Owners of some of the most popular Athlon motherboards from earlier this year will be disappointed to learn that the new Athlon-4 (aka Palomino, or Athlon XP) will not work on their motherboards.  This goes contrary to everything we have heard in the past, and we have not been able to confirm the story in our labs yet. 

So let's get the list out of the way.  Owners of the original KT7 or KT7-RAID are out of luck.  And even worse, owners of the KT7A and KT7A-RAID (version 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2) are also going to have to shop around for a new motherboard if they want to upgrade the CPU. Owners of the newer KT7A version 1.3 are good to go.  Their motherboards will take the Athlon XP, but not many people have the 1.3 version, which just came out recently. However, most KT7A version 1.3 owners will still need to update their BIOS to run an Athlon XP.

This is bad news for Abit.  Other manufacturer's who made motherboards with the same chipsets, and made them at the same time, have not issued warnings about the Athlon XP.  Maybe they will follow suit, but we will have to wait and see. 

Is there a silver lining here?  Well, in a way.  Upgrading to an Athlon-4 (XP) will give you an excuse to say goodbye to your PC-133 SDRAM.  New motherboards like the Abit KG7 and KR7 support DDR DRAM, and offer a nice performance boost over SDRAM based systems.  So if you own one of the older Abit boards, and you feel it's time for an upgrade, then it's time to replace the motherboard, CPU and memory. 

For some folks running at 1GHz on those older boards, it may be prudent to just upgrade to the current Athlon 1.4GHz, put on a honking big heat sink, and crank it up to 1.5GHz or more.  Then put the money you saved towards a new GeForce 3 Ti 200 card.  Together, the 1.4GHz Athlon and 200 Ti will run you less than $300 total!  Schweet indeed!

                                           Dr. John

OC Workbench

The Inquirer

Lester Haines over at the Register has a good story on all the paranoia, superstition and numerology crap flooding the US after the September 11th terrorist attacks.   I have even heard many of these stupid rumors, like the Q33 Wingding font fraud.  You know the one.  According to this particular load of bulldung, Flight Q33 hit one of the towers.  Type out Q33, and change the font in Windows to "wingdings", and you get a picture of a plane headed for what could be two tall buildings. The only problem is that there was no flight Q33.  Dang!

I've always had little patience with superstitious people, and find them very frustrating.  It's nearly impossible to use logic and reason to make them realize the folly of their impaired reasoning powers, so I no longer try.  But I also find it hard to believe how pervasive their ramblings have become on the Internet.  The next time someone starts talking about Nostradamus to me, I'm just going to laugh out loud. 

                                           Dr. John

The Register

The new Athlon XP (aka Athlon 4, aka Palomino) has been put to the test, and the 1.53GHz model clearly beats the Pentium4 at 2GHz in most benchmarks.  And the tests I saw did not even include newer VIA KT266A chipset motherboards in the contention.  One thing is clear, Intel opted for the marketing (MHz) option, while AMD opted for the performance option.  

Unfortunately, AMD will pay the price now, because their processors operate at a lower MHz rating. So even though a 1.5GHz Athlon is faster than Intel's flagship 2GHz Pentium4, the Athlon just "sounds" slower.  The fact is, the public should reject Intel's approach, and view it as cynical.  But that is not likely.  Intel learned long ago that MHz are everything.

AMD is in the unpleasant situation of having to market a processor that is faster, but sounds slower.  Their new PR (performance) rating system will probably not help.  But they can at least claim that their CPU is faster in most situations. 

So if you want a really fast computer, get a new Athlon DDR system (with a KT266A chipset motherboard).  Otherwise, a Pentium4 will do.

                                           Dr. John

Tech Report 
AnandTech  
Toms Hardware

The Surgeon General might be interested to know that Windows XP Pro is the first Microsoft Operating System to come with a warning label.  XP Pro is not necessarily bad for your health, well... maybe there could be a blood pressure thing... but the warning on the package is prominent nonetheless.

Aren't you curious at this point?  "After you preinstall this software".....  WHAT?  Your first born will be taken?  Your entire left arm is in jeopardy?  Your bank account will be frozen??? What in God's name is XP going to cost you?

Look... peel... stick. That is what the reverse side of this Windows XP insert says. It turns out to be an instruction to OEM installers to remove the certificate of authenticity label from the operating system wrapper, and affix it to the system chassis of the new computer. It is apparently a violation of the product license if the installer fails to do this. Sort of like warning labels on new furniture, admonishing store owners not to remove the labels under penalty of law.

