Tomorrow's News Today

Please visit our Sponsor

RSS Feeds

• Anandtech

• CNET News

• CrankyGeeks

• DailyTech

• Endgadget

• Security Now

• TechARP

• TGDaily

• Winsupersite

Tech News for Wednesday November 1st 2000

Site News Update.
Posted: 11/01/2000     Source: N/A  Added by: Kim Heise

I will be on vacation from Thursday the 2nd through to Monday 6th of November and I will resume news posts then. 

You can still email me with questions/requests as I will be checking email every now and then.

Have a good weekend.

U.S. Steps Up World Web Policing.
Posted: 11/01/2000     Source: Wired  Added by: Kim Heise

Please let us not waste any more money on these futile attempts to control the web. The US government has enough more serious problems within the US borders than to worry about something it cannot possibly control. I agree that there is a problem with scams on the Internet but it would be impossible to police the web for online scumbags because they could be located anywhere on the planet. What are you going to do? Send the US police into China to arrest someone for being a online scam artist.

What really irks a modern, tech-savvy bureaucrat is far more disruptive: Offshore websites that lie outside the reach of U.S. law.

So it was no surprise to see the Federal Trade Commission say on Tuesday that it was redoubling its efforts to enlist international cooperation in its fight against online scams.

"These collaborations are helping us create a climate where e-commerce can be conducted with confidence," said Jodie Bernstein, director of the FTC's bureau of consumer protection, during a press conference. "We want dot-con artists to know that consumer protection spans the globe, physically and in cyberspace."

Tuesday's announcement of "Operation Dot Con" represents a joint effort between the FTC and its sister agencies in nations including Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Among the scams highlighted: Web cramming, where scam artists offer to build a website for free and then place unauthorized charges on the phone bills of their victims.

But it only takes one country to provide safe refuge for scam artists, and only a handful of nations -- nine total -- are participating.

IBM cancels plans for Transmeta notebook.
Posted: 11/01/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise

This is a major strike against Transmeta who is banking on as much support as possible for their portable device processor. Getting the foot in the door is the toughest mountain to cross for companies wanting to release a competing product. Let's not also forget that Transmeta is going up against Intel and AMD for the notebook market which isn't exactly a cake walk.

IBM Corp. confirmed on Wednesday that it has canceled plans to create a mininotebook PC using Transmeta Corp.'s Crusoe processor. IBM (NYSE: IBM) had been working to build Crusoe into its ThinkPad 240 mininotebook. However, that project has now been shelved, an IBM spokesman said.

'New Napster' won't be free.
Posted: 11/01/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise

The deal Napster signed with Bertelsmann AG is the death of the service itself. The whole point of Napster is that it is FREE and anybody could use it anonymously. 

From the ZDNET article the new collaboration wants you to cough up $4.95.

Marketing teams on both fronts believe they are going to rake in buckets of cash with users wanting to swarm to the new service. I can see another new startup file sharing company to spring up to take Napster's place. 

Napster isn't going to be a free service for very much longer.

CEO Hank Barry said Tuesday that the 38 million Napster users will soon have to pay "monthly dues" of, perhaps, $4.95 to access each other's hard drives; it is the result of a deal Napster reached with one of five record companies suing it for copyright infringement.

The "new Napster" may also include a link to CDNow (Nasdaq: CDNW) and could be used to swap other types of content, including video, Barry said during a marathon media conference.

S3 sheds graphics business, picks up new name.
Posted: 11/01/2000     Source: CNET  Added by: Kim Heise

Looks like S3 is making some major restructuring changes. New name and new focus. Read on for more details:

S3 is finally dropping its graphics chip business, at the same time picking up a new name: Sonicblue.

Under a revised deal approved by the Taiwanese government, Via Technologies will get S3's graphics chip business in exchange for returning the 15 percent stake it had in S3 and assuming other liabilities in a deal valued at $323 million.

The new deal, set to close by January, replaces a similarly valued cash and stock deal that deal was held up by Taiwanese regulators.

