AUGUST
NEWS
August 31st, 2001
Zach Gusky presents a very interesting hypothesis regarding AMD's motivation behind the "Model" nomenclature. There might be a method to AMD's madness.
Phil Trent's thoughts on the subjects.
Thanks to Jerry for the link. "If Adobe is serious about freeing Sklyarov, then Adobe should pay for his defense."
August 30th, 2001
...an important update on the site's direction.
August 29th, 2001
Forbes: A Bit on AMD's Marketing
...and benchmarks: "Worse, at least a few benchmarks are widely thought to be controlled by Intel."
AMD's Desktop Palomino Core to Ship in Q3
Chipmaker makes good on earlier statements. Is the desktop Palomino already shipping?
the inquirer: AMD Roadmap News
Mike Magee has dug up a lot of interesting information on AMD's roadmap. He seems to confirm earlier rumors that the Palomino has been pushed back into October. Mike reports the launch date is now October 9th which is about a month later than we were expecting it. It appears that AMD is planning to gamble a measure of its fate on Windows XP, which itself might have an accelerated launch into this timeframe. Also, according to Mike, our suspicion that the Hammer might be early is a distinct possibility.
Is AnandTech becoming the next SharkyExtreme? Some of the same operators have touched both sites.
Talks collapse. Sklyarov and employer named in five-count indictment filed in San Jose federal district court. Here is the DOJ press release as well as this report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that, like us, opposes the DMCA.
Real World Technologies: The Benchmark Examiner
Dean Kent shares his opinions on the current benchmarking climate.
Press Release: AMD's Multiprocessor Platform Receives Linux Software Certifications
The Athlon MP and the AMD760 MP chipset have been Linux certified for one and two-way workstations and servers.
AMD To Return To More Aggressive Marketing
I have been suggesting that the number two chipmaker needs to become more aggressive again and perhaps they are moving back in this direction.
August 28th, 2001
Atlanta's Giant Dinosaur Exhibit Opens
Contains both an Argentinosaurus and a Giganotosaurus.
Press Release: Intel Demonstrates Hyper-Threading
Intel's "Jackson" technology described. To appear in servers in 2002.
"Roddybabes" sent in this humorous link. Be patient when clicking through the initial phony error messages. I meant to mention Windows RG the other day after seeing it linked first at JC's.
InQuest: ATI Mobilty Radeon 7500
Bert seems to think this is a promising mobile graphics controller.
This is not quite what the Borg had in mind. However, I spoke with a very well known paleontologist a few years ago and he expressed to me his firm belief that humans would evolve into immortal cybernetic organisms within fifty years. Although I disagree with his timeframe especially when considering moral issues, this may become technically achievable within this century.
The Inquirer: AMD to Strike Back in October
According to Mad Mike, AMD will launch a slew of Palominos in October to counter Intel's 2 GHz P4. I personally believe that AMD has grown a little too complacent and should be more aggressive in their product introductions. It does not matter that a handful of technically savvy understand that the two companies are essentially at performance parity, what matters is that Intel is beginning to win the PR war. AMD should release high-clocked Palominos and sell them at premium prices to both elevate ASPs and to win enthusiasm back for the aggressive image that brought them so many avid followers over the last two years.
August 27th, 2001
DMCA: Guilty Until Proven Innocent
Joel, the author of our recent DMCA article, sent in this link to a story showing how DMCA can reach into your household and suddenly unplug your access to the Internet -- even before you have a chance to defend yourself (and most people wouldn't know how to do so anyway). The acquisitions and mergers of ISPs with companies that also control movie and recording studios help facilitate quick and brutal crackdowns in the name of DMCA. I measure my words carefully, and I tag DMCA with "fascist" for good reason -- DMCA is marked by centralization of authority under an oppressive dictatorial direction that utilizes censorship and intimidation to enforce its rules.
Chris Tom has a screenshot of Intel advertisements on Tom's Hardware. Even though I believe Tom will attempt to be loyal to the chipmaker, I suggest that Intel spend a little more time researching the companies they chose to associate with -- I have a suspicion that a balloon full of sewage is about to pop.
