September 29th 2000

Where the Hell is The Voodoo5 6000?

   I have been scanning the web for days looking for evidence of when the elusive V5 6000 card from 3dfx will finally debut.  It's been months since the V5 5500 was released, so what's holding up the 6000?  It is probably the same two things that 3dfx mentioned months ago when questioned about the delays.  First, component shortages have plagued the PC industry for most of this year.  Since the 6000 uses more components, it is more logical for 3dfx to use their limited supply of parts for making the 5500 model.  Second, the 6000 just isn't ready.  It is not only a much more complex board, but it will require updated drivers as well, which were still not ready last we heard (early September).  So we are going to have to wait some more.  But how long can 3dfx hold out when GeForce2 and GeForce2 MX cards are everywhere? I expect that 3dfx is shooting for late October as a rough release date.

                               Dr. John

September 28th 2000

Itanium Renamed Titanic.

   Mike Magee has a little piece over at The Register on the sinking of Intel's first 64-bit chip, know as the "Itanium".  Apparently, the design team working on the Itanium has been unable to get the processor to run above 800MHz, substantially slower than the lowly Pentium III.  Instead of beating the dead horse, Intel has decided to scuttle the ship, and push it's second generation 64-bit design, known as McKinley, forward by many months.  If true, Intel may be feeling the pressure from AMD's upcoming debut of their 64-bit processor, code-named Sledgehammer.  All in all, this is just one more piece of bad news for Intel, in what has got to be one of their most problem-plagued years so far.  As the Itanium sinks below the icy cold waters of the great processor ocean in the sky, we can only remove our hats, and  bow our heads in sympathy.

                               Dr. John

Windows 98/ME Shutdown Bug.

   A report over at Wininformant.com describes a serious problem with both Windows 98SE and ME during shutdown.  The bug apparently only affects systems running at 933MHz or higher, that also have large hard drives and large disk caches.  It doesn't matter if it's a PIII or Athlon.  The bug has to do with saving data to the drive before the system powers itself down.  The shutdown on these fast systems occurs too quickly for the system to save the data, and therefore, data can be lost.  

  According to the article, Microsoft will not make the patches available to customers, only to PC makers.  I expect this policy to change quickly as the hate mail mounts at Microsoft.

September 22nd 2000

Is Willamette Going To Be A Wimp?

   There's a whole mess of "Intel-Speak" over at Mike Magee's look into the secret Intel roadmap for the 32-bit "Foster" server processor scheduled to be released late this year.  It's more Intel-Speak than I've seen on one page in a long time.  It takes some translating to convert the text to English, but the results are very interesting.  The first Q & A topic is this:

Q. Why is Willamette not on the server roadmap?
A: Willamette is UP only. The server roadmap in this time-frame will be DP or greater. Plus, DP CuMine FCPGA and DP Foster servers offer better price/performance and raw performance.

Translation: Willamette is a wimp, even when compared with the good 'ol "Coppermine" Pentium III.  The UP acronym refers to "uni-processor" systems, meaning one CPU.  DP refers to "dual-processor" systems.  So in essence, what this secret little Intel blurb is telling us is that the Pentium-4 "Willamette" is a single-CPU-only processor, which does not even have the performance level expected from the Coppermine Pentium III.  Intel is targeting dual-CPU Coppermine, and multi-CPU Foster systems at the business market, while the slower, Rambus-bound Pentium-4 is aimed straight at home users. I can't wait to (not) get one!

                               Dr. John

What's This About A CPU Oversupply?

   Intel announced weak sales in Europe, and said earnings would be lower than expected in the third quarter.  This led to a big sell-off on Wall Street last night and today, which dragged the Nasdaq down with it.  What I really find most intriguing about the whole situation is that analysts such as Ashok Kumar blame large chip inventories on the the problem, and say AMD will suffer as a result:

 "I'm sure there's a big sign flashing in front of AMD saying 'Road Kill,' `` Kumar said. ``When you get this magnitude of an inventory overhang, AMD basically gets destroyed.''

  Kumar is known for good forecasting in the chip industry, but I don't know where he has seen excessive chip inventories.  For the first time in 6 months, Intel and AMD processors are available in many speed grades, but not nearly all models are obtainable.  Demand for both Intel and AMD processors is still quite high, but it is possible that many customers are waiting to see what happens with the pre-Christmas roll-out of the Intel Pentium-4, and the AMD Athlon-Ultra.

