ArsTechnica is reporting on the troubles with Excite@home and its current troubles and the bankruptcy.
They say that the judge allowed E@H to terminate contracts with its affiliats. E@H also has three options
available, head to the bargaining table, let others bid for its assets, and shut down services.
Quote from report:
"Judge Thomas Carlson said Excite@Home could cancel contracts with its cable partners.
Carlson didn't rule on whether the cable-modem service would be shut down. But the cable companies have
threatened to cut off service if their contracts, which expire at midnight Friday, are terminated.
Attorneys for the cable companies said Friday afternoon that they were unsure whether or when they
would shut off the service. Representatives for Excite@Home would not say whether they planned to unplug
the service, but the company issued a statement saying that "the cable companies must negotiate new
agreements acceptable to the company or risk the possibility that the @Home service may be terminated."
I saw this at AMDZone. They report on an article at TheInquirer about AMD's marketing in Europe.
Quote from report:
"The "A New Kind of Fast" [Shurely: 'New kind of grammar'? - Ed] campaign represents
AMD's largest-ever advertising thrust in Europe, and will embrace print and broadcast media in 17 key
markets throughout 2002.
AMD spends its money in a very different way to Intel. For example, here on the left, UK luscious
Melinda Messenger was the compere at the AMD sponsored "channel awards" last week, designed to give
dealers, distributors and vendors warm and fuzzy feelings. The new adverts - which don't feature Melinda
- have already started appearing in well known overclocking organs such as the Manchester Grauniad."
3DSpotlight has a post about the fact that Azzo has the KR7A-RAID in stock. Most stores should have this
in by December or January next year. The price is also high since it is new, it costs $159 for the KR7A
and $189 for the KR7A-RAID at Azzo.
Icrontic has an article on the insides of the Nintendo Gamecube. The server is a bit slow because of it
being linked at Slashdot, and now a copy is hosted at Slashdot.
Quote from article:
"You may remember our Xbox articles, where we took apart the Microsoft Xbox and modified
it to make it perform better. Well, I've been hard at work on the Nintendo GameCube as well. We took
apart the GameCube and documented everything inside."
I saw this at VIAHardware. They have a post about the new chipsets VIA Technologies will produce next
year. These chipsets appear to support the new 333FSB, which is 166MHz. They are also releasing a
new chipset also supporting AGP8x, and chipsets supporting the AMD Hammer processor.
VIA's roadmap:
VIA KT333 - 200/266MHz FSB, V-Link 266MB/s, DDR 266/333, AGP 4X, Sample Q1 '02, Production Q2 '02
VIA KT333A - 200/266MHz FSB, V-Link 533MB/s, DDR 266/333, AGP 4X/8X, Sample Q2 '02, Production Q3 '02
VIA KM333 - 200/266MHz FSB, V-Link 533MB/s, DDR 266/333, AGP 4X/8X, Integrated Zeotrope GFX, Sample Q2 '02, Production Q3 '02
VIA K8HTB - K8 HyperTransport Bus, V-Link 533MB/s, DDR 266/333, AGP 4X/8X, Sample Q2 '02, Production Q3 '02
I saw this at AMDZone. They are reporting on some interesting things that Intel appears to be doing to
Compaq. Reportedly, Intel is preventing Compaq from allowing Compaq to install WinXP or Win2K on AMD
based systems.
Quote from report:
"After I listed all the AMD desktop and notebook systems I had running Win2k, and
giving her the Microsoft URL which shows AMD Athlon as compatible Win2k hardware, The supervisor
admitted that yes, it would run on AMD processors just fine, but their contract with Intel prevented
them from offering either Win2k or XP Professional on AMD hardware. When I mentioned that this would
probably be an illegal contract, she got a bit nervous and said she didn't know if it was really a
contract, I should contact someone else about this, she's just a sales manager, blah, blah... so I let
her off the hook.
Last week I called a friend who has a brother-in-law who works for Compaq in Houston. Over Thanksgiving
dinner he said his brother-in-law confirmed that they didn't offer W2k on AMD notebooks because of
"Intel pressure"."
I saw this at Icrontic, they link a report about information on the new NV25 graphics chip. Oh, and this
chip line will be called the GeForce4.
