I saw this at TheRegister. They are reporting that this new .Net initiative that Microsoft has might
lead to fewer viruses. But of course it will cause other threats.
Quote from report:
"Antivirus vendors will have to significantly redesign their products in order to
address risks of malicious code arising from the release of Microsoft's .Net platform.
The change of computing model to Web services that comes with .Net will almost undoubtedly create
fresh infection mechanisms for virus writers to exploit.
In particular .Net will create new files called Common Language Runtime (CLR), which contain
executable code known as Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL), which vendors agree is not yet
addressed by AV products."
Excite@Home has filed for bankruptcy Friday. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection & agreed
to sell its crown jewel, its broadband Internet access business, to its controlling shareholder, AT&T
Corp., unless it gets a better offer from another company
Quote from report:
"In an agreement that ends a long downward spiral for what was once a leading
Internet company, AT&T has agreed to buy ExciteAtHome high-speed Internet access business for $307
million, a small fraction of where it was once valued. The business delivers Internet service over
cable lines to more than 3.6 million customers worldwide and was instrumental in advancing the
Internet from a crude text-based service to one featuring rich images and audio and video."
TheRegister has a report about the AthlonXP that is going to be shipped October 9. Remember that AMD
originally named these the Palamino, then the Athlon 4, and then decided to use the Performance rating
to directly compete with Intel.
Quote from report:
"AMD's Palomino processors will launch on 9 October.
Now called the Athlon XP, it will come in 4 speeds - the XP 1500 plus, XP 1600 plus, XP 1700 plus and
XP 1800 plus.
Prices to OEMs are $115, $124, $152 and $210 respectively, but may vary depending on volume.
The clock speeds of the chips are:
XP 1500 - 1.33GHz
XP 1600 - 1.40GHz
XP 1700 - 1.47GHz
XP 1800 - 1.53GHz
AMD has given the Palominos their 1500 plus etc. names, and not used the clock speeds of the
processors, to move away from direct comparisons with Intel processor speeds. Or to be more precise,
it's given them names to suggest faster clock speeds than they've got, based on their rule of thumb
that AMD processors match or beat the performance of Intel processors which are 300MHz faster."
Link to report here
These are the additional speed grades once they come out:
XP 1900 - 1.60GHz
XP 2000 - 1.67GHz
XP 2100 - 1.73GHz
XP 2200 - 1.80GHz
XP 2300 - 1.87GHz
XP 2400 - 1.93GHz
XP 2500 - 2.00GHz
XP 2600 - 2.07GHz
XP 2700 - 2.13GHz
XP 2800 - 2.20GHz
XP 2900 - 2.27GHz
Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 8:45PM
SiS745 in the making
I saw this at 3DSpotlight.net. They post a report about some news at OCWorkbench about the SiS745
Chipset that is in the making. It has support for the new 333FSB (166MHz), as well as other things.
Quote from report:
"From our Taiwanese sources, there is a new chipset SiS745 in the making. This new
chipset will support AMD Athlon/Duron CPUs and up to a maximum 1.5GB System Memory. Up to 3 DIMMs
supporting DDR200/266/333, IEEE1394 controller up to 3 ports and MuTIOL Delivering 533MB/s Bandwidth.
The FSB options available are async 133/166 and 166/166. It looks like we have more chipsets to choose
from and cheaper mainboards."
I saw this at VIAHardware.com. They have post on an installation guide for the VIA 4in1 drivers.
This is over at Noticas3D.com, and can be viewed in spanish as well.
Quote from article:
"After responding lots of posts on our Forum about problems, installation order, uninstallation, etc,.. of VIA 4in1
drivers, we've decided to condense in a guide the best way to install them, the optimal order
and which users should install them. Well, first of all I'll try to explain why these drivers are
necessary, or usefull.
Why do we need this drivers?
Our Operating System (OS) needs to know the way our motheboard "talks" to its devices, you know,
ISA/PCI/AGP cards, HDD controller, USB ports, etc,... We will call this "way of talking" as
drivers, whom exactly do the same function: OS asks for data to the Hard Drive through the
HDD driver, then the HDD returns the requested information to the OS. This applies to all the
devices connected to the motherboard."
