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• Graphics Board Maker Hercules Folds
  Time: 17:04 EDT/22:04 GMT Source: PC World Posted By: Alex H

  A Greek tragedy it isn't, but Hercules Computer Technology's last chapter will be liquidation of all assets to pay creditors, customers, and back taxes. The graphics board pioneer that once held a herculean grip on the video graphics card market filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection last week, ending a 17-year run for the firm.

  Experts say the departure of Hercules illustrates a shake-up in the graphics board market. Hercules was considered a grandparent among graphics board makers and frequented PC World's Top 10 Graphics Boards list. Its Hercules Terminator Beast Supercharged was a PC World pick in July 1999.

  As of Tuesday, the company's Web site was operational and accepting orders. But those orders will not be honored, credit card accounts will not be debited, and invoices will be canceled, according to Joe Lau, former Hercules marketing manager. Lau says that "thousands" more orders for Hercules graphics boards received in the weeks leading up to the company's shutdown will likely be voided.

   

• Intel outlining networking architecture
  Time: 14:50 EDT/19:50 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Intel Corp. this week will outline a new silicon architecture designed to provide networking hardware makers with the building blocks for developing a wide range of products quickly and easily. ntel (Nasdaq:INTC) will roll out IXA (Internet Exchange Architecture) at its Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs, Calif. As part of the architecture, the company plans to provide a wide variety of integrated communications chips to enable network hardware makers to create everything from workgroup Ethernet switches tocarrier- class switches and edge routers, sources said.IXA and its processors will join a host of forthcoming similar products from such vendors as IBM (NYSE:IBM), all of which promise to make networking equipment less expensive and easier to upgrade.

   
• Intel outlining networking architecture
  Time: 14:50 EDT/19:50 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Intel Corp. this week will outline a new silicon architecture designed to provide networking hardware makers with the building blocks for developing a wide range of products quickly and easily. ntel (Nasdaq:INTC) will roll out IXA (Internet Exchange Architecture) at its Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs, Calif. As part of the architecture, the company plans to provide a wide variety of integrated communications chips to enable network hardware makers to create everything from workgroup Ethernet switches tocarrier- class switches and edge routers, sources said.IXA and its processors will join a host of forthcoming similar products from such vendors as IBM (NYSE:IBM), all of which promise to make networking equipment less expensive and easier to upgrade.

   
• OEMs have Merced chip samples
  Time: 14:47 EDT/19:47 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Intel CEO Craig Barrett announced Tuesday that Intel has delivered samples of its Merced chip to PC makers. Speaking at the Intel Developers Forum here Barrett also said that Intel has booted the 64-bit variant of Windows 2000 and Linux so far on the sample processors. "We're happy with the number of OEMs we have signed up," he said.

   
• Intel pushes Rambus hard
  Time: 14:36 EDT/19:36 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Senior Intel VP Pat Gelsinger said today that Rambus would ramp in quantity throughout the rest of this year, with 46 types of RIMM (Rambus inline memory modules) available from seven vendors.

  In his keynote speech at the Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs, Gelsinger also gave details of the delayed Camino i820 chipset, and said it was on track for its new launch date, tipped to be the end of September by The Register.

   
• Intel to climb aboard unmetered bandwagon?
  Time: 14:34 EDT/19:34 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Intel has held a secret meeting with the Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications (CUT), The Register can reveal. The meeting was held last Monday behind closed doors although no details about what was discussed have emerged.

  One explanation for Intel's interest in CUT might lie in the fact that the chipmaker is concerned that the continued high cost of Net access in Britain is stifling PC sales. No one from Intel was available for comment before press time.

   
• Nvidia unveils '256-CPU Cray' GeForce 3D chip
  Time: 14:32 EDT/19:32 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Nvidia today announced its next-generation graphics acceleration chip, the GeForce 256, the part previously known by the codename 'NV10', a move that sees the company break away from its well-known TNT and slightly less well-known Riva brandnames.

  The launch also marked the arrival of the first 256-bit graphics accelerator, delivering an "order of magnitude increase" in power, according to Nvidia.

   
• Intel: Enhanced Pentium III will hit 700 MHz
  Time: 14:30 EDT/19:30 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Intel will push to release the "Coppermine" Pentium III processor, an enhanced version of its high-end chip, in October and bring it out at a speed of at least 700 MHz, Intel chief executive Craig Barrett said here today.

  The October surprise advances the Intel road map, because it means the new chip will arrive sooner and work faster than expected. The chip is an important part of the firm's plan to stave off the threat posed by AMD's Athlon processor, which performs better than Intel's current Pentium III chips, according to many tests.

  Before now, most analysts predicted that Coppermine would come out at a speed of 600 MHz or 667 MHz. Originally due in September, Intel recently pushed it back to November, because it was having difficulty making large volumes of the chip at 600 MHz and faster.

  Coppermine chips will also come to the notebook computer market in about the same time frame, helping close the gap between notebooks and desktops.

   
• S3 to Showcase Emerging Digital Display Technology At Intel Developer Forum
  Time: 08:06 EDT/13:06 GMT Source: Press Release Posted By: Alex H

  Highlighting the strength of its display technology, S3® Incorporated (Nasdaq:SIII - news) today announced that its S3's Savage4(TM) accelerator will provide a graphics platform for showcasing the rapidly emerging Digital Visual Interface (DVI) specification.

  At this week's Intel Developer Forum (IDF), Intel and the DDWG will be demonstrating DVI with nearly 100 Savage4-powered digital flat panel demos in Intel's Labs and Concept House displays, as well as in the DDWG booth. Using Number Nine Visual Technologies' (Nasdaq:NINE - news) Savage4 PRO-based SR9 Pro board, these demos will clearly show hardware and software developers working on the next-generation PC designs the advantages of digital display technology.

  ``Working closely with S3 and other industry leaders, we are making huge strides with our DVI initiative, said Steve Spina, strategic initiative manager for Intel Corporation and secretary of the DDWG. ''This is a crucial technology for next-generation PCs as it moves the industry toward emerging digital display technologies and away from archaic analog interfaces.``

  Further expanding its presence at IDF, S3 today also announced that it is publicly demonstrating its just announced Savage2000(TM) accelerator for the first time at the show (IDF Booth No. 74). Featuring stunning 3D performance for PC gamers, superior digital video playback and TV-out support for home users and high-resolution 2D image quality and digital flat panel support for professional users, Savage2000 combines unmatched functionality and mind-numbing speed to deliver today's most complete PC graphics solution.

  Providing software developers with more technical information on S3's Savage2000 and other next-generation 3D technology, Raja Koduri, Software Engineer for S3's 3D Architecture Group, will be participating in Intel's Optimizing Software AGP 4x Graphics Workshop with a presentation entitled S3: High-Resolution Texture Implementation In 3D Games (Today at 2:30.)

  For additional information on S3's Savage4 and Savage2000 accelerators, including press releases, white papers, product overviews, data sheets, photos screen shots and more, please visit S3's website at www.S3.com

   

• Athlon mobos recalled
  Time: 06:25 EDT/11:25 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Incompatibility problems have hit AMD's latest chip offering, with one motherboard maker pulling its Athlon-ready mobos off the market. The problem affects the Japanese market, where Micro-Star was among the first mobo manufacturers to ship boards for the Athlon - see story. But now it has recalled all its MS-6167 boards, according to reports on the AsiaBizTech news wire.

   
• Pentium III/mobile at .18 micron to arrive fall
  Time: 06:23 EDT/11:23 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Notebook versions of the Pentium III/mobile manufactured using a .18 micron process technology will arrive this autumn, Intel said today. Frank Spindler, VP of Intel US mobile division, said that the chip will be released at speeds of up to 500MHz. But, he said, Geyserville would not be incorporated into PIII/mobile parts until processor speeds matched those of desktop chips.

