|
|
|||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||
| 2015 © KickAss Gear | |||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|
KickAss
Gear News Archive: January 2000January 31st 2000Debugging the Coppermine. Intel has announced that it will be producing a new stepping of the Coppermine Pentium III to be released to the public on April 7th, it was reported in The Register today. "Steppings" is semiconductor jargon for "a more debugged version". Intel and it's customers have found approximately 60 "bugs", known to engineers as "errata", in the current stepping of the Coppermine core. The stepping change will bring the processor version from "A2" to "B0", and will improve performance, as well as fix the bugs, according to Intel. One thing this means for sure, Intel is acknowledging that the current Coppermine core needs some work. The downsides of this announcement for customers are that existing Coppermine chips are flawed enough to prompt Intel to make an early stepping change, and that the new chips coming out in April will need lots of testing to find out if new bugs have cropped up. While none of the current bugs are drastic (except maybe the math sign reversal bug), they require software and BIOS workarounds that can affect performance and stability. It seems clear that Intel's worst year, 1999, has extended into the new Millennium, and we don't expect the pickle they have gotten themselves into will end any time soon. Intel has had serious problems with it's new chipsets, and is reworking them now as well. In predictable fashion, when the engineers fail, Intel calls in the lawyers. Intel is lashing out at competitor VIA with lawsuits, and an attempt to get the Federal Trade Commission to block VIA chipset imports into the US. AMD has stepped in on VIA's behalf, and countered Intel's request to the Federal Trade Commission. Our recommendation to those of you for whom money is a scarce resource would be to not squander your hard earned cash on a Coppermine based system until late Spring or early Summer. Motherboard support is not in place, the current CPUs have many bugs, and better chipsets for these CPUs are on the way. Let the folks with extra cash to burn do the beta testing, and then you can buy a better system for less money in 3 to 4 months. If you can't wait that long, the Athlon is a better choice than the Coppermine Pentium III right now. It's also much easier to get a hold of. January 28th 2000AMD Backpedals on Overclocking. In the grand tradition of US politicians, AMD released a "clarified" statement about retailers selling overclocked Athlon processors, which was in fact a flip-flop on the issue. Worried that they might harm their reputation with computer enthusiasts, AMD released a statement to stop the bad press. In a report in the Register yesterday, AMD is quoted as saying "AMD had no interest in what individual users did with the product," (meaning that they were at liberty to overclock to their heart's content).... "We are concerned about people that resell our product when it's overclocked." It's obvious that AMD is hedging it's bet here, they don't want to get customers angry, but they would really like to stop the overclocking done by retailers. This is understandable from a traditional business model point of view, but the high-end computer market is a different kettle of fish. An editorial over at Hard OCP agrees with the AMD position that only end users should be allowed to overclock Athlons, or that overclocking needs to be a post-sales service provided to the end user. This is not a realistic alternative. Why? Because not everyone who wants an overclocked computer has the inclination or knowledge to put their own computer together, and overclock it properly. And the idea that customers would buy a system, and then ship the processor or computer back for "overclocking services" is a waste of time and money. Overclocking will be offered as a "service" at the time of purchase from every vendor doing this type of work until AMD sends in the lawyers. The HardOCP editorial also states: "When a retailer breaks that case open, it totally negates all the FCC compliance of the unit." To me, this is also a non-issue until and unless someone can show that the EM emissions are altered significantly by removing the back plastic panel. Obviously, many processors are sold without plastic housings, and they pass FCC compliance tests. The editorial then states: "Does AMD have a legal right to stop the Overclocked CPU sales as they are being handled now? I think YES, and I think they should exercise that right." ... "They basically don't want a bunch of hack mods being sold as new AMD CPUs." I don't know if AMD has promised to send them new hardware or what, but I think the folks