Tomorrow, I leave for the Air Force. Expect sporadic updates during basic training, if any.
Monday, January 28, 2002 - 4:13PM
Spineless Consumers, Part 2
FiringSquad has the second part of an article entitled Have Consumers Gone Spineless? and raises some
very good issues about copy protection, corporate rights and babysitting, free speech issues, the music
industry's attempts to limit DVD and CD copying by purposefully building bad data into their own CD's, as
well as other things.
Quote from report:
"So what do we do about it? Stop letting big companies push you around! Suck it up and grow
a backbone instead of letting these bullies take advantage of your complacency! Don’t you realize that you,
the individual consumer, have rights? That consumers that band together in groups can actually affect change
in our society? You do? Oh, I see. Then how come hardly any of you bother to back up the words with action?
Why does it take action from Phillips, the makers of the CD format, to fight back? They are telling these
record companies that their copy protection defies the standard, and they are going to continue making
machines that bypass that copy protection so that consumers are not injured. How come we have to rely on
other companies to stand up for us instead of doing it ourselves?"
TheRegister is reporting on a story on how a Athlon XP2000+ beat a Intel P4 Northwood despite the fact that
the Athlon was crippled due to the board it was on.
Quote from report:
"So, what do we know? We know that the Northwood/RDRAM system runs almost twice as fast as
our crippled Athlon test-system and costs almost twice as much. And it does deliver in situations where the
CPU is stressed. But we're getting very good through-put with the AMD system (or piss poor through-put on the
Intel system); and if we had a mobo that worked properly, we know the CPU gap would be narrowed quite a bit
on both OS's. We also know that Windows likes the Athlon better than Linux does."
Over at The Register, they are reporting that Intel might stop production on the Itanium x86-64 processors
if the Hammer and Clawhammer sell well, and that they might copy AMD's x86-64 and add it to the P4 and make
it where they can turn it on or off if they feel they need to.
Quote from report:
"A fine scoop by the San Jose Mercury apparently confirms the existence of Intel's 64bit
Plan B, codenamed Yamhill. According the Merc, Yamhill adds 64bit instructions to the existing x86
architecture, and may appear in the Prescott chips, "with an option to turn the features on or off." The
emphasis is on 'may', as according to the former Yamhill engineer, no decision has been taken to proceed
with Plan B. It's not clear whether this is a new core, or simply new instructions onto the P7 core. But
it makes Itanic a harder sell then it already is: and Compaq and HP, who have pledged to end of life their
own 64bit architectures in favour of IA-64, may well be wondering if they pulled the trigger too soon."
TheInquirer is reporting that AMD might buyout SiS, but this is currenty a rumor, and that AMD has stated
that they don't want to be in the chipset business
Quote from report:
"FEVERED SPECULATION in Old Taipei suggests chipset company little SIS could be the target
of AMD CEO Jerry Sanders III's desire.
But there's little to substantiate such speculation, save that SIS does have its own foundry and process
technology, unusually for the new breed of chipset firm, and therefore, according to Sanders own dictum
"only real men have fabs", SIS must be a man."
The Tech-Review has a rather poor article on why they hate AMD, or at least the author's idea. Generally
this guy assumes that the problems he had with AMD occur with everything associated with AMD. I think he
has just been jaded, since I never have any problems and a lot of other don't either.
Quote from report:
"Sixth has got the be the speed rating crap. AMD feels they need to cheat on their speed
ratings (with this 1600+, or 1800+ stuff) used to designate NOT what the Pentium4 equivalent is, rather
the speed equivalent if the new XP chips were just thunderbirds. Of course, they've duped everyone into
thinking it's a P4 equivalent, and that's what they needed. I guess AMD still can't fathom why people buy
Intel over their product, so they put up these speed ratings. I thought AMD was confident in their product..
huh. Why do I feel we've gone back to the childish days of the Pentium Replacement Cyrix's and AMD's. Either
AMD needs to grow up and realize they don't have 2ghz chips yet, or start making real chips that run at an
actual 2ghz. And I might add that using 'XP' to denote their latest processor is very, very bitch.. I mean
if you're going to try to ride off of someone else’s success (since AMD clearly needs it) why of all people
did you choose Microsoft.. geez."