   

• Intel to roll Camino i820 details out this week
  Time: 06:22 EDT/11:22 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Chip giant Intel will use its Developer Forum this week to give its Camino i820 chip a boost as launch date nears. The chipset, delayed for around six months, will include a random number generator, support for smart cards, so called boot integrity services and Internet protocol security.

   

• Intel says Via bigger threat than AMD
  Time: 06:20 EDT/11:20 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Senior Intel VP Pat Gelsinger said at a round table meeting today that the company saw Via as a bigger threat than AMD. In a pre-eve briefing before his keynote speech at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) tomorrow morning, Gelsinger said there were several factors which made the company paranoid about Via.

  He said: "We're concerned about competition. Are we paranoid about competition from Asia? Yes, we are. We're seeing more and more first class silicon from Taiwan. Furthermore, they've got cheap capital. We are paranoid about Taiwan and we expect them to be very competitive, more so than AMD. They're a very potent force and we take them seriously."

• Nvidia to go for huge tranny count
  Time: 16:56 EDT/21:56 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Reports reached The Register late Sunday that said Nvidia will announce on Tuesday details of its next generation part, numbered NV10. According to the source, the technology will differ greatly from TNT2 with hardware extensions. Instead, it will be new silicon with as many as 23 million transistors and 200 BOPs, more than the upcoming Merced and current Athlon and Pentium III.

   

• Intel's Grove admits Rambus will take time
  Time: 16:56 EDT/21:56 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  In an interview on CNN TV last Friday, Intel's chairman Andy Grove, acknowledged that it will be some time before Direct Rambus technology becomes part of the PC mainstream. Speaking in an interactive debate using telephones and email, Grove also forecast a continuing shrinking of silicon technology but using aluminum, rather than copper interconnects. This coming week, at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), which we will cover in full, the chip giant is expected to formally announce its plans to integrate the competing PC-133 memory technology into chipsets to integrate with its processors.

   

• Intel to demonstrate Merced silicon tomorrow
  Time: 16:54 EDT/21:54 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  The CEO of Intel, Craig Barrett, will tomorrow demonstrate the company’s 64-bit Merced chip in silicon rather than simulation. Barrett will open the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) with a keynote speech and position Merced as a solution for high end services, including e-commerce. Intel will also announce a further series of IA-64 initiatives including a specification called DIG64, intended to promote cross interoperability between Merced and other platforms.

   

• Micron to push high end Rambus memory Q3
  Time: 16:52 EDT/21:52 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Chip manufacturer Micron claimed it will deliver fast and competitively priced .18 micron Rambus memory in the autumn. But in a company statement, Micron stressed that it will also support competing products including PC-133 parts, to its customers.

   

• AMD attacks Intel Celeron with 500MHz K6-2
  Time: 16:49 EDT/21:49 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Chip manufacturer AMD confirmed it has introduced a 500MHz version of its K6-2 processor, with OEM prices at $167/1000. That positions the processor against the Intel Celeron chip family in terms of pricing. At the same time, AMD said IBM will use the part in some members of its consumer Aptiva range.

   

• RioPort Audio Manager released
  Time: 16:47 EDT/21:47 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc. has turned up the volume on the MP3 market. RioPort Inc., a Diamond (Nasdaq:DIMD) subsidiary Monday released RioPort Audio Manager -- its answer to RealNetworks Inc.’s (Nasdaq:RNWK) wildly successful RealJukebox. "Your grandmother can use this application," said Kurt Ohlfs, RioPort business development manager.

   

• S3 to release new graphics accelerator
  Time: 02:26 EDT/07:26 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  S3, a developer of graphics accelerator chips, said it will introduce tomorrow its next-generation graphics chip, for even faster and higher resolution graphics on personal computers. The Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker said it will unveil the latest in its Savage family of graphics products, a graphics accelerator chip called the Savage2000.

  S3's Savage graphics family has been instrumental in the company's recent comeback in the personal computer graphics market, which stands in stark contrast to the failure of at least one major player. Earlier this month, Intel said it is retreating from the market for graphics chips.

  S3 also said that Diamond Multimedia Systems, which S3 has announced plans to acquire, will produce an add-in card for PCs with the Savage2000 graphics chips. The Savage2000 retail card will be sold in computer stores in time for the holiday shopping season this year.

  Potential customers include video gamers who want to play 3D games, consumers with DVD players on their PCs, and business users who need souped-up graphics.

• Apple may announce new products Tuesday
  Time: 16:15 EDT/21:15 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  A year after it was introduced, the sales figures for Apple's iMac continue to impress, and they could be boosted soon by a new version to be introduced this fall for the back-to-school and holiday buying seasons. "Sales of the iMac should be far stronger than we previously expected," said Warburg Dillon Read analyst Charlie Wolf in a report today. The new iMac will likey debut in October, he stated.

   

• AMD raising chip's speed to 500 MHz
  Time: 16:14 EDT/21:14 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Although it is focusing most of its attention on the new Athlon processor line, chipmaker AMD will release a new version of the K6-2 on Monday that will crank the processor up to 500 MHz. The 500-MHz K6-2, AMD's main chip before Athlon's debut, will even the speed race in the budget-processor arena. Intel released a 500-MHz Celeron processor earlier this month.

  IBM will use the new K6-2 in an Aptiva system in the United States while Hewlett-Packard is releasing a 500-MHz K6-2 system in Asia, sources at AMD said. IBM is also one of the big supporters of the Athlon chip, the new generation processor released earlier this summer. The new K6-2 chip is expected to cost around $167 in volume shipments, the same as the 500-MHz Celeron. AMD, however, will not cut prices on the rest of the line, a company spokeswoman said.

   

• HP turns to NVIDIA for mobo graphics
  Time: 16:12 EDT/21:12 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Hewlett-Packard has chosen NVIDIA's RIVA TNT 3D graphics processor as the standard motherboard graphics scheme for HP Pavilion 8580C and 8590C multimedia personal computers, the company announced yesterday.

  "By selecting the RIVA TNT, with its high performance and complete feature set, HP Pavilion customers can now enjoy all of the latest graphically-intense applications, web sites and entertainment titles," NVIDIA VP Jeff Fisher gushed.

   

• Intel preparing megahertz megablitz
  Time: 16:07 EDT/21:07 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Intel Corp. is preparing to pump out a serious amount of megahertz over the next two months. By the end of October, Intel will have introduced more than 13 new Pentium III chips for desktop and mobile PCs as well as workstations and servers, sources said.

  Industry watchers could not recall any company releasing as many chips in such a short time. The chip barrage will actually begin in late September, when Intel's 820 chip set for high performance desktop PCs is rolled out. The long-awaited product offers a faster system bus, support for 4X accelerated graphics support and high-bandwidth Rambus Dynamic RAM.

  Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) will disclose many more details on the chip set at next week's Intel Developer Conference in Palm Springs, Calif. Intel is expected to give attendees updates on the IA-64 64-bit processor architecture, inroads in the network processor market with StrongARM based processors, and on PC design guides and initiatives, such as Easy PC.

• CompUSA, AOL team on new line of PCs
  Time: 18:02 EDT/23:02 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  CompUSA, the largest U.S. personal-computer retailer, and No. 1 Internet service America Online said they formed a two-year alliance to sell a new line of personal computers designed for AOL software.

  Terms weren't disclosed. The PCs, which will carry the CompUSA brand name, will include a customized AOL keyboard with one-button access to AOL. CompUSA also will preinstall AOL and CompuServe software on all CompUSA-brand PCs sold in its stores, and sell the software separately as well. The new products are expected to be in stores in September, CompUSA said.