In a fascinating move, Microsoft also provides stickers which are to be affixed to the exterior of each package that contains computer hardware with Microsoft Windows XP installed. These stickers read (verbatim)... 

"IMPORTANT NOTICE: Certain Microsoft software product(s) included with this computer may use technological measures for copy protection. In such event you will not be able to use the product if you do not fully comply with the product activation procedures. Product activation procedures and Microsoft's privacy policy will be detailed during initial launch of the product, or upon certain reinstallations of the software product(s) or reconfigurations of this computer, and may be completed by Internet or telephone (toll charges may apply)."

So there you have it folks, the OEM version of Windows XP Pro has the WPA product activation code. According to reports, Microsoft has scaled the WPA back slightly.  Now you need to change 6 things in your computer within a 120 day period to kick in the re-activation. Then you'll have to give Microsoft another ring (toll charges may apply).

                                           Dr. John

The CPU price wars are taking their toll on AMD. AMD's profits have evaporated, and they're now operating at a loss. I expect Intel may be in a similar situation. But remember! Windows XP is on the way to save the day... hurray! And just how is XP going to save the day? Because AMD is hoping you will go out and buy a new Athlon XP! That's right, the Athlon-4 is now called the Athlon XP, and it goes on sale next week. What is the first thing you'll notice about the Athlon XP? The equivalency ratings. The new series has designations such as XP 1800 for the 1.53 GHz model. I give up at this point, who knows, maybe the public will actually like the new rating system.

But what most commentators who do not like the rating system have not mentioned is the change in price for the new Athlon-4. Prices at Tech Data for the XP1800 model are over $250! Compare that with a price tag of around $130 for the 1.4 GHz Athlon. Obviously AMD hopes to make substantially more money on the new processor. To be honest, I think they may be pricing themselves out of a large hunk of market share.

But considering they are losing money now, they have to do something. Analysts have been warning both companies all along that the price war was a very bad idea. Good for consumers, terrible for both companies. The worst part is that people have become accustomed to the low processor pricing schedules, and constant reductions in price. Large increases in price will not be tolerated, especially if the performance difference is marginal. We will have to wait and see how far you can overclock the 1.5 GHz (XP 1800) model. If it goes to 1.8 GHz, they've got a very sellable product, even at that price. If it won't go much above 1.6 GHz, I don't think it's going to sell very well at all.

                                           Dr. John  

The Register

The time grows nigh for Bill to put down his fiddle, and ride to the rescue of the PC industry, as it slowly burns to the ground.  Almost every hardware and software vendor on Earth glances up occasionally from their bucket brigade duty, looking for the faint glimmer of Bills colors, waving in the breeze as he charges to the rescue of the industry in flames.  But will Bill be able to put out all those fires with his trusty stallion, XP? 

Gateway is a smoldering wreak, IBM may actually buy Sun Microsystems, HP is in the process of devouring Compaq for breakfast, what's left of Compaq had to recall 1.4 million flammable notebook adapters, AMD is on the ropes, Hynix is in a coma, Rambus is a laughing stock, and that's just a list of some of the notables in the inferno we once called  IT. 

In each and every case, PC and software manufacturers and vendors are waiting for one thing to save them.  They are all clinging to life in the hopes that Windows XP will drive the PC buying public into a software and hardware feeding frenzy.  And if you look at what XP is and what it does, you may begin to understand this pipe dream.

XP is basically Windows 2000 with all the patches applied, and a cartoony new face.  All the animation and cartoon features slow the OS down noticeably, so you will probably want to buy a new PC.  And of course, to be fully compatible with the new OS, you will want to upgrade all of you software, including office suites, utilities, and probably even your hardware drivers.  And what new, must-have features does XP have over Windows 2000?  Not many that I can find.  But it's the new Windows!  So everyone will want to buy it just like they did with Windows 95, right?

I'm not so sure.  Bill did lot's of things with XP that doesn't fit the 95 pattern.  He integrated the home and business versions into one OS, with several "flavors".  Only the home version is affordable, but it is crippled in many ways.  So I'm not sure how popular it will be.  Bill also added some fairly onerous activation routines which will have people calling MS up day and night seeking the code to unlock their new OS.  In addition, there is the simple fact that Windows 98SE and 2K are much more functional operating systems than Windows 3.1 was.  Many people who are not computer savvy may not want to muck around with installing a new OS.

