October 2003 News Archive
Warsaw. (Interfax-Europe) - Poland's desktop and mobile computer sales grew by 6.8% to 269,327 units in the third quarter of 2003, with the U.S.-based HP increasing its leading grip on the market to 6.2% from 6% a year earlier, according to data from research firm Gartner.Click here to read more.
HP boosted its second-quarter sales by 10.8% to 16,773 units versus the same quarter of 2002.
Poland's NTT Data was second on the market overall although the company sold 26.3% less computers in the third quarter than a year earlier. Its quarterly sales totaled 15,844, giving it 5.9% of the market.
In third place was Poland's Action (sales of 11,300) and in fourth was Dell Computers (sales up 16.1% to 10,861).
The largest growth was recorded by Vobis Poland, which saw its sales rise 41.9% to 5,730 computers in the third quarter from 4,037 a year earlier. But six of the top ten computer shippers saw sales fall, with Poland's JTT recording an 86% slump to 3,256 computers.
Spyware is probably one of the most irritating if not ontologically evil things to hit the web to date. It's responsible for mountains of jacked-up computers, misled consumers, hijacked referrals to commerce sites, and invaded privacy. One company that's certainly used to being accused of producing spyware is Gator. The eponymous application they produce is considered by most to be nothing but spyware, but Gator is out to squash that impression. Earlier this month Gator started flexing its muscles, suing websites that were critical of of its software.Click here to read more.A Gator executive said the suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, was part of a larger strategy to educate spyware-removers about the company's software--and to put an end to the practice of calling it "spyware." "If we find anyone publicly calling us spyware, we correct it and take action if necessary," said Scott Eagle, Gator's senior vice president of marketing.
In between sessions and keynotes at Gartner Symposium ITxpo 2003, ZDNet's editor-in-chief Dan Farber and executive editor David Berlind had a chance to catch up with Dell Americas senior vice president and general manager Joe Marengi. Marengi, formerly the president at networking solution provider Novell, was in the mood to discuss the industry at large. As is usual for Dell executives, Marengi reminded Farber and Berlind of the keys to Dell's success and how those keys enable him to deliver benefit to Dell's customers. Marengi also hinted at some things to look for from Dell in the near term, and took a shot or two at his competitors.Click here to read more.
ZDNet: Dell has cleaned up on desktops, notebooks, and servers. What are the gating factors in your other lines of business?
Marengi: Dell is about standards. Absence of standards in any one category ultimately hurts customers and slows adoption. Blades are a good example. HP has its own kind of blade. IBM has another. Sun has its own. If I'm a switch vendor, I don't even know how what size switch to make because I don't know what size rack it will go in. At the very least we should have some uniformity. It would be great to know what we have to fit in, but ultimately, it would be better to standardize on the architecture as well.ZDNet: Are you referring to the backplane and what the blades fit into?
Marengi: Yes. The only differentiation should be in the speeds and feeds. The industry has to ask itself, "What's the best thing in order for end-users to adopt this?" I like to compare this to the tires on your car. Imagine what it would be like if each tire manufacturer had its own way for getting air into our tires. Our industry has to start looking at this from the point of view of the customers and the problems they want solved. Blades are a perfect example of where standards can solve a major problem. They're a great concept. But if we continue on the current path, we will retard the acceleration of blade growth. They have to be interchangeable.