at HardOCP know that the good people at places like KickAss Gear and ComputerNerd are not selling "a bunch of hack mods". We are doing as professional a job as possible with a hardware modification, and we support our work with lengthy warranties. Not one company we know of sells modified Athlons as "new, unmodified CPUs". This is just an outright false statement, and HardOCP should know better. In fact, companies that overclock their systems boast about the fact, rather than hiding it. Maybe they are getting too blue-suit over there at HardOCP, I thought this was supposed to be their shtick!? I'd like to make a few final points. If AMD was going to be logical about this, they should prefer that companies like KickAss Gear and ComputerNerd do the overclocking properly, and provide sufficient cooling for the processor. Further, these companies assume the risk and warranty obligations. It's a win-win situation, and AMD's reputation is boosted by the fact that their processors overclock well. We expect that this issue will slowly fade away, as overclock companies follow our lead and clearly label all overclocked computers as "modified", and no longer under AMD's or Intel's warranty. With disclaimer notices, we see no legal options for AMD to pursue, since the modifications and warranty obligations are clearly stated. It might even be necessary to have the end-user check off a warranty transfer notice. But with clear labeling, overclocking of Athlon computer systems will be a service that many computer retailers offer to their loyal customers for some time to come. Intel cobbles together new, and "improved" i820 chipset. Intel is reworking the i820 Camino chipset, star of the recent "Caminogate" debacle. The motherboards based on this chipset were mainly intended to be used with Rambus DRAM, but also had a so-called "memory translation hub", which allowed the system to be used with PC-100 SDRAM. This translation hub was a source of significant performance degradation when populated with PC-100 SDRAM. Intel has swapped the hub for a new part they are calling the "memory conversion hub", and has given it native support for PC-133 SDRAM. This is good news, but a hub by any other name means translation from one memory data type to another, which means degraded performance relative to true PC-133 SDRAM systems. We are not excited about Intel's new line of chipsets, and until they rid them of all Rambus RIMMs and memory hubs, we will remain unenthusiastic. VIA has the product of choice now, with the Apollo Pro 133A for Pentium IIIs, and the KX133 for Athlon processors. January 26th 2000Pentium III Processors Gone Until March. If the word from our distributors is correct, Intel will not be shipping Pentium III processors to distributors until late February or early March. Intel has not announced what has caused the shortage, but the switch-over to the Flip-Chip format for the PIII line is probably involved. It is likely that Intel can not make enough Slot-1 product to meet demand while also turning fabrication capacity over to 0.18 micron Flip-Chip production. And when Dell and Gateway started producing AMD Athlon systems to fill the Intel void, my guess is that Intel diverted most of their product to these computer giants to stem the AMD tide. This leaves smaller computer makers with the prospect that they may not get any Intel processors for another month. Expect more AMD Athlon systems and kits to show up for sale over the next few weeks. And because the AMD Athlon is a more advanced processor, which is also more affordable and available than Intel's product, this may turn into a big problem for Intel. Their reputation in the industry as a reliable supplier has been irreparably tarnished, and their popularity with smaller computer manufacturers will suffer even worse. The latest word on Rambus is that memory makers have said the usable yield from their Rambus production lines is around 10%. If true, the outlook for this memory platform is dismal. Intel is scrambling to get out of the i820/Rambus bind, and this may have had an impact on processor production as well, as they change over to Solano2 i815 production. Maybe the next time someone at Intel suggests that they switch over to a new, proprietary, expensive, and untried memory platform, they will fire him. Dr. John January 25th 2000"Bye Bye Slot 1, Bye Bye, or why can't I buy my new Pentium III?". Recently, Intel Pentium III processors have been as rare as common sense in Congress. What's behind this prolonged processor paucity? Only Intel knows for sure, but a quick check today of the lack of stock at Tech Data, a major Intel distributor, revealed backorders numbering in the thousands for every single Pentium III model except for two 133MHz bus ("B") versions. According