3DSpotlight is reporting on a story at C|Net News.com that IBM plans on selling servers with Linux only on
their mainframes. IBM says that these mainframes will cost less and be easier to take care of. Usually,
with IBM, their computers are already overpriced, maybe the lower cost associated selling a computer with
Linux doesn't involve buying an OS, and associated fees.
Quote from News.com:
"A new Linux-only mainframe model that IBM will announce Friday is the strongest indication
so far of the company's enthusiasm for uniting the comparatively new operating system with the decades-old
business computer line.
The refrigerator-sized machine running only Linux will be formally announced at the LinuxWorld Conference and
Expo show in New York next week and will begin shipping by the end of March, said Pete McCaffrey, director of
IBM's zSeries mainframe group.
IBM hopes to lure new customers to the mainframe line with the system because it costs less than a full-fledged
mainframe and doesn't require the usual high level of mainframe management skills, he said."
Over at The Inquirer they are reporting that AMD Legal previously wanted to buy the domain name,
duron.co.uk, but as of now they are demanding that he sells it to them.
The owner of the website with Athlon has not been contacted by AMD yet.
Quote from report:
"AN AMD RESELLER has had a lawyers' letter asking him to turn his domain over to the company
within seven days or face legal action from the firm.
But Ian Smith, who said he registered duron.co.uk the same day that AMD launched the chip, told the INQUIRER
today he had talked to the company before registering it and it told him it didn't have a problem with the
domain.
Smith said that he was in no way trying to pass himself off as anything but an AMD reseller and a supporter
of the company. The domain is registered in his own name and he posts public domain material on the site.
He's being doing business with AMD for some years."
Is there something odd going on at AthlonOC with OCZ? For quite some time we've all known, or thought that OCZ
was doing something with AthlonOC such as OCZ owning it. Now, today, it seems OCZ has locked out the poeple who
run AthlonOC from the server.
Read on:
"From today on forward AthlonOC will not be supporting any products from OCZ Technology or
recommend anything with OCZ Technology. The reasons for this move will be forthcoming.
I'm sure some of our viewers are aware of, OCZ Technology hosts AthlonOC on their server. They have locked me
out and thus have prevented me from retrieving files that I own.
Soon the truth about OCZ Technology and their business practices will be revealed"
TheInquirer is reporting on the power comsumption values between the AMD and Intel processors. The table shows
that AMD processors use less power than Intel processors do.
Quote from report@The Register:
"AMD claims it has the power versus performance advantage because its higher maximum allowable
die temperature (Tdie) makes for an easier thermal design, and Intel has a lower Tdie spec, meaning more expensive
heat sinks, fans and different cases.
But if you look, AMD is comparing Socket A with Socket 423 - not a bad comparison in and of itself, and we'd be
interested in seeing how things compare on the Northwood 478 pin shrink. Or are things just the same?"
Over at 3DSpotlight they are reporting that Amazon is going to permanently offer free shipping on products over
$99.00. 3DSpotlight says that this might not last long, they say that Outpost did this and almost went out of
business because of it.
Quote from report:
"On the same day Amazon.com reported its first-ever net profit, the company announced that it
would extend permanently its holiday season offer of free shipping for orders of $99 or more.
Free shipping is second only to coupons in terms of what lures shoppers, said Tim Storm, who operates
Fatwallet.com, a community site dedicated to online bargain hunters.
"Shipping costs are always an issue among online shoppers," Storm said. "This offer will definitely remove the
hesitation of clicking the 'buy it now' button."
On a typical $100 order, Amazon earns a 25 percent gross margin, said Ken Cassar, an analyst with Jupiter Media
Metrix. "If they have to eat $7 to $8 in shipping, that only leaves them with $17 to $18 profit. That puts a lot
of pressure on them to drive operating costs low," he said."
AMDZone is reporting on The Inquirer's story about a new type of retail packaging for AMD's Processors, and by
what AMDZone says, it is environmentally friendly. TheInquirer also goes into the subject of AMD's processor
pricing as well.
Quote from part1 of AMD Mystery Pricing:
"AS WE REPORTED last week, AMD will cut prices of some of its processors on the 27th/28th of
this month. Intel is cutting prices on its Pentium 4 CPUs that day. But resellers and distributors tell the
INQUIRER there are some puzzles about the pricing that don't make sense.