  In July, CompUSA said it was offering $400 rebates on PCs to buyers who sign up for 36 months of CompuServe. The retailer today said it will continue offering those rebates, and that the new line of AOL-designed CompUSA PCs will also be eligible for that offer. It will offer special rates for CompUSA's 24-hour customer support to AOL and CompuServe members. CompUSA and AOL also will jointly develop training classes, which will be offered at selected CompUSA locations, on how to best use the AOL software.

   
• Palm vets' new handheld to debut at Internet World
  Time: 18:01 EDT/23:01 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Handspring, a start-up founded by former Palm Computing executives, is expected to debut its highly anticipated first palm-size computer at Internet World in October, sources said.

  The debut of the device has been much anticipated by the industry, eager to see if Palm Computing co-founders Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins can duplicate their handheld success. The various Palm devices are far and away the most popular handhelds on the market.

  The Handspring device will be priced lower than any existing Palm, according to sources familiar with the product. It will feature 2MB of memory, a black-and-white display similar to those in the Palm IIIx and Palm V, and a design similar to the Palm III series, sources said. The cheapest Palm, the recently released Palm IIIe, is priced at $229.

   

• AMD resists Intel price cut pressure
  Time: 17:59 EDT/22:59 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  AMD has denied claims that it will cut prices on its Athlon chip to match rival Intel's moves earlier this week. AMD said that rumours of price drops were untrue, and it would stand firm with its current prices. Rana Mainee, AMD's European research director, said Intel was following AMD's lead, and not vice versa. "We changed our prices two weeks ago, and Intel reacted to this action," he said. "We evaluate prices regularly, but I can confirm that there are no plans at the moment to make any pricing changes."

   
• SMP Alphas running at 833MHz
  Time: 17:58 EDT/22:58 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Despite the hoo-haa caused by Microsoft dropping NT64, and making the Big Q look more than a tad embarassed, Compaq and its partner Samsung are plugging away with the Alpha chip.

  Sources very close to supersecret labs said yesterday that Samsung Alpha processors clocking 833MHz without anything but air cooling are running in symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) configurations.

   

• Tom's Hardware says Athlon can o'clock to 1GHz
  Time: 17:56 EDT/22:56 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Our friends over at Tom's Hardware Page have produced a guide to overclocking the AMD Athlon K7 processor. But, as we've cautioned before, you'd be as well not to try this unless you are very experienced. The guide to overclocking the Athlon was produced to allow experienced individuals to tweak the processor at speeds which could reach 1000MHz, says Dr Tom.

   
• Intel CEO: Healing server rift a top priority
  Time: 04:26 EDT/09:26 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Resolving a dispute over the design of future server computers is a top priority for Intel, which has been split from its biggest customers by the disagreement, Intel chief executive Craig Barrett said today.

  The struggle has pitted the chipmaker and its allies, Sun Microsystems and Dell Computer, against another group led by IBM, HP, and Compaq Computer. The dispute has held up the design of coming generations of high-performance computers called servers. 

  "We're working as hard as we can to have a merged solution between the two camps," Barrett said today in the keynote address at a Dell Computer conference here.

  Industry sources have said that after Sun called for a deadline in the merger talks, negotiators settled on a merger plan, which now is awaiting a vote. The Intel camp favors a standard called Next-Generation Input/Output, or NGIO, whereas HP, IBM, and Compaq back Future I/O. The plan, when approved, will govern how equipment such as network cards or disk systems plug into the servers.

   

• Intel expected to unveil new networking chip
  Time: 04:24 EDT/09:24 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Intel is expected to announce next week a new networking chip aimed at the booming communications market. Intel's new chip--called the Internet Exchange Processor, or IXP 1200--would serve as the nerve center for routers, switches, and other communications hardware built by companies such as Cisco Systems and Nortel Networks, industry sources said.

  The company also will announce a new chip architecture that defines how Intel will design future networking processors and describes how to write software for the chips, the sources said.

  With its new entry into the networking market, Intel is making use of technolgy acquired from two recent acquisitions totaling about $2.3 billion. The chip is expected to ship later this year or in early 2000, sources added. Faced with declining profits from PC chips, Intel this year has set its sights on the more lucrative communications market, now the hottest area of the semiconductor industry as consumers and businesses demand more bandwidth, and Internet traffic grows. It is only the latest of many iterations for the company, which has recently decided to retreat from the hypercompetitive graphics chip market.

   

• Intergraph CEO explains latest action against Intel
  Time: 04:20 EDT/09:20 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Jim Meadlock, chief executive of computer workstation maker Intergraph, doesn't mind rolling up his sleeves for a good brawl, especially when it's for a righteous cause.

  But in his fight against Intel, he's overmatched and underweight, analysts said. He's taking on the chip giant in a bloody scuffle that after nearly two years is more about perseverance than winning.

  Intergraph yesterday filed a motion in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Alabama that maintains Intel failed to comply with an April 1998 injunction. That injunction temporarily put aside a dispute from the previous year, when Intel allegedly cut off access to its microprocessors and technology after Intergraph filed a lawsuit.

• New ATI Rage Drivers
  Time: 05:33 EDT/10:33 GMT Source: E-Mail Posted By: Byron

  ATi has released new Win95/98 and NT drivers for their Rage Pro and Rage 128 cards:

  -ATi Rage Pro (Win95) version 5.37
  -ATi Rage 128 (WinNT4) version 6.20
  -ATi Rage 128 (Win9x) version 6.20

   

• Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer - Review
  Time: 05:20 EDT/10:20 GMT Source: CGO Posted By: Byron

  CGO has posted a Intellimouse Explorer review. Here is a snippet:

  The new IntelliMouse is an optical mouse, which is a technology that has been around for a while. Previous optical mice had to be used on a special reflective mouse pad, though, and the Microsoft product requires no pad at all. It doesn't even require a flat surface. The little red "eye" on the bottom takes thousands of really close-in snapshots of the surface you're working on, and compares them to determine mouse movement. You can use the mouse on your desk, a book, your pants leg, your neighbor, etc. And it works perfectly, at a resolution of about 400dpi! There is a catch, of course. You can't use the mouse on a glass table or mirror, or a surface that is incredibly clean, smooth, and reflective on a microscopic level. At least, not without putting a piece of paper on it first. The oversized mouse is very comfortable with a lot of hand contact, and movement is natural and accurate. Also, it will operate on both standard PS/2 mouse parts and as a USB device.

   

• Sony 64MB Memory Sticks
  Time: 05:17 EDT/10:17 GMT Source: Press Release Posted By: Byron

  Expanding its line of Memory Stick(TM) media and products, Sony Electronics Inc. announced 32 and 64 MB Memory Stick storage capacity, a floppy disk adapter, and an upgraded PC card adapter. Memory Stick media is designed to link and transfer information between a wide variety of audio, video and computer products. It is flash media, giving it high storage capacity, but in an ultra-small design. Memory Stick media is highly reliable, with a 10-pin connector, an erasure protection feature and durable, unbendable casing, making it ideal for use in portable products, such as digital cameras.

• Chip Maker Puts Multiple Net Comms On A Chip
  Time: 14:47 EDT/19:47 GMT Source: TechWeb Posted By: Alex H

  Analog Devices said it has integrated the first T1 communications link for data and voice over the Internet on a single chip, and it plans to begin volume production of the device in the fourth quarter.

  The ADSP-21mod980 has 24 ports and features a universal software package for V.90, K56Flex, V.34, ISDN, fax over IP, and VoIP protocols. Each of the 24 ports is able to independently process different standards, Analog Devices said. The 1.9 square inch device is the third single-chip Internet gateway processor, or digital modem, from Analog Devices since the series was launched in 1997.

