"Maxtor is calling the technology Fast Drives and says it boosts data transfer rates between the computer and the hard drive up to 133MBps - one-third faster than its Ultra ATA/100 technology.

Ultra ATA/133 is backward compatible with the existing ATA standard. PC users who want to upgrade from Ultra ATA/100 to Ultra ATA/133 will need to purchase a compliant adapter card or system motherboard along with the new hard drives."

"One of the first issues to crop up was when the printer was plugged in and system refused to switch on. Now a 300w power supply was in use and thoughts remotely reminded me somewhere the demand on DDR specified boards was greater from the power supply."

"I've received details about the desktop Palomino possibly being released in September at speeds up to 1.53GHz. Several speed grades may be released, and all will be using the 266MHz bus. Whether this is truth or just rumor remains to be seen. The official name of the desktop Palomino remains a mystery."

"AC: Is it true that the KR7 is based on a newer stepping of the KT266 (KT266 Pro?)? If so, why did Abit choose to wait for this newer stepping?

Abit: The KR7 is still currently in the R&D phase. Some have found great performance and reliability with the current chipset. Our demands at ABIT our strict. The people who work in every department of ABIT are like our users. We push our motherboards beyond the standard. In our minds, average is simply not an option.

These increased expectations ask a lot of a chipset as well. As I mentioned in my last answer, I think the VIA KT266 will be a very strong chipset and the KR7 a great board, as soon as we are able to enhance the overall performance and stability."

• Windows XP Home Edition
• Windows XP Professional
• Windows XP 64-bit edition
• Windows XP Professional Checked (Debug Version)
• Windows XP 64-bit Checked (Debug Version)

"Hmm.. maybe I was just oblivious this whole time? It turns out one of the sleeziest retailers in the history of the Internet actually owns their own hardware review website, Athlon OC, Hardware OC, and Forum OC.

That is just lame. A hardware store owning their own hardware site just so they get good ratings... pretty damn pathetic. Not to mention the guys over at AthlonOC are *expletive* (just like the guys over at OCZ). They pay their reviewers with OCZ credit to put out good reviews, too. How big of a conspiracy is OCZ? More at 11."

"Often it seems like no other industry advances as fast as that of the personal computer. Few people even stop to think that in the 20+ years we've been computing, the details of how interact with our computers have changed dramatically. Even the GUI-laden Windows 3.0 is a far cry from the technology (and some would say bloat) endowed to Windows 2000, or even 98/Me. With that, let's take a look at how Bill Gates has shaped the way you work and play!"

"Late Tuesday, Microsoft verified reports that it has pushed back the company's expected successor to Windows XP, code-named Blackcomb, and will develop an intermediate release called "Longhorn." Microsoft intends Blackcomb to be a major Windows release with full .NET user experience and integration with various Web services. And although Microsoft still plans to develop Blackcomb, the company now realizes that it can't hit the original late 2002 release date for such an ambitious product. So Longhorn will fill that gap, with an expected release in late 2002 or early 2003. Blackcomb will follow in 2003 or 2004."

"Some AMD-K6®-2, Athlon, & Duron microprocessors cause JPEG images to be incorrectly displayed in some applications. When you view a Web page containing a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG or .jpg) image file in Microsoft Internet Explorer V4 or V5, the image appears distorted. Although the image size and position is correct, most of the pixels are displayed using incorrect colors. This problem is also seen when you use a JPEG image in an Office 97 or Office 2000 document. When the option to view the Microsoft Windows Active Desktop as a Web Page is selected, JPEG images appearing on the Active Desktop are also distorted."

"Technology leaders AMD (NYSE: AMD), API NetWorks, Inc., Apple®, Cisco Systems, NVIDIA Corporation, PMC-Sierra (NASDAQ: PMCS), Sun Microsystems, Inc., and Transmeta have joined together as promoters of HyperTransport technology, and will now manage the development and evolution of the technology's specifications. More than 180 companies throughout the computer and communications industries have been engaged with AMD in working with the HyperTransport technology."

"The apparent ease with which it can move 1GHz Celerons from a "this year, next year, sometime never" model into a launch just a few weeks away, does beg some questions about the nature of the cut-down chip. As the world+dog knows, the Celeron is really a Pentium III by any other name. If it can produce 1GHz Pentium IIIs, it can with similar ease make 1GHz Celerons. The reason it has not taken this action previously is because it felt it didn't need to.