Boxed CPUs from AMD are currently being discounted, as we reported last week, and that means they're much less
than the OEM processors, which come in trays. The reason for the change is that AMD is to redesign its boxed
processors, with the betting on that it will be a clear plastic design with insert panels for the labels.
AMD has admitted that XPs will run as MP processors, but previously has told us that it doesn't advise that and
that breaches warranty."
AMDZone is reporting that Linux users have rediscovered the old Win2K AGP Athlon bug which also happens to affect
Linux users as well.
It happens with the extended 4Mb paging operations, unfortunately, even though Intel added this new operation to
thier CPU's, AMD did not, or did not properly implement it, and so Linux users have had problems with locking up,
so in oder to prevent lockups, Linux users should add mem=nopentium to the Kernel during boot up.
Quote from report:
"Fortunately, there is a
quick and easy fix for this problem. If you have been experiencing lockups on your Athlon, Duron or
Athlon MP system when using AGP video, try passing the mem=nopentium option to your kernel (using
GRUB or LILO) at boot-time. This tells Linux to go back to using 4K pages, avoiding this CPU bug. In
addition, it should also be possible to avoid this problem by not using AGP on affected systems. As
soon as I discovered that this CPU bug existed (which happened, unfortunately, because my CPU has the
bug), I informed kernel hacker Andrew Morton of the issue; he put me in touch with Alan Cox. Alan is
going to try to add some kind of Athlon/AGP CPU bug detection code to the kernel so that it will be
able to auto-downgrade to 4K pages when necessary."
Over at Icrontic they report that music sharing website KaZaA has been sold to Sharman Networks Limited, which is
based in Australia. Downloading of KaZaA has also been resumed, and the company, not located in the Netherlands,
is not subject to Dutch laws, so they cannot be prosecuted.
Quote from website:
""Jan. 21, 2002 -- Sharman Networks Limited, a privately held company, has purchased certain
assets of KaZaA BV, including the popular consumer site KaZaA.com, distributor of KaZaA Media Desktop software.
KaZaA BV is the Netherlands-based software and products company that founded KaZaA.com. The transaction was
announced by Sharman CEO Nikki Hemming.
KaZaA Media Desktop is a full-featured peer-to-peer file sharing software that allows users to search, download,
organize and play media files. Included in Sharman's purchase of assets are the license for the FastTrack P2P Stack,
the KaZaA.com Web site, name, and logos."
TheInquirer has learned of AMD's roadmap for the 2nd quarter of the new AMD Thoroughbred as well as the appaloosa
core for Durons later in the 3rd Quarter. Also, they say that currenlty Intel uses 4 different sockets on their
roadmap, while AMD maintains a single socket, and that's Socket A.
Quote from report:
"AMD positions the Athlon as the "world's leading X86 chip" while Durons are for "everyday"
computing for biz and home. It also claims that Windows XP goes a long way to use AMD's CPU optimisations,
including 3DNow! Prof, DirectX 8, PowerNow - with native support, MP and 760, and that Windows XP recognises
system level instructions such as SYSENTER, SYSEXIT, CMPXCHG8B and Conditional Move. This somehow implies that
maybe the Pentium 4 doesn't - anyone help us out on this.
There are a few differences in launch dates compared to those we published earlier in the week. In Q2 we'll
see the 2200+ Thoroughbred and the 2000+ Thoroughbred, the latter edging out the 2000+ on the older technology.
In Q3 now we'll see the 2600+, the 2400+, the 2200+ and the 2000+, all using Thoroughbred cores and a 266MHz
front side bus. At that time we'll also see the 1800+ Duron using Appaloosa technology."
So the Duron will move to 266MHz front side bus in the middle of this year. DDR (double data rate) memory is
in AMD's words "now ubiquitous" and system integrators can use SDRAM PC-133 for lower price points
3DSpotlight has learned that the 9th season of the X-Files is to be the last season, which the 201'st will mark
the final episode.
Quote from report:
"THE X-FILES’ ninth season finale will mark the conclusion of the hit series on FOX, it was
announced today by Chris Carter, creator and executive producer of the series. The finale will mark the series’
201st episode.
"This show needed a network like FOX who believed in it from the beginning. Their support over nine years turned
the show from a cult phenomenon into an international hit," said Carter. He added, "This has been an incredible
decade of my life."