Quote from report:
"Long-awaited NV25 based adapters. This graphics processor that have similar capabilities
compared with XGPU is a lot more powerful than GeForce3 Ti500. Since it is manufactured using 0.13 microns
technology, it has a lot of chances to be clocked at the very high levels. The GPU comes in January/February
2002, while professional boards should be available in the second quarter. ELSA is going to launch two
boards based on NV25GL processor, both supports two LCD monitors, though, we do not know whether there
are two integrated TMDS transmitters or only one and the second is external."
Ace'sHardware has some information on the new Mini-iTX standard developed by VIA. The standard is
highly integrated, and requires virtually no active cooling in the system since the VIA Cyrix III
E-series cpu runs cool. VIA also makes use of a fanless 50w PSU. So that the only noise coming from
the system would be the hard drive, but the available use of Disk-on-Chip might even elimnate that noise
as well.
Quote from Report:
"Thanks to wlaote for pointing out some details on VIA's Mini-iTX form factor. The
Mini-iTX specification calls for a high level of integration, featuring an integrated CPU, video (with
TV Out), sound, ethernet, and even a disk-on-chip (DoC, 8-32 MB flash storage). The Mini-iTX motherboards
themselves measure 17cm x 17cm, considerably smaller than your typical ATX motherboard, or even a
MicroATX or FlexATX motherboard. There are two 168-pin SDRAM sockets present, along with support for
two PCI expansion devices. Two devices are supported through one standard PCI slot for the first device
along with a cable for the second.
Not only is this an extremely compact form-factor, but it's also almost totally silent. This is because
VIA makes use of a 50W fanless power supply. Since the CPU doesn't require a fan, either, there is
essentially no active cooling whatsoever in a Mini-iTX system. The only noise from such a system would
likely result from the IDE hard disk, though the use of the onboard flash storage and perhaps a network
could potentially eliminate even this in some cases."
Link to overview of the Mini-iTX specification here
For more details including some pictures of the reference board and systems read this
whitepaper
Also for those who want a quiet system but don't to give it up to too much integration, read this
whitepaper on the iTX standard
Saturday, November 24, 2001 - 1:15PM
Intel to Adopt HyperTransport
I saw this at AMDZone. They are reporting that TheInquirer has an article that Intel may have to
license out HyperTransport, which is developed by AMD.
Quote from report:
"INSIDE SOURCES SAY that Intel may be forced to adopt HyperTransport for its own
technology in the near future but oh god, how embarrassing it all is.
HyperTransport, pushed hard by AMD and adopted wholesale now by a large number of hi-tech companies,
got a knocking from the chip giant around the time of the August Intel Developer Forum but now it looks
as though it will have to jump on this bandwagon too."
Planet Savage has a review of the Lian-Li PC60 PC case. This is a Mid-Tower ATX Aluminum case, it has
four 5.25" bays, three external 3.5" bays and 5 internal 3.5" bays, a slide out motherboard tray, and
front USB connectors. This is the case I intend on replacing my current SuperPower Zephyr KS-201
mid-tower.
Quote from review:
"Lian-Li is one of the most popular names when it comes to computer cases and accessories.
For what reason? Lian-Li has been founded in 1983 and ever since before, they have been providing the
computer industry with different accessories and cases. According to the Lian-Li web site, Lian-Li is
producing more than 1500 models and these models are being used by various people and companies in
different environments and systems. Lian-Li also started making other accessories in 1993.
Lian-Li is known to make high quality parts in whatever field they are in. The company gives a very
big emphasis on their quality control as well as their manufacturing process. Aside from that, they
also do their best to please their customers in what ever way that they can. Results of this commitment
can be seen in their products. Lian-Li cases are known to be of top quality and are very sturdy and
reliable. Aside from cases, their accessories also live up to their reputation of making top quality
parts."
I saw this at The-CAD. They are reporting on an article that the Nintendo Gamecube has sold out, and
Nintendo only shipped 700,000 to the United States.
Quote from report:
"Nintendo has said that it has sold all 700,000 of its initial GameCube launch shipment.
