Sigma Designs has released an MPEG-4 codec of thier own. It's not surprising since they have just released thier Xcard, which is a hardware based decoder which can decode MPEG-4 video. You can read a review of it over at Tom's Hardware Guide.
Sigma Designs, a leader in IP video streaming solutions, demonstrated today for the first time an MPEG-4 video CODEC that works as a plug-in under Windows to encode digitized video content into fully compatible ISO MPEG-4 video files. The new CODEC is available now for download, free of charge, through Sigma's website to support users wishing to build ISO MPEG-4 compatible content.
The emergence of a trend toward 'MPEG-4 Ready' devices is generating increasing demand for fast and easy methods of encoding and producing MPEG-4 compatible files. In support of this trend, Sigma has developed its CODEC to ensure that users can develop content libraries in a manner fully compatible with the MPEG-4 video specifications and Sigma's silicon implementations. Using Sigma's new MPEG-4 CODEC, users will have the assurance of plug-n-play operation, much like the DVD standard has accomplished. In a similar manner, Apple is providing MPEG-4 encoding support in its recent release of QuickTime 6.0
Feature wise, the Gigabyte GA-8IEXP is comparable with the ASUS P4B533-E we recently reviewed, although unfortunately the ASUS board outperformed the GA-8IEXP in most tests. However, the margins were only small which indicates that the Gigabyte board is still in fact a high performance board, that happens to be packed to the rim with support for the latest technologies such as USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, ATA133 RAID, CNR and MS/SD. Running the CPU at 166MHz (2.4@2.99GHz) was a piece of cake, and the memory didn't have any troubled keeping up at 'unofficial' DDR333 specs. At this point in time I don't have any pricing information on the GA-8IEXP, but I can assure you that value for money has always been a priority of Gigabyte.
One potential client, who had about 10 Sun and Intel servers, was spending around $75,000 a month for management, power, floor space and hardware, Hart said. Buying the necessary service units from IBM for the job costs $60,000 a month, he said.
TherMagic is a very capable thermal interface material that produces good coverage and an extremely thin bondline. This last fact alone increases the likelihood that near optimum heat transfer efficiency is being reached.
The Acorp 7KT333 is another good KT333 board, and the Smart Panel 2 gives it something to stand out from the pack with. Overclockers won't take a shine to the board, but inexperienced system builders will enjoy the compatibility testing Acorp includes in their manual. Overall the 7KT333 is a solid KT333 based board, but it may not do too well in the enthusiast market without more overclocking features.
So far, most of the PCs shipped have gone into developed nations. The United States has received 38.8 percent, or 394 million, of PCs shipped. Nearly 25 percent have gone to Europe, while only 11.7 percent have gone into the Asia-Pacific region, the fastest-growing market today. And then we'll need to dispose of the billions of obselete crap.
Secondly, the overclocking. While Albatron does give you a heap of options, there are still a few extra options and additions I would like to have seen made. Firstly, I would have preferred higher memory voltage options; 2.8v is just not enough for pushing high memory frequencies, especially if this board is going to have DDR-400 dividers in the next BIOS. Secondly, there are no AGP/PCI dividers to control. When overclocking, its nice to be able to know and set your PCI and AGP frequencies manually. Finally, on the overclocking side, AGP voltage adjustments would have been nice. Overclocking the video card requires some extra power on the AGP and Albatron's KX400+ just doesn't give the option.
Still I was pretty sure that ATI would not go for CG since this is Nvidia's thing and if it adopted it, this would make it look like a follower but not the leaders.
Nvidia will allow anyone to use this language at no charge, but it still seems to be the only one ready to go for it big time.
But this could cause problems because if ATI designs its own shading language, this would put developers into an invidious position, as they would have to decide which language they should use.
The Winfast upgrade kit Number 2 include a K7N415DA mobo using the Nforce 415 chipset, which is being bundled with a Geforce 4200 based Winfast A250 card.
And number one is a cheaper bundle which includes the Winfast A250 LE TD, a card which uses the Geforce MX460 technology.
The firm is also bundling three games, Quanox, Master Ralley und Rogue Spear-Black Thorne, it says here as well as some demo CDs.
The impending implementation of MS's Palladium technology looks to be very Orwellian in nature. Palladium if implemented would essentially place control of any hardware and/or software that you might want to use on your PC solely in control of the respective vendors, as you would have to get 'permission' from them to use something YOU bought. This includes something as simple as just booting your PC! You can also be assured of being charged an access fee to get 'permission' to use the item, once enough of this technology is spread. This will be a hardware based item with eventual implementation based on the CPU itself.
The 250,000-square-foot facility was the smallest of four manufacturing plants that Compaq acquired from Inacom in January 2000. The facility was used for final assembly and some manufacturing of desktops, notebooks, servers and handhelds ordered from Compaq's Web site.
At present, if the Apache worm tries to spread to any non-FreeBSD system, it will likely crash the session on the server to which the worm had connected. That's not so bad, said Maiffret, but it could cause many servers to crash if the worm develops into an epidemic.
The server market remains one of the prime growth areas for companies like Intel, Microsoft, Dell Computer and, now, AMD. Although PC-based servers--or servers that use chips based on designs originally from Intel--have been around for years, the traditional RISC/Unix server manufacturers like Sun Microsystems continue to snatch the bulk of the revenue and dominate the upper echelons of the market.