  The chip has been designed to support the convergence of voice and data on the same network over the Internet, said Robert Fine, manager of Analog Device's remote access server product line. The ADSP21mod980 consumes 60 milliwatts per port, which Analog Devices said is less than a third of the power of competing parts when the device is running on a 3.3-volt supply. The 352-lead chip is capable of processing 600 mips and contains 2 megabits of SRAM

   

• HP forced to clarify Merced stance
  Time: 14:47 EDT/19:47 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  After a series of reports that HP would ditch Merced in favour of its successor, McKinley, the company has been forced to issue a formal statement of rebuttal. We have to admit that we joined in the fun too, and may indeed have fanned some of the flames, but HP's main media target is news.com. The statement said it "corrects" a Cnet report on August 19th that "inaccurately characterised" HP's position.

   
• Compaq admits Inventec makes its notebooks
  Time: 14:45 EDT/19:45 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Compaq has admitted that it does not build its own notebooks, following Saturday's armed robbery of £1 million of kit in Cheshire.

  The PC giant came clean last night, telling The Register that the notebook base parts that were stolen in transit were actually the property of Taiwanese OEM Inventec.

  Last month, The Register revealed which Taiwanese OEMs were making notebooks for which big name PC companies.

  Compaq has long maintained that it was the manufacturer of its notebooks; product manager after product manager has trotted out the same spin that the Big Q is responsible for the design and build of its products.

   
• Intel confirms mobos shortage will put freeze on PCs
  Time: 14:43 EDT/19:43 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  A shortage of vital chips could cut output from some computer motherboard makers by more than half during the next two months, industry sources say. Manufacturers are currently trying to increase production in preparation for the peak Christmas season.

  Demand for Intel's BX and ZX chipsets is exceeding supply, admitted Deborah Yen, public relations manager at Intel, Taiwan. Chipsets are an essential component of the motherboard - the main circuit board in a PC.

  Intel is the world's largest manufacturer of chipsets, and the BX chipset, despite being introduced more than a year ago, remains one of the most popular.

   
• Intel debuts new products - not many told
  Time: 14:43 EDT/19:43 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Chipzilla has sneaked out a bunch of new products, but apparently forgot to tell its spin paramedics. The Cayman 810 Celeron mobo now has a presence on the Intel support web site at http://support.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/ca810/ where users will no doubt be thrilled to discover yet more incompatibilities with the all-singing, all-dancing Win98SE.

  Also shuffling quietly onto the stage are two new USB video gizmos featuring the ability to capture video and TV feeds for editing on a PC. The PC Camera Pack and the PC Camera Pack Pro are revealed on Intel's developer web site, but not at Chipzilla Central. Priced at around $130, they come with software optimised for Pentium III which means smaller file sizes, apparently.

   

• Future Power to offer dual Celeron PCs
  Time: 14:42 EDT/19:42 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  The Intel chip monster has warned, unilaterally and specifically, and on its support pages that something is afoot on chip voltages. On the Intel support page, the giant seems to have declared a shift in its voltages strategy. While this may only be of notional interest to non-technical readers of this title, the move is significant.

• Intel changes verification spexx on chipz
  Time: 17:25 EDT/22:25 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  The Intel chip monster has warned, unilaterally and specifically, and on its support pages that something is afoot on chip voltages. On the Intel support page, the giant seems to have declared a shift in its voltages strategy. While this may only be of notional interest to non-technical readers of this title, the move is significant.

   
• Intel ships Profusion SMP chipset, announces large cache Xeons
  Time: 17:25 EDT/22:25 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  As expected, for quite some time, Intel will today announce details of its "Profusion" symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) chipset. At the same time it will roll out Slot Two Xeon processors with 1Mb and 2Mb caches.

  The so-called "building blocks" for SMP systems will be processors with caches of 512K, 1Mb and2Mb, the Profusion chipset itself and the Saber (Corollary) board which will hold all these parts together. Intel claims it has 1000s of complete systems validated throughout the marketplace, using different operating environments. It has support for its SMP family from most of the big names you could imagine, including IBM, Dell, and HP.

   
• Reader warns of Intel-NT overclock shock
  Time: 17:24 EDT/22:24 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Chip giant Intel has warned since the beginning of this year that to overclock its processors is verboten. A reader describing himself as 'Firestormer' wrote to us with the following tale: "You might find this interesting, but if I'm correct, Intel and MS have finally come up with a way to defeat overclocking totally, at least under NT4 Service Pack 5 and with the Pentium III. The sorry tale is as follows.

  "I've dabbled from time to time with FSB adjustments on my Tyan Tsunami-based system, originally tweaking my Pentium II 350 to see if I could get another 50MHz or so out of it. My NT4 SP5 barfed at 112MHz bus, but I was able to get it running at 103MHz bus, and the speed difference showed up accordingly under NT Diagnostics as well as H-Oda's WCPUclk util. The performance boost was there, but at the time another 10MHz didn't seem to give enough of a boost to be worth while.

   
• Wireless alliance to boost Palm-cellular interoperability
  Time: 17:22 EDT/22:22 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Nokia, Lucent and 3Com have formed a new group to push ubiquitous wireless networking. And significantly, one of the other founder members of the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) is Symbol Technologies, which produces wireless networked industrial handhelds based on 3Com's Palm Pilot.

  The objective of the group is familiar; by defining and testing common standards for wireless Ethernet the companies intend to speed deployment and to achieve interoperability between their product lines. One particularly intriguing area where this could apply is between Palm devices and Sybian-based ones, including Nokia smartphones.

   
• i820-Camino incompatible with graphics boards?
  Time: 17:21 EDT/22:21 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Our friends over at Korean website K-Bench are reporting that the i820 Camino chipset has run into further difficulties. Samples supplied to Intel customers are incompatible with existing graphics boards, it claims.

  According to the report, which may be found here, Taiwanese mobo manufacturers say there is a problem between AGP 4.x and a number of existing graphics boards. Boards affected include TNT2, the Matrox G400 and the Savage 4, when running in AGP 4x mode, says K-Bench.

   
• Via may produce Alpha chipsets
  Time: 17:18 EDT/22:18 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Chipset, and now CPU manufacturer, Via has strongly hinted it will support the Alpha processor in the future. But, at the same time, it has said it will only produce uniprocessor chipsets for the AMD Athlon.

  In a FAQ on its Website, Via says: "Currently there are no plans to support DEC-Alpha CPU's, but it is possible that in the future after the K7 builds up mainstream acceptance, VIA will make the necessary pin changes to support DEC-Alpha processors."

   
• Dell jumps on ultraportable trend
  Time: 17:16 EDT/22:16 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Dell is racing to shrink its portable computers and trying to catch up to a trend--the ultraportable. Dell is unveiling today a new compact design with a number of high-end features, following similar announcements from IBM, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and Toshiba.

  Dell Computer also indicated that the new design could accommodate an upcoming 500-MHz Pentium III processor for portable computers from Intel. New systems from Compaq, including its E700 and M700 lines, are designed likewise.

  Lightweight laptops are trying to shrug off past deficiencies in design--typically, they have been cutting-edge in form but lagging edge in function. For example, Dell's current offering, the Latitude LT, was very compact but used older Pentium chips and a small screen. IBM and others are now cramming the fastest chips, the best graphics, and large screens into computers that weigh around four pounds--or less.

  The new Latitude CS includes a large 13.3-inch active matrix display and a 400-MHz Pentium II processor--the fastest portable chip from Intel. Yet it weighs only 4.3 pounds, Dell said. IBM's ThinkPad 570 is also in this category.

   
• Pentium III discounts yield deals on PCs
  Time: 17:14 EDT/22:14 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Computer makers are expected to follow HP's price cuts on performance PCs and workstations over the next few weeks, a chain reaction set off by processor price cuts this from weekend and a sizzling PC market. .

  Traditionally, when Intel cuts chip prices, PC makers follow suit. Adding fuel to the fire, rival AMD chipmaker last week introduced Athlon, its entry into the high-end processor market. Running at speeds up to 650 MHz, Athlon is currently the fastest desktop processor on the market.

