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Tech News for Saturday October 14th 2000

'World's toughest' code broken.
Posted: 10/14/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise

Not sure how I could have missed this one on Friday. 

Swedes use 70 years of computer time to decipher 10 increasingly difficult codes set by author Simon Singh.

A team of Swedish computer buffs has fought off thousands of rivals from around the world to crack what was billed as the toughest code challenge ever set.

It took the Swedes the equivalent of 70 years of computer time to decipher 10 increasingly difficult codes set by author Simon Singh in his international bestseller "The Code Book."

They ranged from ciphers dating back to ancient Greece through Victorian codes and the famed Nazi Enigma code machine from World War II.

"It is the toughest code that has ever been cracked," Singh said on Thursday before handing over the first prize check for 10,000 pounds ($15,000) to the team headed by Fredrik Almgren.

AMD extends speed lead with new processors.
Posted: 10/14/2000     Source: CNET  Added by: Kim Heise

When DDRAM motherboards with ATA-100 drive support using the latest AMD chipset become available then I will definitely consider making a move to build a new system. AMD is continuously releasing new processors to stay in the lead with the world's faster x86 compatible CPU.

Although Advanced Micro Devices has yet to officially release its 1.2-GHz Athlon and 800-MHz Duron processors, both chips are already for sale at various computer dealers.

The new chips, which will be released officially later this month, effectively give AMD the speed crown in both the performance and budget segments of the processor market.

Even better for consumers, the chips are cheap, as pricing pressure is returning once again to the processor market. The 1.2-GHz Athlon is available for $598 from retailer BzBoyz.com and for $574 starting Monday from Accubyte. The 800-MHz Duron sells at several dealers in the $110 to $130 range.

AMD and Intel have slugged it out all year over performance claims. Intel's fastest chip for the performance segment tops out at 1 GHz. The company introduced a 1.13-GHz Pentium III in August, but it had to recall the chip the same month because of a glitch. Intel, however, will likely take the crown back with the debut of the Pentium 4, which sources say should arrive in November.

TOP

Windows 2000 Compatibility Updates.
Posted: 10/14/2000     Source: Microsoft  Added by: Kim Heise

Microsoft has released the October compatibility update for Windows 2000. The update allows more software support for Windows 2000 - specifically gaming titles. Here's what Microsoft has to say about the update:

Windows 2000 was specifically designed to allow customers to add additional application support easily after the product shipped. The October 2000 package is the fourth release of additional application support and it includes software compatibility updates for Windows 2000.

The October 2000 package includes compatibility updates of the August 2000, May 2000, and February 2000 packages.

Prior to the release of Windows 2000, Microsoft focused compatibility testing on the top volume business applications (thousands of applications run out-of-the-box). With that testing complete, as you can see below, Microsoft has broadened the original focus to address some minor compatibility issues with a few of the more popular home/entertainment/gaming applications.

Download the update here.

Intel's 1.13-GHz Pentium III Delayed Again.
Posted: 10/14/2000     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise

And here you have it again as Intel delays the Pentium III 1.13GHZ CPU. What's the point of still releasing this chip since the Pentium 4 is expected shortly (supposedly).

Intel is simply trying to redirect the focus from AMD's new power CPU's until they can successfully ship the Pentium4.

Intel Corp. is entirely reworking the 1.13-GHz Pentium III chip on its own, delaying the processor until the second quarter of next year.

All of Intel's 0.18-micron Pentium III line is undergoing a new core "stepping," or manufacturing revision, according to a product change notification notice sent out by Intel (stock: INTC) and obtained by TechWeb.

A second, newer stepping will be used to fabricate the new 1.13-GHz chip, an Intel spokesman said.

Scour files chapter 11.
Posted: 10/14/2000     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise

I have a feeling there are going to be a whole slew of "chapter 11" fallouts with many dotcom's over the next week or so. The drop in the stock market has made everybody a little nervous and investors are most likely dropping several internet companies.

Oddly enough Scour has never been much of a focus in the media since the service allows the distribution of other software besides MP3 audio.