Ai Yori Aoshi - Original Soundtrack 2 (320cbr)
[A-E & A-Keep] Shingetsutan Tsukihime - Episode 03
[A-F & AF] Fullmetal Panic Fumoffu Part 08 - Episode 12
[A-M] Sakigake!! Cromartie High - Episode 04 [ANBU] Planetes - Episode 03
[AonE] Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi - Episode 03
[AonE & L-E] Dear Boys - Episode 25
[AonE & HQA] Ikkitousen - Episode 11
[AonE] Peace Maker Kurogane - Episode 04 [AonE-Inf] Shinkon Gattai Godannar - Episode 01
[Aoshi] Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi - Episode 02
[Aoshi] Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi - Episode 03
[A-Keep] Avenger - Episode 03
[A-Keep] Peace Maker Kurogane - Episode 04
[Keep-ANBU] Full Metal Alchemist - Episode 04
[Lunar] Peace Maker Kurogane - Episode 04 [Miyuki] Gunslinger Girl - Episode 01 v2
[Miyuki] Gunslinger Girl - Episode 02
[Solar] Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki OVA 3 - Episode 01
In the month since AMD launched the Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX-51 processors we've begun to see boards based on both the nForce3 150 and VIA K8T800 chipset appearing on the market. While we've already looked at the nForce3 150 Professional in our original AMD64 review and again in our Micro Pro OEM review, this is our first look at a board based on VIA K8T800. Given the less-then sterling reputation VIA's first-generation chipsets have acquired we're not sure what to expect, but if there's one company we'd trust to take a flaky chipset and build a stable board, its ASUS.Click here to read more.
Here is a photo of the board:
[Ani-Kraze] Hundred Stories - Episode 02
[Ani-Kraze&Popgo] Scrapped_Princess Trilingual Eng-Gb-Jp Episode 02.mkv
[Ani-Kraze] Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi - Episode 02
Chocofansubs anime music video collection (650 MB)
[AonE-HQA] Ikkitousen - Episode 10
[AonE-HQA] Da Capo - Episode 14
[AonE-HQA] Da Capo - Episode 13
[AonE-ANBU] Naruto - Episode 55
[AonE] ROD TV - Episode 07
[AonE] ROD TV - Episode 08
[AonE] Shingetsutan Tsukihime - Episode 01v2
[AonE] Shingetsutan Tsukihime - Episode 02
[AonE] Peace Maker Kurogane - Episode 03
[AonE-Nandeyane] Green Green - Episode 09
[cG - S-Ai] Avenger - Episode 04
[A-E & L-E] PLANETES Phase-03
Click here to get it.Changes in Current Version:
Fixes errors reading VIA686 temp sensors Winbond W83647HF Increased support for the EPIA boards (VT1211) Configuration wizard Special dump on the system info tab used to add your board to the config wizard for other users wm_pause and wm_resume message (see help file advanced - messages) Priority function added to the starter.dll SetPath function added to the starter.dll in case you plan on running it as a service and it has no access to HKEY_CURRENT_USER in the reg. 2nd CPU temp on GA-7DPXDW+ which uses 1 LM90 for 2 CPU's Other fixes and changes
Intel and Advanced Micro Devices will cut desktop chip prices in the next few days to usher in the holiday PC-buying season.Click here to read more.
Intel will reduce the cost of its Pentium 4 desktop chips by between 7 percent and 35 percent on Oct. 26, with the most expensive chips receiving the biggest whack, according to sources close to the company. The 3.2GHz Pentium 4 will drop from $637 in volume quantities to $417, a 35 percent drop, while the 3.0GHz Pentium 4 with an 800MHz system bus will decline from $417 to $278, a 33 percent reduction.
Typically, chip price cuts lead to lower PC prices in the subsequent weeks and, generally, help boost sales. This year, PC shipments are again showing double-digit growth and exceeding analysts' expectations. Both AMD and Intel reported better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter.
Intel's discounts follow the pattern of a ziggurat, the step pyramid of the ancient Mesopotamians. When the company cuts prices, the highest-priced chip takes on the price of the second most powerful chip, and so on. The 2.8GHz Pentium 4 with an 800MHz bus, for example, is now priced at $278, the future price of the 3.0GHz, but will drop to $218, the price of the 2.6GHz chip with an 800MHz bus.
[AonE] GunGrave - Episode 01
[AonE] Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi - Episode 01
[AonE] Rod TV - Episode 06
[Anime-Keep] Full Metal Panic Fumoffu - Episode 11
[Keep-ANBU] Full Metal Alchemist - Episode 03
[Anime-Keep] Ikkitousen - Episode 12
[Inf-AonE] Onegai Twins - Episodes 1-12
[L-E AonE] Dear Boys - Episode 23
[FoT] Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki! OVA3 - Episode 01 [V2b]
[FoT] Translator Notes For OVA3 Episode 1 - Download this in addition to the first episode of Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki
[ANBU] Sakigake!! Cromartie High - Episode 03
[ANBU] Sakigake!! Cromartie High - Episode 02
AN IBM commissioned white paper (PDF) by IDC - about its AMD Opteron-based eServer 325 - has revealed IBM plans to offer Windows 64 support for its AMD Opteron-based servers.Click here to read more.
