support S3TC (S3 Texture Compression) for OpenGL. OpenGL is a video
API that is specifically catered for driving 3D images.
What this means is
that hopefully future releases of the nVidia Detonator video drivers will
support S3TC which means faster frame rates and better picture quality in 3D
display modes. S3TC is a method for compressing huge textures sizes that are
mapped to 3D objects in real-time. The end result is smaller texture data being
moved to the video hardware at faster refresh rates.
Read the full preview here.
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Playstation
2 review at PCWorld.
Posted: 03/01/2000
Source: PCWorld
Added by: Kim Heise
PCWorld takes a look at
the immanent release of the Sony Playstation 2 and takes a look at all the
specs.
The power behind the PlayStation 2 is the Emotion Engine, its 300-MHz
processor, developed by Sony and Toshiba. This chip handles twice as many
floating-point operations per second as a 733-MHz Intel Pentium III, which
translates to very good graphics, say analysts at MicroDesign Resources. Sony
also includes a high-powered graphics synthesizer chip with 4MB of video memory
and 32MB of high-speed Rambus memory.
On a related note: The
Register reports that Microsoft's X-Box will ship Fall of 2001 which has to
be a typing mistake. I can't imagine Microsoft is going to ship the system that
late after the Sony Playstation 2 ships with today's hardware technology. By
Fall of 2001 a 600mhz CPU will be driving the Palm XIV.
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3dfx
Interactive - Voodoo 4/5 at CeBIT news.
Posted: 03/01/2000
Source: Guru3D Added by: Kim Heise
Guru3D visits the 3dfx
booth during the CeBIT computer show in Hanover, Germany and reports back some
very interesting news on the upcoming Voodoo4/5 video cards. Read the full
article on the trip to CeBIT here.
The Voodoo 5 above is based on the version A0
VSA-100 silicon, it still has some bugs in it and it can't run on the speed that
it's supposed to do. The final Silicon (which is going into mass-production
quite soon) will run on 166MHz compared to the 100 MHz A0 version that was
presented to me.
The Voodoo5 will have active
fans on it's VSA-100 processor. Although this is not needed 3dfx claimed that
they had learned from the issues with Voodoo3. The Voodoo3 chipset runs
incredible hot. The fact that it is hot is not a problem for the chipset.
However, the consumer is simply not happy with that solution, so therefore the
new generation will have active fans. I've also been told that Voodoo 4/5, by
far, will not run as hot as the Voodoo3. That would be a bit of a contradiction
since the VSA-100 consumes lot's of power, and everything that consumes energy
will produce heat.
Since we're on the subject
power-consuming, I've been able to verify that the VSA-100 processor will take
up about 15-17 WATT. Therefore the Voodoo5 5000 series will indeed draw power
directly from the power supply and not from the mainboard anymore. This should
also solve many of the mainboard problems that for example the GeForce chipset
experiences.
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