Finally, there is the cost associated with all the upgrading involved.  The average computer user will just have to buy a new XP-loaded machine, and give their old one to their kids.  Other, more computer literate folk may opt for the upgrade path, which will certainly be almost as costly in the long run.  Maybe a new CPU or graphics card to alleviate the sluggishness, new antivirus and Windows repair utilities, the cost of the new OS and it's associated office suite, and the list goes on.  Windows 98 users will need to do a clean install, meaning re-installing all their software from scratch.  

XP is already on it's way.  You should see them start to show up for sale any day now.  You can already buy a new PC with XP loaded.  Is it going to save the PC world from burning to ashes?  Only time will tell.  The ad campaign alone should be astoundingly expensive.  So Bill needs to make that money back ASAP.  So check the remaining credit on your credit cards, cause if you switch to XP, it's gonna cost you one way or another.

Am I going to switch from 98SE?  I probably will install XP Pro eventually, but I personally am not going to rush into it.  It will be at least a 2 day affair to re-install the gigabytes of programs and utilities that I have on my machine. I for one am not looking forward to it.

                                           Dr. John  

I was reading Tom's review of the new (Tualatin-based) 1.2GHz Celeron, and the new (Morgan-core) 1.1GHz Duron, and was surprised at the overall results.  As fate and chance would have it, the Athlon 1.4GHz won the battle. 

You see, Tom included the Athlon 1.4GHz and Pentium-4 2GHz processors in the fray, and the results were surprising.  The Celeron and Duron duked it out in the mid-range of performance, which was sort of interesting. But in many benchmarks, the Athlon at only 1.4GHz beat the Pentium-4 at 2Ghz.  And this was the Athlon running on the older, slower AMD 760 chipset.  Imagine the disaster for Intel if Tom had used a KT266A chipset motherboard.

It's enough to almost make me think AMD has got to do something to counter the "MHz myth" that Intel is exploiting now. But the so-called 'equivalency ratings' that AMD has resurrected for the Athlon-4 (I mean the Athlon XP) just seems doomed to failure. 

AMD has a really great processor, and it's a shame that Wall Street, Corporate America, Dell, and Gateway don't like it.  Sure, the Pentium-4 beats the Athlon in a number of benchmarks (especially Quake III), but it damn well better at it's 30% higher clock rate and relatively high cost. Under those conditions, it should beat the Athlon in more than Quake III and a few extra benchmarks.

And speaking of high cost, I feel that the MHz wars have put both AMD and Intel in very bad situations.  Both companies have entered a price regime that makes profit difficult, and retrenchment to higher prices near impossible. I've noticed that AMD is trying to increase the cost of their lower-speed (1GHz and 1.2GHz) multiprocessor (MP) chips, because they can be used in dual-CPU configurations. The 1GHz MP Athlon is more expensive than the 1.4GHz regular Athlon.

It will be interesting to see how long Intel can continue to subsidize the Pentium-4 at the 0.18 micron fabrication level. It's expensive and takes up lots of wafer real estate. They will have a much more serious processor on their hands at 0.13 microns. AMD will also have some very nice 0.13 micron wares available at about the same time. 

                                           Dr. John  

Chart 1
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Chart 3 

In the anti-trust case that never ends, the new Magistrate, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, has told those involved to sit in a room until they figure out how Microsoft should be punished.  Like Mother sending her pill-ish boys to their room until they make up.  I'm wondering what judges are paid for, but that's another story altogether. 

If Microsoft and the Department of Justice can't make nicey nicey before November 2nd of this year, they will be taken to woodshed by Mom on March 11th (that's 2002).  What remedy Mom might concoct is beyond mortal knowledge.  I expect it to be more than Microsoft can tolerate, and much less than the DoJ thinks sufficient.

I am at a complete loss to explain why the Judge seems to think that the boys will shake and make up, since all talks have failed over the last many months.  But it's time to fire up the coffee pots, and bring out the cots, cause they have to talk all day and night, 7 days a week, until they agree, or November 2nd arrives. Of course it could all be so simple if Bill just agreed to split himself in half (probably doubling his worth in a year), and signed a confession saying he was a bad boy........

But that's another story altogether.

                                           Dr. John  

The Register