IBM's Windows 64 Opteron reference (bottom of page 6) says:
"Although IBM is targeting the eServer 325 specifically to HPC computing, which is predominately Linux and Unix today, IBM will also support Microsoft Windows for customers wishing to migrate to a processor with 64-bit memory access while maintaining the ability to run existing 32-bit Windows and new 64-bit Windows applications."
Big Blue's Opteron-based eServer 325 is currently available in seven models. With an IBM Opteron-based workstation coming next year, its plans to offer Opteron support for its Cluster 1350 solution, and Windows 64 Opteron support, Big Blue's Opteron offerings will target a far wider audience than today.
SOURCES CLOSE to AMD's plans in the US tell us that its Athlon FX51 flagship chip is now on allocation, with supplies very limited for the next four weeks.Click here to read more.
This is either very good news or very bad news, depending on what the reason for the shortage is.
If it's increased demand, then AMD had better crank up its manufacturing, to make hay while the sun shines. If it's a reflection of a shortage, as many separate firms were telling us at Computex recently, then AMD had better get its finger out, and quick.
[AonE] Wonderful Days
[Triad] Gunslinger Girl - Episode 02
[KAA] Serial Experiments Lain DVD 1-13 (Complete)
[ANBU] Gunslinger Girl - Episode 02
[CG&SAi] Avenger - Episode 03
[AC] Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Trailer
[L-E&AonE] Dear Boys - Episode 22
[A-O] Prince of Tennis Episode 95
[Anime-Keep] Ikkitousen - Episode 11
Sean Gibson: I think the first question on a lot of upgraders' minds is, just why should we upgrade to an AMD 64 bit processor and motherboard when a 64bit operating system and applications/games have yet to exist? Is there a huge performance difference in a 32bit environment?Click here to read more.
John Crank: The real question is why would you NOT buy a technology that can do both, run today's software (32-bit software) AND run tomorrow's software (64-bit software) with exceptional performance, at the same time? You purposefully buy into obsolescence if you buy a 32-bit only machine today! Why knowingly do that?
64-bit computing is here now, not the end of the decade or 5 years from now as some would have you believe, but now. With AMD64 processor-based systems, you can purchase with confidence that your system will provide unsurpassed performance, reliability and upgradeability into the future, regardless of the types of applications you wish to use.
Chips based on the K9 architecture will likely be released--at least in sample quantities--by the second half of 2005, Weber said. AMD engineer Randy Allen is overseeing the project.Click here to read more.
Chip companies release new architectures every three to four years, but the process is becoming increasingly difficult because of power consumption and the shrinking size of transistors. The K8 architecture, the basis for the Opteron released in 2003, was unveiled in 1999 by Weber at the same conference. Chips based on the K8 design were originally due at the end of 2001.
Although Weber declined to provide technical details about the K9, processors that are based on the architecture will likely be capable of containing multiple chip cores--the "brain" of the chip--and of running one or more application threads. Putting more than one core inside the processor boosts performance in a relatively efficient way, Weber and others at the conference said. Opteron, in fact, is designed in a way that enables a second core to be added, Weber noted
[ANBU] Planetes - Phase 02
Initial D Millennium Box Set (320cbr) [AOST]
[ANBU-AonE] Naruto - Episode 53
[ANBU-AonE] Naruto - Episode 52
Scrapped Princess - OST Vol. 1 (#AnimeMP3) (320 Kbps CBR)
[AonE] Daa! Daa! Daa! - Episode 32
[ANBU] Planetes - Phase 01
[Ani-Kraze] Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi - Episode 01
[AonE] ROD TV - Episode 06
[AonE] ROD TV - Episode 05 v2
'Prescott' will never exceed 100W of power dissipation, Intel said today, in a bid to keep the heated debate over the as-yet-unlaunched Pentium processor's thermal characteristics from bubbling over.Click here to read more.