CNet has learned of the recording industry's new technology that will prevent us from freely recording digital
TV shows and sharing them like that of Napster. They apparently feel that they aren't making enough money
already, so they want to force us to buy every movie that we would like to see.
Quote from report:
"The new drive, under the auspices of the longstanding cross-industry Copy Protection Working
Group, is just one part of a growing effort to keep television from becoming the newest front in the digital
piracy wars. As broadcast TV turns digital this year, studios are looking for ways to control how shows are
recorded and traded, and they are proposing technologies that could ultimately bar consumers from freely recording
TV programs from the airwaves.
The latest effort, a plan to insert digital tags into broadcast TV shows that would prevent them from being put
online, is just part of that broader aim. But as more TV content shows up at digital swap meets, copyright owners
see it as an increasingly urgent issue. They say they'll have a standard ready by the end of the first quarter of
the year."
TheInquirer is reporting on the fact that AMD's 3rd Quarter loss is less than what was expected. The loss for
the loss was only $15.8 million on revenue of $951.9 million.
Quote from report:
"BETTER SALES OF PCs before the holiday period meant AMD managed to limit its loss for its
fourth quarter to $15.8 million on reduced turnover of $951.9 million. That compares to a profit AMD made
during the same period last year of $178 million on turnover of $1.16 billion - showing that revenues dropped
only 19 per cent year on year, quarter on quarter.
AMD had said it would make a loss during the fourth quarter but the 15.1 million is vastly reduced from the loss
it made in Q3 of $186.9 million. In fact, it managed to increase its turnover by 24 per cent during Q4 but had
anticipated its revenue would rise by only 10 per cent."
AMDZone is reporting on a story at TheInquirer about details of the AthlonXP 2500+ (2.00GHz) Thoroughbred and
the AthlonXP 2200+ (1.80GHz) Palamino. The Palamino would be at the .18 micron process and the Throroughbred
would be at the .13 micron process.
Quote from report:
"RELIABLE SOURCES close to the AMD action tell the INQUIRER that the XP 2500+ will use a .13
micron core but that the 2200+ will use .18 micron technology. The 2200 is slated to appear this quarter, and
it will support the usual cluster of multimedia instructions including MMX, 3DNow and SEE.
Other details are that it will run at 1800MHz, using a 133 x 13.5 multiplier, have a 64-bit dual pumped bus,
operate at 1.75 volts, and have 64K data two way as well as 64K instructions, also two way. There will be 256K
on die unified level two cache, which will be 16 way exclusive, and the die size will be 128 square millimetres,
with the thing having 37.5 million transistors."
3DSpotlight is reporting on a story at Amazon International on Plextor's new 40/12/40 CD-RW drive. Like
always it has the Burn-Proof Technology and a 4MB Buffer. It burns at 40x with a technology called ZoneCLV.
There is also a report on this at CDInfo.com on this as well. It will be available at the end of February
for $190.
Quote from report:
"The drive supports 40x writing, 12x re-writing and 40x reading speed. The 4MB of buffer
and BURN-Proof eliminates buffer underruns. Plextor uses again Zone-CLV as the main recording technology
and at the maximum 40x speed, with the use of 80min CD, the total recording time drops down to 179sec!
The 40x recording speed is reached by 4 steps: The drive starts writing at 20x, rises up to 24x, rises up
to 32x and last reaches 40x. The 40x writing speed is reached at 54mins, when using 80minCD. Users can
select other writing speeds of 20x-32x, 20x-24x, 16x-20x (Z-CLV) and 20x, 16x, 8x, 4x (CLV). Also the drive
also supports 12x, 10x, 4x (CLV) re-writing speeds.
Plextor recommends media from Mitsubishi Chemicals and Hitachi for the increased 40x writing speed. For the
32x writing speed, media from Ricoh/Mitsui/Mitsubishi Chemicals/Hitachi and Taiyo Yuden can be safely used
also."
Intel is claiming that their market share increased for 2001, but this claim isn't backed by any data. This
is despite the 70% decrease in profits for 2001. Hopefully AMD will be more specific as to how well they did
last year when they report.