LOS ANGELES -- Scour Inc., a high-profile Internet entertainment service whose investors include Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz, said Thursday it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, becoming the latest victim in the recent wave of dot-com fallout.

Los Angeles-based Scour, which lets Web surfers swap video and audio files online much like song-swap service Napster does, said it made the move “to ensure its continued operation in the face of burdensome lawsuits.”

Filing for Chapter 11 protection also allows it to continue its evaluating “various strategic business alliances and alternatives,” Scour said.

Tech News for Thursday October 12th 2000

Live!Ware! 3.0 released for Windows Millennium.Posted: 10/12/2000     Source: SoundBlaster  Added by: Kim Heise

It's about time Creative Labs released the drivers for Windows Me which has been on the store shelves for almost a month now.

Live!Ware 3.0 for Windows Millennium Edition Software Bundle Live!Ware 3.0 for Windows Me comes complete with compelling and useful software applications which will enhance your total PC experience.

Download the update here.

TOP

Office 2001 For The Mac Hits Stores.
Posted: 10/12/2000     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise

Microsoft has been releasing the last two office products on the Apple OS platform first before making it available for Windows. I wonder if this is some agreement between the two companies since Microsoft purchased a significant share of Apple.

Microsoft Office 2001 for the Mac is now available at retail stores nationwide, Microsoft Corp. (stock: MSFT) said Thursday. It is the first major upgrade to the top-selling productivity suite for Apple (stock: AAPL) computers since Office 98. It includes enhanced versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and a new PIM application called Entourage. The suite will be sold in a slender, reusable, hard plastic CD case, instead of a traditional cardboard box. Estimated retail prices are $499 for the full version and $299 for the upgrade.

TOP

AMD Beats Estimates, Sets Sales Record.
Posted: 10/12/2000     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise

For over two years AMD has been the underdog when it comes to the processor market but finally the public is starting to see that Intel is not the only solution to buying/building a PC. I hope the company can ramp up production to meet the demands for the speedy new Athlon CPU's so they don't fall into the same hole as they did a couple of years ago with the AMD K6-2.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. set records in the third quarter, with revenue of $1.2 billion and net income of $408.6 million, the company reported Wednesday.

AMD (stock: AMD) said total sales grew by 82 percent from the third quarter of 1999.

The Sunnyvale, Calif., chip maker said that for the quarter ended Oct. 1, it had net income before gains of $219.3 million, or 64 cents a share, compared with an operating loss of $99 million or 36 cents a year ago.

The results topped average analyst expectations of 62 cents a share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial.

TOP

Pentium 4 won't dominate Intel sales until 2002.
Posted: 10/12/2000     Source: CNET  Added by: Kim Heise

This article popped up on the CNET newswire page reporting that Intel is going to have a tough time earning some notable income from the upcoming Pentium 4 processor until sometime in 2002. Read on for more details:

Although Intel will release the Pentium 4 next month, the chip won't become the breadwinner of the company's microprocessor family until at least 2002.

Because of a number of marketing and technical issues, the more technologically advanced Pentium 4 will continue to be overshadowed by the Pentium III, at least in terms of revenue and units produced, for some time, say analysts and Intel executives.

"When does it become the economic center of gravity and when does it become the unit volume center of gravity?" asked Bill Siu, vice president of Intel's Architecture Group. "It won't be in 2001."

In 2002, the Pentium 4 will start to overtake the Pentium III in terms of revenue, he said, but "in terms of units, it will be longer than that."

While the length of the conversion is fairly normal for Intel, the 18- to 24-month cycle puts the chipmaker in a precarious position. The company will have to keep tweaking the Pentium III for another 18 months at least. At the same time, the company must maintain performance and price differences between the older chip and the Pentium 4.

TOP

Crusoe TM5600 Benchmarks.
Posted: 10/12/2000     Source: Heise  Added by: Kim Heise

Heise (not related to me) has posted some benchmarks on the new portable Crusoe CPU compared to the Intel Pentium III. At this stage I maybe expected a little better performance from the Crusoe CPU but the trade off is that in laptops the battery life is almost double.