Excite@Home To Declare Bankruptcy Later This Week?
I saw this on Icrontic.com. They report on the fact that Excite@home MIGHT declare bankruptcy
later this week. Excite@home has $800 million or more in debt.
Quote from report:
"Sources close to the Redwood City, Calif.-based company say Excite@Home will file
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late this week or early next week unless it receives an
unexpected cash infusion. Excite@Home, the nation's largest high-speed Internet service provider
with about 4 million customers, does not have enough cash to cover its operating costs and an
estimated $800 million or more in debt."
I saw this at AMDZone. They report that AMD is going to close FAB 14 and 15 to reduce costs. On
a side note as well, they are laying off 2300 workers and these fabs were built in the mid-'80's.
Quote from report:
"These changes will result in the reduction of approximately 2,300 positions, or
approximately 15 percent of its worldwide workforce, by the end of the second quarter of 2002.
Approximately 1,000 of these positions are associated with closing the fabs in Austin. The balance
of the reductions will result from realigning and restructuring back-end activities in Penang,
Malaysia. The company will provide severance packages and outplacement services to affected
employees.
"These actions will allow us to reduce costs without impairing our new product development
activities in pursuit of long-term growth opportunities. We will focus our organization around our
two most promising opportunities - flash memory devices and PC processors," said W.J. Sanders III,
chairman and chief executive officer. "We will treat all employees affected by these actions with
fairness and respect, consistent with our values and our commitment to our people.""
Link to AMDZone report here
Link to ZDnet report here
Link to the Statesmen report here
Monday, September 24, 2001 - 4:20PM
nForce Review at AnandTech
I saw this on VIAHardware.com, they mention that AnandTech has a review of the nVIDIA nForce 420
and 220 based boards. This is the new chipset for AMD Based CPU's that also has integrated Geforce
2 and Geforce 3 video chips, as well as integrated 5.1 channel sound on the 420 based board.
Quote from report:
"It's been three months, two weeks and six days since we introduced you to NVIDIA's
nForce chipset. The chipset literally stole the show at this year's Computex. By the end of our
stay in Taiwan our number one question to the motherboard manufacturers we visited was "what are
your thoughts on nForce?" NVIDIA quite honestly had VIA very worried at Computex. The original
launch schedule placed nForce review samples in the hands of editors towards the end of June;
months before VIA could have their KT266A ready. After already receiving a heavy blow from SiS
with the barrage of SiS 735 chipset reviews prior to Computex, VIA was in no shape to deal with an
even more formidable opponent.
Luckily for VIA, this is NVIDIA's first shot at making a PC chipset. As many of you are probably
wondering, what exactly took the nForce this long to end up in a final production ready state?
NVIDIA overestimated themselves; based on their experiences in the add-in graphics card industry
they assumed a successful chipset rollout would be very similar to what they had encountered in the
past. As we heard from virtually every single one of the motherboard manufacturers that NVIDIA had
given samples to, nForce was hardly ready for prime time at Computex."
It is being reported by Electic.com that the XBox will be delayed for one week.
Quote from report:
"The Xbox will launch Nov. 15, according to a Microsoft statement, not Nov. 8 as
originally planned. The statement said the company will deliver 1 million to 1.5 million consoles
through the holiday season but did not comment on specific launch quantities or cite a reason for
the delay.
Microsoft had previously announced 600,000 to 800,000 consoles would be available at launch, as the
company hoped to avoid the shortages and frustration that accompanied the U.S. arrival of Sony's
PlayStation 2 console last fall."
I saw this at [H]ard|OCP. They report that the new version of Powerstip 3.0 can overclock the new
Radeons, no matter what MHz they show up as.