With the sale, Sonicblue will have three main businesses: the Rio MP3 music player operation, the recently announced Frontpath Internet appliance business, and the Access line of home networking gear and modems. S3 will announce the name change Wednesday.

"We've done what we've said," S3 chief executive Ken Potashner said in an interview Tuesday. Sonicblue will act as a holding company for the three business units and manage the company's stock portfolio, which includes its stake in the Rioport music portal and more than $650 million in stock of Taiwanese chip foundry UMC Group.

Sprint PCS unveils wireless MP3 ambitions.
Posted: 11/01/2000     Source: CNET  Added by: Kim Heise

Sprint is going to be unveiling a new wireless MP3 player. I wonder if wireless MP3 players are going to be the standard in vehicles on day.

Sprint PCS is launching a new online MP3 service linked with its mobile phones Wednesday, with an eye toward capturing a large share of a market coveted by companies ranging from Time Warner to MP3.com.

The mobile phone company will start selling a new hybrid MP3 player and mobile phone, hoping to attract free-spending young consumers who are increasingly receptive to online music and all things wireless.

Motherboard Upgrade/Installation Guide.
Posted: 11/01/2000     Source: SharkyExtreme  Added by: Kim Heise

If you plan on installing/upgrading a new motherboard in your PC sometime soon you may wish to visit Sharky Extreme for details on how to get started.

Replacing a motherboard is not as complicated as it looks and if you follow some basic steps you will be fine. You will learn the nasty feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you are reaching over to power the system up for the first time. "Is this machine going to power up and is anything going to blow up?"

Installing a new motherboard can be one of the more difficult aspects of a home built or upgraded PC. It involves getting right into the basics of your computer and replacing what is the core component. The motherboard is the heart and soul of any system, and upgrading to a newer model is a process that should be taken seriously and performed with the utmost of care. With that in mind, the following is a step-by-step guide to help make your next home upgrade go a lot smoother.

Belkin Introduces Its New USB 2.0 4-Port Hub.
Posted: 11/01/2000     Source: Electic Tech  Added by: Kim Heise

I'm not aware of any USB (Universal Serial Bus) 2.0 PC's on the market but they are supposed to debut sometime during the holiday season. Belkin is ahead of the game by releasing USB 2.0 hubs.

USB hubs allow you to share more USB devices (printers, scanner, keyboards etc...) to your PC if you run out of available USB ports on your machine.

Belkin Components, the leading manufacturer of Universal Serial Bus (USB) connectivity products, today introduced its new USB 2.0 4-port hub.

Designed with a USB 2.0 chipset from NEC Corporation (NEC) (NASDAQ:NIPNY - news), the Belkin USB 2.0 4-port hub (F5U221) offers unparalleled performance and the ability to support high-speed devices of up to 480Mbps.

Fujitsu MPG3409 AT Hard Drive.
Posted: 11/01/2000     Source: PCRoddin  Added by: Kim Heise

At first there is nothing interesting about Fujitsu's new hard drive unless you peak "under the hood" and learn about the internal workings of this new drive. Take a look and see what you think:

First up to bat is the Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB) technology.  I found this to be one of the most intriguing features of this drive.  Fujitsu first introduced the FDB motor in July of 1999.  The FDB motor features quieter operation as well as greater impact resistance and durability.  So what makes this FDB so special?  The Fluid Dynamic Bearing motor uses viscous oil in it's rotational components instead of metal ball-bearings.  This results in a much quieter drive due to the lack of metal-to-metal contact.  The drive is also more impact resistant as the oil will absorb the shock compared to the vibration transfer across ball-bearing based motors.      

When I installed this drive and loaded the OS, I have to admit that I was totally shocked at the amount of noise coming from it.  When I say amount, I should really say the lack of .  This is the quietest hard drive I have ever heard to date.  To prove my statement of how quiet it was compared to other drives, I went to the local Radio Shack and bought a sound level meter.   