Note - the link above is in German.

TOP

Bill Gates victimized in hack attack.
Posted: 10/12/2000     Source: MSNBC  Added by: Kim Heise

Somebody has far too much time on their hands.....

A hacker recently changed three stories on the Web site of a California newspaper, making one read that Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates was arrested for breaking into NASA computers, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The attack on the Orange County Register site occurred on Sept. 29 and the paper, which is located in southern California and owned by Freedom Communications Inc., has turned over information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation relating to the identity of the hacker, said spokeswoman Nancy Souza.
       She said Gates’ name was substituted for Jason Diekman’s in a story about Diekman’s arrest for breaking into Web sites at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

TOP

Chip designer ARM to speed Java for gadgets.
Posted: 10/12/2000     Source: CNET  Added by: Kim Heise

With all these new portable devices streaming onto the market software/hardware vendors are moving to created development standards to help companies create software for these new small devices. 

SAN JOSE, Calif.--ARM unveiled improvements Wednesday that will allow chips using its processor core to run Java programs directly, a move that could help boost the use of the software on small devices.

Java is a software developed by Sun Microsystems that, at least theoretically, allows programs to run on a variety of computers without being rewritten for each type. Sun promotes its use in everything from large servers to small devices, such as handheld computers, cell phones and factory-floor robots.

TOP

Tech News for Wednesday October 11th 2000

Pentium III 1.13ghz CPU to ship next year.
Posted: 10/11/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise

Are you also asking why Intel is even bothering to ship the recalled P3 1.13ghz next year when the P4 1.4ghz CPU should be well into the market by then? I suspect Intel will ship the recalled 1.13ghz to keep a "trump card" in the event the new released P4 encounters problems such as bugs or shipping delays. Also the P4 may not be as easily embraced by the consumer market because it requires a new (1st generation) motherboard with new chipsets.

SAN JOSE -- Intel Corp. is gearing up to launch its next-generation Pentium 4 chip as soon as next month, but the chip maker won't ship its recalled 1.13GHz Pentium III chip until next year.

The 1.13GHz Pentium III was recalled in August due to a problem that could cause certain applications to freeze.

TOP

Hitachi, Toshiba Sample 512-Mbit Flash Devices.
Posted: 10/11/2000     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise

Flash memory devices are becoming more and more important as portable devices require increased storage space as the demand for more functions increases. For example cell-phones with internet features and portable MP3 players. Memory makers are scrambling to develop larger storage capacity flash memory to get a foot-hold in the portable market.

Hitachi Ltd. and Toshiba Corp. have each introduced 512-Mbit flash devices, with twice the density of their respective highest-density flash devices.

The 512-Mbit milestone was made possible by moves to smaller process geometries and advanced storage cell techniques. The parts are intended for use in flash storage cards.

TOP

Yahoo Brings Down Tech Stocks.
Posted: 10/11/2000     Source: N/A  Added by: Kim Heise

The stock market is simply out-of-control. Everybody is nervous because Yahoo's earning are going to fall short and so now all the stocks are taking a major beating again. 

Update: A couple of minutes ago Yahoo released their earnings and they beat estimates (barely) so everyone panicked for nothing. Not that it helped because the tech-stocks are falling hard.

The tech-stocks are far to volatile.

TOP

Bank offers online safe-deposit boxes.
Posted: 10/11/2000     Source: CNET  Added by: Kim Heise

I'm not sure how comfortable I feel about this new online technology and we shall have to wait to see how secure it actually is. At this time I think that I will still lock my private documents in a good old strong box.

With a new federal law that took effect Oct. 1 making digitally signed documents legally binding, valuable electronic documents are now as sure to pile up on computer hard drives as their paper predecessors did in metal file cabinets.

It's only natural that banks would be ready to step in and offer secure storage havens.

FleetBoston Financial launched an online safe-deposit box system Tuesday called FileTrust, saying it is the first major bank in the country to offer the service.