Quote from report:
""2001 was a terrible year for our industry," said Craig R. Barrett, president and chief
executive officer. "Despite this backdrop, we introduced exciting new products, including the industry's
first 2.0 GHz processor, gained market segment share, and earned over $1 billion. We also rapidly ramped
our industry-leading 0.13-micron process technology and began production on 300mm wafers.
"While 2001 was difficult for Intel, I can't imagine changing places with any other company on the planet,"
Barrett said. "Our 2001 R&D and manufacturing investments position us to grow faster than the industry when
the high tech recovery occurs.""
AMDZone is reporting on a story at TheInqurier that Intel's profit dropped 70% for their 2001 earnings. They
blame the XBox for dropping ASP's in the 4th quarter. Intel also has a vague claims that their market share
increase.
Quote from report:
"CHIP GIANT Intel announced its fourth quarter and yearly results and said that while its
sales had shifted upward by seven per cent compared to the last financial quarter,Q3, year on year and quarter
on quarter, revenues dropped by 20 per cent.
As usual with press releases, the real story was tucked away near to the end, with Intel saying: "Average
selling prices of microprocessors were down slightly from the third quarter primarily due to increased sales
of Pentium III processors for the Microsoft* Xbox* design."
Profits for the quarter were up 52 per cent from the quarter before but 62 per cent down year on year.
Revenues were down 61 per cent from the year before. The hard tack figures are $504 million net profit (income)
for the quarter, a drop of 77 per cent from the same quarter last year."
The Inquirer is reporting that a particular analyst is sticking by his $10 stock price target which he set as
a sell, despite how well AMD has been doing, and that he thinks Intel has the greater advantage.
Quote from report:
"The site interviewed Hans Mosemann, who works for Prudential, to see why he said "sell AMD"
on December 13th. But Mosemann made a spirited defence of his position, and claimed he thought AMD was a
"great company" saying it was overvalued.
In the piece, he said that his target for AMD is $10 and that was the case when it was $9 and also the case
when it was double that price.
Mosemann reckons Intel will deliver vast volumes of P4s towards the end of the quarter and doesn't have to be
that aggressive on the price front while AMD no longer has an advantage."
Over at [H]ard|OCP they are reporting on an article at The Register over how Borland demands users to pay for
license audits. This requirement is hidden in its license agreements, and involves Boreland's JBuilder and
Kylix software.
Quote from report:
"Borland reserves the right, for one year after the license expires, to enter your home and
access your system and accounts to perform an audit.
"You agree to pay the cost of the audit if any underpayments during the period covered by the audit amount to
more than five percent (5%) of the fees actually owed for that period," according to the license.
"There will never be a circumstance under which I will allow Borland or any other greedy software company to
invade my home without a warrant authorized by a court of law. In my opinion, you have no right to even ask for
such a thing," Duchane responds.
"Any sane person seeing these licensing terms can only do as Duchene suggests: destroy all copies of Borland
software and turn to one of the other proprietary, or better free, products available.""
TheInquirer is reporting that VIA is supposed to launch the KT333 this week, featuring support for AGP 8x,
DDR333 memory, and ATA133.
Quote from report:
"While SIS was quite loud with its new 745 chipset, with support for DDR 333 in Q4, we still
haven't seen one single review of those boards. Via, on the other hand, right at the beginning of Q4 told us
it would be on time and would match its DDR 333 products to meet the schedule of DDR 333.
So Q1 has started and VIA will introduce its new Athlon based chipset, likely to lead in this area, although
we're still watching and waiting to see how Via holds out against the SiS 745.
The Via chipset will feature AGP 8X -- of course "highly necessary" for Geforce 4 cards -- but don’t expect
anything revolutionary from this marketing numbers and throughput. Remember, AGP 2X versus 4x was really
marginal in terms of performance."
Icrontic is reporting that Microsoft licences DVD-R Technology for Longhorn to be able to write to DVD-R and
DVD-RW's. Hopefully they might introduce this into WinXP.
Quote from report:
"Microsoft announced this week that it has licensed Sonic Solutions' DVD-authoring technology,
probably for inclusion in the next version of Windows (code-named Longhorn). Following Microsoft's announcement,
shares of Sonic Solutions soared almost 40 percent yesterday.
Windows XP currently supports CD writing and DVD data recording through the DVD-RAM format; the Sonic software
is used with more common DVR-R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW drives to create movie CDs. By the time Longhorn ships in
mid-2003, DVD movie authoring will be much more common than it is today."