"The Prescott thermal envelope will be between 90W and 100W," a spokesman told The Register. "This [will apply] throughout the entire life of the product, not just for the launch."
That marks the first time the company has come clean and put a precise figure - well, a pair of figures - on the next-generation processor's heat-generating potential.
Japanese web site PC Watch set light to Prescott's thermals during the summer when it claimed internal Intel documents it had seen said the chip operated at 100W - 15W more than today's top-end Pentium 4 processor.
Since then, some sites have even claimed that the chip will consume up to 110W and even 120W.
update Disk-drive maker Maxtor says it has reached a milestone in devising cost-effective platters for a next-generation technology called perpendicular recording.Click here to read more.
The company announced Monday that its subsidiary, MMC Technology, has demonstrated a method of making disk-drive media for the new technology at roughly the same cost as media used in today's drives. With the new media and perpendicular recording technology, Maxtor said it is possible to more than double the amount of data that can be crammed onto a typical disk, from the standard 80GB per 3.5-inch platter to 175GB.
Ken Johnson, vice president of research and development at MMC Technology, said other companies may have ways of making perpendicular recording media, but not necessarily a means to do it cheaply. "As we know, in this industry, cost effectiveness is very important," he said.
ONTARIO, CA (Oct 10, 2003)-- SOYO(R) Group, Inc. (OTCBB: SOYO), a manufacturer of award-winning motherboards, computer peripheral, barebones systems and wireless networking products, has rolled out a pair of motherboards for Athlon 64 processors with many embedded features, advanced technologies and overclocking capabilities.Click here to read more.
SOYO's SY-K8USA DRAGON Ultra and SY-CK8 DRAGON Plus optimize the AMD64 CPU architecture and deliver a complete solution for gaming, video/wireless networks and office environments. Both boards are capable of running 64-bit software as well as 32-bit X86 applications.
SOYO motherboards based on AMD's 64-bit architecture enhance PC performance because they support larger amounts of memory than current AMD Athlon 32-bit chips. With added memory support, performance for memory-hungry applications such as 3D games, broadcast-quality video, and the transmission of high-bandwidth date are also boosted.
[Keep-ANBU] Scrapped Princess Final Episode 24
[Keep-ANBU] Scrapped Princess Episodes 1-24
[Keep-ANBU] Full Metal Panic Fumoffu Episodes 08-09
[Inf-AonE] Onegai Twins Episode 11
[HQA&AonE] Ikkitousen Episode 09
[AonE&HQA] Da Capo Episode 10
[L-E&AonE] Dear Boys Episode 20
[Triad] Gunslinger Girl Episode 01
[A-Keep] Ultra Maniac Episode 21
MOLES CLOSE to big retail PC outfitter CompUSA tell me that Intel based machines have just about kicked AMD machines out of touch for the company's Christmas line-up.AMDZone's quote:
The sources say that although the folks at retail in CompUSA prefer AMD to Intel, money talks.
Far as we can see, the fall/Christmas line up won't include any AXP 3200+, and no AMD for the new Compaq boxes either.
But E-Machines has given AMD a bit of a bandaid because its T2865, at a stunning $719, seems to be a bit of a winner.
Why has CompUSA ignored many of its customers and taken the Intel route? Er, go figure, it's to do with numbers....
I worked at CompUSA in the sales department for many years. I believe sometime last year I sent you an internal CompUSA document informing Merchandising Managers where to place paid Intel endcaps for their notebooks. Anyhow, wanted to let you know this sort of bribery has been going on for as long as I can remember. I began at CompUSA in 1998. Almost every year like clockwork Intel would hold a "training seminar" for their products at Dave and Busters, or somewhere like it. They would pay for dinner, pay for drinks, but you had to sit through about 2-3 hours of "training." The reason I say "training" is becuase it's basically brainwashing. Honestly. For the people at CompUSA that are maybe new or don't know much, this can be very influential. At the end of these training seminars you become eligable to buy hardware, usually a CPU/Motherboard combo for $200. It's always been $200. Strange thing is AMD has done this in the past as well, but not as frequently. The main difference between the two is AMD has never held a brainwashing session like Intel does. I guess they feel the product speaks for itself. I heartily agree. Always remember Intel has lots of money to throw around and they do! Don't even get me started on Intel secret shoppers program! Recommend Intel's products to the right "shopper" by repeating Intel's bullshit facts and salesmen can win cash and other prizes on the spot. Such bull****.Click here to read more.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is getting good reviews and customer support so far for its new 64-bit Opteron server processor, but the company's chances of signing Dell Inc. as a customer remain bleak.Click here to read more.