The virtual boxes are initially aimed at small-business owners and will offer 24-hour access to whatever digital information a customer chooses to store inside them.

Regardless of whether Fleet's system is successful, its introduction by the country's eighth-largest bank could make virtual safe-deposit boxes more widely available, analysts say.

"It doesn't take much time, once large institutions do things, to trip a domino effect," said Richard Bell, an online banking analyst for TowerGroup in Needham, Mass.

TOP

AMD Gives 64-bit Developers a Head Start.
Posted: 10/11/2000     Source: BetaNews  Added by: Kim Heise

BetaNews informs us that AMD has released developer tools to prepare for the much anticipated 64bit CPU architecture that should be available sometime next year.

In other AMD news, the chipmaker has released a x86-64 technology simulator so that developers on the still-being-developed 64-bit processing platform can get a head start and perfect their code and programs. According to the press release "AMD SimNow! simulator, an application specifically designed to give BIOS vendors, tools developers, operating system manufacturers and application providers the ability to evaluate their x86-64 technology based software code prior to the release of AMD's forthcoming 64-bit capable processors implementing x86-64 technology." Read the rest of the information from AMD.

Firewalls 101.
Posted: 10/11/2000     Source: Tech Extreme  Added by: Kim Heise

Tech Extreme has written a basic guide to firewalls and what you need to know to get started. Especially if you are running DSL/cable or any other broadband technology into your network(s) you need to be on the up and up on network security.

If you are considering setting up a home/office network and are concerned about hackers then this article would help you get started. Just remember the rule of thumb with network security: "No network is 100% hack proof and I need to stay in touch with current developments".

Here's a clip from one of the opening paragraphs:

Simply put, a Firewall is a system that prevents unauthorized access to or from a private network by examining the incoming packets and/or requests coming from (in this case) the Internet. Here’s an analogy, let’s say a firewall is like a bouncer at a 21 and over bar called MyNetworkRocks, and the unauthorized InternetGuru is under 21. Well, because InternetGuru is under 21 he’s not getting past the firewall (bouncer) into MyNetworkRocks, at least not easily. Firewalls can be setup with software, hardware, or both, depending on how paranoid, I mean secure, you want to be.
 

Pentium 4 pictures.
Posted: 10/11/2000     Source: Insane Hardware  Added by: Kim Heise

If your curiosity for the new Pentium 4 CPU is getting the better of you then visit Insane Hardware web site which has been able to obtain some of the first pictures. Note the new CPU design including the new socket 423. Intel is moving away from the slot-1 and slot-2 configuration of previous CPU's to try and keep the competition at arms length. This is to stop the competition from using the Intel motherboard socket with their own CPU's.

Intel's Pentium 4 processor (codenamed Willamette) is the successor to the Pentium III line of processors. This new processor is based on a whole new architecture and is no longer based on the original P6 core which has been in circulation since the mid 90s. The new Pentium 4 Processor is the new generation processor which will initially be released with 256k of L2 Cache (the same size as the Coppermine core Pentium IIIs). The initial frequency of the Pentium 4 will be 1.4GHz utilizing a 400MHz Front Side Bus. The CPU is in a kind of FC-PGA format using a total of 423 pins to transfer data. On top of the Flip Chip style die is a small cap kind of like the cap seen on the original Celeron. Why do this? Simple, it allows better heat transfer and less troubles as seen on the Coppermine CPUs. Ok ok enough is enough, here are the pics:

Intel aims to break 1-GHz mobile barrier in 2001.
Posted: 10/11/2000     Source: SemiBIZNews  Added by: Kim Heise

Having 1ghz of processing power on your desktop PC is amazing enough but now laptops will be powered by the same high performance CPU's. It's not that it was never to happen - I just did not expect 1ghz laptops to be showing up so soon.

Intel Corp. plans to break the 1-GHz barrier in the mobile space in the first half of 2001, the company said Tuesday, while rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. disclosed its first multiprocessor implementation.

While the presentations at the Microprocessor Forum here have been geared towards a technical audience of engineers and system designers, stock-conscious manufacturers have also disclosed product milestones to attract additional investment.