  Late today, one of our Intel distributors, Synnex, announced all Intel CPU's in stock were on sale at cost!  But they are still more expensive than AMD processors running at the same speed.  I'll bet Kumar is wrong this time about AMD getting "destroyed".  Those were the old days, and it just isn't going to go so easy for Intel anymore.

                               Dr. John

September 21st 2000

AMD Marches On!

   We have been perplexed for nearly a year now that many large hardware distributors, such as Tech Data and Synnex, do not sell AMD processors.  They have been loyal Intel-only distributors, even through the lean periods where Intel couldn't supply nearly enough chips to meet demand.  Well, another cookie has finally crumbled.  Tech Data, one of the worlds largest hardware distributors, has finally listed "AMD Processors" on their web site.  They will not be in stock there until early October, but just their presence in the product offerings from Tech Data has got to send shivers up the collective Intel spine.  AMD is pushing ever deeper into Intel's markets, even before the big debut of DDR SDRAM-capable AMD motherboards next month.  The end result will be faster, cheaper processors for all us consumers, and a continuing erosion of Intel's market position, and profit margins.

                               Dr. John

September 20th 2000

The Definitive V5 Review.

   Scott Wasson over at The Tech Report has posted the most in depth V5 5500 review I have seen to date.  Scott also discovered that 3dfx shorted us on trilinear filtering on the V5.  In plain English, that means that the borders between the near, middle, and far textures ("Mip-Map Levels") do not make smooth transitions.  So if you look at a moving scene, you can see moving lines on the floor where one sized texture changes to the next size.  Bilinear and trilinear filtering reduces the visible transitions by blending the textures at the seams.   Apparently, even though 3dfx claims that the V5 is capable of trilinear filtering (the best method of smoothing the texture transitions), Scott shows us that this feature does not work on the V5 (at least in Open GL).  The article makes for very good reading if you are interested in the GeForce/Voodoo5 debate.

                               Dr. John

September 19th 2000

DDR-capable Motherboards Due Next Month.

  Motherboards with the new AMD 760 chipset are scheduled to arrive next month.  The AMD 760 chipset adds support for double data rate memory (DDR DRAM) running at up to 266MHz. Motherboards with this chipset will deliver 10 to 20% better performance than SDRAM-equipped systems running at the same clock speed.  VIA is also working on an Athlon/Duron/DDR chipset, but they probably will not get it into production until well after AMD's 760 chipset becomes available.

   So far, we have not seen any DDR SDRAM modules for sale, so we can't say how much more than SDRAM they will cost.  You can read more about it over at Anandtech.  Intel should have Rambus/Pentium-4 systems ready at about the same time.  Expect shortages of DDR systems until late this year, or early next year.  It will take some time before DDR memory modules and DDR motherboards are available in quantity.

                               Dr. John

Windows ME... Oh Me Oh My.

  Windows ME has been out for about a week, and we've had a chance to work with it a little bit.  My general impression so  far is that it is a cosmetically improved version of Win98SE.  It's got some of the look and feel of Win2K, and it has a few goodies, but is it worth $60 for the upgrade?  Well, most people will probably go ahead and do the upgrade, but whether it's worth the money is debatable.  It has the new media player, Direct X 7.1, a simple home video editor, better crash protection and recovery features, and a home networking wizard.  So if those new features appeal to you, it's worth the money.

                               Dr. John

September 13th 2000

Rambus Nails Another DRAM Maker.

   NEC, one of the larger DRAM producers, has signed an agreement with Rambus to pay royalties for the DRAM they produce.  This would lead me to suspect further that my earlier speculation may have been correct.  I suggested that DRAM makers who had participated in the 'JEDEC' memory standards meetings were under the false impression that no company in the group could pull out and apply for patents on the standards they had been working out.  But apparently, that's exactly what Rambus Inc did.  Now they have the patents, and no one seems to know what to do about it.

  This is perhaps the sleaziest method of obtaining patents in the entire history of computer technology.  What I have been unable to figure out is why JEDEC, the standards committee turned laughing stock, has not at least filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of the few remaining memory firms that are trying to make Rambus' patents un-enforceable.  Maybe they are waiting for the right time, but the world is running low on DRAM makers that have not signed license agreements with Rambus.  One thing is for certain, Rambus has a serious reputation problem, and that's not going away any time soon.

                               Dr. John

September 12th 2000

Unreal Getting Very Real.