Quote from report:
"PowerStrip 3.0 provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to
a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Kyro II and
GeForce3. It is in fact the only program of its type to support multiple graphics cards from
multiple chipset vendors, simultaneously, under every Windows operating system from Windows 95 to
XP. A simple menu that pops up from the system tray provides access to some 500 controls over your
display hardware, including sophisticated color correction tools, period level adjustments over
screen geometry, and driver independent clock controls."
BlueSmoke.net has a review of the Western Digital HDD that is 100GB. It has 30GB platters, 7200RPM
spindle speed, 2MB buffer and 8.9ms access time.
Quote from report:
"With its Expert AC41800, released many moons ago, Western Digital definitely
established themselves as a performance brand in the eyes of hardware enthusiasts. However, the
Expert was a result of a technology sharing program between IBM and Western Digital, with IBM's
Deskstar 22GXP being the same drive. Could Western Digital continue to blaze the trail?
The answer is a resounding yes. With the pioneering release of a 20GB/platter drive in the form of
the Caviar WD400BB, Western Digital had a serious challenger to IBM's Deskstar 75GXP. This was
followed by the WD800BB, a drive with very similar performance characteristics and increased size
(80GB). As mentioned in our
IBM Deskstar 60GXP review however, IBM switched to a more conventional 3-platter design,
thereby decreasing the 60GXP's flagship capacity to a mere 60GB, instead of a potential 100GB
5-platter design.
What did Western Digital do? Increase the density to around 30GB/platter, and you have a 100GB
3-platter drive: the Caviar WD1000BB. Western Digital is positioning this drive more towards the
enthusiast market, which usually scutinizes all aspects of a product. They can already say "we 0wnz
j00" to other manufacturers from a capacity standpoint (being the only 100GB 7200 RPM drive), but
what about performance? Will it match or exceed the
Deskstar 60GXP?
And can it fend off competition from the equally competent
Seagate Barracuda ATA
IV?"
This is something very interesting. TheRegister is reporting that VIA is attempting to stop Intel
selling the Pentium 4 for the alledged illegal use of one of VIA's patents.
Quote from report:
"It wants the chip giant to not only to cease the sale of the P4, but pay hefty
damages to both VIA and its subsidiary Centaur. VIA isn't saying how much money it wants the court
to award it.
VIA's countersuit, filed with the Federal District Court in Austin, Texas, claims the Intel's
Pentium 4 processor illegally uses technology protected by VIA's patent number 6,253,311, which
covers an "Instruction set for bi-directional conversion and transfer of integer and floating point
data".
The patent is actually owned by VIA subsidiary Centaur, which it bought in 1999 in order to acquire
its IDT WinChip x86-compatible processor. Centaur's IDT division is now VIA's main processor
development operation."
I saw this at Icrontic. They mention that there is a new virus going around called Nimda. They
mention that it might be propogated by a wav file on infected websites.
Quote from report:
"A computer worm that spreads to both servers and PCs running Microsoft software
flooded the Internet with data Tuesday, but the FBI said that, as of yet, it sees no link to last
week's terrorist attack. Known as "Nimda" or "readme.exe," the worm spreads by sending infected
e-mail messages, copying itself to computers on the same network, and compromising Web servers
using Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) software."
I saw this at AMDZone. AMD is definitely going to name their processors AthlonXP.
Quote from report:
"To combat the problem, AMD has decided to completely revamp its chip marketing.
Along with promoting the XP designation, AMD will downplay megahertz and gigahertz. Instead of
selling a 1.5GHz Athlon, AMD will sell the chip as an Athlon 1900+. The new number is expected to
roughly correlate to the equivalent speed of a Pentium 4. But direct comparisons, which would
force megahertz matching, will probably be avoided.
The XP designation, sources say, is an unfortunate coincidence. In AMD's case, the letters XP
stand for extra performance. In Windows XP, the XP stands for experience. AMD apparently had been
contemplating the branding scheme at the time Microsoft made its announcement."
The TechZone has a review of the KG7-RAID. This is a DDR board based on the AMD760 chipset.