NVidia to Unveil Laptop Chip.
Posted: 11/01/2000     Source: Bloomberg  Added by: Kim Heise

NVidia is not about to sit back and allow ATI to steam roll into the laptop market with various new video chips. Expect some news shortly from the NVidia camp regarding a new laptop video processor. 

Santa Clara, California, Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Nvidia Corp., one of the biggest makers of graphics chips for desktop PCs, said it will announce next month its first chip for the laptop computer market.

The company declined to elaborate.

Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia is hoping the chip will take sales from Canadas dominant ATI Technologies Inc. and others that make components to enhance graphics on laptop PCs. Graphics- chip contracts for notebook PCs are typically more profitable than those for desktop computers, although fewer notebooks are sold, analysts say.

Microsoft releases test versions of Whistler OS.
Posted: 11/01/2000     Source: CNET  Added by: Kim Heise

Nobody expected Microsoft to be releasing a test version of "Whistler" to some 200,000 software developers via the MSDN web site. I think it's a smart idea for companies to release beta versions to the public because it allows more people to test the software. 

Microsoft on Tuesday released the first test version of its next Windows operating system, which will finally merge consumer and business computers under one umbrella.

The new operating system, code-named Whistler, is Microsoft's replacement for Windows Me for consumers and Windows 2000 for businesses.

Whistler is Microsoft's first operating system for consumers and businesses based on the same software code. While Windows Me for home users was based on Windows 98, Windows 2000 for businesses was based on Windows NT. The new Whistler will be based on Windows 2000.

The software giant is making the test versions available to its 200,000 software developers via its MSDN Web site, as well as to partners and corporate customers. The final desktop and server editions of Whistler are expected to ship in the second half of 2001, Microsoft executives said.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., has not released details or new features for Whistler, but sources who have seen the test version for consumer PCs describe it as more than just a Windows 98 upgrade. Whistler features many under-the-hood changes as well as major changes to the interface, testers say.

Tech News for Tuesday October 31st 2000

TI Ports Java 2 For 3G Wireless.
Posted: 10/31/2000     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise

We are starting to see some wireless programming languages begin to coalesce into an early standard but it is still far too murky to call it official. Once the wireless and Java bigwigs stop arguing over who owns the standard and begin to work together we will see some results.

Texas Instruments Inc. (stock: TXN) said Monday it will port Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java 2 micro edition to its open multimedia application platform (OMAP). TI's decision helps spread the adoption of Java at all levels of the wireless industry, Sun (stock: SUNW) said. TI's programmable DSP-based OMAP architecture provides 2.5G and 3G multimedia applications with low-power, high-performance capability. Nokia (stock: NOK), Ericsson (stock: ERICY), Sony (stock: SNE), and Handspring (stock: HAND) have endorsed OMAP for their next generation wireless handsets and advanced mobile computing devices, said TI, Dallas.

AMD: DDR Platforms Ready To Roll With Athlon.
Posted: 10/31/2000     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise

Ladies and gentlemen this is major progression in the PC hardware industry towards significant performance increases and something to behold. The hype has been to produce the fastest processor on the market but the industry has been forgetting about the architecture behind these speedy new CPU's. It is akin to putting a 350HP V-12 turbo-charged engine in a 1968 VW BUG. The wheels and the chassis can only handle so much demand before there is trouble.

One of the most significant bottlenecks in today's PC's is the clock speed of which the memory communicates with the CPU. This is known as the FSB (front-side bus) speed. One of the main reasons why FSB speeds are sitting in the 100mhz-133mhz range is because main PC memory is expensive to produce and there is officially no motherboard chipsets capable of supporting higher speeds. Various mother boards manufacturers have taken it upon themselves to increase FSB speeds over 133mhz but your chances of achieving anything higher were approximately 50/50 and you could at best achieve a little over 15-20mhz FSB speed increase. 

