December 31st, 2000

Happy New Year's to All!  

Have a safe and very happy New Year's Eve everyone.  We'll see you in 2001 (tomorrow!)

Everyone at KickAss Gear

December 29th, 2000

Intel P4 Chipset Problem.

Tech Web reports that a flaw has been found in Intel's Pentium 4 chipset, known as the i850 chipset. The flaw only occurs with DVD hardware encoders or PCI video cards, so it will not affect most users.  Apparently when PCI video devices access the bus across the i850 South bridge, the bus becomes overloaded with data, with resultant drop-outs in sound and/or video.  Intel reports that it knew of the bug with regard to PCI video cards, but not DVD encoder cards.  

Even though this appears to be a relatively minor bug, Intel is at pains to ensure that they do not have any more public chipset problems. I am therefore slightly surprised that Intel would release a new chipset that had any known hardware problems, considering what happened with the i820 chipset. A new revision of the i850 is expected in several weeks.

                                 Dr. John

December 27th, 2000

Intel's Processor Pickle.  

A quick check today of Intel's processor availability at distributors indicated something rather interesting. Very few Intel Pentium III processors are currently available in the supply chain, while tens of thousands of Celeron 2 processors are languishing in warehouses. In addition, all three flavors (1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 GHz) of the Pentium 4 processor are listed as backordered or allocated.

It looks like Intel may have made a mistake when it ramped up production of the Celeron 2 at a time when Pentium III and Pentium 4 processors were in short supply, and Celerons were less than popular. I have a feeling that some of those piles of Celeron 2 processors may end up never being sold at any price. The Celeron 2 was crippled by Intel when it introduced artificial latencies as a way of making sure the Pentium III would always be a faster processor. AMD did not follow suit, and as a result their Duron processor is noticeably faster, substantially cheaper, and much more popular than the Celeron. Despite this, the low cost of Athlon processors has led to a buildup of Duron processor inventory. So in some sense, AMD is in a similar situation as Intel with their low end processor.

On top of this, chip and PC sales have been quite slow in the fourth quarter of 2000. Analysts have suggested several reasons for this, including the fact that the price wars between AMD and Intel have led people to wait and see what happens with pricing on processors, hoping that they will continue to drop even further. Also, there is some confusion among customers as to what type of processor and memory to buy. In the past most people just had to decide what speed Pentium III to buy. Now there are many more choices including the Pentium 4 with Rambus memory, the Duron with SDRAM, or the Athlon with SDRAM. In addition, Athlon platforms using the double data rate memory should be available in the next few weeks, and more savvy customers may be waiting for those.

And the one thing I have not heard anyone mention yet concerning slow PC sales is that many potential PC buyers and upgraders have been eyeing, or buying, Sony PlayStation 2s. And while most folks interested in the PlayStation 2 may not have been thinking about buying a PC, there certainly are other people who have put off all thought of buying a new computer, and are instead going for a PlayStation 2 and as many games for it as they can afford.

So between the price wars, confusion as to what is best, the possible beginning of a recession, the fact that newer platforms are on the way, and perhaps even the debut of the PlayStation 2 have all done their part to cut into PC sales. So expect lower PC prices in the coming year (as usual). The next round of processor price cuts is scheduled for the end of January.

                                 Dr. John

December 23rd, 2000

Intel's New PIII Stepping.  

Documents released by Intel indicate that they are working on a new version, or stepping, of the Pentium III processor. The list of changes below was pulled from the released Intel product change document at the link above.

· C-0 to D-0 Core Processor Stepping Change.

· CPUID change from 0686h for C-0 Step to 068Ah for D-0 Step.

· The Vcc operating voltage will change from 1.70V For C-0 Step to 1.75v for D-0 Step.

· The Thermal Design Power increased. (Please refer to the latest revision of the Pentium® III Processor Datasheet).

· The 1 GHz line item will contain both the FC-PGA2 package with an Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS), as well as the current FC-PGA package.

Aside from the crummy grammar (The Thermal Design Power increased?), what do these items tell us about the new stepping? Well, based on my cursory reading of the document, it looks like not much of a change. Changing the core voltage by 0.05 V is nothing new, overclockers do it all the time. Changing the CPU ID is nothing. I'll have to check on what the Thermal Design Power is, but it probably just has to do with the heat tolerance of the packaging design. The only notable difference in the new stepping is the so-called Integrated Heat Spreader, which is probably just a modification or addition to the surface of the chip, and/or the heat sink itself, to make more contact between the heat sink and chip.