AMD can counter with its 1GHz Duron, which is ready, but if and when it releases this part, it must do so at a price which undercuts the Celeron, further putting pressure on its own average selling prices.

Jerry Sanders !!!, the CEO of AMD, said at a conference call recently that the price war was having a bad effect not just on his company but on Intel too. However, stopping the price war is not an option, as his counterpart at Intel, Craig Barrett !, pointed out when he was in London in June."

"nForce 420, however, with its dual channel DDR interface, is likely to cost a staggering $90+. Keep in mind that the most expensive chipset ever launched, the Intel i850, never costed much above $70. AMD's 760 and VIA's KT266 sell in the $25 to $35 range.

This means that nForce 420 motherboards, like ASUS's A7N266, will cost well north of $200 on launch, considering the extra design work that must go into layout out a dual channel DRAM interface."

" Code Red is a new worm that is spreading rapidly in the wild. It performs a DDoS attack against www.whitehouse.gov, enables attackers to execute arbitrary code on unpatched machines, may cause a DoS attack and/or degraded system performance on compromised machines, and inadvertently causes some Cisco modems to crash.

Code Red appears to have been released on Friday the 13th (July 13, 2001). This has given Code Red a week to become prolific enough in the wild to be able to launch a formidable DDoS attack against www.whitehouse.gov computers. It was only a few days ago that Code Red caught the attention of many security experts. It has begun to spread at an alarming rate due to the high number of servers that remain unpatched for a recent vulnerability announced by Microsoft. Estimates range from 15-200,000 in the wild to date, increasing at an alarming rate."

"A SERIOUS HOLE in the design of Microsoft Windows XP can bring systems screaming to a full stop, according to testers of the up and coming OS.

According to one tester, a weakness in the application manifest part of the program means that copying just one file to the \windows directory, which is available to even guests on the system, will make machines virtually useless.

He said: "Explorer can no longer start. There's no Admin account, no Safe mode, nothing other than deleting the offending manifest file will make your machine useable again."

"Intended to prevent users from installing the software on more than one computer, the feature in essence takes a snapshot of hardware components in a user's computer.

If the hardware profile changes too drastically, Windows will think it has been installed on a second machine and will stop working until the user calls Microsoft for a new key.

But some testers have cried foul, pointing out that some PC users frequently update their machines with new parts like graphics cards or hard drives.

There were also concerns that Microsoft could keep tabs on individual PC usage or use the data it gathered during activation for other purposes.

Responding to those concerns, Microsoft will alter Product Activation to allow a certain number of changes to a PC within a certain period of time, Shawn Sanford, group product manager for Windows, said in an interview."

"Overall we think that the ABIT KG7-RAID is going to be on the short list of boards to look into purchasing if you are in the market for a true DDR upgrade. Even though they utilize the VIA 686B southbridge, we did not have any large file transfer problems when using the board when coupled with a SBLive sound card, so hopefully that fiasco is behind VIA and their 686B. We do have two production boards on the way that will hopefully serve two purposes. First, to reassure me that any and all major bugs have been worked out of the KG7, which if all the boot issues are worked out, we will give the KG7 our "Top Pic" award. Second, I wanted one to put in my personal rig. Yep, even I have decided that DDR is in my immediate future."

"The Taliban has banned the use of the Internet in Afghanistan to stop "immoral" material flooding into the country. According to the Afghan Islamic Press, Taliban Foreign Minister Maulvi Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil said it wasn't that the Afghan government was opposed to the Net, it just didn't like the filth that was freely displayed on it."

"As usual, chairman and chief executive officer W.J. "Jerry" Sanders presented some details about the company's product roadmap, mixed together with a healthy dose of his usual bombast. In the desktop Athlon market, AMD will launch a 1.5-GHz Athlon this quarter, and add a 1.73-GHz Athlon –"the next major speed grade," according to Sanders—before the end of the year."

"There is no significant cost advantage to using the VIA southbridge on a Dual Athlon board. By far the largest cost component of the chipset if the northbridge which is obvious from its 1000-pin+ BGA package compared to the much smaller southbridge. The cost delta between AMD's and VIA's southbridge is a single digit dollar number, which is no way worth the risk of using a chipset combo that has not been validated by AMD (or by VIA)."

"And today someone has asked Jack why Office XP doesn't work on his Cyrix computer, even though on the face of it the specs of the machine fit the bill.