On Wednesday, Dell President Kevin Rollins indicated that the company intends to remain an Intel-only shop. Dell offers servers based on Intel's 64-bit Itanium chips, but AMD's new processors handle both 32-bit and 64-bit software.
"To go with an AMD solution becomes problematic for us from a cost and kind of an ice-breaking standpoint," Rollins said. "We believe 64-bit will be a technology customers will want and will migrate to it. It's a market that's emerging but not quite ripe yet."
I just thought I would pass this on to you. My friend works at Best Buy here in ************. It seems as if Intel is offering a new Intel Motherboard, 3.2 GHZ H/T capable P4 and a copy of XP Pro for $200.00 to all employees that sign up for there indoctrination, I mean informative Intel platform educational film. He is one of the PC techs there and he is an AMD fan through and through, he is gonna sign up get everything and place it on EBay so he can get an Athlon FX.Click here to read more.
[Aone] Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi Promo
[HQA & AonE] Ikkitousen Episode 08
[Anime-Keep] Ikkitousen Episode 09
[Anime-Keep] Ikkitousen Episode 10
[A-E & L-E] PLANETES Phase-01.avi
[Keep-ANBU] Full Metal Alchemist Episode 01
[Keep-ANBU]Scrapped Princess Episode 23
SOURCES CLOSE to Advanced Micro Devices told the INQUIRER that although it's the "quiet period" for results, little Chimpzilla had a "great" third quarter.Click here to read more.As AMD echoes the performance of Intel, that means the chip companies are firmly on the rebound, we reckon.
Even the motherboard makers have stopped whinging as they attempt to keep up with orders - the Taiwanese mobo makers are a very cautious lot indeed. And also very slow payers, we know.
Earlier today, the Taiwanese foundries proclaimed their capacity was chock a block, suggesting that perhaps it is time for reinvestment.
Click here to read more.OSAKA, Japan, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Japanese videogame maker Nintendo Co Ltd 7974.OS warned on Friday it would post its first-ever interim loss for April-September due to massive foreign exchange losses and slack sales of its GameCube console.
The maker of "Pokemon" games now forecasts a group net loss of three billion yen ($27 million) for the fiscal first half, against its May estimate of a net profit of 15 billion yen and a profit of 16.5 billion yen a year earlier.
The videogame veteran attributed its first red ink since going public in 1962 to a 40 billion yen one-off loss on its $5 billion of dollar-denominated assets and weak demand for the GameCube.
"Our GameCube sales fell short of our internal targets worldwide for the first half," Yoshihiro Mori, senior managing director, told a news conference.
In a move to boost sales of the struggling GameCube, which faces stiff competition against Sony Corp's 6758.T PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Corp's MSFT.O Xbox, Nintendo said it would cut the console's price in Japan and Europe.
The price will be cut by 29 percent to 14,000 yen ($126.3) in Japan and by 50 percent to 99 euros in Europe on October 17.
The move followed a price reduction late last month in the United States to $99 from $149, which Nintendo said led GameCube sales to more than quadruple in the first week.
Mori said the company expected global demand for GameCube to pick up after the price cuts and, therefore, it was sticking to its sales target of six million units in the year to March
I just got a refurbished GeForceFX 5600 (non-Ultra) for $100 and threw it in my Athlon FX 51 system. The card was able to overclock from the stock 325/550 to 400/650 quite easily. The CPU was running at the stock 2.2GHz. I then ran 3DMark2003... used the online result browser... and found that I got the highest score ever recorded with a non-Ultra 5600. Unfortunately... Futuremark will not allow me to post my score because it doesn't recognize the CPU. All of the top scores are from P4 systems... but none of them match my score. It may just be a matter of an update that hasn't been done... or it may be that the P4 was "supposed" to win... and the Hammer results people are getting were a surprise to Futuremark, and they don't want them posted. I've heard stranger thingsClick here to read more.
