Platform Conference Coverage includes AMD's Thoroughbred, heat pipes, Eden, memory initiatives, nVidia mobile AGP and AGP risers, the VIA presence, HyperTransport and more.
ARTICLES
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Get a sneak peek at this COSBI OpenSourceMark beta, the most flexible, useful and verifiable benchmark available today. OSMark is a comprehensive benchmarking suite that is easily user extensible and will be ported to Linux. We'll be releasing the source code as soon as we finish the documentation and stomp out the remaining bugs. Follow the link above to learn how to use OSMark and download the beta.
A look at two Prescotts.
Van looks at the oh-so-hot Prescott, the chilly-willy Banias, Linux, PocoMail and more.
In our first major article in nearly a year, we closely examine the merits of the struggling, brash little CPU designer and its chances to reverse its fortunes with an ambitious new design dubbed "Astro."
Finding God in war, my late father penned this true story about twenty-five years ago.
Readers tell us what they think about a Do-It-Yourself mobile standard.
Breaking Performance Bottlenecks of SMP Systems with Opteron
Spencer writes, "How are we going to wring out the maximum performance from AMD Opteron systems? We don't want to simply match existing SMP performance (which can be awful) but develop both OS and application designs which take advantage of the lack of limitations the new AMD architecture provides." Read more on what Spencer has to say here.
Kathy returns to Sam's Club to retest the PCs. Also, available for download is a preview version of COSBI QuickTest.
Kathy tests the newest version of COSBI at the local Sam's Club. She shares her results and experience with the new benchmarking application.
How Intel Subverts Journalists
Van comments on Mike Magee's story and discusses a recent experience with an Intel email.
In a teleconference today, AMD christened the Sledgehammer “Opteron.” We also discuss the background of this new enterprise-class CPU and have pictures from WinHec of the Opteron in action.
Van reports from WinHEC 2002. Exclusive details and pictures from Intel's Banias demo at WinHEC.
AMD Launches First Thoroughbred
Van reports from WinHec. With the new 0.13-micron-based CPU introduction, the chipmaker revamps its mobile lineup. Barton is also discussed.
Letter to Arctic Silver: Benefits Of CPU Compound Combined with Carbon Nanotubes
Phil writes, "Spencer’s link on the thermal properties of carbon nanotubes got me thinking how it might be used in thermal paste for CPUs. Here is my email to Nevin House with Arctic Silver along with his response."
An email thread sent to us by an editor of HardGamers.com demonstrates that Tom's Hardware Guide is guilty of criminal slander. UPDATE: We have discovered a cached Google image of one of Van's articles that Thomas Pabst now fallaciously claims authorship for. Note also how the article summary has been changed, clearly demonstrating the intent of these edits.
UPDATE 2: (3/20/2002) The THG link above no longer works, but takes you to the CPU Guide instead. Apparently, all of my articles have now been yanked from Tom's Hardware. Thanks LB for the information.
Platform Conference Coverage includes AMD's Thoroughbred, heat pipes, Eden, memory initiatives, nVidia mobile AGP and AGP risers, the VIA presence, HyperTransport and more.
VHJ looks back on 2001 to acknowledge those products, technologies and achievements that stood out for their excellence and for their contributions to the computer industry.
The Success of AMD's New Nomenclature
Tick-for-tick, some of AMD's newly introduced processors
have turned Intel's age-old selling price dominance on its head.
An Interview with Arctic Silver
Joel talks with Nevin House, owner of Arctic Silver, and uncovers many thought provoking facts regarding CPU cooling.
Kentron Q&A
The computer memory platform designer answers questions about QBM,
a new technology that promises to double current DDR SDRAM memory bandwidth.
We open up the Xbox and peek inside. We discover interesting facts about the CPU and other hardware.
Intel's Clarification on ATX Power Supplies
Joel talks with Intel about ATX power
supplies and the P4.