I know that this might be off-topic for this site, but this story at CNN is Political Correctness run amok in
order to appease everyone instead of showing actual history. This statue has one white, one hispanic and one
black instead of the actual three white firefighters that raised the flag at the World Trade Center disaster.
Quote from report:
"NEW YORK (AP) -- A statue based on the famous photograph of the flag-raising at the World
Trade Center site is being criticized because the three white firefighters in the picture have been transformed
into one white, one black and one Hispanic.
Some firefighters and their families say the 19-foot bronze is political correctness run amok and an attempt
to rewrite history.
The $180,000 sculpture is expected to be erected this spring at the Fire Department's Brooklyn headquarters in
tribute to the 343 firefighters killed in the attack. It is based on the September 11 newspaper photo of
firefighters raising the American flag on about 20 feet of rubble.
The decision to represent different races was made by the Fire Department, the makers of the statue, and the
property-management company that owns the department headquarters building and commissioned the work."
AMDZone is reporting on a story at The Inquirer about plans that AMD has to include SSE2 in their processors
once it becomes standard in the marketplace.
Quote from report:
"According to the piece, while AMD has confirmed the use of SSE II in its up-and-coming Hammer
K8 family, Intel is being a little reluctant to give it a licence during this year.
Whether that's true or not, we don't know - in some ways it helps Intel when people use SSE II - anything to
push those extra instructions and create good software including games is very welcome.
Instead, tecchannel reckons that AMD will start using SSE II in 2003, when Intel will give it a licence.
The site quotes Jan Gutter as saying the following: "AMD is indeed planning to support SSE2 as soon as it has
become a standard in the marketplace. We expect to see that in 2003"
AMDZone is reporting that a website Stockpickreport.com said that AMD as a negative stock over the next 5 to
15 days. As a result of this news, AMD's stock price went up $0.46.
Firing Sqad has a review posted of the AMD Athlon XP2000+, this is AMD's latest processor, and is the final
XP processor before the .13 micron AMD Thoroughbred 2000+ (1.67GHz) and 2200+ (1.80GHz) are released in AMD's
second quarter.
Quote from report:
"Intel's Northwood processor wasn't the only chip that launched yesterday. In a bid to steal
a bit of Intel's thunder, AMD also launched its Athlon XP 2000+. Like its predecessors, Athlon XP 2000+ is
built off AMD's Palomino core that was introduced last summer. As a result, the Athlon XP 2000+ still takes
advantage of Palomino's support of Intel's SSE instructions and data prefetching (among other additions). As
its name suggests, Athlon XP 2000+ also continues to don AMD's new model number scheme.
In the case of the XP 2000+, the chip actually runs at 1.67GHz, but offers performance equivalent to AMD's
older Thunderbird processors if they had been designed to run at 2GHz. Of course, as you'll also see in our
test results, the Athlon XP 2000+ also competes very favorably against Intel's own 2GHz Pentium 4. In most
tests it outruns older 2GHz Pentium 4 chips based off of Intel's Willamette core, Athlon XP 2000+ is also able
to give newer Northwood 2.2GHz chips a run for their money. But we'll get into that a little bit later."
AMDZone is reporting on a story at TheInquirer about how the new nForce 415D is about $20 cheaper than the
nForce 420 chipset.
Quote from report:
"THE NFORCE 415-D chipset that Nvidia announced yesterday is $20 cheaper than the 420,
Digitimes reports today. And the cut price chipset which is priced less than $30 is likely to now be a strong
contender against other chipset makers because of the pricing. Motherboard manufacturers had complained that
the previous chipset was expensive and that had slowed acceptance by the mobo makers."
AMDZone is reporting on a story at Void Your Warranty about how to add a diode reader to your motherboard to
take advantage of the internal thermal diode that the AMD Athlon XP/MP/4 has.