to a sales person at another large Intel distributor, Synnex, they are only receiving about 25% of the normal number of Intel processors. We do not know the reason for this, but we can guess on some of it. I took a careful look at the processors listed, and noticed that virtually every new Pentium III is now listed in both the Slot-1 (SECC) format, and the FC-PGA Flip-Chip format. All are backordered. So the fact that Intel is making the transition to the Flip-Chip pin format in it's entire line of processors may mean that they can not supply enough of either type, while manufacturing both at the same time. This can't explain the severity of the shortage however. Even Dell and Gateway have both started shipping AMD Athlon-based computers, indicating Intel is having serious long term supply problems. Perhaps Intel's fabrication capacity is also strained by the fact that demand for the BX chipset remained very strong, even after their emphasis had shifted to i810 and i820 production. A very odd part about Intel's early change-over to Flip-Chip chips is that almost no motherboards are available with FC-PGA sockets on them. This means that to get the new Flip Chips to work on an existing motherboard, you need a special FC-PGA to slot-1 adapter card. These new "Coppermine adapter cards" are extremely rare as well. All of this is very strange for a company that usually orchestrates it's new product roll outs with finesse. Whatever the reasons are that have conspired to keep Intel's chips from shipping, don't expect to have an easy time picking up a new Pentium III computer any time soon. On the other hand, the supply of most models of the AMD Athlon processor is excellent. Dr. John January 24th 2000AMD Suing Athlon Overclockers?? Bad Move. You would think that AMD had learned from Intel's previous mistakes. Intel realized a long time ago that there was just so much you could do to prevent processor overclocking by computer enthusiasts. And they found that going after small overclock companies with legions of expensive lawyers was a good way to waste their shareholder's money. Now AMD is proving they are new to the top tier, and wholly naive about how to handle overclocking. It has been announced at several Athlon overclock sites that they have been contacted by a legal firm on behalf of AMD to cease and desist from selling overclocked Athlon processors. Why is the Athlon so popular right now? One reason is that many overclock enthusiasts don't like Intel and it's strong-arm tactics when dealing with the competition, and it's tendency to not listen to the customer. AMD has been perceived as the "little guy", who was more responsive to the public. Well that is all about to come to an abrupt end as AMD sends forth it's legal minions to shut down the sales of overclocked Athlon CPUs. Considering that the overclocking crowd has been extolling the virtues of the Athlon processor over the Intel Pentium III for months, it makes you wonder how out of touch the big wigs at AMD really are. A quick check of the Internet with a search engine will turn up hundreds of links to web sites that praise the Athlon's advanced architecture, and it's substantial ability to be overclocked. The web sites that actually sell overclocked Athlons number only in the dozens, but provide AMD with an untold wealth of good PR and name branding. Now they are not only squelching that free promotion, but indeed seek to sour all the good will they have generated over the last several months. Lets hope they see the error of their ways before the damage is done. It doesn't take long to get folks on the Internet mad if you pull a boneheaded move that adversely affects your customers, especially your most loyal ones. A quick search of AMD's webs site found no mention of overclocking, or pending litigation against any company that sells overclocked Athlons. If you think that the Intel Coppermine is popular now, just wait until it turns out that Intel knows better than to shoot itself in the foot, and lets folks overclock till their heart's content, while AMD presses forth with law suits against their biggest supporters. All this just when AMD had forged ahead of Intel for the first time in history. A new web site called "United Overclockers" has just gone up to help bring overclockers together to try to make a difference in showing AMD the error of their ways. Here is an excerpt from the discussion forum on that web site which makes my point very clearly. "I'll be
meeting with a few reps from AMD on Wednesday and I will be sure to put
some questions across about this whole fiasco involving ComputerNerd and