Time To Upgrade: DDR SDRAM, Athlon XP Are Worth It
The Athlon XP paired with the VIA KT266A DDR SDRAM chipset deliver compelling performance advantages over Thunderbird/SDRAM platforms. Surprisingly, the XP also wrings life from the old KT133A platform as well.
Letter to the Editors of WSJ: Grotesque Ignorance
Spencer Kittelson sends us his letter to the editors of WSJ strongly refuting that publication’s assertions regarding Microsoft’s contributions to the Internet. Although we are publishing Spencer’s letter here, you can also view it on the Wall Street Journal subscription site.
Severe Interoperability Problems with Intel Chipsets: How to Fry Your i845 Motherboard
If you are considering an Intel i845-based motherboard (reportedly, this is also a problem with Intel i850-based motherboards) read this article first before you end up toasting your new toy like we did. UPDATE: We follow-up with important news about the "Pin A2" test.
AMD at MPF: Hammering Open Bottlenecks
Joel shares info from his hour-long conversation with AMD about the 64-bit Hammer.
AMD's recently announced Hammer bridges the world of PCs with the world of supercomputers.
VIA Announces Details of New Processors
C5X, C5XL, and P4 socket compatible CZ
discussed. UPDATE: Information regarding the
Socket-478 compatibility of CZA was not obtained from Glenn Henry, and Mr. Henry
denies the accuracy of this rumor. We apologize for any confusion this may
have caused.
Nils Dahl presents one of the best primers on the dangerous bacteria that I have seen.
In Defense of AMD's Model Rating System
"AMD's Model Number nomenclature, though not perfect, is a good start. With it, consumers will have a better idea of the real power of AMD's chips in relation to Intel's."
Guest Opinion: The Decline of Intel
John Kocurek stabs Intel in the heart.
Pandering to the Masses: Does Engineering Still Matter?
Intel's Pentium 4 is more flash than substance and the chip titan hopes to hoodwink the public with marketing. Mega-Hurts over real performance.
Interview with Mark Kubovich, Founder and President of HandEra, Inc.
Mr. Kubovich of HandEra, Inc., the makers of the HandEra 330 and TRGPro, took some time to speak with me about the company and its evolution in the hand-held PDA market (a.k.a. how one company moves to the Hand Era in computing solutions).
Guest Opinion: The New Alliance of Microsoft-AMD-NVIDIA?
And why Intel should be concerned.
Preliminary Benchmarks: The VIA C3 Versus the Transmeta TM5600
A quick look at the relative performances of two competing low-power computing architectures.
Due to intense reader interest, we have arranged an interview with the controversial self-declared prophet, Xinoehpoel, whom we mentioned in a September 13th news item. Substantiated through newsgroup posts, Xinoehpoel apparently predicted that a calamity would occur on September 11th, the date of the recent attacks against the United States. Since then, reportedly the FBI has been investigating him for possible involvement in these violent acts.
Joel Hruska writes about his views of the reaction of many in the hardware community to the current national crisis.
Microsoft’s Dilemma: The Real Piracy Solution
Joel thinks that Microsoft's high prices are a key contributor to piracy of its own wares. Speaking of the Redmond Beast, don't forget the anti-WPA petition.
Free Speech Under Fire: The American People vs. the DMCA
Joel visits fascist dictum.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Benchmark Shows DDR SDRAM More Bandwidth Efficient Than RDRAM
A new version of Sandra has streaming enhancements showing that Athlon-DDR might be getting more out of available bandwidth than P4-Rambus.
UPDATE: Sandra Mutates
Popular program to undergo changes to improve P4 bandwidth performance in light of our recent analysis. Meanwhile, Athlon bandwidth performance appears to improve in new beta.
Inside nForce
What you should know about the upcoming nVidia DDR SDRAM
chipsets.
Beware the Corporate Trolls.
An unedited take.
... and thank you
2001
VHJ Awards