Not a hard fact to swallow as if you try to get a GameCube anywhere you'll find the answer is "we're
all sold out." Most stores across the country reported sell out on launch day.
In light of the incredible sales, Nintendo says it is boosting its sales projection for 2001 and will
be shipping 200,000 extra GameCubes to the US. It initially forecasted sales of 1.1 million, but has
increased that figure to 1.3 million systems sold by the year's end..."
GideonTech has a roundup of aluminum cases to see who is the best. I personally am going to replace
my SuperPower Zephyr KS-201 Mid-Tower ATX with a Lian-Li PC-66 Aluminum case.
Quote from roundup:
"We first came in contact with our first aluminum case way back in February of this
year from Lian Li. Since then, numerous companies have come out with some very remarkable looking
aluminum cases for us overclockers. What many of these manufacturers have been boasting is that an
aluminum case, aside from the fact is looks awesome, is that it cools about three (3) times as well
normal steel cases."
TheInquirer is saying that we should buy DDRAM memory now while its cheap because memory prices are
going up. I would but I don't need it just yet, and I don't have the money to do so.
Quote from report:
"TRENDS IN THE SPOT MARKET show that while the price of SDRAM has collapsed after its
surge last week, the price of double data rate (DDR) modules is likely to rise over the next weeks and
months.
That is because although several memory manufacturers produce DDR, the introduction of new motherboards
supporting the standard and Intel's endorsement of the memory with its i845 chipset, is likely to spur
demand."
Wired news has a report that the guy that was supposedly on the WTC and the plane coming towards him has
been revealed, however, he states that he put the plane as something funny and distributed to his friends,
but never expected it to go all over the net.
Quote from report:
"The identity of the world-famous "Tourist Guy" has been revealed, but his fear of
becoming an Internet freak show means he'll be shunning the limelight.
The Tourist Guy, or "Tourist of Death," is a 25-year-old Hungarian man called Peter. He asked that his
last name be kept confidential, because he doesn't want to become the next Mahir Cagri, the lovesick
Turk.
"I'd like to keep my identity incognito," he said in an e-mail. "This was a joke meant for my friends,
not such a wide audience."..."
TheRegister has an update on what's going on with Bleem! and its situation with its operations.
Quote from report:
"Bleem launched its PlayStation emulator just over two and a half years ago, only to
be instantly sued by Sony for a mix of copyright infringement, intellectual property violation and
brand degradation.
Sony's case against Bleem followed a parallel action targeting Connectix, which launched a PlayStation
emulator of its own earlier in the year, for the Macintosh. Unlike the Connectix case, however, Bleem
won the support of the court, beating a temporary injunction against sales of its emulator and later
defeating Sony's demand to ban the sale of the emulator permanently.
Sony's failures in court went to its head, Bleem later alleged in a countersuit of its own. The
emulation company claimed that the Japanese giant's US operation had initiated a dirty tricks policy
which, in part, involved attempting to have Bleem thrown out of the May 1999 E3 show, one of the world's
largest games industry shindigs."
OCworkbench has a review of the ABIT KR7A-RAID, this board has the KT266A chipset and it has the
HPT372 RAID chipset for ATA133. This is a DDRAM board, and according to the review, there is no order
to how you place the DIMMS like there is in KG7.
Quote from review:
"...4 DDR Slots to support 4 Registered RAM (up to 4GB) or 3 Unbuffered (up to 3GB)
RAM modules. On the ABIT KR7, there is no onrdering that you need to adhere to (On KG7 you need to
place the rams from outermost to innermost slot). Below are two IDE ports providing ATA-100 support
to HD...
...Sometimes I really wonder why the old KT7A performs so well compared to other boards that are based
on the same chipset. The time is just ripe and ABIT KR7A show it again. The performance of the KR7A is
so impressive that I could not imagine not getting one to replace my working machine that is a Slot A
Athlon. Personally, I feel that ABIT has put in lots of R&D hours to bring out a board that is a killer
product. They have done it again. The only thing they never introduce are the overclocking stripes from
TH7-II RAID and the reset/power buttons on TH7-II. These are good stuff that should be brought onto the
KR7A for DIY users.