the enthusiast-driven reseller market being targeted. Dr. John January 23rd 2000Intel's Biggest About-Face. Intel has gotten together with virtually all memory manufacturers except Rambus, to work out the new specs for future computer memory architecture. Now they have gone even further, and invited their two Arch Rivals, AMD and VIA (whom they are currently suing!), to join the conference. It is obvious that Intel is distancing themselves from Rambus. Rambus may end up only going into game consoles. There is little doubt now that the near future of PC memory will involve some type of Double Data Rate DRAM capable of running between 150MHz and 200MHz, with data being transmitted on both the rise and fall of each strobe cycle. This means an effective bus speed of between 300 and 400MHz. Dr. John January 18th 2000Overclocking Bliss. Just when you thought that Intel and AMD were going to make overclocking harder, they do an about face, and make it easier and more effective than ever! What's going on here? AMD 500MHz CPUs easily overclocked to 700MHz or more, and 500E Coppermine Pentium IIIs revved up to 750MHz! What's next, a Gigahertz Celeron for under $100?? But don't expect to get a Coppermine system with that level of overclocking for a month or two, at least. The motherboards required are not available yet. On the other hand, if you prefer the AMD Athlon, which is a more advanced processor, you are in for a treat. The Athlon 500 is available, and many of them are actually 600 or 650MHz chips which AMD simply remarked as slower chips. The so-called "Golden Fingers" overclock cards that you need to overclock an Athlon are also available from several sources, and Athlon motherboards are plentiful. You can read about overclocking the Athlon and Coppermine CPUs here. Dr. John Intel finally dumps Rambus. Last year, Intel called together a group of 7 memory manufacturers to hammer out the specs for Rambus DRAM. Of course, Rambus Inc was the major player at that party. As it became apparent that Rambus was not a marketable product in it's current form, Intel slowly began to distance itself from the new memory manufacturer. After the i820 "Caminogate" disaster, where Intel was forced to recall tens or hundreds of thousands of new, Rambus-compatible motherboards just two days before their release, things really went down hill for Rambus. Now Intel has brought together six of the seven memory manufacturers to figure out the specifications for the next generation of PC memory. Can you guess which memory maker was left out? Exactly. Rambus really has no place at that table, because they only make Rambus DRAM, the one kind of memory not under discussion. So that means that Double Data Rate DRAM is the most likely winner of this latest memory pow-wow. Rambus still has a chance of survival if it is reworked to meet these criteria: 1) Not
significantly more expensive Dr. John Will the DoJ Stork bring Microsoft 5 Baby Bills? As the Dept. of Justice and Micro$oft hash out what to do about the software giant's naughty behavior, more rumors circulate about the possible breakup of the company. I know people who still complain about the breakup of AT&T, despite the fact that the AT&T breakup was good for customers, shareholders, and corporate execs alike in the long run. It's almost certain that a breakup of Microsoft would likewise be good for all involved in the long run, even if initially it caused problems within MS itself. Smaller, more nimble companies are able to respond to customer demands better and more quickly than mega-corporations. Microsoft has gotten much too big to be responsive. The same is true of Intel, for that matter. The 5 divisions ("Baby Bills") of MS being discussed are: 1) Operating
Systems The real problem with Micro$oft has remained the same since it's inception. Bill Gates. There's just no gentle way to say it, he's a power-hungry and greedy individual who is willing to do almost anything to make his company more powerful and rich. He is bucking major industry trends toward more open source software, and he has not used his position to make sure that MS Operating Systems are reliable. Instead, he has used his position in the company to make sure that his programmers did whatever was necessary to eliminate the competition, without regard for what happens to the stability or speed of MS Operating systems. The integration of Internet Explorer into Windows in order to crush Netscape is one obvious example. If Bill stays true to form, he will go kicking, biting, and screaming the whole way. It is far from certain that MS will be broken up, but you can be pretty darn certain that Bill Gates will not do it voluntarily. This means a lengthy appeals process, and a possible court-ordered breakup in the somewhat distant future. Dr. John January 14th 2000De-Billing Microsoft. A reshuffling of the top dogs at MS has folks wondering if the MS Execs know