[Triad-AonE] Narutaru Episode 12
[Triad-AonE] Narutaru Episode 13
[AonE-Nandeyane] Green Green Episode 07
[SaiyaMan] Naruto Episode 52
[Inf-AonE] Onegai Twins Episode 10
[Anime Otakus] Prince of Tennis Episode 94
[Ani Kraze] Scrapped Princess Episode 23
Sources among Taiwanese mainboard makers state that due to some major issues with Intel’s Strained Silicon 90nm fabrication technology commercial availability of Prescott processors is expected only in the first quarter next year. In December 2003 Intel is very likely to paper-launch its Prescott processors and supply only a handful of such chips to selected solution providers for systems intended for gaming, just like AMD did with its Athlon XP 2800+ processor last year, sources claim.Click here to read more.
Originally set to come in the second quarter of 2003, Intel’s code-named Prescott processor is based on the same NetBurst architecture as all Pentium 4 CPUs, but is made using 90nm technology. As a result of some problems with this fabrication process, Intel postponed the release of the chip till the Q4 this year, but, as we see now, the new CPUs will be de facto available in commercial quantities only next year.
WE'VE TALKED a fair amount at the INQ about Sun and that company's plans for adopting Opteron. And we've also talked a fair bit about IBM's renewed alliance with AMD and the degree to which Big Blue might or might not be getting involved with the day-to-day operations at One AMD Place.Click here to read more.What's not been talked about so much is exactly why it makes so much sense for IBM and Sun to take chances on fully backing AMD's new 64-bit technology, especially given that they both have 64-bit products of their own.
For years, both Sun and IBM have offered 32-bit servers built with Intel Xeon technology - though Sun did actually have an AMD K6-2 product line at one point. Given that each company's primary microprocessor market was in the big-iron 64-bit arena, selling Xeon chips was an additional revenue stream rather than money handed to a competitor. Selling through major business OEMs gave Intel a huge leg into the two way and four way server market and helped establish Xeon as a business product more rapidly than might otherwise have happened. Xeon-based products turned into very popular product lines, and everyone was happy—for a while...
...Properly wielded, AMD's Opteron is more than just a strong performer or a credible Intel alternative, it’s a weapon Intel's two biggest 64-bit competitors may be planning to use to stuff Santa Clara's 64-bit plans while simultaneously ensuring the success of their own product. Nor would allying with AMD and adopting Opteron be exchanging one devil for another—there are several reasons why AMD's new 64-bit processor, even if it had a strong server presence, is not the threat that Intel's would be. The market AMD is chasing at the moment is mainly occupied by Xeon, not Itanium, so transitioning customer's to AMD's architecture isn't cannibalising sales of its own 64-bit product lines.
In general, the whole point of these devices is to move electrons around, and with a higher voltage, electrons may be accelerated to higher velocities, thus deliverying more energy to whatever it ends up colliding with.Click here to read more.To make a long story short, the general trend is that increased supply voltage descreases silicon lifetime. But the relationship isn't a linear one, nor is it one that I have a back of the envelope formula for. Generally, semiconductor manufacturers does a lot of accelerated testing, i.e. testing chips at very high voltages and temperatures, then projecting the reliablity and MTBF failure time from the data collected from the accelerated testing.There are entire conferences devoted to reliability issues where topics about the accuracy of accelerated testing or long term trends are discussed.
The last time I looked up some references was when flamewars flared up about whether or not Motorola was "overclocking" PPC7455's for Apple in pushing the 0.18um process to 1.4 GHz. In that case, the voltage was stepped up from the "normal" bins. Page 7 of the qual report shows that in cranking up the voltage from 1.3V to 1.55V, there is a difference of an order of magnitude in terms of failure rates. So the lifetime does decrease, but the users may not necessarily care.