  When first introduced last February, PCs based on Intel's Pentium III ran at 400 MHz and were typically priced starting around $2,000. Today, Pentium III-based computers start at just above the $1,000 mark and come with more memory and hard drive space than in previous years, a reflection of the seemingly unstoppable pricing trends in the industry.

   

• PC makers take hard road to Xeon
  Time: 17:12 EDT/22:12 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  PC makers today unveiled a slew of powerful servers aimed at weaning corporations from Unix--but it took a long time for Compaq to get there.

  Servers from Compaq, Dell, and others are the first to use eight of Intel's most powerful processors, trying to match the sophistication of designs offered by Sun Microsystems and others that use the Unix operating system.

  These servers, based on Intel's Pentium III Xeon processor, are aimed at a rarified class of high-end corporate customers that need multiprocessor servers to run large database applications and Internet software.

• Intel to boost Celeron chip in Y2K
  Time: 04:11 EDT/09:11 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Intel Corp. is planning next year to significantly improve the performance of low-cost desktop PCs by moving its Celeron chip to a new processor core. 

  The Santa Clara, Calif., chip maker will move Celeron from the Pentium II processor core to the Pentium III core based on its Coppermine technology, sources said. Coppermine is the code-name for Pentium III chips manufactured using Intel's 0.18 micron manufacturing process. The first chips to use Coppermine, Pentium IIIs of 600MHz and greater, are due in late October, sources said.

  The Coppermine technology offers improvement in clock speed by reducing power consumption and heat production, as compared to the current 0.25 micron manufacturing process. It will also allow space to add on-die or integrated Level 2 cache. Integrated cache runs at full-processor clock speed, as opposed the current half-speed 512KB of off-die cache, Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) officials have said.

   

• Intel retreats from graphics chips
  Time: 04:09 EDT/09:09 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  The world's largest and most profitable chipmaker can't seem to cut it in the graphics world. Intel is getting out of the business of making discrete graphics chips for personal computers, according to a company spokesman, a market it entered less than 18 months ago to fanfare and dismal sales. The company will continue to produce "integrated" chipsets, which combine a standard PC chipset with a graphics processor, but these products will likely remain targeted at computers selling for $1,000 and less. The retreat is the result of poor sales and mediocre products, critics say, and is merely the latest in a series of missteps by Intel in this market.

• G400 Reviews
  Time: 17:16 EDT/22:16 GMT Source: 3D News.net Posted By: Alex H

  A pair of G400 reviews here: Extreme Hardware's huge 22-pager exploring some pretty promising overclocking pushing to a MAX's performance. Secondly, FO3D's comparison of the G400 to a whack of others.

   
• Celeron on a PCI Card
  Time: 17:14 EDT/22:14 GMT Source: 3D News.net Posted By: Alex H

  It's a PCI card that has up to 128MBs of RAM, an onboard geometry processor (sort of)...no it's not the next gen 3D accelerator, it's the PC upgrade on a card. Evergreen Technology has managed to fit a Celeron S370, 64-128MBs of RAM, an Intel ZX, and a "Softmenu" for overclocking all on a single PCI card. It's not cheap, but it's the simpleton's lazy upgrade. Plug it into your old Pentium PCI slot and BOOM- Instant Celeron 433! It's even overclockable!

   
• Cool Your PIII
  Time: 17:08 EDT/22:08 GMT Source: Tweak 3D Posted By: Alex H

  Looking to cool down your PIII? FiringSquad have reviewed the latest cooler from Vantec. Here's a snippet about the P3D-5030:

  "The P3-5030 is one sweet looking cooling unit. We even found a Vantec logo engraved on the heatsink. We spent some time testing out the new cooler. We used the cooler with a couple of our Pentium III processors checking if it could allow our processors reach higher speeds."

   
• Will anyone want Sun's multimedia chip?
  Time: 16:44 EDT/21:44 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  A new processor architecture presented today by Sun could enhance the way video and audio are delivered to the home, but, unfortunately for the company, not many people may need it.

  The MAJC chip architecture, outlined by Sun Microsystems at the Hot Chips conference, will be the cornerstone of the company's ambition to build a "media" processor--an embedded chip fine-tuned for video, audio, computer graphics, and other multimedia. Media processors will be used in television set-top boxes, digital TVs, and game consoles.

  "This architecture is designed to deliver high-performance, low-cost processing over a very broad set of applications, from multiprotocol network infrastructure devices to the consumer's living rooms," Mel Friedman, president of microelectronics at Sun, said in a prepared statement. "Sun's design team worked on development of the MAJC architecture for nearly four years to ensure that this project would come to fruition."

  Besides processing media, MAJC chips will take better advantage of programs written in Java, the highly touted technology from Sun that is being used by various Web sites, according to the company.

   

• AMD favors PC133, DDR SDRAM over Rambus for Athlon
  Time: 14:58 EDT/19:58 GMT Source: Cool Info Posted By: Alex H

  Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said it will lean heavily on PC133 and double-data-rate synchronous DRAMs to boost the performance of its new Athlon processors, putting Rambus memory on the back burner because of the latter's high initial cost and the DDR SDRAM's comparable performance.

  “We've been talking about Rambus a long time, and it was looking like it would be the foremost architecture,” said Samuel Rogan, AMD's marketing manager for Japan and Korea. “There will be a time when that will happen, but probably not until the end of 2000 or 2001.”

  The problem with Rambus is that the extra cost, which Rogan estimates will be $60 to $80 per motherboard, is hard to justify given that SDRAM-particularly DDR-will provide equal or better bandwidth, he said.

  During its presentation on the Athlon processor here, AMD showed a slide indicating that 100-MHz double-data-rate SDRAM with a standard 64-bit memory bus will provide 1.6 Gbytes/second of bandwidth, equal to a 400-MHz (800 MHz effective) Rambus DRAM running on Rambus' proprietary 16-bit serial bus. DDR SDRAMs with a core frequency of 133 MHz (266 MHz effective) will ratchet up memory bandwidth to 2.1 Gbytes/s, according to the company.

  “Rambus boasts higher frequency on data transfers, but because of the narrower pipe they do not get the same data throughput as you do with DDR,” Rogan said. “Since DDR has comparable or better performance than a Rambus solution at a better cost, the motherboard guys like it. And the DRAM manufacturers don't have to retool.”

  Rambus is expected to hit the market next month with the introduction of Intel's Camino chip set, which will include a Rambus interface and is expected to support 4x AGP. Depite a delay in the chip set introduction and the high cost of Rambus DRAM, Intel continues to promote Rambus as the next mainstream memory technology after PC100, though more recently the company said it will consider introducing a PC133 chip set as well.

   
• Emachines goes Intel only for low-cost PCs
  Time: 14:57 EDT/19:57 GMT Source: Cool Info Posted By: Alex H

  The leading star in the low-cost PC market has decided to dance only with chip giant Intel as it refreshes its product lineup. Emachines is proving that Intel's low-end Celeron chip is cheap enough and fast enough to fit into every spot in its new line of PCs, ranging from $399 to $599. The company, which says it has now shipped one million computers, is also offering deals with Internet service providers which can result in a free PC in one case and greatly reduced pricing for two other models. Emachines, which specializes in boxes priced below $600, has had a meteroric rise in the PC industry. Virtually unknown a year ago, it has shot up to become one of the top five suppliers in the retail market. Remarkably, this happened in only about four months. Last November, Emachines had no market share to speak of.

