News for the weekend...
Poster: Aron Schatz
Posted on April 22, 2002 at 2:10:27 AM
Again, I'll put this in one HUGE news post. This is the news and reviews and general stuff I found around the net.
AMDZone
Ahanix Rare XG Review
Ahanix has the made some of the most attractive basic cases I have seen. The two tone coloration makes the case look like it belongs in a futuristic movie instead of sitting on user's desk. This makes it perfect for modern corporate environments and home offices, as now the computer can be shown off instead of hidden underneath a desk where they can get kicked and collect dust. Aesthetically, this case is hard to beat for its price. Functionally it the also has a lot to offer with front accessible USB ports, a motherboard tray, and a quick shell removal. The Rare XG is a rarity in the world of computer cases with its ability to beautifully blend form with function.
Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra First Look
Soyo has made a couple of modifications including an additional power connector, USB 2, and switching to Highpoint RAID instead of Promise. They also benefit from ATA133 and DDR333 support thanks to the new VIA chipsets.
The Inquirer
Speculation everywhere.
Nvidia could buy Transmeta
We think Nvidia could perform a very smart little jig, buy the firms and its patents, and then go back to Microsoft, saving it the trouble of designing its own CPU, and instead saying hey we've got the processor and the graphics for the Xbox 2.
The truth behind ATI and Intel's cross licences
According to our informant, very close to ATI's plans, Intel stepped on the Canadian firm's graphics toes very badly indeed in the 3D area, and faced serious litigation as a result. This is because there are, in our contact's words "many grey areas" of PC development and ATI and Nvidia have, in the last few years, gone hammer and tong against each other to grab graphics patents as part of their competitive fight.
Time for Prescott New Instructions (PNI)
Whatever the nature of the new instructions, we can speculate with some degree of certainty that the Alpha engineers Intel acquired from Compaq sure had some good hyperthreading tech built into that microprocessor, and we wouldn't be a bit surprised if PNI owes more to DEC than anyone could ever have imagined even a year ago.
Van's Hardware
WinHEC stuff Tons of Info...
Banias Details
Although Mr. Otellini divulged very few technical facts regarding Banias, we have a list of details that we believe are accurate.
Banias is essentially a Pentium III core fitted to a low-voltage 400 MHz Pentium 4 bus. Some architectural changes had to be made to the PIII core to accommodate a doubled 64-byte L2 line size.
The Level 2 cache size is 1MB. The cache was enlarged to, in part, reduce thermal density. Banias will be introduced on a 0.13-micron copper process next year. Certain Japanese mobile OEMs are expected to have working silicon shortly.
Initially, Banias will ship at 1.6 GHz and will consume roughly 24.5W. From a power consumption standpoint, this compares poorly with the shipping AMD (Thoroughbred) Mobile Athlon XP launched earlier this week, which may demand less than 20W at the same clock speed.
Again, I prob missed a bunch of stuff. Just email me and I'll post it as always
Ahanix Rare XG Review
Ahanix has the made some of the most attractive basic cases I have seen. The two tone coloration makes the case look like it belongs in a futuristic movie instead of sitting on user's desk. This makes it perfect for modern corporate environments and home offices, as now the computer can be shown off instead of hidden underneath a desk where they can get kicked and collect dust. Aesthetically, this case is hard to beat for its price. Functionally it the also has a lot to offer with front accessible USB ports, a motherboard tray, and a quick shell removal. The Rare XG is a rarity in the world of computer cases with its ability to beautifully blend form with function.
Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra First Look
Soyo has made a couple of modifications including an additional power connector, USB 2, and switching to Highpoint RAID instead of Promise. They also benefit from ATA133 and DDR333 support thanks to the new VIA chipsets.
The Inquirer
Speculation everywhere.
Nvidia could buy Transmeta
We think Nvidia could perform a very smart little jig, buy the firms and its patents, and then go back to Microsoft, saving it the trouble of designing its own CPU, and instead saying hey we've got the processor and the graphics for the Xbox 2.
The truth behind ATI and Intel's cross licences
According to our informant, very close to ATI's plans, Intel stepped on the Canadian firm's graphics toes very badly indeed in the 3D area, and faced serious litigation as a result. This is because there are, in our contact's words "many grey areas" of PC development and ATI and Nvidia have, in the last few years, gone hammer and tong against each other to grab graphics patents as part of their competitive fight.
Time for Prescott New Instructions (PNI)
Whatever the nature of the new instructions, we can speculate with some degree of certainty that the Alpha engineers Intel acquired from Compaq sure had some good hyperthreading tech built into that microprocessor, and we wouldn't be a bit surprised if PNI owes more to DEC than anyone could ever have imagined even a year ago.
Van's Hardware
WinHEC stuff Tons of Info...
Banias Details
Although Mr. Otellini divulged very few technical facts regarding Banias, we have a list of details that we believe are accurate.
Banias is essentially a Pentium III core fitted to a low-voltage 400 MHz Pentium 4 bus. Some architectural changes had to be made to the PIII core to accommodate a doubled 64-byte L2 line size.
The Level 2 cache size is 1MB. The cache was enlarged to, in part, reduce thermal density. Banias will be introduced on a 0.13-micron copper process next year. Certain Japanese mobile OEMs are expected to have working silicon shortly.
Initially, Banias will ship at 1.6 GHz and will consume roughly 24.5W. From a power consumption standpoint, this compares poorly with the shipping AMD (Thoroughbred) Mobile Athlon XP launched earlier this week, which may demand less than 20W at the same clock speed.
Again, I prob missed a bunch of stuff. Just email me and I'll post it as always