"The mobile market isn't what it used to be in the following sense," said Bob Jackson, principal engineer at Intel's Mobile Products Group in Santa Clara, Calif. "It's grown enormously, and in the other sense it's segmented as it hasn't done before."

Tech News for Tuesday October 10th 2000

AMD demonstrates first dual-Athlon system.
Posted: 10/10/2000     Source: AMDZone  Added by: Kim Heise

AMD demonstrated the first dual-Athlon (K7) system in California today. It appears as if the wait is finally over for dual-AMD based systems and it will finally open the gate into Intel's last major stronghold which is the high-end server market.

AMD PASSES MULTIPROCESSING MILESTONE: DEMONSTRATES FIRST WORKSTATION POWERED BY DUAL AMD ATHLON™ PROCESSORS -- Dual Processor System Features Forthcoming AMD-760™ MP Chipset for Enterprise Computing --

SAN JOSE, CA --OCTOBER 10, 2000--AMD today reached a new milestone with the first public demonstration of a multiprocessor computer designed specifically to work with AMD processors. The demonstration, at the 2000 Microprocessor Forum, consisted of a computer powered by dual AMD Athlon™ processors, the AMD-760™ MP chipset, and next-generation Double Data Rate (DDR) memory. The multiprocessing computer demonstration featured 3D Studio Max, a professional 3D design and modeling application capable of increasing system performance by using both processors simultaneously.

"Today’s demonstration brings AMD one step closer to enable our customers to offer next-generation dual processor workstations and servers powered by AMD processors," said Rich Heye, vice president and general manager of AMD’s Texas Microprocessor Division. "AMD’s dual processor platform is designed to take the extremely successful AMD Athlon processor into the enterprise markets that require multiprocessing workstation and server solutions."

Federal e-mail tax?
Posted: 10/10/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise

I know, it's not just you who thinks that your eyes are playing tricks on you. Aren't we being taxed enough as it is? 

The US Post Office proposes to tax internet users $0.05 for every email sent! Someone needs his/her head examined.

"Under the bill that's now before Congress, the U.S. Postal Service would be able to bill e-mail users 5 cents for each e-mail they send, even though the post office provides no service. They want this to help recoup losses of about $230 million a year because of the proliferation of e-mail. But if you send just 10 e-mails a day, that would cost consumers an extra $180 a year.

Intel pitches the Pentium 4.
Posted: 10/10/2000     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise

Intel is working hard to re-assure OEM's and other hardware vendors that the Pentium 4 is still worth waiting for. Ever since the delay of the Pentium 4 was delayed (moved from 10/31 to 11/31) there have been several unhappy faces in the industry. Intel blames the delay on a bug in the motherboard chipset that drives the new CPU which is not much of a consolation. 

Whatever the result it would be wise to wait until the 2nd generation Pentium 4 motherboards are available in the public before making the leap (of faith).

Although it was hidden in the guise of a technical presentation, Intel Corp. executives presented a Pentium 4 sales pitch Tuesday morning at the Microprocessor Forum.

<SNIP>

Intel executives did not address the topic of the Pentium 4 delay. OEMs have said the chip has been pushed back from shortly before Oct. 31 until the week of Nov. 20 because of a technical flaw.

OEMs have indicated that the flaw does not lie with the chip itself, but with a problem in the accompanying Intel 850, or Tehama, chipset. The glitch has been corrected.

TOP

Western Digital Scores Xbox Design Win.
Posted: 10/10/2000     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise

If anyone is having profit-making difficulties in the computer industry - it's the hard-drive manufactures with the inkjet printer companies coming in at a close second. The profit margin on hard drives is so insignificant that the only way to make any substantial profit is to sign with a huge vendor such as Dell - or in this case with Microsoft.

I would hate to see any of the hard-drive companies go out of business because in the end there will be only one (sounds like a certain movie plot-line) and then the sole survivor can charge insane prices for drives.

Western Digital has signed a formal agreement with Microsoft to supply the hard-drives for the upcoming MS gaming console called the X-Box.