I saw on AMDZone that my old boss is attacking Chris Tom through emails to his readers. Thomas is positioning himself as being loyal only to "THE TRUTH" while claiming that Chris was not. If he continues this slurring campaign, I will publish here "THE TRUTH" about him and his embattled website and why I left it. Although I know Thomas better than I know Chris, I still know Chris pretty well. Comparing Chris with Thomas is almost as extreme as comparing Mother Theresa with Jeffrey Dahmer (hey, I just noticed that there is quite a resemblance between Pabst and the mercifully late Dahmer -- and they both seem to share "fantasies of total control"). I really don't care what Tom does with his site, but he has no room at all to criticize others.
CPUReview: Another 2GHz Intel Pentium 4 Review
Bill Henning, the author of MemTach, has put up his own 2GHz P4 review.
The Tech-Report: 2GHz Intel Pentium 4 Review
Intel remains afraid to send us review parts, so here is a surrogate analysis.
IBM has created a computer logic circuit (a NOT gate) based on a single molecule -- carbon nanotubes. International Business Machines continues its staggering leadership in new technologies.
August 26th, 2001
I have used Naviscope on and off for about a year. It's not perfect, but it's often handy. It is also free and has loads of features such as DNS caching, atomic clock synchronization, ad filtering, etc. Naviscope can be a little piggy with resources -- it causes noise on BandwidthBurn, so I disable and unload the program when running such tests on my machine. Some people claim Naviscope causes problems after it is uninstalled.
Would you like fries with your clone?
August 25th, 2001
Impoverished Indian tribes still reject half-a-billion dollar offer for Paha Sapa or Black Hills. Ho-ka hey!
Samsung and Microsoft Produce HiFi Component Style Home Server
This is a potentially very important new market that I have written about in the past. There is no reason that a Linux based product couldn't come to dominate this field.
Free Speech Under Fire: The American People vs. the DMCA
Joel visits fascist dictum.
Pigs Are as Smart as Retarded Kids?
According to Swedish animal rights activist Zaida Catalan it's true. She has understandably come under fire for this remark made in a newspaper interview Thursday in an attempt at "upgrading animals to the level of humans."
News too late for some webmasters I know.
A worm that is supposed to eat viruses instead leaves malicious code intact while munching on files. Well, this is according to "experts" from leading anti-virus software companies. Not surprisingly, organizations like Symantec don't like the idea of free virus eating worms multiplying through the Internet.
Oldie but goodie (or baddie depending on your perspective).
August 24th, 2001
Goal is to build 3d map of all mass in the universe.
Intel Confirms DDR SDRAM i845 Schedule
Northwood info too.
Press Release: AMD Announces Support For Microsoft Windows XP
Athlon and Duron "unlock Windows XP full potential."
"Market savior" to ship to OEMs. This controversial OS is likely to harm more than help current market conditions. Even after its court setbacks, Microsoft is forcing into this NT derivative the most egregiously invasive and anti-competitive measures yet. Microsoft is likely accelerating XP's product launch schedule to beat the increasing probability of injunctions.
Microsoft Funds Letter-Writing Campaign Posing as Dead People to Thwart Anti-Trust Lawsuits
18 state attorneys general targeted. This is similar to anonymous corporate trolls polluting message boards -- it's all about controlling perception.
August 23rd, 2001
Russian programmer victim of fascist DMCA to appear in a San Jose court next week.
Top Ten Reasons Why It is 2001 and Phil Trent is Not Fighting HAL in Outer Space
I can add an eleventh reason: Microsoft. Oh, and a twelfth: Pokemon.
The carnage continues -- and will continue for quite a bit longer.
Nintendo has announced a minor two week delay that will cause the gaming system to now ship after the Xbox. The Japanese company still maintains it will ship four million units by the end of March.
Service marketed to celebrities claims it will copyright people's genetic roadmap. Disposition of offensive clones was not discussed.