Features wise this board uses the latest Highpoint HPT372 chipset to support ATA-133 HD. Well, the VIA
KT266A does not support ATA-133 natively. Seriously, the board lack one basic feature which some of
you might like or might not like - a 6 channel audio sound"
Van's Hardware has an article of the insides of the XBox. They say that the XBox's hard drive and
DVD-ROM drive are proprietary hardware, so it may be impossible to upgrade with off-the-shelf parts.
The XBox has AMD's Hypertransport and a Intel Celeron 733MHz CPU that might be running on a 133Mhz
FSB.
Quote from article:
"Although the chip is outwardly a 0.18 micron Coppermine Mobile Celeron, it is
unclear what FSB (Front-Side Bus: the chip talks to the outside world through this) speed the chip
operates at. We had been told informally by Intel months ago that the FSB speed would be 133 MHz --
which would make this chip a mutant Celeron. Since 733 MHz a multiple of 133 MHz, the clock speed
suggests that the part might be running at 133 MHz (although 66 MHz is a possibility, we doubt that
Microsoft would have accepted such a severe and artificial limitation that would greatly undermine
gaming performance -- especially considering that the much more powerful AMD Duron with a 200 MHz FSB
was passed over at the last moment for this chip)."
I saw this at The-CAD. They mention that Bleem! has lost the fight with SCEA (Sony Computer
Entertainment America. Bleem! was a company that produced software to allow you to be able to run
your Sony playstation games on your computer. To see the end, click here
Friday, November 16, 2001 - 11:20PM
Senate extends moratorium on Internet Taxes
I saw this at ArsTechnica. They are reporting that the Senate extended the moratorium on internet taxes
until November 1, 2003. This also basically coincides when they are up for re-election.
Quote from ArsTechnica:
"In a reversal of last month's vote, the Senate
has decided to extend the ban on internet taxes
until November 1, 2003. There's no explicit mentioning of what caused the Senate to reconsider the issue,
but you can be sure that internet retailers and their lobby groups were out in full force. According to
Reuters, taxes not collected from internet sales account for about $13.3 billion in lost revenues. This
decision bodes well for struggling internet retailers who might have lost their competitive edge against
traditional brick-and-mortar stores if they had to add tax in addition to shipping costs for each sale.
Friday, November 16, 2001 - 10:40PM
Why the AthlonXP works on the KT7A-RAID v1.3
Paul's Unofficial ABIT KT7 Motherboard FAQ explains why the AthlonXP will only work properly on the
KT7A/KT7A-RAID v1.3 and not on the others, explaining that the motherboard is required to set certain
data for the CPU correctly, otherwise if the AthlonXP is used on the other older motherboards, the
system will not always set the correct data, and it will have some instablities.
Quote from website:
"...This means that if the motherboard does not apply an extra circuit to delay the
NB_RESET# signal after the FIDs are fully valid, the motherboard may potentially get the wrong values
from the FID lines. This is the reason why the earlier motherboard versions cannot support the AthlonXP
processor. Getting the wrong FIDs may not always result in the system being unable to boot up - but it
may result in the motherboard using the wrong parameters to initialise the processor, causing system
instabilities under certain circumstances. On the earlier Athlon processors the FIDs are always valid
after the Vcore of the processor is valid and this is why no motherboard has a problem supporting the
highest frequency of old Athlon..."
Link to explanation here (It's at the bottom of the
page.)
Thursday, November 15, 2001 - 3:40PM
Intel Itanium Flunks test
I saw this at [H]ard|OCP. They are reporting that the Itanium had flunked a stress test, and it affects
servers running the 733MHz and 800Mhz versions of the chip. This is Intel's 64bit processor designed
for servers and high end applications.
Quote from report:
"A Compaq representative said that the company has experienced "sightings" with Itanium,
Intel's 64-bit processor for servers, in Compaq's internal testing of its ProLiant DL590/64. The
representative would not go so far as to call the issue a flaw, but said the problem appeared to be
caused by the processor. The problem crops up with servers running both the 733MHz and 800MHz version
of the chip."
Also in the article:
"Intel is also facing a potential competitive threat from AMD's Hammer processor for
servers, coming out late next year. Hammer is effectively based on Intel's familiar X86 architecture but
can also run 64-bit applications.