Struggling disk-drive company Western Digital won an important design battle Tuesday when Microsoft said it will use WD drives in its Xbox gaming console.

Western Digital Corp. (stock: WDC) said it will also bring to market a low-cost disk drive, the Protégé, for multiple market segments.

Under the pact, WD will begin shipping hard drives to Microsoft Corp. (stock: MSFT) in June 2001 and is scheduled to continue shipping through mid- 2003. Xbox will utilize WD's single-platter, 3.5-inch hard drives, based on WD's newest value-line Protégé platform. The Xbox itself is expected to begin shipping to retail in the third quarter of 2001, according to WD, Irvine, Calif.

Cluster sets new database speed record.
Posted: 10/10/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise

It's fun to watch companies fight for performance and specifications on various products but it would be more useful if the technology would trickle down to the consumer level. Often companies post these impressive press releases about products to raise the stock value or "one-up" the competition but the average consumer never gets to see the results first hand.

Edging out an IBM result from July, Compaq and Microsoft last week turned in the highest-ever throughput on the TPC-C benchmark tests.

By taking the now well-demonstrated clustering path to performance, Compaq Computer Corp. and Microsoft Corp. last week scored the highest-ever throughput on the Transaction Processing Performance Council's TPC-C database benchmark while maintaining one of the best price/performance ratios among all TPC-C results.

The cluster reached a stable peak throughput of 505,302.77 transactions per minute at a five-year cost of ownership of just under $10.5 million.

Chip inventor scores Nobel Prize.
Posted: 10/10/2000     Source: CNET  Added by: Kim Heise

Let's have a round of applause for Jack Kilby for taking home the Nobel Prize in physics.

Jack Kilby, who won half the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for his part in the invention of the computer chip, said he was surprised by the award.

Kilby, 77, who is retired from U.S. electronics company Texas Instruments, said his reaction to winning the prestigious prize was "one of amazement."

"I had not anticipated this at all. In fact, I thought it most unlikely," said the Kansas-born Kilby, who invented the integrated circuit, or computer chip.

The other Nobel laureates in physics named Tuesday were Zhores Alferov of the A.F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia, and German-born scientist Herbert Kroemer of the University of California at Santa Barbara for developing semiconductors with practical uses for everything from cellular phones to bar code readers.

Yahoo to launch free phone service.
Posted: 10/10/2000     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise

The future of voice communications is going to ride on the back of the internet - that much is apparent. This leads to more competition and other possibilities such as encrypted voice communications that could even include video. I'm sure that the major phone companies are going to fight this method of communication "tooth and nail" instead of embracing it.

Yahoo is joining a whole slew of other "dotcom" companies to offer free voice communication over the internet.

“These services will play a major role in what we see as weaving Yahoo into people's lives and freeing them from the tether of the PC and the mouse.”

The new services include Yahoo by Phone, which provides spoken, personalized content such as stock quotes and weather reports over a toll-free number. The same 800 number will enable people with Yahoo email accounts to dial in to have their mail read to them. And it will let users make long-distance calls over their PCs to any number in the United States.

3D on the printed page.
Posted: 10/10/2000     Source: ZZZ Online  Added by: Kim Heise

Whatever will they think of next? The kids of tomorrow's schools are going to be using very different tools from what did in our time. Hopefully the new educational inventions will not be more of a distraction but a more efficient learning tool.

Eggheads from Washington University are developing something very amusing. Imagine absolutely usual book, which is printed on a usual paper, which doesn't have any sensors and transceivers and which can be bought in every book shop. But if you open this book, you'll see three-dimensional illustrations, which can be rotated, scaled, moved and so on. Simply turning the pages in the book will reveal new pictures and virtual images. Staying in normal physical reality, you'll be able to interact with a virtual one, and thus become a part of so called - "Augmented Reality".