August 22nd, 2001
WindowsXP: Is the XPerience Worth It?
Responding to our plea for reader contributions, Joel answers with a good piece on Windows XP. Joel plans to contribute additional articles and we welcome him. In a related note, don't forget the anti-WPA petition.
Intel's 0.13 micron P4 dubbed "Northwood" will have 512 kB of L2 cache. The larger cache should help buffer performance somewhat from the underlying memory subsystem. Although Intel still asserts that they will ship 0.13 micron parts in quantity shortly in 2001, we still believe Northwood will not reach volume production until next year.
Some of my mother's ancestors were part of a rebellious group of Cherokee that traveled into Texas and Mexico in the 1800s to live freely. So entrenched was their antipathy towards the U.S. Government that my mother recounts a story of her witnessing her great grandfather, who made the original trip into the Rio Grande River Valley and lived to 110 and was close to this age at the time, not only rejecting a government check for $30,000 in the middle of the Great Depression, but chasing off the official who brought it. On our recent trip back we traveled through the Cherokee Nation and we stopped at the Cherokee Information Center. We promised the people there that we would plug their site.
August 21st, 2001
Just Back From Trip...
We hope to be posting again either later today or tomorrow.
August 16th, 2001
Note: To reduce bandwidth, this article has been moved off the front page.
ScienceMark Author Talks SysMark
Dr. Tim Wilkens comments about recent controversy.
Underground aquifers postulated.
Our Intel SysMark Article Ruffles Feathers
OverClocker's didn't like it much.
Schooling supper suspected.
I want to eat em!
August 15th, 2001
...reported by DigiTimes.
Giant Solar-Powered Wing Sets Altitude Record
Reaches 96,500 feet.
Pardon Me, Have You Seen My H-Bomb?
Uncle Sam seems to have lost an armed one near Georgia in 1958. The search was called off after ten weeks when another H-bomb was accidentally dropped near Florence, South Carolina and the Georgia team had to be sent to clean it up.
Sharks Are Swarming Near Florida
No one knows why.
Fascist DMCA Delivered Setback
More crackdowns ahead? Thought Police alerted.
August 14th, 2001
VIA's P4X266 Achieves Roughly 100% DDR SDRAM Bandwidth Efficiency
Using one of our custom benchmarks, the P4X266 reaches the same level of throughput as Intel's dual channel i850 RDRAM chipset while greatly exceeding the Intel / Rambus platform's bandwidth efficiency.
UPDATE:
DDR SDRAM delivers higher memory bandwidth than RDRAM on popular benchmark.
Press Release: AMD Clarifies Relationship with IBM
Chipmaker continues to work with Big Blue.
the inquirer: More Class Action Lawsuits Filed Against Rambus
Shareholders are going to be even more incensed as they see additional results for VIA's P4X266 DDR-SDRAM Pentium 4 chipset.
Benchmarketing 101: Intel SysMark
BAPCo's shady links to Intel are well known inside the review industry though many chose to ignore these questionable connections. We take a look at the impact of sneaky optimizations in one SysMark 2000 test.
August 13th, 2001
Duplicity is not the road to salvation. My old haunt slips a notch.
A comparison between two cheap and fast 3.5 inch drives from Western Digital and Seagate.
LostCircuits: Intel 1.2GHz Tualatin Review
Dr. Michael Schuette compares the new PIII with identically clocked Thunderbird and Palomino cores and the Intel design is beginning to show its age. The Tualatin does appear, however, to be well suited for low power applications. Compare Michael's review with this staggeringly horrible piece from PC World.
SocketA: Review of MSI K7T266Pro-R
Chris says this is the fastest VIA KT266 based Athlon board he has tested.
August 12th, 2001
the inquirer: Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Rambus
This is a predictable consequence after the roller coaster performance of the intellectual property company's stock coupled with Rambus's legal defeats including the recently upheld fraud conviction regarding SDRAM. The Mountain View, Caifornia, company also has to pay over $7.1 million in Infineon legal bills.