  PC makers are not sitting on their hands. Compaq Computer recently filed suit against Emachines for allegedly infringing on 13 Compaq patents. Some analysts see this as evidence that Emachines is making surprising inroads into the Compaq customer base at retail stores. Emachines' shift to Intel-only is contrary to its beginnings, which were systems oriented around processors from Cyrix, whose PC processor business has since been sold by National Semiconductor to Via Technologies. "It's pretty impressive that they've managed to get into the Intel world at that price," said Roger Kay, an analyst at International Data Corporation.

   
• Coppermine Celeron waiting in wings
  Time: 14:30 EDT/19:30 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  A source claimed Intel is readying a Coppermine Celeron with as much as 256K of on-die cache, screaming Cindy (SIMD) instructions, and a 100MHz front side bus using Socket 370.

  That would make it equivalent to current Pentium III technology, in the same way that the Celeron is really a cut Pentium II.

  No release date was given for the product but Intel is now claiming no 100MHz FSB Celeron will arrive until the crack of dawn of the year 2000, Ma Shipton willing.

   

• Big Blue to push Linux supported twin-600MHz box next week
  Time: 14:29 EDT/19:29 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  IBM said this morning it will release a low price small business server with dual 600MHz Intel chips and 1Gb of memory. But IBM could not tell us how much the 3500M10 will cost, because Intel is set to adjust its pricing this weekend. The box will be the first to come with IBM's 90 day server support for Linux, which it announced a week or two back.

   
• Tom's Hardware speaks out over alleged Intel mobo muscle
  Time: 14:28 EDT/19:28 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Dr Tom Pabst, who founded Tom's Hardware page, is alleging that Intel has been muscling Taiwanese mobo manufacturers.

  Pabst, who has just posted a first look at AMD Athlon motherboards, said there was a "very strong rumour" that Intel is throwing its whole weight behind the threats.

  That, he says, goes some way towards explaining that only a handful of companies supported the Athlon at its launch in Taipei last week.

   
• Four letters added to Pentium III make for 10 times price hike
  Time: 14:27 EDT/19:27 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Sometimes, here at The Register, we wonder whether it's just us reeling at the price of microprocessors. If you buy a stack of Pentium III/Xeons, for example, they'll typically cost you 10 times the price of a stack of bog standard Pentium IIIs.

  The answer, it appears, is validation. Intel representatives are at pain to assure us that these particular members of the PIII family, because they are designed for servers, are well worth the price. So what do you get for your $3,000 or whatever? Obviously, there's cache on die, in the shape of SRAM (synchronous random access memory). SRAM is much more expensive than DRAM (dynamic random access memory). But not that expensive.

   

• DRAM market calm in July
  Time: 14:25 EDT/19:25 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  The 30 day rolling average prices until July 30 were 64Mb DRAMs (PC 100 8Mx8) were $6.18 for North America, $5.58 for Europe and $5.75 for Asia. All prices quoted are for major buyers. And don't forget these are very major buyers. And that these prices are historical.

  Today, you're unlikely to get 64Mb DRAM in the UK for under $7 trade, a friendly DRAM broker tells us. Prices could go as high as $8, as the trade buys in replacement stocks over the next few weeks.

• Intel, allies set fresh challenge to rivals’ high-end computers
  Time: 19:43 EDT/00:43 GMT Source: MSNBC Posted By: Alex H

  Intel Corp. and its personal-computer allies this week begin an assault on the high-end computing market, as they launch a new breed of machines that lash together eight microprocessors to match the performance of much higher-price computers.

  The PC makers hope that the products will put further pressure on the profits of companies such as Sun Microsystems Inc. and other makers of high-end RISC, or reduced instruction set computers, such as International Business Machines Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.

  At a news conference here Tuesday, Compaq Computer Corp. kicks off the industry’s marketing campaign by outlining a focus on fast-growing electronic-commerce and Internet-services customers. The Houston-based company makes no bones about its target: “The plan is to eviscerate Sun from below by offering comparable performance at one-third the cost,” said Mary T. McDowell, vice-president and general manager of Compaq’s Industry Standard Server division.

   
• Intel Offers Network Hub/Modem Combo
  Time: 18:31 EDT/23:31 GMT Source: PC World Posted By: Alex H

  Intel announced two products designed to make networking easier and more affordable for small businesses.

  On Monday the company released a combination modem and network hub, called the InBusiness Internet Station 56K, that allows several employees in a small office to share one Internet account. The company also released its InBusiness Network Setup Wizard software, which offers step-by-step instructions for connecting computers to enable file and print sharing.

  Designed to help small businesses save money on Internet access fees, the Intel InBusiness Internet Station 56K allows everyone on a network to access the Internet from their own computer. In addition, the device can also be used to use shared modems.

   
• RegMark™ Lite® shows Celeron trashing AMD Athlon
  Time: 18:29 EDT/23:29 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Pete Sherriff has been slaving in his fab lab to produce a new RegMark™ to account for the existence of Athlon AMD processors and has come up with a formula he describes as the RegMark™ Lite®.

  According to Sherriff, he is unable to find a multimedia mark for the Athlon K7, so he has invented a way to use the Lite figure to compare all four processors on just two benchmarks.

  Said Sherriff: "This way the PIII/500 scores higher than the Athlon/600 which beats the PIII/600, but the Celeron still walks away with it."

  Mr Sherriff adds that he has been grateful for suggestions which will allow him to further tweak and improve his figures, and is currently attempting to incorporate those refinements into his calculations.

   

• HP says it's on target for Merced next year
  Time: 18:27 EDT/23:27 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Hewlett Packard confirmed today it will support HP/UX, 64-bit Windows NT and Linux on Merced. It also said that it will support MPE/iX on future IA-64 systems and confirmed it would incorporate Merced into its top end server lines by the middle of next year.

   
• Compaq's server strategy still cloaked in mystery
  Time: 18:25 EDT/23:25 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Enrico Pesatori, a senior VP at Compaq, said today that the company's relationship with Microsoft was of critical importance to the future of the company. And the potential of its Non Stop Computing e-business strategy was as much as $750 billion, said Pesatori in a conference call from New York, New York.

  He said that Microsoft had a strong relationship with the pre-acquisitive Compaq, with Digital and with Tandem.

  But Pesatori, while announcing the eight way x.86 Profusion box, describing it as industry-standard, also described the Alpha platform as industry standard too. Whether it is Linux or Windows NT that will be the glue that ties them both together is a moot question which he did not attempt.

   

• 5.20 Drivers For G200/400 On The Way
  Time: 12:03 EDT/17:03 GMT Source: E-mail Posted By: Byron

  Here's the latest on what is fixed in the upcoming 5.20 drivers for the G200 and G400 and what is in progress:

  - Simcity 3000 - Flickering with G200
  Status: Fixed
  - Darkstone - Flickering with G200
  Status: Fixed
  - Quest for Glory V - Goes back to desktop
  Status: In progress
  - Half Life - Corrupted Textures
  Status: In progress
  - Quake 3 Test - Switching color depth
  Status: Fixed
  - Final Fantasy VII - Not working with G400
  Status: Fixed
  - T.A: Kingdoms - Corrupted textures in menus
  Status: Fixed
  - Rogue Squadron - Not working with G400
  Status: Lucasarts is looking into it

• New Media Technology Corporation Film Reader USB review
  Time: 18:21 EDT/23:21 GMT Source: USB Workshop Posted By: Alex H

  USB Workshop have posted a review of New Media Technology Corporation Film Reader USB. Here is a snippet of the review:

  After Film Reader USB is installed to a USB port, two new drive letters emerge in Windows. You can drag and drop files into SmartMedia, CompactFlash or ATA flash cards just as you always do with other storage devices. Film Reader USB reads files at 4.57Mbps and writes at 2.74Mbps. CPU utilization is about 7 to 8 percent on our Pentium II 350 with 128MB RAM. An important thing to keep in mind is to disable the write-behind caching on all removable disk drives in File System Properties in Control Panel's System Properties. When write-behind cache is on, hang up, crashes and write errors error during writing on all flash-memory media. Small glitch here.