Quote from report:
"Abit's "Softmenu III" is here, sporting much of what we are looking for in an
overclocker friendly mainboard. Multipliers are adjustable between 5x and 13x (assuming an
unlocked AMD CPU). Front side bus speeds can be adjusted from 100-200mhz in 1mhz increments.
VCore voltage adjustments from 1.1v to 1.85v are available. Even IO Voltage (3.5 or 3.65) and
DDR Vcc Voltage (2.44v to 3.0v incrementally) can be adjusted. All the usual suspects are here,
to allow alot of experimentation in achieving a good stable overclock."
NCCI Holdings dissallows the Display of the American Flag
I saw this at Icrontic.com. They report on a company that was not letting their employees
display the American Flag because the CEO felt that it would be offensive to other workers.
Quote from report:
"On a day of national mourning and prayer, a Boca Raton company had its managers
confiscate some American flags from employees' cubicles, saying other workers might find them
offensive.
NCCI Holdings Inc., a company that compiles workers compensation insurance data, told its 850
Boca Raton employees that displays of nationalism had no place in the office.
"Divisive statements or actions, political or religious discussions and anything else that could
be divisive or mean different things to different people are not appropriate in our work
environment," Chief Executive Officer Bill Schrempf said Friday in a memo to employees."
FiringSquad has a review on Windows XP and they attempt to answer several questions
Quote from report:
"In our previous editorial, "Win XP: What's All The Fuss?", we took an
over-the-top look at the hype and paranoia surrounding the impending release of Windows XP. Now
that we've had our little fun at the expense of the huge, monolithic, legal monopoly that is
Microsoft, we thought we'd lighten up a bit and produce an article about how those fears compare
to reality.
We were fortunate enough to hook up with an OEM that provided us with an up-close and personal
look at the final Released To Manufacturing (RTM) version of Windows XP Professional. We had the
chance to work with these fine folks for an entire work day as they ran XP RTM through its paces
in preparation for bundling the new OS with their systems."
I saw this website from my Dad's e-mail. It is a website where you can enter your name (once
per computer) and will be entered with a database of people around the world who entered their
name. Currently at 11:46AM, there are 264,966 candle lit so far.
GideonTech has a review of the SuperPower Zephyr KS-201 ATX case. I happen to own this case, and
I like it. The one they review is a new design of it. This one has the sleep button and sleep
LED removed, the back has a plastic face plate.
Quote from review:
"We're off on another case reviewing journey. This time we have a sample case
from Super Power, a 12 year veteran in
the PC chassis market. Established back in '89, Super Power has evolved to becoming a leading
manufacturer in the case and power supply business. Teaming up with the big names like Intel
and AMD to provide a solid line of products to support everyone's needs."
Today is a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for the Victims Of the Terrorist Attacks on
September 11, 2001 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation.
On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, terrorists attacked America in a series of despicable
acts of war. They hijacked four passenger jets, crashed two of them into the World Trade
Center's twin towers and a third into the Headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense at the
Pentagon, causing great loss of life and tremendous damage. The fourth plane crashed in the
Pennsylvania countryside, killing all on board but falling well short of its intended target
apparently because of the heroic efforts of passengers on board. This carnage, which caused the
collapse of both Trade Center towers and the destruction of part of the Pentagon, killed more
than 250 airplane passengers and thousands more on the ground.
Civilized people around the world denounce the evildoers who devised and executed these terrible
attacks. Justice demands that those who helped or harbored the terrorists be punished -- and
punished severely. The enormity of their evil demands it. We will use all the resources of the
United States and our cooperating friends and allies to pursue those responsible for this evil,
until justice is done.
We mourn with those who have suffered great and disastrous loss. All our hearts have been seared
by the sudden and sense-less taking of innocent lives. We pray for healing and for the strength
to serve and encourage one another in hope and faith.
Scripture says: "Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted." I call on every
American family and the family of America to observe a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance,
honoring the memory of the thousands of victims of these brutal attacks and comforting those
who lost loved ones. We will persevere through this national tragedy and personal loss. In time,
we will find healing and recovery; and, in the face of all this evil, we remain strong and
united, "one Nation under God."