Quote from report:
"With the Thunderbird and the Duron, AMD decided to eschew any sort of CPU core temperature
monitoring via internal diodes and instead rely on indirect measurements. Very indirect measurements. With a CPU
that puts out 100W heat in an extremely small area, it is simply an impossible task to use a thermistor with a
slow response that is only making marginal contact with the under side of the CPU. With the Palomino core, AMD
addressed this problem by adding an internal diode to report temperatures to the motherboard. Unfortunately,
motherboard manufacturers haven't felt the need to add this feature into their offerings. Tyan dual CPU
motherboards collect diode readings, and there is a Fujitsu-Siemens KT266 motherboard available in Europe that
also manages this. The latest Asus KT266A also supposedly reads temperatures from the internal diode, but that
feature appears to be broken with no word from Asus on whether it will be fixed with a new hardware revision or
with a BIOS flash."
3DSpotlight is reporting that at TIME Canada, there is a report of the unveiling of the new Apple iMac
computer system, with a flat panel design, and the computer itself shaped like an upside-down round bowl.
Quote from report:
"The new iMac, which Time took for an exclusive test run recently and which will be unveiled
at the annual Macworld convention in San Francisco this week, could be just the thing. Like many PCs today,
the new iMac is built around a flat-panel display. But instead of taking up precious desk space like a typical
flat monitor, the iMac's screen floats in the air, attached to a jointed, chrome-pipe neck. It's also rimmed by
a "halo," a translucent plastic frame that makes you want to pull it toward you-or push it out of the way.
Jonathan Ive, chief of Apple's ID lab, says he designed it so that you would want to touch it, want to "violate
the sacred plane of the monitor." The chrome neck is articulated and bends while maintaining the angle of the
screen; it connects to the computer, an improbably small hemisphere at 26.4 cm in diameter-somewhat bigger than
a halved cantaloupe. The machine bears an uncanny resemblance to Luxo Jr.-the fun-loving, computer-animated
swing-arm lamp that starred in a short film by Pixar, the fabled computer-animation studio that Jobs runs.
(Pixar creative chief John Lasseter has also made the first new iMac ad.) "It looks a little cheeky," says Ive.
It looks alive."
TheInquirer is reporting that it only costs Intel $55 to make a Pentium 4 processor based on the .13 micron
process. The previous .18 micron process cost $100.
Quote from report:
"WE'RE GRATEFUL TO our friends at Xbit Labs for digging out an estimate from our pals at the
Microprocessor Report.
This compares the the approximate production price of the 214 square millimeter "Willamette" die for the
Pentium 4 as compared to the 145 square millimeter "Northwood" die for the Pentium 4 Intel will release
tomorrow.
Xbit quotes a Mr Kevin Krewell as saying that the .18 micron die costs $100 in production costs, while the
.13 micron die costs around $55 to produce."
The Inquirer is reporting the Fuji has perfected 3GB floppy disks, the same technology will also allow
for storage of 1TB on data cartridges and digital videotape.
Quote from report:
"INTEL, MICROSOFT and a heap of other folk have been trying to kill the floppy disk for years,
but Fuji Canada has just given it a fresh leash of life.
The company said it has developed a breakthrough which it is calling Nano Cubic which will allow as much as
three gigabytes of data to be recorded on a floppy disk.
As well as that minor miracle, the technology will also allow the storage of up to one terabyte on data
cartridge and digital videotape, the company claimed."
EETimes is reporting that Intel plans on producing processors with 1 billion transistors by 2007, from the
current 42 million in the Pentium 4 processor, and that the process will shrink to .045 microns that year as
well.
Quote from report:
"HILLSBORO, Ore. — Intel Corp. expects its microprocessors to hit one-billion transistors
by 2007, up from 42 million in the current Pentium 4, said Gerry Marcyk, director of components research at
Intel's development facility.
While process technology generally moves forward in two-year cycles — with shifts to 90-nanometer lithography
design rules expected in 2003, to 65 nm in 2005, then to 45 nm in 2007 — packaging will have to hustle to
keep up the pace, Marcyk said.
The chip industry doesn't pay enough attention to packaging, and putting advanced transistor technology into
old packaging "is like putting a Formula One engine in a Yugo body," Marcyk said.
Intel will move from its plastic bumped organic land grid array package to a bumpless package with built-up
layers. By embedding a die inside the package and getting rid of the bumps, the package thins down to the
thinness of a dime. A thinner package allows faster speeds and halves the number of copper layers in the
package, he said."
The Tech Zone has a review of the ABIT KR7A-RAID, based on the KT266A chipset.