AMD's new chipset allows the use of DDR RAM offering 266mhz FSB speeds. If I was to purchase and assemble a new system it would be using DDRAM because I'm tired of spending money to see only a minor performance gain. 

So the next time a salesman pitches you the 1ghz hype you can ask him/her if the company has done anything to speed up the FSB.

Advanced Micro Devices on Monday announced it is the first chip supplier to offer a PC platform supporting double data rate (DDR) memory.

The solution includes the AMD-760 chip set and a new Athlon processor with a 266-MHz front-side bus for the highest grade of DDR memory available, the company said.

The move is part of an effort by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (stock: AMD) to take advantage of Intel's backing of the Direct Rambus memory format, which has been plagued with delays in chip sets from Intel Corp. (stock: INTC) and higher costs compared to today's mainstream SDRAMs.

"Fundamentally, DDR memory technology doubles a PC's available memory data transfer rate, at comparable costs to today's SDRAM solutions," said Richard Heye, vice president and general manager of AMD's Microprocessor Division in Austin, Texas. "With DDR memory, a major performance bottleneck is removed, allowing PCs to take advantage of increasing processor frequencies."

The new Athlon processor for DDR support is available in 1-GHz, 1.13-GHz, and 1.2-GHz speed grades, said AMD in press conferences held in Tokyo, Taipei, and Paris Monday. For quantities of 1,000 units, the 32-bit processor is priced at $385, $506, and $673, respectively for 1-GHz, 1.13-GHz, and 1.2-GHz speeds. The 760 chip set is priced at $39 in 1,000-unit quantities.

Ericsson Unveils New Internet-Surfing Phone.
Posted: 10/31/2000     Source: Yahoo Daily News  Added by: Kim Heise

As stated in previous articles - I would hate to see more distractions on US motor freeways of today with people chatting on the phone and soon to be surfing the web. For arguments sake let's sum up the distractions the average family member has to deal with while driving on the highway: (email me if I forget any but I think you could easily add a handful of more distractions)

radio + cellphone + kids + spouse + in dash tv + other idiots on the road + GPS device + radar detector + internet device + fatigue + road surface conditions + road signs= ???

On the flipside it would be nice to be able to check email while sitting in a lengthy office meeting or even while hiking up on a mountain trail. Then again wouldn't you be hitting the mountain trail to get away from all the world of computers?

Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson on Tuesday unveiled a new mobile phone aimed at the lower and younger end of the market, which it hopes will help its loss making mobile phone unit return to the black.

Ericsson markets the new phone, called T20, as the first truly mobile Internet device for young people, because it enables the owner to talk with friends on the Internet via electronic messages in Web chat rooms.

It also features Internet time, a concept developed by watch-maker Swatch (UHRZ.S), which divides the day into 1,000 beats rather than traditional seconds, minutes and hours.

``One of the strategies (to bring the handset division back to profit) is to be more focused and to be more active in the entry level segment, to offer products that are more competitively priced,'' Marketing Director at Ericsson Mobile Communications Bo Albertson told Reuters.

``The T20 is a reply to these two goals,'' he said, but declined to say what the price tag on the handset would be.

The Virtual Dog Show .
Posted: 10/31/2000     Source: NewsBytes  Added by: Kim Heise

This is no joke. Imagine the fun you could have sending in pictures of dogs you have touched up with Photoshop.

The first Virtual Dog Show was held in the fall of 1995 and is becoming more and more popular among the dog-loving members of the Internet public. Dog owners can enter their dogs, spectators can see the dogs and read about them and their owners, and anyone can visit the dog show stalls. World Wide Web: http://www2.dogshow.com/spring2000/

Linux-Mandrake 7.2 released.
Posted: 10/31/2000     Source: BetaNews  Added by: Kim Heise

Just an FYI for those who have been waiting on Mandrake's release of the latest Linux kernel. The new version also includes the recently released KDE 2.0 OpenWin interface.