something about the DoJ (Dept of Justice) case we don't. Is this a pre-emptive strike? Or has even Bill Gates decided that a D-Billification of Microsoft is in order? I had predicted about a month ago that the DoJ would not break up MS, as long as some less drastic remedy could be found. Now the breakup seems more likely, perhaps because MS stuck to their guns in the negotiation process. It will be very interesting to see what comes of this. But it's clear that MS is in a poor bargaining position. The DoJ will be put on the spot if they order a breakup at the same time that huge mergers are being permitted all across the technology industry. Dr. John Sleepless Coppermines. Apparently, Intel's Coppermines do not properly implement the deeper sleep modes that are built into them. According to Intel, the 0.18 micron process CPUs can not use the deep sleep modes because of the increased effect of current leakage in chips made with the smaller manufacturing process. This may mean that power-saving modes will become more and more limited in newer CPUs. January 13th 2000More Intel CPUs Without Motherboard Support. Maybe it's just me, but the fact that Intel keeps releasing new processors for motherboards that don't exist seems almost sad. What happened to the mighty, all-powerful chip giant we used to razz? I'm almost ashamed of kicking them while their down, (almost). So you're thinking of getting a brand new Coppermine 800MHz CPU? Make sure you find a compatible motherboard first. We are getting tired of saying it, but your choice of motherboards for any of the now-not-so-new Coppermine chips is severely limited. And for the 800MHz part, they just don't exist yet. Intel typically releases new processors after the supply lines are charged with motherboards that will support them, and at the most, you may have had to wait 2 to 3 weeks for a BIOS update so the motherboards will recognize the new CPU. Intel has decided that this is no longer necessary, and they don't seem think twice about releasing processors for which there are no motherboards. For example, the Flip-Chip Pentium III CPUs require a modified S370 socket, and a new voltage regulator module not found on current motherboards, despite the fact that these chips were released months ago. Dr. John
It's always been true that the folks who buy stuff when it first comes out are paying extra to be beta testers. We have been recommending that you hold off on buying a Coppermine until good motherboards are available, and that has still not happened. We have also noticed the addition of bugs #60 through #62 to the list. Erratum # 61 looks like a variant of the "Stutterbug" flaw we have talked about in the past. Some Coppermine chips apparently enter a diagnostic mode, rather than booting, the first time you turn them on. Rebooting should work. Hmmm, is this one really limited to Coppermines? ;) You
can read about all the Copper-Cooties here. January 11th 2000Y2K Lawsuit... Anyone? Wouldn't you know it? There were actually whole law firms in the US waiting to pounce on any company whose product failed and caused individuals or other companies harm due to lack of Y2K compliance. At least one lawyer and his cohorts, Ronald N. Weikers et al., wrote an entire book on the topic of "Litigating Year 2000 Cases". Mr. Weikers et al. even posted a web site which is in part dedicated to suing the pockets off anyone and anything they could when the proclaimed and inevitable disasters struck. The funniest part about it is that they have a page for posting a list of current Y2K cases that are in the works, called "Pending Y2K Cases". We took a look at a number of them, and were impressed by their complete lack of gravity. We especially liked the one where someone is suing major electronics retailers, including CompUSA, for deceptive sales practices associated with selling unnecessary Y2K computer fixes! A number of other cases were filed because Y2K fixes for older software was not offered to customers for free. To be fair, some of the listed cases appeared to involve possible breach-of-contract by software companies. Nonetheless, it's safe to say that Mr. Weikers is less than pleased with the actual outcome of the "Y2K computer bug" problem. Indeed, Mr. Weikers et al. have even taken some credit for the lack of computer calamities on Jan. 1st. They suggest that the threat of lawsuits made companies work harder to correct potential computer problems. At their web site, you are also treated to a wonderful photo of their book, "Litigating Year 2000 Cases", and a link to where you can purchase this invaluable reference tool for the 21st Century. Anyone up for a class action suit entitled "The American People vs. Y2K Alarmist Lawyers"? Dr. John January 10th 2000VIA KX133 chipset ships. The