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim
Friday, September 14, 2001, as a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for the Victims of the
Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001. I ask that the people of the United States and places
of worship mark this National Day of Prayer and Remembrance with noontime memorial services,
the ringing of bells at that hour, and evening candlelight remembrance vigils. I encourage
employers to permit their workers time off during the lunch hour to attend the noontime services
to pray for our land. I invite the people of the world who share our grief to join us in these
solemn observances.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of September, in the year of
our Lord two thousand one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and twenty-sixth.
GEORGE W. BUSH
Thursday, September 13, 2001 - 9:15PM
Intel Pentium III @ 1.2GHz
[H]ard|OCP has a Pentium III Tualatin running at 1.2GHz on an Asus motherboard.
Quote from review:
"When referring to your CPU, when is the last time you thought to yourself
"Less is Better"? I can probably answer that for all of you right now. . . Ummm, never. Then
again, that was before I got my hands on a Tualatin. Of course, I am talking about less heat
and lower power consumption. Now that "Less is Better" statement seems to make a lot more
sense.
When the Tualatin was announced, and according to Intel's "Roadmap", it was essentially to be
the "new P3". Looking at their roadmap then, things made sense and all was well. Intel was
looking at the P4 to be its flagship processor, the Tualatin would be their middle of the road
desktop CPU, and the Celeron would clean up the difference in the low end. With the Economy
taking a turn (nosedive) for the worse and the Tech Industry being hit as hard as it has been,
the Intel roadmap I just spoke of is now out the window. Aggressive pricing by both AMD and
Intel, in trying to remain competitive with each other, has literally pounded the profit margins
of both of these companies this year...."
I saw this at AMDZone. They mention that Pimprig has a review of the KG7-RAID. This one is based
on the AMD760 chipset.
Quote from review:
"Abit has been a major player in the motherboard industry for quite some time.
While they are not usually the first company to put out a motherboard on a given chipset, the
products that they do put out are of extremely high quality. Abit is widely know in the
overclocker community for putting out stable yet high performance hardware. I have been a user of
the Abit KT7A-RAID since it has been introduced and have been extremely pleased with it despite
the well-known bugs when combining it with SoundBlaster Live audio cards. I eagerly anticipated
this new motherboard as it brings performance to the next level with the introduction of DDR
memory as well as the now famous HighPoint ATA100/RAID controller. Would the KG7-RAID disappoint
me? How stable is it? How does it perform? After all is said and done is it worth the price tag?
These are the questions I had in mind while writing this review and giving the KG7-RAID a run."
As everybody knows, a Boeing 767 and a 737 have crashed into the World Trade Centers, causing them
to collapse, a plane has also crashed into the Pentagon damaging it as well. The stock market is
closed because of this, and will be closed tomorrow. The WTC Tower 1 had the main part of the
stock market in it.
"World leaders reacted with revulsion to Tuesday's devastating U.S. aircraft
attacks and demanded war on international terrorism -- but in the Middle East, some people
flaunted their glee.
While the West and Russia urged unprecedented solidarity to answer an unprecedented catastrophe,
Palestinians fired into the air and handed out sweets in the West Bank to celebrate, and Egyptians
said maybe the Americans had got their just deserts.
"America and Israel are one. This is the result of American policy," one Palestinian gunman said.
No one claimed immediate responsibility for what a European Union leader equated with the bombing
of Peal Harbor and what peaceful Norway called the worst terrorist attack in history."
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A hijacked passenger plane smashed into the Pentagon on
Tuesday, setting off a huge explosion and fire and causing untold casualties in a devastating blow
to the headquarters of the U.S. military.
The attack, coinciding with similar incidents at the World Trade Center in New York, set off an
immediate security alert in the American capital, with all federal buildings evacuated and F-16
fighter jets scrambled over the city.
The plane carrying 64 people, apparently on a scheduled flight that was diverted deliberately,
sliced into the building during morning working hours at about 9:30 a.m., when the offices and
corridors are normally bustling with people.