While no major U.S. manufacturer has ever used an AMD processor in a server, some analysts have said
that the potential performance, as well as comparative familiarity of the architecture, could make
Hammer interesting to them."
I saw this at Tweak3D. They mention a report at Vnunet that a bug caused by a wizard in WinXP will eat
data if not taken care of. However, this only applies to computers which have had Windows XP preinstalled
by a computer manufacturer.
Quote from report:
"Microsoft has admitted that a bug in Windows XP may result in data loss if users
reinstall, repair or upgrade the operating system.
According to the software giant, the problem is caused by an errant XP Wizard which can spell disaster
for saved data and system settings.
It creates a file, Undo_guimode.txt, in the Windows\System32 folder that runs when users first start a
computer with Windows XP preinstalled by a computer manufacturer."
I saw this at The-CAD. They mention that a anonymous writer wrote in that the EU made the use of cookies
without the users consent illegal beause they claim they violate your privacy. I think the EU doesn't
understand how they work, because you really can't do anything around the net without cookies. An
example is when you buy something online at a online store, the shopping cart uses cookies, and without
cookies you wouldn't be able to buy the item you were attempting to buy.
Tuesday, November 13, 2001 - 3:50PM
Soyo SY-K7V Dragon Review
I saw at AMDZone that Hexus.net has a review of the Soyo SY-K7V Dragon. This has the VIA KT266 chipset
and it also has RAID. Soyo also implements voice diagnostics on thier boards instead of the usual
beeps you hear for error codes.
Quote from review:
"When I first saw a C-Media hardware implementation on my old IWill KK266-R motherboard
and while I missed the front and rear outputs I was used to on my Soundblaster Live!, I found the sound
quality to be just as good and the fact that it freed up a PCI slot meant that my Live was relegated to
a supporting machine."
I saw this at AMDZone, they have a report that AMD placed a large order with Soitec for some of their
SOI (silicon on insulator) wafers. This is Soitec's largest order in their history, both in dollar
amount, and the amount of wafers ordered.
Quote from report:
"Soitec, the leading manufacturer of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers for use in
semiconductor manufacturing, today announced that Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD - news) has
placed a multimillion-dollar order for 200 mm UNIBOND� SOI wafers, manufactured using Soitec's proprietary
Smart Cut� technology. The order is the largest in Soitec's history, both in number of wafers and in
dollar amount. AMD plans to use the Soitec-enabled wafers to manufacture its recently announced "Hammer"
family of next-generation microprocessors, incorporating complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS)
-based, partially depleted SOI circuits."
I saw this on [H]ard|OCP, they are doing a post everyday on this year's Comdex meeting. They have several
pictures that include the new AMD Thouroughbred, which the sample in the picture is non working as of
now.
Quote from post on their website:
"The next desktop CPU we will see from AMD is code named "Thoroughbred" and while it
will not incorporate any new technology as far as how it handles instructions, it does have the die
shrink working for it which will mean higher core speeds and possible better OCing. Here are a few
pics of the Thoroughbred core. It is 80mm� in size and much smaller than the current Palomino core.
This should equate to AMD being able to get 300 dies from one wafer lowering their production cost by
a pretty good margin. These Thoroughbred pics are not of a working part but will give you an idea of
what they will look like. It is just a tad smaller than the TBird cores we are used to seeing."
I saw this at [H]ard|OCP. This person was on Wired, and just happened to see the pickup truck shown in
this report at that website, and the US Army is the one who had it designed for them.
Quote from report:
"The U.S. Army is working on a new truck with enough gadgetry to make James Bond green
with envy.
Designed to protect high-ranking military and political officials, the truck looks like an ordinary
pickup, but under the hood it is packed with electronic wizardry and weapons.
The truck, based on a Ford F-350 pickup, comes equipped with a remote-control laser-sighted machine
gun and a grenade launcher. It has electrified door handles, blinding lights and pepper-spray dispensers.
Should it be pursued, it can release a slippery oil slick onto the road, or sharp, tire-shredding tacks.
The truck is armored. It can throw up a thick smokescreen. All of its controls are fingerprint-activated.