Final version 7.2 of the popular Linux-Mandrake distribution has begun to show up on FTP mirrors and ISOs are available for download. Version 7.2 adds KDE 2, and numerous bug fixes. Linux-Mandrake is a pre-configured version of Linux which aims to provide simplicity through graphical interfaces. It is fully compatible with Red Hat Linux and the RPM package system. Those interested in trying out this latest release, visit the FTP mirror list.

BMG and Napster Deal.
Posted: 10/31/2000     Source: BetaNews  Added by: Kim Heise

Something looks very suspicious here: Napster is reported to be signing a deal with one of the companies who is currently suing them. I may be off the mark here but I suspect that Napster will turn into a payment subscription service to fend off the lawsuits.

This just in: Reuters is reporting that BMG has agreed to form a strategic alliance with the powerful Napster file-sharing software as soon as Napster agrees to create a membership based service. BMG is one of the companies currently suing Napster over copyright infringement, a suit that the companies will, and already have won in some courts if Napster refuses to change its current practices. Keep checking back as details emerge.

New recordable Disc with 3x the capacity & 3x CD-R/RW.
Posted: 10/31/2000     Source: Yahoo  Added by: Kim Heise

We have been hearing about various new CDR-W formats that are planned to be on the market sometime this year or early next year. I hope this one does become a standard because the benefits are substantial. Unfortunately in this industry (as in many others) the better product does not always guarantee a market winner. It is a combination of marketing and who the companies decides to rub shoulders with.

TDK Electronics Corporation announced today the creation of a technology alliance with Calimetrics Inc., to apply Calimetrics' MultiLevel Recording(TM) (ML) technology to create a new recordable and rewritable optical disc format with three times the capacity and three times the speed of conventional CD-R/RW recording. The first products to incorporate the new MultiLevel Recording technology will be a new generation of computer drives built on the familiar CD-R/RW platform but with the ability to record more than 2 GB of data at 36X on specially formulated ML blank discs, as well as 700 MB of data on standard CD-R/RW discs at 12X.

ATI announces AGP 4X graphics for notebooks.
Posted: 10/31/2000     Source: ATI  Added by: Kim Heise

We were promised AGP 4x support in our PC's by Christmas this year and so far it looks unlikely unless VIA and AMD can develop/ship something on time. ATI will be shipping AGP 4x support for laptops sometime within the next month or two.

ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY, NASDAQ: ATYT) today announced Mobility M4™, the industry's first shipping AGP 4X graphics component for the mobile platform. Mobility M4 will deliver new levels of 3D realism with both commercial and consumer applications on the notebook PC. It has already achieved its first design win, with the recently announced Dell Inspiron 8000 notebook PC.

ATI has been the leader in AGP implementation since development of the specification in 1996. Mobility M4, the industry's first shipping mobile AGP 4X graphics accelerator, confirms ATI's continued leadership of both the AGP specification and mobile graphics market segment. ATI offers the industry's widest range of mobile graphics solutions, spanning all market segments from the smallest ultraportable form factor systems to the latest AGP 4X, high performance notebook PCs. Raising the bar further, Mobility M4 is the industry's fastest graphics and multimedia solution, capable of playing the hottest 3D games and demanding 3D applications -- on the largest notebook LCD screens available

• ATI, the AGP leader, first graphics company to ship AGP 4X component for notebook PCs

• Mobility M4™ already selected for recently announced Dell Inspiron 8000 notebook PC.

TOP    MORE

S3's revenue doubles in Q3.
Posted: 10/31/2000     Source: 3D Hardware  Added by: Kim Heise

Several industry pundits predicted the demise of S3 but the company has shown that it can and will survive by refocusing itself in the correct market area. S3 has a major market share and I believe it is larger than most people suspect. It will take a lot more than a single quarterly loss to put them out of business.

The net revenue for the third quarter of 2000 was $140 million compared to $70.5 million for Q3 last year. However due to the heavy restructuring S3 Inc. reported a net loss of $75.6 million for the third quarter.