Pentagon spokesman Adm. Craig Quigley said he had no firm figure on casualties five hours after
the crash, as fire fighters struggled to contain the blaze set off by the explosion that had
rocked the huge building."
"The 110-story towers, the tallest buildings in the city and the fifth and sixth
tallest in the world, collapsed in billows of debris following two plane crashes to their sides.
Despite initial damage from the crashes, the two towers remained standing for just over an hour
and appeared to be a testimony to the abilities of structural engineering....
...."The World Trade Center was designed as a very large tube with steel columns on the perimeter
of the building," said John Cryan, president of Severud Associates, a structural engineering firm
that provides consulting to skyscraper architects. "What must have happened is the top part of the
buildings probably collapsed and that put too much weight on the lower halves and that had a
domino effect on the entire towers."....
....Part of the severity of the damage, Cryan believes, was the place of impact by the planes.
The lower the crashes, the greater the damage to the towers' overall integrity. The first tower
to crumble, the southern tower, was the one that had received the lowest strike by an oncoming
aircraft
Rich Behr, a professor of architectural engineering at Pennsylvania State University, further
points out that the approximate one-hour delay in the towers' collapses suggest the main damage
was likely caused, not by the plane strikes, themselves, but by fires that burned inside the
buildings for more than an hour following the crashes. These fires, fueled by the aircrafts' fuel
tanks, likely caused the steel beams to melt and lose their stiffness....
....Built by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 1973, the World Trade Center towers
were the best examples of tube buildings of their time. Tube buildings are reinforced by closely
spaced columns and beams in their outer walls, forming a steel tube. A series of glass windows
fill in the space between the beams. And an internal core beam adds to the stability of tube
structures.
To ensure the towers rested on solid bedrock and not the six acres of landfill that existed at the
site of the towers, workers dug through more than 70 feet below ground before beginning
construction of the twin towers in the early 1970s"....
Monday, September 10, 2001 - 4:05PM
VIA sues Intel
Intel sued VIA over licensing rights, claiming VIA didn't get licensing to produce the P4X266
chipset, so VIA decided to sue Intel over anti-competitive practices, willful destruction of VIA
property and other things.
Quote from report:
"What is this all over? The Register says This claim hinges on the intellectual
property to which VIA gained access when it bought S3 Graphics - the graphics chip operation of
the company that later became known as SonicBlue. Some years ago, S3 picked up a number of
interesting processor patents from the remains of collapsed chip company Exponential. Intel later
licensed some or all of those patents, and gave S3 access to P4 technology in return."
This one was also posted at The-CAD. This article from TechTV reports on OLED displays that use
organic leds that are very conservative on battery power, that it will last 1000's of hours.
Quote from report:
"Imagine a display so small it fits on your fingertip and so strong it lasts for
thousands of hours. Thanks to OLED (organic light emitting diodes), this display of the future
will likely be on your next cell phone or PDA.
"It is a very vivid display, because the light is actually emerging from the front of the screen
and not from a light at the back of the screen," said David Williams, chief technology officer of
Kodak Display Products. "The impact that OLED technology has on most people that see it is kind
of a 'wow' factor -- 'I've never seen anything like it. I'd like to have it.' "
Unlike power-hungry LCD displays, OLED displays are brighter, sharper, power-friendly, and offer
viewing angles of up to 170 degrees."
I saw this one at The-CAD. They post an article from TechTV about Electronic Ink displays that
are so thin, they look static.
Quote from report:
"....Electronic ink consists of millions of tiny microcapsules, and each
microcapsule contains white particles suspended in a dark liquid. When an electrical charge is
applied, the white particles can move to the top or move to the bottom -- changing the color of
the capsule........When millions of these capsules are switched together, images are created on
the screen. These microcapsules can then be printed onto virtually any surface, including glass,
plastic, fabric, and even paper."