"It's built off a Ford F-350 platform but there's no comparison," said Paul Skalny, associate director
of the U.S. Army's National Automotive Center, which built the truck. "It's like a James Bond F-350."
I saw this on Tweak3D.net. They link to an article at Electic.com about a new powertoy for WinXP. The
features in this powertoy are:
1. Copy CD to ISO file.
2. If ISO file is on the local disk, the copy done without creating a
temporary file.
3. XP Themes support.
4. Selectable recording speed and "Eject after burn" option.
DirectX 8.1 is available for all OS's, however, WinXP already ships with DX 8.1, so it isn't necessary
to download it for WinXP. It is available for Win9x/ME and Win2K/XP, but will not work with Win95.
I saw this at Icrontic. They report that at Bell Labs, the scientists built a transistor of just one
molecule in size. However, as of yet, they are unable to control it. It also seems that as we get
more and more advanced, it seems we throw Moore's law out the window.
Quote from report:
"In a small step on the way to making microscopic computer chips, scientists have
observed single molecules acting as transistors, the tiny electric switches that form the brains of
computers. In an article published on Thursday in the journal Science, researchers from Bell Labs said
they had built layers made up of thousands of organic molecules with just one or two "electrically
active" components.
On Thursday, the scientists said they had tweaked that chemical process to create the same kind of
molecular layer but with precisely one or two active molecules, called thiols, that serve as the basis
for a transistor"
I saw this at AMDZone. They have a post up about an article at Van's Hardware that says that it
is worth upgrading to the AthlonXP and DDR, something that I already know, but currently don't have
the resources to do, and especially since I already upgraded my computer and don't need to upgrade
again.
Quote from article:
"Back when DDR SDRAM chipsets were first becoming available there was a lot of
questioning as to whether a mature SDRAM system such as the VIA KT133A or new DDR SDRAM platform
was a better choice. Mediocre performance from the A0 stepping of the ALi MAGiK 1 and the VIA
KT266 certainly didn�t help matters. Because of this, many DDR SDRAM adopters choose AMD's 760
chipset.
Part of DDR SDRAM's initial trouble gaining traction was the availability of high-performance SDRAM
solutions that often came within just a few percentage points of DDR SDRAM performance while backed
by cheap, stable, full-featured, and powerful boards. Namely, the VIA KT133A chipset was a huge
success that facilitated 266 MHz FSB (Front Side Bus -- the part of the CPU that speaks to the
world; this is opposed to Back Side Bus which is used to interface with high speed cache memory)
AMD Athlon processors while allowing the use of the older, cheaper and more plentiful SDRAM
standard"
I saw this at Ace's Hardware. They report on AMD's annual analyst metting and the roadmap. AMD is
planning on building the Hammer on a .09 micron process in 2003! I believe what the table shows as
M4400 Hammer is either 4.4GHz or the performance rating and the CPU actually runs at 3.27GHz. The
thing is, AMD doesn't have to buy new equipment like Intel has to, to do this transition.
Quote from report:
"AMD has made its 2001 Annual Analysts Meeting today, where the company's current
and future projections and product roadmaps have been disclosed. You can find a full webcast of the
event here. What follows below are some highlights of the presentation, focusing on AMD's roadmap
and its upcoming products.
According to the presentation made by AMD President and COO Hector Ruiz, AMD plans to begin the
conversion from 0.13-micron production to 0.09-micron production beginning sometime in the middle
of 2003. The migration to 0.13-micron production is currently in progress, with the 0.13-micron
Athlon Thoroughbred sampling this quarter. The Desden fab (Fab30) should be at full capacity (5000
wafer starts per week) by next year, while the Austin fab (Fab25) should be fully converted to
Flash production by the end of 2002. AMD is also looking towards a joint-venture for a 300mm wafer
fab in 2005."
I saw this at AMDZone. They mention that MaximumPC names the AthlonXP has the CPU of the year.
This happens to be the 3rd year that the AMD Athlon has won this award.