   
• All-new RegMark99™ shows Celeron outperforms Pentium III by 2.3 times
  Time: 18:20 EDT/23:20 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Despite Chipzilla's vain attempts to hide the value for money differential between the Celeron and Pentium II ranges highlighted in our original RegMark™ benchmarks - including this week axing the entire PII range - we can exclusively reveal that little Celeron continues to be a thorn in Intel's side as it continues to munch dollars from the chip behemoth's bottom line.

  The flagship Pentium III does indeed offer superior performance over Celeron, especially in the MultimediaMark 99 and CPUMark99 benchmarks, but PIII floating point performance is way down on the cheapo chip due to Celeron's on-die L2 cache running at full core speed.

  The original RegMark™ index only took FPU performance and price into consideration, so in The Register's fine tradition of fair play, we have now included an additional two parameters into the all-new RegMark99™ tests - MultimediaMark 99 and CPUmark 99 - in a bid to give a more accurate price/performance comparison.

   
• PIII/600 with 133MHz FSB outed
  Time: 18:18 EDT/23:18 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Our friends over at the site which clocks many chips to their limit, and then some more, is reporting today that a British firm has posted the price and due date of an Intel 600MHz Pentium III using the long-fabled 133MHz Front Side Bus (FSB).

  Kyle at HardOCP is pointing to Dabs Direct, which says the part will ship on the 26th of September next.

   
• MIPS unveils own MMX for 64-bit CPUs
  Time: 18:16 EDT/23:16 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  MIPS today introduced its own version of Intel's Multimedia eXtensions (MMX) and AMD's 3D Now! With the uninspiringly dubbed MIPS-3D Application Specific Extension (ASE).

  The technology extends the existing MIPS 64-bit architecture with "additional graphics-oriented floating-point instructions that reduce code size in graphics processing algorithms and improve 3D image processing performance".

  The improvement, MIPS claimed, can be as much as 83 per cent. The technology can generate 25 million polygons per second, falling to ten million polys per second when you add lighting (both on a 500MHz processor).

   
• Amiga developer in talks to buy Commodore name
  Time: 18:14 EDT/23:14 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  European software and hardware developer Iwin Corporation has entered into negotiations with Dutch PC vendor Tulip to acquire the name and logo of the long-defunct Commodore.

  Iwin's interest in the Commodore brand stems from its long involvement with the Amiga. The company's line of servers and workstations are Amiga-based, and much of its software runs on the platform.

   

• Pentium II family reaches end of the road
  Time: 18:14 EDT/23:14 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Intel is now saying the Pentium II/450MHz part has limited availability and that means the end of the line for the entire PII family. The chip giant has relentlessly pushed the Pentium III family into its place during the course of this year, and that process will be complete within the next few weeks, according to reliable sources.

   
• Iomega launches OEM'd CD-RW drive
  Time: 18:12 EDT/23:12 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Iomega, the financially troubled storage specialist, today took a step -- several steps, actually -- backwards into its past to announce shipment of a product not based on one of its own technologies.

  Marking Iomega's return to OEM-hood -- it started out offering systems based on SyQuest technology -- was the launch of the $209 ZipCD, the company's first rewritable CD drive. What we have here is a standard CD-RW mechanism cunningly branded to match Iomega's line of own-developed products.

  Still, it's not as retrograde a move it sounds. Iomega reckons some 12 million CD-RW drives will ship this year, and, as a storage company with a well-known brandname, it makes sense for the company to move into this market.

   
• Diamond Rio PMP300 review
  Time: 05:08 EDT/10:08 GMT Source: Hardware One Posted By: Alex H

  Just read on Hardware-One that 3DAlpha have posted a new review of the Diamond Rio PMP300. Here is a snippet of the review:

  When I first heard about the Diamond Rio on MP3.com, immediately I knew I needed it. When I finally got it, I was amazed about the size, it was no bigger than an Audio Cassette Tape. I've been a big fan of the MP3 Format, for about 2 years now I've been converting my cd's into mp3's. After about 1,000 songs I purchased a CD-Burner, but even then I really didn't have all the control of song selection I wanted. That was because even if I'd burn a multi-session disk only my computer was able to read it, and what was the advantage of that? Well I did some reading on burners and I also found out even with a CD-Rewritable pretty much of all the portable cd players also wouldn't be able to read them.

   
• Gainward CARDExpert TNT2 review
  Time: 05:05 EDT/10:05 GMT Source: Hardware One Posted By: Alex H

  Just read on Hardware-One that AnandTech have posted a new review of the Gainward CARDExpert TNT2 card. Here is a snippet of the review:

  The first thing Gainward did to differentiate their TNT2 from the rest of the market was to design a custom PCB. While the layout is basically like NVIDIA's reference design, they got rid of a lot of the extraneous unused space. That doesn't do a whole lot for performance or features, but what it does is allow Gainward to produce these guys at a lower cost, and that translates into savings for the consumer without sacrificing quality. Everything is still there though - TV out provided by the Brooktree BT869 and Digital Flat Panel (DFP) support by a SiI DFP controller. Both of these features are manufacturing options, so make sure you know what you're ordering.

   

• G400 Overclocking
  Time: 05:02 EDT/10:02 GMT Source: Murc News Posted By: Alex H

  There are a few benchmarks over on MGA Optimisation Tools from beta testers of MGATweak which is looking very slick and should be out in open beta soon. 

  Look at the highlighted improvement on fillrate after overclocking. It can be as high as 20%. Another interesting result is that in both cases, the fillrate improvement is almost the same regardless of the CPU used. However, Intel Pentium III seems to have a much better utilization of the tremendous fillrate the G400 offers. This shows that G400 is clearly CPU-bounded. With more powerful next generation CPUs coming out, such as AMD Athlon and Intel Mercs, we can expect G400 performance to scale accordingly. On the other hand, let's hope that Matrox will once again flex his muscles on driver development, offloading more processing chores from the host CPU to G400. That will definitely improve the low-res performance and make G400 sell like hot cake!

   

• G400 Tweak released
  Time: 04:58 EDT/09:58 GMT Source: 3D Guru Posted By: Alex H

  The Matrox User's Resource Group has posted a new utility for the Matrox G400 (MAX and vanilla), G400Tweak, that allows you to alter various registry settings that should boost the performance of the G400. Apparently they have also posted behnchmarks on MGA Optimization Tools from beta testers of MGATweak (which they say should be available in an open beta soon). Visit resource group

   
• SiRF Technology develops smaller GPS chips
  Time: 04:48 EDT/09:48 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  SiRF Technology, a start-up chip company, plans to unveil a new semiconductor technology this week that will enable cellular phones and handheld computers to have navigation functions.

  Santa Clara, California-based SiRF on Tuesday will announce at an industry technical conference called HotChips that it has developed a semiconductor architecture that shrinks the size of global positioning system (GPS) technology so that it can fit into small handheld devices. SiRF says it has also increased the accuracy of its GPS devices.

  GPS technology was first developed by the U.S. Department of Defense, which has an array of about 24 satellites covering the entire earth. These satellites transmit their positions to a variety of typically clunky devices used for navigational purposes by aircraft, ships, missiles, and spacecraft. The technology also is increasingly used by recreational sailors, hikers, and drivers.

  By fitting the GPS functions onto a card a little bit bigger than a credit card with a few chips, including a GPS chip the size of a single postage stamp, SiRF will make it possible for companies to create very small GPS-based products such as wrist watches or lockets, which could be used for locating lost children, skiers, and hikers.

   

• Intel's new divisions cut wide swath
  Time: 04:47 EDT/09:47 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Unlike many corporations, Intel does not provide a hierarchical diagram of who reports directly to the chief executive. The secrecy is for competitive purposes, a spokesman said. Nonetheless, No. 1 chipmaker has partially lowered the veil to better outline its four-pronged business structure, hatched earlier this year.