Hold on, a new copyright standard is being pushed by Hollywood. It will make it illegal to
manufacture any digital device that has this new standard disabled. The maximum possible penalty
for distributing media on a digital device with this standard disabled is $1,000,000 or 10 yrs in
jail. Such digital devices include anything with a microprocessor in it.
Quote from report:
"WASHINGTON -- Music and record industry lobbyists are quietly readying an
all-out assault on Congress this fall in hopes of dramatically rewriting copyright laws.
With the help of Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.),
the powerful chairman of the Senate Commerce
committee, they hope to embed copy-protection controls in nearly all consumer electronic
devices and PCs. All types of digital content, including music, video and e-books, are covered.
The Security Systems
Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA), scheduled to be introduced by Hollings, backs up
this requirement with teeth: It would be a civil offense to create or sell any kind of computer
equipment that "does not include and utilize certified security technologies" approved by the
federal government.
It also creates new federal felonies, punishable by five years in prison and fines of up to
$500,000. Anyone who distributes copyrighted material with "security measures" disabled or has a
network-attached computer that disables copy protection is covered....
....The SSSCA and existing law work hand in hand to steer the market toward using only computer
systems where copy protection is enabled. First, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act created the
legal framework that punished people who bypassed copy protection -- and now, the SSSCA is
intended to compel Americans to buy only systems with copy protection on by default.
The SSSCA says that it is illegal to create, sell or distribute "any interactive digital device
that does not include and utilize certified security technologies" that are approved by the U.S.
Commerce Department. An interactive digital device is defined as any hardware or software capable
of "storing, retrieving, processing, performing, transmitting, receiving or copying information
in digital form."
I saw this one at 3DSpotlight. They report that Intel is going to sue VIA over their chipsets
that support the Pentium 4.
Quote from report:
"Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel on Friday filed suit in U.S. District Court in
Delaware. The lawsuit alleges that Via's P4X266 and P4M266 chipsets, which were released earlier
this month, infringe on five Intel patents. S3, a former graphics chip powerhouse that is working
with Via on the chipsets, was also named as a defendant."
I saw this at The-CAD. They have a post on an article at Van'sHardware stating some information
that they believe to be true.
Quote from report:
"Industry sources, moles, and various others have rumored the fact that AMD is
MUCH closer to completion of its Hammer series of MPUs than the chipmaker lets on. The Hammer,
AMD's next generation line of 64-bit processors, is perhaps sampling already and could be ready
to sell in Q1 of next year. AMD's public line on these chips is that they won't be ready until
the second half of next year........
.......The AMD Model rating system may not look healthy now when the scheme is being applied to
Palomino Athlons, but when consumers realize they are getting a 2.0 GHz chip that can perform
roughly at equivalent levels with nonexistent 3.5 GHz Intel Pentium 4s, they will indeed be
surprised."
Saw this at ArsTechnica. They report that the Department Of Justice won't be seeking a breakup
of Microsoft. CNN has the story on this.
Quote from report:
"The Justice Department said Thursday it will not pursue a breakup, nor will it
pursue further proceedings on the tying count of the original complaint. Instead, it said it wants
to investigate developments in the industry since the trial concluded and evaluate whether
additional conduct-related provisions are necessary, especially in the absence of a breakup."
I saw this link at [H]ard|OCP to Independent News about Motorola using a new technology to produce
70GHz CPU's relatively soon. The are combining silicon with galium arsenide and indium phosphide.
Originally 40 yrs ago and more they used gallium arsenide in transistors and the like, but could
not use it in processors because of the reason the mention in the article, it could not be
properly bonded with silicon.
Quote from report:
"The innovation allows silicon, which is relatively cheap but does not possess
good optical qualities, to be married to higher performance compound semiconductors, known as
III-V materials, which are expensive but faster and able to receive and emit light. Optical
circuits transmit information at the speed of light so yesterday's development will mean much
faster, smaller and cheaper chips. These will enable applications such as streaming video to
mobile phones.