It appears that Microsoft in the infinite wisdom that it has, decided that certain Cyrix chips were not "true" Pentium class processors, and wiped out the possibility of upgrading for those poor souls who were foolish enough to buy machines using its chips - and presumably the Big Blue microprocessors which are their spitting images"

"SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday said it will change how it licenses its Windows operating system to computer makers, letting them remove access to its Web browser and make other alterations.

The move was in response to a ruling last month by a U.S. appeals court that said some of Microsoft's licensing practices were illegal.

The most significant change will let PC makers remove icons for the Internet Explorer Web browser -- the product that is at the heart of the U.S. government's antitrust case.

Microsoft had bundled the browser into Windows and forbade PC makers from removing the program as it battled with rival browser maker Netscape.

Internet Explorer would also be included in a utility that would let users disable the program on their own, Microsoft said."

The KG7 family will consist of:

KG7-Lite (2 DDR slots)
KG7 (4 DDR slots)
KG7-RAID (4 DDR slots, RAID)

The KG7-Lite and KG7-RAID will be shipped first.

Expected Enduser Price for

KG7-Lite @ SRP S$275 with GST
KG7-RAID @ SRP S$340 with GST

"SOURCES CLOSE to AMD say the firm will launch a 1GHz Duron on Monday next and at the same time axe prices and remove Athlons at less than 1GHz.

The firm will make sure its distributors and dealers are protected by buffering them with a two week advance price protection scheme on tray and boxed products, we can reveal.

As an example of the price cuts, the Athlon Thunderbird which currently costs $245 will fall to $175 from Monday. No details of 1GHz Duron prices are yet available but we will bring those to you as soon as we can.

JPEG Images are Distorted when Displayed by Microsoft Internet Explorer V4 or V5
JPEG Images are Distorted when Embedded within Microsoft Office 97 or Office 2000 Documents
When the Microsoft Windows Active Desktop is Viewed As a Web Page, JPEG Images Appearing on the Desktop are Distorted
When MPEG Video Clips are Played, "Static" Appears Within the Video, Static and Pops are Heard in the Audio
Some Video Games that Utilize DirectX Display Random Spots and Noise or "Hiss" is Heard in the Audio.

The relationship between the computer hardware and the bit-fields is given in the following table.

 
    double word | offset | length | bit-field value based on
    ------------+--------+--------+----------------------------
         H1     |      0 |     10 | volume serial number string
                |        |        | of system volume
         H1     |     10 |     10 | network adapter MAC address
                |        |        | string
         H1     |     20 |      7 | CD-ROM drive hardware
                |        |        | identification string
         H1     |     27 |      5 | graphics adapter hardware
                |        |        | identification string
         H2     |      0 |      3 | unused, set to 001
         H2     |      3 |      6 | CPU serial number string
         H2     |      9 |      7 | harddrive hardware
                |        |        | identification string
         H2     |     16 |      5 | SCSI host adapter hardware
                |        |        | identification string
         H2     |     21 |      4 | IDE controller hardware
                |        |        | identification string
         H2     |     25 |      3 | processor model string
         H2     |     28 |      3 | RAM size
         H2     |     31 |      1 | 1 = dockable
                |        |        | 0 = not dockable

Bit 31 of H2 specifies, whether the bit-fields represent a notebook computer that supports a docking station. If docking is possible, the activation mechanism will be more tolerant with respect to future hardware modifications.

"According to Fully Licensed GmbH, if more than three of the above parts of a system are altered in a desktop system, reactivation will be necessary. I'd like to emphasize that I do not have the expertise necessary to determine if Fully Licensed's analysis is correct. It looks quite plausible, though. If they are correct, it appears that those who frequently change hardware (hardcore tech enthusiasts, hardware reviewers, and so on) may be in for some hassles. While that is a miniscule portion of the market, and the average user is unlikely to have to bother with product activation more than once, it is an influential market segment, and angering it may be less than wise. You may want to take a look at Caesar's editorial on Windows Product Activation from a while back. If Caesar's information proves true, hardware changes of a minor nature over the course of a couple of updates should not require anything strenuous to re-register. It's worth noting that some of these hardware choices are a bit questionable. RAM size, for instance, is something that changes frequently for money people, and it hardly identifies a "new machine" in the way that, say, an IDE controller ID string does."