Quote from report:
"We are honored that the industry's leading computer enthusiast magazine has
selected the AMD Athlon XP processor for this award," said Ed Ellett, vice president of Marketing
at AMD. "Advanced users and enthusiasts understand the true indicator of performance is how fast
their applications run, not the clock speed of their processor. Winning this award reinforces the
fact that the AMD Athlon XP processor is the performance champion for desktop PCs."
I saw this at VIAHardware. They report that VIA Technologies has released a new motherboard based on
the Mini-iTX standard. This is an integrated motherboard that includes their Cyrix E-Series EBGA
processor based on the .15 and .13 micron process. It also includes Audio, Video, LAN, USB, TV-Out, and
SPDIF Out. It has one PCI slot in case you would ever need to upgrade.
Quote from report:
"Developed as part of the company's open industry-wide Total Connectivity initiative,
the new VIA VT6010 Mini-iTX mainboard reference design packs a full set of features, including an
onboard VIA C3� E-Series EBGA processor, as well as integrated AGP graphics and audio, on a board that
is 50% smaller than the FlexATX form factor, to provide OEMs and System Integrators with the smallest
and most cost effective "system on a mainboard" solution for building the fast emerging new generation
of highly affordable small footprint PC and Information Appliance system designs. Leveraging the low
power consumption and highly efficient heat dissipation of the VIA C3� E-Series processor, the new
Mini-iTX mainboard also enables the development of innovative fanless noise free system designs."
Hewlett Family Opposes Compaq-Hewlett-Packard Merger
I saw this at Icrontic. They mention a report at TheRegister about how the Hewlett family opposes the
merger between Compaq and Hewlett Packard. The family intends on voting no for the merger.
Quote from report:
"Hewlett-Packard today suffered a major embarassment when the offspring of founder
William Hewlett announced their intention to vote against the proposed takeover of Compaq. HP shares
leapt 19 per cent on the news.
The Hewlett family account for approx. five per cent of Hewlett-Packard's share capital, directly or
through trusts. But unlike, say the Ford family, which effectively controls the eponymous car company
with just six per cent of stock, the Hewletts do not have a say in how their company is run.
Even so, their intervention is a big a spanner in the Compaq takeover works. The HP board cannot bring
itself to attack the Hewlett family, as this bland statement, also issued today, shows..."
I saw this at Icrontic. They mention a news release that ABIT has announced the KR7A-RAID. This is
ABIT's new motherboard based on the VIA KT266A chipset. It has the HPT372 RAID Chip that supports
ATA133, the new standard developed by Maxtor.
Quote from report:
"Taipei, Taiwan, Monday, November 5, 2001 - ABIT is proud to introduce the KR7A-RAID.
Based on VIA's KT266A northbridge and VT8233 southbridge, the KR7A-RAID is engineered to take your PC
to the next level of stability and performance.
Superior Specs
The KR7A-RAID supports the latest AMD Duron, Athlon, and Athlon XP CPUs. A 200/266MHz Front Side Bus
is supported, as well as VIA's V-Link technology which increases your system bandwidth to 266MB/sec.
This latest piece of ABIT Engineering includes 4 DIMM sockets, allowing the KR7A-RAID to support up to
4GB of registered DDR SDRAM or 3GB of unregistered DDR SDRAM memory. With increased bandwidth and
massive memory capabilities, the KR7A-RAID will turn your PC into a multimedia powerhouse."
Vr-Zone has an article on how to unlock an AthlonXP, and how to do it correctly. Apparently, there
website is under heavy load, so the pictures won't show for those of you on dial-up and might not for
those on Cable and DSL.
Quote from article:
"AMD has made it much more difficult to unlock their Athlon XPs now compared to the
Thunderbirds with wider gaps between the L1 bridges and worst still, grooves in between each L1 bridge.
This has made it virtually impossible to use Pencil trick now. Nevertheless, we won't give up unlocking
the Athlon XP just like that so we need to overcome this hurdle by coming out with a simple and fast
method to unlock it just like the good old days.
I have got myself an Athlon XP 1500+ for unlocking and i have tested it on the EPoX 8KHA board flashed
with the latest BIOS. Below are the things you would need for unlocking the Athlon XP."
There is a website called HeatsinkDatabase.com that has nearly every type and brand of heat sink
ever made, and has a link for the spefications on it website, and a link to the manufacturer,
as well as links to other websites that reviewed the heat sink.