These new chips could run at more than 70Ghz, compared with the 2Ghz speed of the best current
chips. It has not been possible, until now, to combine silicon with III-V materials – such as
gallium arsenide and indium phosphide – as their crystalline structures did not match up and they
could not be successfully bonded. Motorola has discovered a substance that can lie between silicon
and the III-V material and fuse the two together"
I saw this at The Register. They report on how if you have AOL and use Internet Explorer instead
of using their browser, they forfiet your right to any tech support in the future.
Quote from report:
"Here's a fascinating story that demonstrates just how customer-friendly AOL-Time
Warner is. One of its UK subscribers - a woman who while not technically minded does know a little
bit about the Internet - rang up the AOL helpline to ask a technical query.
In the course of the call she happened to mention that she used the Internet Explorer browser over
her AOL connection. And was suddenly told by the phone operator: "I'm sorry, Madam, I will have to
put a note to that effect against your file; by using Explorer you have forfeited your right to
technical support from us in the future."
She asked why this little fact wasn't explicitly mentioned in any of the AOL literature and was
told it was because 90 per cent of AOL customers are first-time users of the Internet. Apparently
using the words 'Internet' and 'Explorer' together would only serve to "confuse" them."
I've heard and seen this on the news. 3DSpotlight also has a post on this news from CNet as well.
This would make the company the largest computer seller in the market. The resulting merger will
cost 13,000 jobs as well, and total revenues will reach $90billion dollars when the merger is
completed.
Quote from report:
"This is a decisive move that accelerates our strategy and positions us to win
by offering even greater value to our customers and partners," Fiorina said in a statement. "In
addition to the clear strategic benefits of combining two highly complementary organizations and
product families, we can create substantial shareowner value through significant cost-structure
improvements and access to new growth opportunities."
I saw this at The-CAD. They mention that GamespotUK reports that we'll be seing the GeForce3 MX
and Ultra in a few weeks.
Quote from report:
"NVidia has not confirmed the names of the new processors, but they are expected
to follow the same convention as for the GeForce2. This would see the new high-end chip adopting
the GeForce3 Ultra moniker, while the budget versions will be GeForce3 MX. "It's not rocket
science to figure out that we'll apply the same model we used for the GeForce2," said the source,
who asked not to be named. Buyers can expect a wide differential in prices for cards based on the
new chips ..."
AnandTech has a review of the VIA KT266A chipset. This is the new stepping of the KT266 chipset.
This new stepping hopefully fixes the performance issues.
Quote from review:
"The end result is the VIA KT266A which from an architectural standpoint is
nothing more than the original KT266 with an updated North Bridge. The VT8366A (the original
KT266 North Bridge was the VT8366) has two major enhancements: an improved memory controller and
deeper internal buffers."
I saw this at Insane Hardware. They posted an article from PCHardware about ACPI and how to use
it and/or disable it if needed.
Quote from article:
"Users should be aware that ACPI does not improve performance or reliability. If
there is a thing that it can improve that thing is called functionality. ACPI is an abstract
hardware interface that provides a standard way to integrate power management in a PC system,
including hardware, operating system and application software. The advantages of ACPI are obvious,
but may not be required for all users. With ACPI functions you can turn peripherals on and off,
power-on the system on external activities like the ring of the telephone, etc. Without any doubt
it may be a very useful feature, but does it worth?"
I saw this at AMDZone. They posted an article about a report at EBN News. The report mentions
that AMD wants to educate the public that sometimes, less is more, and that their processors
perform better than Intel's P4 processor.
Quote from report:
"Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has a simple message that it urgently wants PC users
to accept: less is more.
But as AMD prepares to launch its 1.5GHz Palomino processor in October, it has yet to indicate
that it will make a significant marketing investment to back its claim that the new MPU will offer
performance greater than or at least comparable to Intel's 2GHz Pentium 4 line, despite the
megahertz gap.
The importance of megahertz in the average consumer's mind dates back to the advent of the PC in
the 1980s. Then, as now, a PC's overall performance was often overlooked by consumers who focused
on processor speeds instead of factoring in memory or other variables."