"David McOwen posted a message to the Anandtech forums saying the State of Georgia is prosecuting him for using their computers for RC5 while he was configurator of the computers at a school system 2 years ago. Apparantly they want him in jail for 15 years and have him pay almost half a million dollars! According to the State of Georgia, one single Distributed.net client costs 59 cents per second in datatraffic."

"The retail box set comes with a ball-bearing fan and heatsink, as well as a multi-lingual installation manual and three-year limited warranty. It is also factory sealed to guarantee the authenticity of the processor and ensure peace of mind for both retailers and consumers. With its aqua blue coloring, the design of the box intentionally conveys a cool feeling, reinforcing the “cool processing” message of the VIA C3™ processor"

"For cutting edge gamers, the ELSA Gladiac 920 is a no-nonsense 3D powerhouse that also happens to be one of the least expensive GeForce3's you can find. With a combination like that, it just might be time to break open the piggy bank."

"Based on AMD Smart MP technology, the Athlon MP processor offers fully-featured logic implementation to support smarter multiprocessing. It is the world’s first seventh-generation x86 processor for high-performance multiprocessing servers and workstations. What is Smart Multiprocessing Technology? Smart MP Technology helps the processor and chipset offer a more efficient platform and deliver better overall performance. Dual, independent point-to-point buses and an exemplary cache management system, together with a bus that allows high-speed communications between processors, unite to make this new platform an efficient and cost-effective solution for IT managers. Other Smart MP technology features include an optimized cache coherency protocol, which manages data and memory traffic, as well as innovative "snoop" busses, which offer high-speed communication between the CPUs in a multiprocessing system. In addition, the use of a transaction-based bus protocol allows the processors to stay in operation, even while outstanding data requests are being filled"

"While perusing the computer news, I couldn't help noticing that perennial holdout Dell seems to be flirting with the idea of selling AMD-based PCs. Last week there was a survey on Dell's Web site asking consumers some pointed questions about Intel versus AMD platforms, ranging from numerical ratings of factors like performance and stability to the acid-test inquiry: given two otherwise identical 1GHz desktops, the Athlon being $50 cheaper than the Pentium III, which would you buy?

I see Dell as a microcosm of the computing industry as a whole -- which recognizes AMD as a viable alternative to Intel, but seems incredibly hesitant to put its money where its mouth is. Meanwhile, both camps continue the mudslinging with which we're all too familiar: AMD fans tout the great price-performance of Athlon and Duron CPUs, while Intel loyalists claim superior stability and compatibility. These flames have been burning for years

For example, if a consultant sets up one Intel and one AMD system and both crash due to a software bug, what do you think the corporate IT reaction will be? In my experience, the consultant gets fired for using an AMD PC for a mission-critical application, while the company's technicians work feverishly to find the cause of the Intel lockup. In business environments, Intel is never, ever assumed to be the problem, while a big bullseye is painted on every AMD box. This translates into fewer AMD systems among major vendors' corporate PC lineups"

"update Napster continued a self-imposed shutdown Tuesday, as the company struggled to fix technical problems related to its efforts to stop unauthorized file swapping on its service.

The hiatus comes shortly after Napster disabled old versions of its software. It pushed its members to a new version that rendered the service all but unusable, blocking even the most obscure, uncopyrighted works from being traded.

But people logging on this week were unable to trade even the few songs left. The company posted a message on its Web page saying that "file transfers have been temporarily suspended while Napster upgrades its databases." The company did not give a timetable for when trading would resume, however."

"The KG7 has six PCI slots, one 4X AGP slot, FOUR DIMM slots, and an optional HPT370 RAID controller (on the KG7-RAID). Abit has ditched the ISA slot found on their KT7 series of motherboards. ISA is barely being used any more, and the additional manufacturing costs and IRQ sharing problems aren't worth the hassle. The surprising thing is that Abit will be using FOUR DIMM slots. Previously manufacturers only used two or three DIMM slots because of stability problems. The next generation of 760 motherboards seem to have the stability problems tackled, thankfully.

The KG7 will feature the AMD 761 Northbridge, which has support for DDR memory, and the VIA 686B Southbridge. Abit opted out of using AMD's 766 Southbridge in favor of the cheaper 686B Southbridge, as most motherboard manufacturers are doing. Abit also decided to have an active cooling solution on the Northbridge, even though AMD says it's not required. This is the same thing we saw with their KT133 line of boards. Hopefully Abit will choose a better quality fan this time around"