Quote from report:
"Abit builds the most feature rich mainboards available on the market today. There's almost
noone who can argue this point. They usually command a premium over "mere mortal" mainboards (it's a pun
people), but it's usually justified to the individual who wants and needs the best. There's certainly not
much one can say bad about this board. Feature rich, future proof (with the ATA/133 capabilities of the
Highpoint controller), and Abit's typical "go the extra mile" power bridge for the CPU, should ensure
happiness in those that decide they must have everything a board can offer."
AMDZone was reporting on a story at ZDnet News about the die shrink to .13 micron and the increase of the
L2 cache to 512KB. Apparently, the additional cache doesn't help things much.
Quote from report:
"On Monday, Intel will introduce two new versions of the Pentium 4--code-named
Northwood--that will run at 2.2GHz and 2.0GHz. But more important than the speed bump are the design
of the chips and the way they are manufactured, developments that are expected to help the company
open a competitive gap between itself and cross-freeway rival Advanced Micro Devices.
The Northwood Pentium 4 chips differ from the current versions of the chip in that they are made on
the 130-nanometer (0.13-micron) manufacturing process, rather than on the 180-nanometer process by
which existing Pentium 4s are made. The 130-nanometer designation refers to the average size of the
features on the chip.
At the same time, performance will improve because Northwood chips will offer--along with the higher
clock speeds--a larger secondary cache, a reservoir of memory located on the same piece of silicon
as the processor for rapid data access. Northwood chips will contain 512KB of cache, while current
Pentium 4s contain 256KB"
Icrontic is reporting a story at XBitLabs on the new VIA chipsets that will come out this year. They
are the KT333 for socket A boards, and the P4X333 for the Pentium 4 boards.
Quote from report:
"The closest newcomer is KT333. It should be launched some time in Q1 2002. The
information about this chipset being very similar to KT266A and having nothing new besides the support
of the new PC2700 DDR SDRAM. In Q1 2002 VIA will announce its P4X333 chipset. It will have all the
innovations, which will appear in AMD platforms only with the KT333A chipset, namely: PC2700 DDR SDRAM
support, AGP 8x and 533MB/sec V-Link bus. Besides, this chipset will also support 133MHz system bus
(533MHz Quad Pumped Bus). Strange as it might seem, but there is no mention about the QBM memory."
The Register is reporting that the WinXP UPnP hole was being mis-represented by the FBI, the press, and
by Gibson. They were playing on our fears to make it look worse than it was.
Quote from report:
"The creation of marketing niches from Microsoft technologies is a model of perpetual
motion. Redmond develops the products, and we get paid to implement, install, configure, customize,
upgrade, secure, and to even break and exploit them.
Now the simple act of talking about Microsoft security is becoming a remunerative endeavor.
The recent Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) subsystem vulnerabilities in Microsoft XP, as well as some
ME and 98 systems, has resulted in a media circus that has beaten out Code Red -- and there is not
even an exploit yet!...
...But the information has to be accurate. The media and corresponding subset of technical news
portals are doing a terrible job of reporting factual information -- particularly on this bug. From
the FBI to the LA Times to Gibson Research Corporation, they all have it wrong...
...In addition to misinformation, ad-hungry media outlets like the LA Times are doing what they can
to bring in the hits, headlining articles with FUD -- industry shorthand for Fear, Uncertainty and
Doubt -- like "XP Patch Leaves Door Wide Open" that is not only completely wrong, but contains no
detailed information about the issue, or even links on where to find the advisories."
Icrontic is reporting that nVIDIA was the best stock of 2001 because its stock price quadrupled in one
year, from $16.50 at the beginning of the year to about $68 at the end of 2001.
Quote from report:
"Nvidia, which makes graphics chips for Microsoft's new Xbox game console, saw its
shares more than quadruple, making it the year's best performer in the Standard & Poor's 500 index.
Nvidia opened the year at $16.50. It quadrupled to close 2001 at about $68--even as shares of dot-coms,
chipmakers and telecommunications companies melted. Nvidia's upswing was fueled by a strong video
game market and its recent addition to the prestigious S&P 500.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company, however, hopes to avoid the fate of earlier winners.
Nvidia inherits the award from Enron, the energy giant shattered by its murky finances. Opening the
year at $83.13, Enron shares now trade at 60 cents--a drop of 99 percent."