Tagram Mambo-X Portable MP3 CD-R/W Player.
Posted: 10/31/2000     Source: 3D Hardware  Added by: Kim Heise

I was wondering when a company was going to fill the demand for a portable/recordable MP3 player on a compact disk. 3D Hardware reviews one of the first portable/recordable MP3 players and I believe it's the only one on the market.

The idea of players like the one in review must have been in every CD-R Drive owner's head since the first MP3 player was released. The disadvantages of solid-state memory had become apparent with the emergence of portable MP3 players using this kind memory. Even with solutions using hard disk- and Clik drives being brought into production, it was apparent that the market's demand for a portable CD player, featuring an Mpeg 1 Layer 3 (MP3) decoder, would make the industry produce one. One of the first players to actually hit the market (some early projects had been closed down for, for us, unknown reasons) was Tagram Corporation's Mambo-X. For the sake of a fair review, we'll neglect the inexplicable name (hey, we let Soyo get away with V6BE+IV, right?).

Intel Latest Price Cuts
Posted: 10/31/2000     Source: The Register  Added by: Kim Heise

Another FYI if you are keeping an eye on the processor market waiting for a tempting price cut to upgrade or purchase a new system. Take a look at these hefty price cuts.

I'm surprised the Pentium4 1.5ghz CPU will be as low as $644 sooner than anyone expected.

Hitachi World First Internet Printer
Posted: 10/31/2000     Source: Hitachi  Added by: Kim Heise

Now here is a perfect example of marketing hype. What kind of description is a "Internet Printer"? Hitachi's new "Internet" printer is simply a fancy printer with a built in mini computer.

The iDoc 400 is a built-in, Hitachi-designed print controller integrated into Hitachi's digital copier and printer products. It offers major engineering advances in secure computer control and monitoring with Web-based printer/copier management software. Authorized users get unprecedented control of copying, printing and finishing functions from anywhere in the world, plus remote access to product information, device configuration, service and support, all from a standard Web browser. The RISC-based iDoc 400 offers built-in computer features including 10/100 Base-T Ethernet with TCP/IP and a selection of printer emulations for virtually any software or hardware environment. It supports four software modules providing exclusive Internet-enabled functions.

The i-printer 70 is the world's first digital production printer with Internet connectivity. It is a heavy-duty printer designed especially for the print-on-demand business environment. The i-copier 62 is a feature-rich digital copier/printer that offers high-quality imaging (600 x 600 dpi printing up to 12`` x 18'') and advanced finishing capabilities. Both produce professional looking documents with duplex printing, saddle-stitching, punching, folding and multi-position stapling. Hitachi's dynamic drivers give the user complete control for end-to-end document production, including simplified post-document page insertion, front and back covers, and tab stock printing. And any document printing/finishing configuration can be saved as a profile for easy reuse.

Tech News for Monday October 30th 2000

Intel roadmap shows little Rambus support in 2001.
Posted: 10/30/2000     Source: EBNEWS  Added by: Kim Heise

It was expected that Intel would be slowly separating itself from RAMBUS memory as a viable future upgrade for the next generation PC's. I can see the lawyers from RAMBUS Inc. salivating at the mouth getting ready to hit Intel with what ever lawsuits they can dig up. Intel and RAMBUS Inc. supposedly signed a multi-year contract and now Intel is looking the other way.

A confidential road map obtained by EBN shows Intel Corp. dropping Direct Rambus DRAM from every computing platform but high-end workstations by mid-2001. This would appear to bear out recent comments by Intel president Craig Barrett that the exclusive deal to support the memory interface was “a mistake.”

According to the document, Intel will phase out the slow-selling Direct RDRAM-enabled 820 chipset in the first quarter of next year, while the yet-to-be-introduced Intel 850 chipset will be dropped in the middle of the third quarter. At that time, Intel's sole remaining Rambus chipset will be an enhanced 850 device code-named Tehama-E, which the company is rolling out for workstations and PCs costing more than $2,000.