The current version of this magic system has two components; the head mounted display (HMD) and the physical book. A small color camera attached to the HMD held by user is attached to the video-in port of computer. The video-out port is connected back into the HMD, so when users look in the HMD they see the real world, experiencing it as a video-mediated reality. The computer is used for image processing of video from the head-mounted camera and for generating the virtual images.

Exclusive AMD Duron 800 Review.
Posted: 10/10/2000     Source: GamePC  Added by: Kim Heise

I see the first batch of AMD Duron processors are starting to trickle down into the public arena. This is a very exiting new product since the Duron is a low cost alternative to Intel's Celeron processor. In terms of sheer performance and "bang for the buck" the AMD Duron simply annihilates the Intel Celeron.

GamePC is fortunate enough to get their hands on one of the first batches of AMD Duron processors and posts a full review of what to expect. Often the so-called computer gaming web sites get their hands on the most advanced computer technology first since computer games tax your hardware more than any other application. Think sound, 3D graphics, AI and external device processing (keyboards, joysticks and mice).

The Duron 800 chips are being manufactured with a new core stepping, that being Duron Model 3. Model 3 of the Duron has some interesting characteristics, the most interesting being the option to manufacture the Durons with 128k of L2 cache, as opposed to 64k. AMD's Product Marking Identification Guide for the Duron m.3 has a stepping code for Durons with 128k of L2 cache, which would bring the entire cache of the chip up to 256k, right on par with Intel's Coppermine Pentium III processors. While the Duron 800's currently have 64k of L2, this strongly hints that future Duron chips may be equipped with more cache at higher clock speeds.

Linux Video Card Comparison
Posted: 10/10/2000     Source: AnandTech  Added by: Kim Heise

AnandTech has posted a very useful review of the top video cards on the market and rates them how well they function under the Linux operating system. This is not the sort of review you see every day since everybody is consumed with testing under the Windows operating system. There is a whole slew of Linux users out there who would welcome more of these reviews.

As expected any of the nVidia based video cards win out in performance and software quality under Linux due to mature silicon and drivers.

Again, we see the NVIDIA cards dominating in both 2D and 3D performance under Linux. NVIDIA has worked hard on their drivers and they are proud of their results, as they should be. Their performance edge makes it difficult to justify another card on the basis of open-source drivers alone. Many users still feel burned by their schizophrenic attitude towards TNT drivers under Linux, which keeps them away from NVIDIA's latest offerings. For those interested, after announcing open source drivers, they obfuscated the code before releasing. Then the drivers sat, unmodified, unimproved and unsupported. Finally, they released their revolutionary new driver architecture (as used here with the GeForce2 cards), which supports the TNT/TNT2 as well as their GeForce and GeForce2 cards.

Parallel processor system packs 128 cores.
Posted: 10/10/2000     Source: EETIMES  Added by: Kim Heise

This is some accomplishment to achieve a point where you have 128 processors communicating with each other and not creating too much overhead. Adding as many processors as possible to a computer system does not necessarily speed up the processing rate. This is because too many processors require too much overhead to decide which processor computes which instructions.

EETimes reports that a German company has developed a new parallel processing computer that has 30-million-transistor CPU's which integrate 128 thirty-two-bit processors. Understandably there is no "over the counter" operating system available to run on such a system so the company has developed special compilers to run on a dedicated operating system to drive this box.

Pact (Munich, Germany) aims to use sheer muscle to break out of the pack. Each of the XPP's 128 processor cores sports its own 32-bit fixed-point multiplier, yielding a theoretical output of 12.8 billion multiply-accumulate operations per second at an expected clock frequency of 100 MHz. Pact claims the architecture will scale to produce devices capable of more than 400 giga operations/s in 2002 and into the peta-ops range within a decade.

Tech News for Monday October 9th 2000

Four optical start-ups plan collaboration.
Posted: 10/09/2000     Source: CNET  Added by: Kim Heise

You can be rest assured the Cisco camp is very nervous this morning after four new start-ups are planning to work together to develop high speed optical network devices.

Cisco is currently far too strong to be overly worried but the race is on to develop cost-efficient optical network routing devices.

It's amazing that whenever one hears about this mergers, partnerships etc. on how much money is "thrown about".