  Under the new plan, the company is organized into four business units: the Intel Architecture Business Group (IAGB), which controls PC processors; the Network Communications Group (NCG), which makes chips for switches, modems, and other telecommunications products; the Communications Products Group (CPG), which makes communications products that can incorporate NCG chips, and the data services group known as the New Business Group (NBG).

• Gateway walks away from Athlon
  Time: 11:50 EDT/16:50 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Gateway has done a U-turn over its plans to launch an Athlon-based PC. The world’s second largest direct selling PC vendor was tipped to build systems based on the Athlon, but two weeks ago mysteriously reversed its decision, according to Forbes. Gateway described the move as "a pure business decision", which Forbes said meant Intel had waved a big discount carrot under Gateway’s nose, which the vendor obligingly ran after.

  This soft dollar deal, and big discounts on 600 MHz Pentium II chips, are believed to have swung Gateway’s decision in what was thought to be a $20 million package. The Forbes article added that AMD pricing was already starting crack under the weight of Intel’s cuts.

   
• Seagate Ships 1,000,000th Fibre Channel Disc Drive
  Time: 11:19 EDT/16:19 GMT Source: Yahoo Posted By: Alex H

  As it continues to build momentum in delivering core technology for the Storage Area Networking (SAN) marketplace, Seagate Technology, Inc. (NYSE: SEG - news) today announced the shipment of the 1,000,000th Fibre Channel disc drive. The Fibre Channel interface is the critical technology that enables disc drives to directly communicate with other devices across the storage network, including other storage products, peripherals, and servers. Fibre Channel technology benefits users by delivering faster and more widespread access to information, providing the ability to better automate tasks -- such as back-up routines within certain time frames, and sharing information across dissimilar operating platforms.

  Seagate anticipates that the Company will reach two million Fibre Channel units shipped by Spring. Seagate developed the world's first Fibre Channel disc drive in 1994 and has led in the development and integration of the Fibre Channel interface in storage devices. The company is currently shipping its fourth generation of Fibre Channel products and continues to co-develop Fibre Channel storage technologies with leading OEMs to accelerate the transition to Storage Area Networks.

  ``This is an important milestone for Seagate and the Fibre Channel interface. Clearly a new generation of applications and architectures including storage area networks are fueling this growth. Looking forward, as the need for capacity is overshadowed by the need for performance, we expect the demand for Fibre Channel interface drives will accelerate,'' Crawford Del Prete, Group Vice President, IDC Storage and Systems Research.

  ``Storage technology is rapidly moving towards SANs and the Fibre Channel interface is the core technology for this platform,'' said Rudy Thibodeau, executive director of Marketing for Seagate's High Performance Products. ``With storage requirements doubling every 12-18 months and the cost of managing storage nearly ten times the cost of purchasing storage, the need for an efficient storage management platform becomes very clear. SANs have demonstrated their ability to fit that need, with research indicating that a single IT manager can maintain 5-7 times more storage on a SAN than in a traditional storage architecture.''

   
• Quantum Fireball KA review
  Time: 11:09 EDT/16:09 GMT Source: AGN Hardware Posted By: Alex H

  AGN Hardware have just posted their review for the Quantum Fireball KA. Here is a snippet of it:

  I purchased an OEM unit, which comes with nothing more than an anti-static bag to protect it. The only additional items required to install the drive are an unusued powerplug in your computer, an IDE cable to attach to the drive, and 4 mounting screws. With the drive mounted in your towercase the only setup left on the drive itself is the jumper that determines if the drive is a SLAVE or MASTER. The hard drive has a diagram on the top so this is an easy process as long as you understand the terminology. Upon first startup, you'll need to access your computer's system BIOS to check a few settings. The first thing to do is to detect the drive so that when you reboot the system will have the drive setup properly and enabled. The second thing to do is check that the drive is set to use "UDMA MODE 2". This is what enables the faster UDMA mode for the drive. If you have one of the brand new motherboards with UDMA66 then this can also be enabled. If you're using one of the UDMA66 PCI cards like the Abit Hotrod then you won't need to worry about the settings on the motherboard.

   
• Matrox announce Athlon support
  Time: 11:09 EDT/16:09 GMT Source: 3D Hardware Posted By: Alex H

  Matrox Graphics Inc. today announced support for the next-generation AMD Athlon processor. The Matrox Millennium G400 Series benefits from the Athlon's incredible processing power, allowing graphics performance to scale exceptionally well with the increased capabilities of the overall platform.

  "We are excited to be working with AMD," said Kamran Ahmed, Consumer Graphics Product Manager, Matrox Graphics Inc. "The new high-speed AMD Athlon processor is the perfect complement for the benchmark-winning Matrox Millennium G400 Series. The AMD Athlon processor's industry-leading performance and the Millennium G400 Series' advanced 2D, 3D, video acceleration and 3DNow! optimization bring the highest levels of speed and performance to the commercial desktop power user."

  Complementing this speed, Matrox's advanced image quality and innovative features further leverage the Athlon's processing capabilities. As the first graphics cards to integrate support for Environment-Mapped Bump Mapping, the Matrox Millennium G400 Series offers enthusiast users the most compelling visual effects in 3D environments. The flexibility of this feature takes full advantage of the power of the Athlon processor to enhance effects such as procedural and animated bump mapping.

   

• Voodoo4 =/= Voodoo4
  Time: 11:07 EDT/16:07 GMT Source: 3D Hardware Posted By: Alex H

  3D Hardware is reporting that the next processor (and card series) are in fact not going to bear the so successful Voodoo brand name. Thst is it's name will not going to be Voodoo4.

   
• Voodoo3 3500 / 50" TV Giveaway
  Time: 11:04 EDT/16:04 GMT Source: 3D Hardware Posted By: Alex H

  3dfx have a neat little sweepstake on their promotional website for the Voodoo 3 3500. Not only do thay give away their fastest and phattest graphics accelerator, the Voodoo 3 3500 TV, but you can also win a FIFTY inch Pioneer TV set, an Aureal speaker system and a Sony Digital Mavica digital camera! Click here to enter the competition.

• DirectX 7 Hits Release Candidate Stage
  Time: 04:51 EDT/09:54 GMT Source: Microsoft Posted By: Alex H

  DirectX 7 is now in its final beta stage, Release Candidate 1 (Build 229.2) has been posted to testers. The final release in expected to be available next month via Windows Update and the DirectX website.

   
• Grove: Merced due in a couple of weeks
  Time: 03:51 EDT/08:51 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Intel Corp. Chairman Andy Grove said Tuesday that Intel's first 64-bit processor, code-named Merced, will yield silicon "in a few weeks time" and that "we will know then whether it works or it doesn't. In a surprise appearance at LinuxWorld Expo in San Jose, Calif., Grove and Intel senior vice president Sean Maloney demonstrated the Linux kernel running on top of the Merced simulator generating a transaction.

   
• Intel, IDT in cross-licensing agreement
  Time: 03:39 EDT/08:39 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Integrated Device Technology and Intel entered a cross-licensing agreement to use each other's intellectual property covered by patents. Chipmaker Intel will pay IDT $20.5 million as part of the agreement, and both companies will license most of each other's technologies, the companies said in a statement. No further terms of the agreements were disclosed.

  "This new agreement provides the design engineers of both Intel and IDT with greater flexibility as they design new products, enabling both companies to better serve customers' requirements," said Pat Gelsinger, general manager of Intel's Desktop Products Group. IDT provides semiconductor solutions to leading-edge system designers in communications and computing. Intel is the world's largest maker of semiconductors.

Read more of the past months news in our News Archive for Previous August News.

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