new VIA Apollo KX133 chipset for the Athlon processor has shipped despite Intel's impending law suit against the rival chipmaker. We have been saying for some time now that the current range of motherboards for the Athlon processor are lacking some new features we have been waiting for, in particular, AGP 4X support, and standard PC-133 SDRAM support. So those of you who have been patient will soon be rewarded. With these features, VIA has outdone Intel, whose flagship chipset, the i820, lacks PC-133 SDRAM support. AMD has set up a web site to showcase the new Athlon chipset, called "The KX133 Zone". Since the chipset has just been made available to motherboard makers, don't expect to see motherboards with this chipset for a month or more. We recommend waiting for a good quality board from companies like Asus, Abit or AOpen. It is hard to say right now what impact Intel's patent infringement lawsuit will have on the supply of KX133 chipsets, but I doubt it will slow VIA down. Intel has been unable to produce enough BX and (flawed) i820 chipsets to meet demand, so it's a little ironic that they have decided to try to stop a competitor from shipping product to fill that void. Once again, Intel is only thinking of what's good for the customer (right). Dr. John January 7th 2000AMD Up! Intel Down. The stock market is finally getting the picture about AMD and Intel, but they are still confused about Rambus. AMD's stock went up yesterday, while most Nasdaq stocks fell. Intel's stock was down, and for good reason. Intel can not supply even a fraction of the Pentium IIIs that the market demands, prompting Gateway to announce it would produce Athlon-based systems to fill the void left by Intel. It is almost impossible to find the PIII 500 right now. Is Intel getting ready to phase it out? The oddball stock rise yesterday was that of Rambus Inc. These guys have a product as desirable as cans of donkey spit. Why did the stock rise so much yesterday? Good question. A report on the Japanese stock market indicated that Rambus would ship lots of stuff this year. To whom? Maybe the Playstation 2 will use Rambus, but that won't help keep the price of the new consoles down! Dr. John January 5th 2000Wanna Buy a Compaq? Buying computers from companies like Compaq can save you a few bucks, but at what risk? It looks like the Compaq Presario model 5800 freezes up all the time, and is slow as an overloaded barge. One Compaq retailer, Stapels, reported a 25% return rate on new 5800 Presarios! What's the deal? Well, as you might expect, big corporations have to cut costs wherever they can. So Compaq used low-quality Western Digital hard drives in systems that were already low on resources, and therefore very likely to be caching to the hard drive. Couple this with their practice of weighing down their rigs with tons of software that loads at bootup, and you have a recipe for oodles of crashes in Windows 98SE. Hey folks, it's still true. You get what you pay for. Dr. John Quake Banned in Brazil It was reported in the Register recently that the Brazilian government has banned Quake, and 132 other PC games it has deemed too violent for public consumption. Brazilian gamers are banding together to protest and petition the government, but this may just be the tip of the anti-game violence iceberg. I have been expecting game bans in countries like Great Britain and Japan for some time. These governments often manage to make laws that would get most American politicians strung up from the nearest oak. I expect that if this becomes a trend, that the US will be one of the last places to adopt any censorship of game content. Ratings, yes, bans, no. This will change quickly in prudish America when the ultra-violence in games begins to get supplanted by sex. I can just hear the Senators now, "blowing peoples heads off is one thing, but naked cartoon women! That has got to stop!" Just wait and see folks, I bet I nailed this one on the head! Dr. John January 4th 19100How much did they pay those guys? The vast majority of "Y2K computer bug" problems that have been reported since January 1st have had to do with computer systems that were supposedly "fixed", but fixed incorrectly. Even Microsoft's New Zealand web site read out the date as January 1st 19100. We are not sure what kind of salary Microsoft paid the programmers who botched this Y2K fix, but it was probably way too much. Apparently, many web sites displayed dates with extra digits, so it's clear that the programmers were at least working on the shortage of bits reserved for the date code. But it looks like their solutions to the problem were not well conceived. The fact that so many web sites displayed the date as 19100 suggests to me that many of these over-paid programmers were using