TOP    MORE

Coming Soon: Fiber to the Home.
Posted: 10/30/2000     Source: Wired  Added by: Kim Heise

I'm not sure how useful it would be have fiber optic networks in the average home of today. Current DSL and cable modem connections would not even begin to make use of the huge bandwidth offered by fiber networks. Unless you plan to stream your television, multiple audio streams with hundreds of users a typical 10/100mb network would be more than sufficient.

In the future anybody can make predictions on how much bandwidth is needed.

Most people in Jim Vaughn's position probably would have retired in October 1999.

That was when the Denver entrepreneur closed a deal to sell FrontierVision Partners, the cable company he started five years ago, to industry giant Adelphia Communications. Vaughn's cut of the deal, $2.1 billion, provided enough cash to assure he'd never have to work again.

It was only three weeks after the deal closed, however, that Vaughn was back in business again. By late October 1999, the 54-year-old cable industry veteran had raised a fresh wad of $450 million to start a substantially more ambitious venture.

This time, however, he was placing a costly bet not on cable, but on the emerging industry of residential fiber-optic networks.

Vaughn's new company -- initially named Western Integrated Networks and later shortened to Winfirst -- is building what its founder believes will be the most extensive network in the United States of fiber-optic cables connected directly to the home.

To pull it off, the company plans to spend the next five years, along with several billion dollars, digging up streets and stringing up fiber in a multi-city project that Vaughn admits will be a massive and potentially risky undertaking.

TOP    MORE

AMD Moves Athlon To DDR.
Posted: 10/30/2000     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise

AMD's next generation motherboard chipset will offer full DDRAM (double data rate) memory support. This means significantly increased FSB (front-side bus) speeds which translates into huge system performance increases.

Advanced Micro Devices is about to take the Athlon platform to the next level.

AMD, Sunnyvale, Calif., will on Monday unveil the AMD 760, a chipset which increases the speed of the microprocessor bus to 266-MHz, while adding support for faster double-data-rate (DDR) memory. The company will also unveil complementary Athlon microprocessors that use the new bus.

While Intel Corp. (stock: INTC) wraps itself in logistical and contractual knots over its decision to use Direct Rambus memory, AMD has selected DDR, an allegedly cheaper alternative to Direct RDRAM. According to AMD executives, DDR's bandwidth -- 1.6 Gbytes/s at its slowest speed grade -- matches up well with AMD's gigahertz Athlon processors.

TOP    MORE

PlayStation 2 Sales Slowed By Graphics Issues.
Posted: 10/30/2000     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise

Can you imagine how much money Sony would have made on opening day if the company would have been able to ship an adequate amount of PS2's? Apparently opening day already produced record sales but production woes prevented the sales from climbing "through the roof".

Sony Corp. officials disclosed Friday that one problem causing component shortages for the Playstation 2 stems from process-migration troubles at its Nagasaki fabrication facility on the island of Kyushu.

Production of the Graphic Synthesizer, a key chip in the game platform, was slowed by a migration from 0.25-micron to 0.18-micron production, company officials said.

At the same time, officials revised their revenue forecast from the games business, projecting a loss instead of a profit.

TOP    MORE

Micron Passes Over Pentium 4 For Athlon.
Posted: 10/30/2000     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise

Micron has made a very sound business decision because who knows when the P4 will actually ship and if there are going  to be any birth pains. 

Micron Electronics Inc. will initially pass over Intel's Pentium 4 in favor of the AMD Athlon, Micron executives said.

Micron's choice comes as Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (stock: AMD) launches the AMD 760 chipset Monday, which supports faster double-data-rate (DDR) memory.

AMD, Sunnyvale, Calif., is also expected to announce three complementary Athlon microprocessors.

The decision to select the Athlon tips Micron, Nampa, Idaho. more firmly into the AMD camp, but doesn't rule out the possibility of a Pentium 4-based machine in the future. Other PC vendors are expected to hedge their bets with both Pentium 4- and Athlon-based machines.