I saw this at The-CAD. They link an article that mentions that many official copies of WinXP have
the same serial number, thus many people are unable to register it online. The article is in German,
but here's the quote:
"I discovered a problem with the product activation. Some honest customers, who
had bought Windows XP, wanted to activate their product after installing on the PC. But the
activation procedure by internet failed. So they contacted Microsoft by phone for activation. The
surprise: the original copies are already activated several times up to 31x and more. The reason:
many copies have the same serial!! The fact: different dealers are affected by it. Microsoft is
informed, but has no idea, why the problem consists. Perhaps there consists an error in the
production or something else... We (or perhaps Microsoft) will inform you, if there is more new
news. Stay tuned!"
I saw this at TheRegister. They report that Apple is being sued over alledgedly misleading
shareholders, and over optimistic sales on thier computers.
Quote from report:
"A fourth set of lawyers seeking irate shareholders has crept out the woodwork to
sue Apple for allegedly misleading investors.
Law firm Cauley Geller Bowman & Coates this week filed a financial misrepresentation suit against
Apple in Washington, following similar suits from Schiffrin & Barroway, Charles Piven and Milberg
Weiss.
All four class-actions accuse Apple of over-egging its Power Mac G4, Cube and iMac puddings by
over-optimistic claims on sales and performance.
As evidence of Apple's alleged misrepresentation, the suits cite the example of four company
executives who sold a shedload of AAPL shares soon after said machines were announced in July 2000
and Apple's stock was changing hands for up to $64 a pop. They made a total of $22 million on the
sale..."
Over at 3DSpotlight, they mention that the 3DMark2001 update has been put on hold. There is one
particular bug fix that affects Kyro/Kyro 2 Graphics Cards owners, making characters transparent
in the lobby scene in high detail.
Quote from report:
"Although they didn't link to the post I believe this is also in reference to the
bug in 3D Mark 2001 which currently affects Kyro/Kyro 2 Graphics Cards owners (In the High Detail
Lobby Test everything gets rendered, with much transparency where there should be none, e.g. Player
models can clearly be seen through pillars - this adversely affects the score as you can guess as
well). As I mentioned a good while back Mad Onion have fixed this but won't release it seperately,
& now that cumulative update has bbeen put on hold. & once more I'll point out that Mad Onion wouldn't
be so apathetic were this to have affected Geforce Graphics cards. "reliable tool for professional
hardware performance measurement & comparison" my ass."
Friday, November 2, 2001 - 8:30PM
SIS Denies RDRAM But Admits To DDR400
TweakTown mentions a report at Digitimes that mentions that SiS denies the P4 rambus chipset they are
producing, but admits to producing DDR400.
Quote from report:
"On November 1, chipset designer Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) denied market
rumors that it will launch RDRAM-based chipsets this month. One company executive said that SiS
would naturally research any new technology, but its schedule for product commercialization depends
on the product position and the maturity of relevant applications.
Another executive suggested that it would be unlikely SiS would introduce any RDRAM-supporting
chipsets, even in 2002, especially as Intel has readjusted its 2002 roadmap to replace its Tulloch
chipset with Tehama-E.
However, SiS is likely to be the first designer to unveil DDR400-based P4-supporting chipsets in
2002, if the company maintains its remarkable speed of research and development this year."
There's a new ICQ 2001b release again, this is build 3637.
New fixes in this release:
Pick & choose your favorite ICQ features
Share & Exchange Files
Contact List on Servers
Save/Load Contact List
Message spell checker, cool icons & emotions
Automatic Firewall detection
Improved Whitepages search
Security & Privacy Permissions in one place
Set your ICQ Email Signature
I saw this at 3DSpotlight. They report that SiS is going to release a P4 Rambus Chipset.
Quote from report:
"Sources said Tuesday that Taiwan's Silicon Integrated Systems will come out with
a chipset that allows PC makers to connect Pentium 4 processors with Rambus-based memory.
The advent of a second manufacturer could give a boost to controversial chip designer Rambus by
increasing the availability of such chipsets and thus helping lower the price of building computers
with Rambus memory."