There are a few ways you can look at these boards to determine who the ultimate winner was. One way is to judge the boards on a feature vs. price ratio; another is a performance vs. price ratio. Or ideally, a performance vs. features vs. price ratio. Since all three boards feature the same chipset, performance vs. price won’t be an issue. However, features vs. price will be, and performance will obviously be considered. It is hard to pick a winner based on features, as MSI and SOYO both packed their boards with all the goods. ECS on the other hand are the obvious losers here, and the $20 US price difference between the ECS and MSI 645DX board will not save them. Performance wise, MSI dominated and retailing for around $100 this board seems too good to be true. MSI have made it difficult for ECS to compete as their “Lite” version of the 645E Max2 retails for around $80 US. SOYO also have a real winner on their hands with the SOYO SY-P4S-645DX Dragon Ultra, as it combines great features, overclocking and performance however, the board is said to retail for an insane $160 US!?!?!? If this is correct, which I believe it is, you just cannot justify purchasing this board when MSI have a very similar product for $60 US less.
The board even with its overclocking issues was a strong performer and had it not been for the RAM slot issues, would have be an OK desktop workstation candidate. Still, you are not going to come close to hearing us suggest you buy this board when there are so many other solid candidates on the market. When fully populated RAM slots do not recognize all your memory, there is a serious problem somewhere and one that you are most likely to find out about when the board is way out of warranty. Not a good problem to have.
"The plaintiffs contend consumers' software programs cannot lawfully display pop-up windows while a consumer is surfing the Internet. This flies in the face of the very nature of the Windows operating system and is ridiculous," McFadden said. "It would mean that AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Microsoft Outlook and dozens of other software applications that automatically display information in separate windows are illegal."
The P4S8X , A7V8X and A7N8X are based on SiS’ 648, VIA’s KT400 and NVIDIA’s latest chipset, respectively. One of the main features of these motherboards is the advanced Serial ATA storage interface. Different from the traditional Parallel ATA, Serial ATA offers lower voltage (500milivolts peak to peak), thinner and longer cables, lower pin counts, simpler cable routing and smaller connectors for smaller form factor design, system stability and robust data transfer at 150MB/s. They also have AGP 8x.
PCFX has constructed a well made small form factor system based on a chipset that provides far better than average integrated video and sound along with good overall performance. The TV and FM tuner features combined with DVD playback make it a good choice for a dorm room or any situation where space is at a premium. It will be interesting to see whether this concept of a small form factor multiuse computer will take off. It uses the nForce 420-D.
KD Computers has an especially nice prize this week for their winner. It's a pair of Thermalright heatsinks, one being the SLK600 which I recently installed in my very own XP 2100 system and have been extremely satisfied with it's performance. Even with a low-performance fan, this heat-sink works really well. Enter the contest here.
Because of the pure stunning performance offered by this card both at default speeds and overclocked, Hexus.net give it a VERY rare editors choice award. If Gainward would allow it we hope to use this for future reviews when testing various hardware. I personally would like to see it in a case with a window and neon lighting.
I have melded the two sites into one once again. Software and Hardware go together to much to have two sites. I don't know what to do with the second site. I have to do something with it , any ideas just fire off an email to me. If you have a good idea and would like to help out, that would be great.
PowerStrip 3.19 provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 8500DV and GeForce4 Ti4600. It is in fact the only program of its type to support multiple graphics cards from multiple chipset vendors, simultaneously, under every Windows operating system from Windows 95 to XP. A simple menu that pops up from the system tray provides access to some 500 controls over your display hardware, including sophisticated color correction tools, period level adjustments over screen geometry, and driver independent clock controls!
Right from the start, the ABIT KX7-333R impressed us, and continued to do so through out the review process. ABIT has chosen to forego the expense of building a board that has a colorful PCB and numerous extras, instead focusing on what matters most. The end result is a well-crafted motherboard of excellent quality that has demonstrated first-class performance in all phases of testing. The KX7-333R is complimented by one of the most complete BIOSs we've seen on a KT333 system. With an exceptional collection of settings, the KX7-333R is one of the most tweakable systems around. We feel that the PC enthusiast looking for a high performance board with a lot of potential may find what they are looking for with the KX7-333R.
Due to their high density, graphics chips are usually the product that companies use to test advanced processing. Judging from SiSs product roadmap, its Xabre II, which is set to be launched in the fourth quarter, is likely to be SiSs first product manufactured with 0.13-micron technology. Its Xabre 600 graphics chip, scheduled to hit the market in the third quarter, should still adopt the older process.
Here we go again folks. Another day another patch for the nasty bugs that ail you. This time it's a cumulative patch for Windows Media Player 6.4, 7.1 or the Windows XP version. Get it while it's hot, over at Microsoft.
I believe that the Tbred was just a move by AMD to make sure their .13 micron process works. From roadmaps I have, the Barton core will be introduced in the second half of this year, leaving hardly anytime for Tbreds to seep into the market.
Look for Barton Athlons with 512K of cache and most likely a FSB boost. And yet even after Barton, the Clawhammer will be right on its toes.
According to our sources, the 128-bit implementation will make multitexturing applications look better and you will be able to have 32-bits per colour. This is amazing since it enables you to have 16.7 milion combnations per colour. In current 32-bit color you just have 8 pixels per colour, giving just 256 variations of colors. All this means also is more video memory is needed to store this.