A new networking incubator will add another wrinkle to the optical networking investment craze Monday, announcing a quartet of newly funded start-ups that plan to create technologies that complement one another.

The Iris Group's approach is based on the vision of Michael Zadikian and Zareh Baghdasarian, two co-founders of Monterey Networks. Monterey, an early optical start-up, was acquired by Cisco Systems last year in a $500 million deal.

1.4GHz P4 price slashed.
Posted: 10/09/2000     Source: The Register  Added by: Kim Heise

Since the Pentium 4 has been delayed Intel has decided to cut the price significantly to keep the CPU attractive to frustrated customers. The Register team and I suspect the price cut may also have something to  do with the huge price drop in AMD CPU's.

Intel's Pentium 4 is now scheduled for launch at the end of November in 1.4 and 1.5GHz guises.

The entry level P4 should debut at 1.4Ghz, priced at $652, while the premium part will ship at 1.5Ghz and $827.

It's intriguing that our original intelligence pointed at a launch at 1.3 and 1.4GHz, costing $635 and $805 respectively. For the 1.4GHz part to have been reduced by $150 before it ever hit the shelves could be seen as an indication of the perceived level of the AMD price/performance threat.

3dfx Voodoo5 6000 Specs.
Posted: 10/09/2000     Source: iXBT Labs  Added by: Kim Heise

It is simply perplexing how 3dfx is planning on releasing the very late (6-8 months) late Voodoo5 6000 video card without DDRAM support. One of the most significant problems video card designers have to face today is that the memory on the video cards itself is always a major bottle neck in relationship to the high speed graphics core. This is why DDRAM makes such a difference for video cards since it doubles the memory bandwidth for every video CPU cycle.

Now 3dfx is releasing the Voodoo5 6000 without DDRAM support and has simply opted to use standard SDRAM (the same RAM that's in your PC). The price tag on this much hyped product is around $600.

• Graphics core: 183MHz
• Memory: 128MB 5.5ns SDR SDRAM working at 183MHz
• 8x FSAA (Full-Scene Anti-Aliasing)

And to top it off - the Voodoo5 600 is still not shipping with no official date announcement from the 3dfx camp.

AMD and Dell to shake hands?
Posted: 10/09/2000     Source: The Register  Added by: Kim Heise

If you remember weeks ago I posted that Dell and AMD would one day team up to produce PC's. Dell's sales have been significantly hurt by Intel's inability to produce enough processors on demand and the recent spate of buggy Intel motherboard chipsets have not helped either. 

If Dell is to stay number one the list of consumer PC's then the company had better look elsewhere besides Intel for CPU's and motherboards to keep up with the demand. This is where AMD and VIA come into the picture: AMD for CPU's and VIA for motherboard chipsets. 

The Register reports that apparently Dell and AMD have reached some sort of agreement but nothing has been officially confirmed. Watch for AMD's stock to climb when we see an official announcement. It is very possible Dell will announce the partnership with AMD rather subtly since the company has been so pro-Intel in the past. 

Yes. I think there are two independent sources in Chinese said Dell has decided to use AMD today.

The first source is VIA Technology's web site. VIA collects local news about PC industry everyday, and put it into its web site. I have followed this site for very long time. The information there is often accurate.

First Transmeta laptops shipping in Japan.
Posted: 10/09/2000     Source: CNET  Added by: Kim Heise

The first laptops using the new Transmeta "Crusoe" CPU are shipping in Japan and the first batch are expected here in the US within a couple of weeks or so. These new 600mhz laptops have an average battery life that is more than double of that of any Intel portable CPU such as the Pentium II and the Pentium III. The down side is that OEMS and software developers are having a tough time obtaining samples of the new "Crusoe" CPU. This is something serious and could in fact kill all support for the new portable CPU.

The Vaio PictureBook CIVN to be released in the United States will weigh 2.2 pounds, contain a 600-MHz Crusoe processor, and measure less than an inch thick. It will sell for an estimated retail price of $2,299.99, according to Sony.

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