cheat-sheets derived from the web. Rather than tackling the problem from scratch (in which case, you would have had many different kinds of date reporting problems), it looks like many bug-fixers just got some half-assed fix off the Internet, and used that without even fully testing if it worked or not. This gets us back to the basic question of why the "Y2K" bug got so blown out of proportion in the first place. Many people feel very uncomfortable about computers, and don't trust them to run the day to day world the way are right now. Couple this innate fear with the News Media's insatiable desire to boost ratings using fear tactics, and it's not too surprising that folks were ready for nuclear war. The fact is, that when most computers get the date wrong, they just report the date incorrectly! They don't shut down, or launch a missile. This fact was born out by the discovery on January 1st that many "fixed" computers were not fixed correctly, and yet, rather than shutting down, they simply displayed very creative incorrect dates. So while the doomsayers are still saying, "it's not over yet!", the plain truth of the matter is that many companies got bitten by the "overpaid, over-hyped programmer bug", rather than the "Y2K bug". Dr. John Early Athlon Overclocking Devices have problems. After since Tom Pabst posted an article on making a device with resistors and dip switches to overclock Athlon processors by changing the multiplier and core voltages, many companies rushed products to market that were not properly researched. In an article by Jeff Tom over at AMDzone, he discusses the pit falls that many companies, and their customers encountered when rushing to get the overclocked Athlon to market. Here is an excerpt. "The first lesson has been to do a thorough job of research and development prior to product release. For example, some resistor values in Tom's article are capable of producing damage to internal circuitry of the Athlon® and should definitely not be used. Users attempting to "roll their own" Golden Fingers based on Tom's article should be aware of this danger. Also, at least one competitor has had to recall a product which could fail if the instructions for switch settings were not exactly followed. In the case of another competitor's product, critical resistors have been omitted which our testing shows should be included for guaranteed operating stability. The POW!er Boost controller from ComputerNerd observes AMD's specifications for maximum internal voltages and dissipations and has been thoroughly tested for safe and reliable operation." We are testing out various methods of overclocking the multiplier on Athlon processors, and should have a safe and stable method ready soon. Currently, we are overclocking them using higher bus frequencies, but expect much higher final speeds by changing the multiplier. We will post a review as soon as we have a solid product to sell. Dr. John January 3rd 2000Y2K ad nauseum We've had a few days to survey the devastated moonscape that was once our green Earth, in the aftermath of the Y2K disaster. Lo and behold, almost all real problems turned out to be... guess what? Computer date problems! Gee, that's odd. Now why would a problem with how dates are programmed in computers result in computers having problems reporting the correct date? That one has got us stumped. We expected power grids to fail, planes to crash from the heavens, a small thermonuclear war, and a severe lack of fresh donuts. At least that's what the news media had us prepare for. So start donating that canned food to your local food bank, and anyone with a slightly used generator they need to unload, please contact us here at KickAss Gear, where the power goes out all the time, regardless of the date. Dr. John January 1st 2000The World Survives Y2K! Upon arriving at KickAss Gear Corporate Center this morning, the first thing we noticed was nothing in particular. After all the ridiculous hype about impending disasters, it appeared instead that all was well as the sun rose on the 21st Century. Not even a mini-disaster to report. Alas, no Armageddon for the faithful. So instead of the morning news reports being filled with a list of Y2K problems, the News Hounds are instead talking about what good things the new Millennium will bring us in the way of new technologies. No mention at all about how much the Y2K problem had been blown out of proportion by the media. Of course, the companies that charged big bucks to make other companies "Y2K compliant" just loved all the doom saying. Now they can laugh all the way to the Bahamas. But soon it will be back to work for them as they dream up the next phony disaster to tackle. Dr. John Hey! What are we going to do with a 2 years supply of canned food? ;) |