Part of Intel's problem in getting Pentium III chips to run above 1.1 GHz was heat related. But keep in mind that electronic interference may also be a major limiting factor which cannot be reduced by improving heat dissipation. To reduce electronic interference at high speeds, the chip needs to be redesigned as in the case of the Pentium 4. The other way to reduce electronic interference is to reduce the power requirements of the chip. This is exactly what Intel will be doing when they move the Pentium III to the 0.13 Micron fabrication process. So until that happens, I expect that the Pentium III, even in the D. 0 stepping, will not clock much above 1.2 or perhaps 1.3 GHz.

                                  Dr. John

Happy Holidays to All!

Everyone here at KickAss Gear wishes you and yours a very happy holiday, and a fantastic new year!  2001 looks like the best year ever for gaming hardware, and spectacular new games.  So stay tuned!! Ho Ho Ho!

Dr. J and The KickAss Gear Crew

December 16th, 2000

Bye Bye 3dfx! We'll Miss You :~(  

How could it have come to this? The premier 3-D accelerator manufacturer of just two years back is closing up shop and selling all assets to archrival NVidia. It seems almost impossible to believe after we had just heard that they were reorganizing in an attempt to become a chip manufacturer again, rather than a board manufacturer. But obviously this step was taken too late to save the company.

This leaves only two real players in the 3-D accelerator market, NVidia and ATI. And while I don't expect either of them to fold any time soon, this reduces competition in that market by one-third.

So what happened to 3dfx? Bad decision-making. Their decision to buy STB and manufacture their own video cards was the beginning of the end. It might have been a good idea at a different time, but just when 3dfx decided to do this, a major parts shortage developed in the computer industry. This meant they had gotten into the video card manufacturing business just when the parts required to manufacture video cards were unavailable. In addition, 3dfx was unable to match NVidia's video card products in raw speed. So the few cards they did manage to get to market were just not as fast as the competition's product. Then ATI came up with the Radeon, which further cut into 3dfx's sales.

Well folks, it really is the end of an era. KickAss Gear got its start in the computer industry in part by being one of the first distributors of the 3dfx "Canopus Pure 3-D card" on East Coast back in early 1998. Since then, Canopus has pulled its products from the U.S. market, and 3dfx has gone out of business. My how times have changed.

To Everyone at 3dfx, thanks for everything, and Good Luck! 

3dfx Press Release

                                   Dr. John

December 15th, 2000

Pentium 4 is Slower Than it Could Have Been.  

Could the P4 have been even faster?  The Register says yes!  According to the article, the original Pentium 4 design would have been too large to be economical and reliable. The original core design had some pretty fancy stuff in it, which Intel's engineers had to pull to get back some chip real estate.

                                    Dr. John

December 12th, 2000

Are AMD and Intel Mega-Hurtsing Each Other?  

According to an article at The Register, AMD and Intel's mega-hurts wars have hurt both companies.  We concur.  But the article seems to make the point that folks just don't' want or need faster computers, since last year's rigs are fast enough.  I don't believe that's the primary problem for the two chip churning companies.  Rather, it's the mega-hurts and price wars that have raged for months now.  

Don't get me wrong, competition is Very good for consumers, but when two companies lock horns this intensely, and the fur really begins to fly, most folks would rather just sit back and watch the fight.  They wonder "how low can prices go on 1GHz processors?" Why buy now if the price/mega-hurts wars are going to add another 100MHz for $100 less in just a week or two?

I have a feeling that the mega-hurts war will settle into a trench war after the holidays.  I expect slower price reduction schedules, but continued increases in system speed.  And yet, small computer makers may not survive the drought in system sales if the mega-hurts wars go unabated for another few months.

                                       Dr. John

Rambus Takes Aim at NVidia.

I have been wondering when Rambus would get around to suing graphics card and chip makers. Apparently, Rambus has enough spare cash to go after many corporations at one time.  And now they they turning their litigious gaze at NVidia, maker of the most popular graphics chip on the market today.

NVidia says the suit has no merit, but that has never stopped Rambus before.  If NVidia does not begin paying Rambus royalties (for stuff Rambus never designed or made!), Rambus says it will file an immediate law suit.

AMD Joins Slow-Sales Mob.

AMD announced slow sales for the quarter yesterday.  This is just one more sign that this is going to be a bad holiday sales season for computer makers.

December 11th, 2000

Mike's Back and Meaner Than Ever :)

Mike Magee of The Register is back from sabbatical, and he's off to a great start with a story on Intel's continued bad luck and poor management.  From Rambus rumblings to Itanium as Titanic, to serious supply problems, Intel is not progressing smoothly with it's plans.  

But we should mention that currently, Pentium 4 systems are available, while AMD/VIA double data rate memory systems are still on the drawing board, weeks after they were "announced".  So at least this time, Intel has orchestrated a better "roll-out" than AMD/VIA for this holiday shopping season.