And bread molds outsmart financial analysts (like Ashok Kumar).
New contest pits AI programs against each other in mystery game.
August 11th, 2001
Revisit: Sartori Talks HyperTransport, Arapahoe
I wrote Wednesday's HyperTransport article in about thirty minutes and did not even have a chance to proof it because I had to catch a flight to Austin. Here is a slightly expanded, much cleaner and readable version of that article.
August 10th, 2001
AMDMB.COM: Shuttle AK31 Rev2 VIA KT266 Athlon Motherboard
Good price performance ratio they claim.
Plants Colonized Land Much Earlier Than Previously Believed
Way, way earlier in fact.
Austin Trip
I have just returned from a trip to VIA-Centaur's headquarters in Austin. I will report a little about the trip soon.
August 9th, 2001
Code Red Wiggles Into Microsoft
The White House, the Pentagon, now Microsoft; is anyone safe anymore?
August 8th, 2001
HyperTransport Consortium Leader Brings Clarity to Interconnect Technology Landscape
Gabriele Sartori speaks with Van's Hardware Journal about how HyperTransport and Arapahoe will work side-by-side.
Literally. Astronomers believe they have found the first rays of starlight originating billions of years ago.
Not again! VIA DDR SDRAM P4 chipset must be pretty good to warrant such strong-arming. Remember when Intel tried to prevent VIA chipsets from entering the U.S. shortly after the Athlon was introduced? Shortly before this, Intel was also allegedly applying pressure on motherboard makers by rationing chipset supplies.
AnandTech: Crazy About Their New Athlon MP Server
Anand talks about his little 1U APPRO 1124.
CIA Set Up and Funds High-Tech Venture Capital Firm
And a congressionally mandated study from a group of CIA appointed buddies says, "Groovy!" In-Q-Tel has been CIA funded so far to a tune of $80.9 million. One project they set up is a link analysis program to infer relationships between people of organizations. I could use a little of that dough, Spy Man!
August 7th, 2001
Intel Positions Arapahoe Against AMD's HyperTransport
Repeats claim that HyperTransport will not be able to keep pace. Chip giant contradicts statements made by its rival.
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Sklyarov Freed On $50,000 Bail
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) victim bailed out by Moscow software company. Protests continue: see link in our Reviews column.
Price War Rattles Intel Investors and Analysts
Intel's position is still much worse than market reflects. AMD continues to carry technological advantages.
Amazing Triassic Fossils Described
Snapshot of life near dawn of dinosaurs.
Despite risks and moral considerations, attempts to create human clones will be carried out later this year. Strangely, a UFO group is centrally involved.
Chipmaker informs VHJ that Intel's 3GIO standard is not a threat to AMD's HyperTransport.
Silicon Wars: Chapter IV, A New Chip
AKA: AMD versus Intel Episode I (not to be confused with Attack of the Clones). Phil Trent creates Silicon Fiction.
August 6th, 2001
Listen to MP3s and Lose Your Job
Beatle on the rampage and more on David McOwen.
New variant observed; anti-virus companies rejoice. Will there come a day when all computers connected to the Internet have to submit to centralized monitoring / licensing to "ensure the safety of the Net" (a la an advanced form of WPA)? Of course, this would also please the powerful "digital rights management" machine that could easily tap into this mechanism to reach into homes and control all forms of digital media.
August 5th, 2001
AMDMB: Thermalright CB-6L Heatsink+Fan Review
An early look at a smallish, economical Athlon cooler with a copper base.
August 4th, 2001
"Mad Mike" Magee Fired From The Inquirer?
So proclaims ExtremeTech's Nick Stam to a startled Magee.
August 3rd, 2001
Press Release: Integra All-in-One 1.4 GHz AMD Athlon System
15" cable ready TFT LCD display with stereo FM and TV tuners, remote, DVD player, and more.
Short Takes: Samsung 570V 15", 760vTFT 17" LCD Monitors
Quick reviews of two relatively inexpensive flat panel LCD monitors.