   Daily Radar has a story posted on the new Unreal Engine that is in the works over at Epic Megagames.  Very impressive stuff.  Not only will we be treated to high-polygon characters that look incredible, but we will also get large outdoor areas with realistic terrain.  The characters even have animated facial expressions, moving eyes, and moving hair!  It looks like video cards with built-in texture and lighting engines (T&L) will have an advantage over those that don't, since the engine will make extensive use of T&L.  That's good news for NVidia and ATI, but bad news for 3dfx, who went the 'cinematic effects' route with the Voodoo5 instead.

                               Dr. John

September 11th 2000

Prepare for Pentium-4 Onslaught.

   An article at EBN makes it clear that the Pentium-4 hoopla will begin soon.  Intel is arranging rebate offers for Petnium-4 systems that come equipped with Rambus DRAM.  The rebates are relatively small compared with the current price differential between SDRAM and Rambus DRAM, but still, rebates help spur sales.

  The main selling point for the P-4 will be performance.  If the performance data we've seen for beta-P-4 systems holds up, there may not be enough of a performance boost over PIII systems to drive sales.  But the final silicon may prove faster, only a few more weeks and we'll know for sure. Nonetheless, prepare yourselves to be bombarded with P-4 reviews, and Intel advertising mania over the next 2 months.  

                               Dr. John

September 5th 2000

Pentium-4 Not For Gamers?

   Mike Magee at The Register has a long piece on where Intel plans to position the Pentium-4 processor in the computer market.  It makes for some interesting reading, and points out the pickle that Intel has gotten itself into with it's next CPU.  It looks like it won't be faster than a similarly clocked PIII, but it will cost much more.  So Intel is shooting for the server market, at least at first.  

  The most interesting, off-handed comment by Mike was the one about computer gamers.  Here is the quote: "You can forget all about the games market. A mole told us in San Jose a fortnight back that Intel was staying well away from games after the Columbine killings last year." 

  Did I miss something?  I suppose this is most likely a chain-yanking rumor, designed to elicit "Flames of the Week" from gamers, but there is just enough of a hint of reality in it to make one ponder.  Would Intel put all those new SIMD-2 instructions in the chip just for 3D Internet applications?  Who knows?  The gamers market is actually quite lucrative for chipmakers, in part because gamers upgrade their systems much more often than your average home PC user.

  The only two things that really matter, regardless of what Intel wants people to do with their chips, are performance and price.  If the P-4 has the right combination of those two traits, it will become the gamers "ultimate dream system".  If it is priced much higher than offerings from AMD, and doesn't perform much better, only Intel fanatics and corporate types will buy them.  Further, if the motherboard situation and P-4 availability turn out to be anything like what happened with the PIII roll-out last year, Intel is in for another really rough ride.

                               Dr. John

DDR Motherboards Next Month?

   According to a quick post at Ace's Hardware, VIA and others will start production of DDR chipsets for motherboards this month.  The first motherboards with these chipsets may be available in October.  If true, let's hope that memory makers can get DDR DIMMs to market by then.  Currently, no DDR memory is available from our memory distributors.

September 2nd 2000

Rambastards Alert!

   An article at EBN  warns computer makers to arrange clauses in their memory purchasing contracts that protect them from possible lawsuits by Rambus!  This comes after Rambus has gone on a litigation orgy against memory makers, for allegedly violating patents that Rambus claims it owns.  In one case, where Rambus sued Hitachi for their memory and their S-H microprocessor, Rambus also named Sega as a co-defendant, simply because Sega was using the Hitachi S-H microprocessor in the "Dreamcast" console!  

  So industry analysts are warning computer makers to insist on clauses in their memory contracts that will cover them in case Rambus starts suing the end distributors of memory products.  How much more ill-will can the Rambatstards muster?

                               Dr. John

September 1st 2000

Hyundai Sues Rambus.

   Law suit mania has struck Silicon Land.  Intel is suing Broadcom and VIA (again!), and now Hyundai is suing Rambus.  I should have studied to be a technology lawyer.  Sorry Mom.

   This latest anti-Rambastards law suit is an attempt to render the alleged patents invalid based on "prior-art" considerations.  This means that by the time Rambus had obtained the tainted patents, the industry had already adopted the technology, and therefore it was "prior-art", and un-patentable.

  This comes at the same time that un-official Pentium-4/Rambus benchmarks were briefly posted on the web, and then quickly removed at "Intel's request".  These benchmarks show Rambus/P-4 systems having awesome memory bandwidth and performance.  It will be interesting to see later this year when "official" benchmarks are released if the "leaked" benchmarks were real or not.

                               Dr. John

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