                             Dr. John

December 8th, 2000

AMD Price Drop Monday 

AMD is scheduled to drop prices on it's processors substantially this Monday.  The 1GHz Athlon should drop to near $200! That's quite a change from a few months back.  In terms of AMD's profits, the move might not be the best idea, but in terms of gaining market share, it's obviously going to help AMD cut further into Intel sales.  Athlon systems at 1GHz are in a price range that makes Pentium 4 systems seem very expensive indeed, even after Intel's price drop.  Only businesses, scientists, and rich folk will spring for a P4 when Athlons are so fast, and affordable.

                             Dr. John

December 6th, 2000

Palomino Gets Silicone Implants! (sorry, no pictures!)

AMD has been working with a company called Isonics for the last year to produce new microprocessors with an isotopically pure form of silicon known as silicon-28. Silicon is the basic substrate which chips are built on, but the natural forms used in current microprocessors does not dissipate heat as well as engineers would like. Silicon-28, on the other hand, is a much better thermal conductor, so that chips constructed with this material run much cooler. AMD's upcoming Palomino processor has been reported to run as high as 1.7 GHz when manufactured with silicon-28. This is excellent news for AMD now that Intel has processors available running at 1.5 GHz.

                            Dr. John

December 5th, 2000

Alert! Computer Gaming Widens Generation Gap.

I thought the "generation gap" was an idea that disappeared decades ago, but boy was I wrong.  Apparently, computer gaming is a major source of inter-generational distrust and strife.  Check out Slashdot for another segment in thier multi-part series on the topic  (I guess this is just too big to cover in a single article).

December 3rd, 2000

Rambus Bites Off Own Nose, and Shoots Own Foot.

In a recent flurry of self inflicted injuries, Rambus has even turned on their only remaining fair-weather friend, Intel.

An article at e-Insite claims that Rambus may be preparing to bring a lawsuit against Intel. This is a sure sign that those wacky folks at Rambus have lost all touch with reality. Intel is the company that has used all its marketing muscle over the last two years to give Rambus a foot up into the memory market. Now that the rumors of an impending Intel double data rate DRAM chipset for the Pentium 4 processor have circled the World Wide Web dozens of times, Rambus has finally commented.

"If Intel is building a chip which has a memory interface other than a Rambus memory interface, and if that memory interface infringes our patents, then Intel is not licensed to use our patents for that application and that chip," said Geoff Tate, Rambus’ chief executive officer in a conference call to analysts and investors Thursday.

Well burn my bridges and golly gee whiz! Who would have thought that a company that makes no products whatsoever could become rich by suing every company that has anything to do with manufacturing memory or memory interfaces. The question is, how long will it last? With virtually every computer corporation and most consumers hoping that Rambus falls flat on its face, it must be a pretty lonely world out there. But I guess cash has a way of soothing greedy souls.

                            Dr. John

December 2nd, 2000

AMD 760 Chipset Delay Confirmed.

Micron PC has announced they will be delaying the release of new AMD 760 chipset motherboard based computers due to excessive electromagnetic interference.  These Micron motherboards were to be the first to market with the new 266MHz double data rate memory interface.  However, the higher bus speed has translated to unacceptable increases in electromagnetic emissions which will need to be reduced before the boards are ready for market.  Estimates range from mid-January to early February for the new release date.  So forget about that DDR-Athlon system for Christmas!

In an unrelated story, Micron has joined the ranks of computer makers saying that sales are well below last years figures.

                            Dr. John

December 1st, 2000

PC Makers Hurting.

Both Gateway and Hewlett-Packard have admitted that early holiday PC sales have been very slow. This appears to be an industry wide slowdown in sales for home PCs. Small PC makers are hurting as well. Indeed this is one of the slowest holiday sales seasons we have had in the last four years. Our PC sales are down significantly from last year at the same time.

Analysts are at odds as to what is causing the current slowdown in PC sales. I cannot say why the larger companies are having problems, but for companies like ours I think several factors have combined to reduce PC sales. First, many customers who were in the market for either upgrades or new systems purchased them in the last six months. Prices had dropped so far that many people could no longer resist upgrading. Now those people are set for the next six months, at which time they will be comparing the new offerings from Intel and AMD.

This does not explain the overall slowdown in PC sales however. Most home computer users do not upgrade their PCs, they just buy new ones every few years. It is possible that the slowdown in the economy, combined with the competition from so many new electronic appliances available on the market, are working together to eat away at PC sales. In any case, if PC sales continue to slow down, it may force some smaller companies out of business.

                             Dr. John

3dfx's Next Big Thing?

Scott "Damage" Wasson at The Tech Report has a quick post on a brief but revealing sighting of the elusive new 3dfx graphics chip called "Specter".  Enticing new terms such as "M-buffer" and 52-bit color sound very interesting indeed.

Copyright 2000, KickAss Gear