AMD's K8 Appears
A source who wishes to remain anonymous has told VHJ that Dresden has been producing K8 SOI samples for analysis. Apparently the first such chip appeared sometime last month. We hope to announce more in the coming weeks. "K8" is an alternative designation for AMD's upcoming "Hammer" family of 64-bit processors. Sampling this early suggests that AMD is well ahead of its published roadmaps.
LostCircuits: Thunderbird-Palomino Comparison
Dr. Michael Schuette has put up an interesting comparison of old versus new Athlon architectures. One interesting aspect of Michael's analysis is the profound difference the addition of SSE makes for the Palomino -- we have lamented many times the objectivity of some popular benchmarks for favoring this Intel instruction set extension over AMD's 3dNow! Also worth noting, Chris Tom compares the quality of Michael's work with a dubious effort from Ziff-Davis's ironically named ExtremeTech.
Microsoft Set To Turn the Screw on Businesses
Jerry sent in this link and poses the question, "By what law or right does this BSA have to come into a business and audit the software being used?" In related note, don't forget the anti-WPA petition.
August 2nd, 2001
Dr. Barrett says the industry has bottomed out and stocks rebound in tune, but we don't buy it. Until the ailing chip giant owns up to the real causes of its woes, the market remains in danger.
Interesting but meandering commentary on the debatable merits of "RLC"s and their Orwellian implications for a society growing conditioned to digital monitoring and shrinking personal privacy. Although the report exposes how some local governments are profiting from these devices, it fails to mention that the company providing them typically receives a percentage of each collected fine, effectively making RLC's paid robotic snitches rolled out on every level for profit and not for the public's well being.
Intel's 0.13 Micron Process Still a Go for 2001?
Intel reports to VHJ that equipment problems won't undermine production ramp, while some continue to believe otherwise.
Neanderthals and Moderns Didn't Mix?
I don't think so since some of the last Neanderthals, like Bill Clinton and certain hardware site personalities, had more gracile, almost humanlike features.
In Madagascar of all places.
August 1st, 2001
Sony's New Music Copy Protection Tactic Can Potentially Damage Stereos
Sony is interested in an aggressive measure to prevent casual CD copying. Playing back copies of their CD's treated with the "Cactus Data Shield" could potentially damage stereo systems and particularly harm loudspeakers. Commercial CD's deploying this scheme will also likely have inferior sound quality. Sony has already test marketed the Cactus system in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Press Release: VIA July Sales Results
Year to date net up more than 34% over 2000.
Would You Be Willing to Donate A Little To Keep This Site Alive?
Instead of an advertising model, I am thinking about setting up a donation plate to keep this site up. We are running out of money and time. Although I'll try to keep the site up indefinitely, I have to support my family. Please let me know if you think readers would be willing to support a donation model. Whatever the resolution, I want to keep Van's Hardware always true to our ideals, clean and free of corporate influences.
Millions of U.S. Federal Dollars Pour Into Big Brother Technology
Face recognition system scans public areas.
Ghostly Call Results in Death of Two
Two teenage girls die in panic.
Time to threaten Taiwan.
Chess Master Trash Talks Super-Computer
Remember John Henry? The mountain's caving in!
Were the first Americans Joman?
The Joman are an enigmatic and almost extinct race of Asians bearing European characteristics. Their remaining descendents are the disappearing Japanese Ainu, a people almost completely replaced by the present day Japanese who largely immigrated from the Korean peninsula only a few thousand years ago. That the Joman reached the New World is probably correct, but Joman features attributed to the Cherokee (I am part Cherokee), for instance, are more likely of ancient European origin. Additionally, this study ignores the very strong evidence of New World occupation dating much, much farther back than the 15,000 year timeframe.
Space Aliens Rain Down on Earth!
But they're wee little fellers. And that's only if these researchers are to be trusted because they do look just like terrestrial bacteria (the bugs not the researchers).
Where are the clones? Apparently not here.
Worm On The Loose?
Zach recommends visiting this site to see what impact the Worm might be having.
Zach's article is pretty timely.
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