TOP    MORE

Internet Explorer error reporting.
Posted: 10/30/2000     Source: ActiveWin  Added by: Kim Heise

Microsoft has added a new download for the "Live Update" feature to help you debug and report errors more efficiently under Windows.

Download Internet Explorer Error Reporting and contribute to the development of Internet Explorer browser technology. With Error Reporting installed, when an application fault occurs you will now see a new dialog box that gives you the opportunity to report the problem to Microsoft. If an update or workaround is available for the error you have reported, you are directed to the appropriate Web site to download the update or view instructions for the workaround.

System Requirements:
Internet Explorer 5.0
Internet Explorer 5.01
Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 1
Internet Explorer 5.5

TOP    MORE

Microsoft Says It Knew of Hackers.
Posted: 10/30/2000     Source: Yahoo  Added by: Kim Heise

Microsoft caught the intrusion much sooner than was reported earlier and was most likely watching and collecting evidence against the insane hacker. I call the hacker insane because wait until the Microsoft lawyers and their money gets behind the law enforcement steam-roller.

A hacker had high-level access to Microsoft Corp.'s computer system for 12 days - not up to five weeks, as the company had first reported - and was monitored the entire time.

While the company says it believes no major corporate secrets were stolen, some security experts believe the 12-day period was plenty of time for a hacker to do damage that may not have been detected yet.

Microsoft spokesman Rick Miller said Sunday that beginning Oct. 14 a hacker gained access to high-level secrets and that at some point over the next 12 days viewed blueprints, or source code, for Microsoft software that is being developed.

When it confirmed the incident Friday, the Seattle-based software giant said an electronic intruder had access to source code for as long as five weeks. Microsoft used that time estimate because the duration of the hacker's presence was unclear and the company wanted to be sure it did not underestimate the problem, Miller said.

The company was alerted to the break-in by the creation of new accounts giving users access to parts of Microsoft's computer network, Miller said.

TOP    MORE

Hercules enter the PC audio market.
Posted: 10/30/2000     Source: Hercules  Added by: Kim Heise

We seriously need some competition in the PC audio market. Currently Creative controls at least 75% or more of the PC audio market and we need to inject competition to keep the quality of products up to par. The good news: Hercules is going to be rolling out some fancy new audio products. The bad news: Hercules has to face a major uphill battle with OEM's and audio standards created by Creative Labs.

The first Hercules audio product is Game Theater XP, a revolutionary gaming concept that is guaranteed to appeal to hardcore gamers with its unique features: a sound card and a powerful, extremely convenient external rack including amongst other features, a high-speed 4-port USB hub and game port for easy connection of game peripherals, and Dolby Digital™ decoding on up to 6 independent gold-plated RCA outputs. Hercules Game Theater XP will start retailing in December.

TOP    MORE

3dfx "Rampage" details.
Posted: 10/30/2000     Source: iXBT Labs  Added by: Kim Heise

$750 for a video card? Someone must be playing a very late April fools joke on us especially since the specifications of such a expensive video card are not that impressive. Hopefully 3dfx can roll this product out on time and with stable drivers.

I don't mean to sound like I'm "slamming" 3dfx but I am very tired of their marketing hype, delayed products and unstable drivers.

Rampage details:

• 4 rendering pipelines with 3 texturing units each
• New rendering technology based on Gigapixel’s ideas about "tiles" will allow making the fillrate four times higher
• 0.15 micron
• 4MB eDRAM cache with 22GB/sec bandwidth

There should appear the following two graphics cards based on Rampage:

• Spector 3200. This graphics card will be built on one 200MHz Rampage chip and geometric coprocessor aka Sage capable of processing 55 million triangles per second. The card will be equipped with 64MB memory and should cost around $350.
• Spector 9600. This card will be designed on two Rampage chips working at 300MHz and one Sage coprocessor. The card will be equipped with 128MB memory. The expected retail price is about $750.

TOP    MORE