Hacking the Crusoe

Views inside a Sony PictureBook

Guest Opinion: The Decline of Intel

John Kocurek stabs Intel in the heart.

Guest Opinion: The Big Business of Terrorism

Are some modern terrorists actually working hand-in-hand with corporate interests?

Guest Opinion: Once Upon a Time

Who is Nils Dahl?

Guest Opinion: The Next Industry Standard Architecture

And now for something entirely different.... Nils Dahl adds quality to the wish list in designing standards.

Want to see THE best close up pictures to date of a comet nucleus?

Spencer Kittelson shows us.

Press Release: VIA Technologies, Inc. Announces the VIA VT6202 USB2.0 Four Ports Host Controller for the PCI Bus
Offering transfer bandwidths 40 times faster than original USB specifications, the VIA VT6202 USB2.0 Host Controller is compliant with key industry interfaces to allow a full range of signaling speeds for enhanced peripheral performance.

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.

Press Release: AMD Wins 'Best Of Show' At Midsize Enterprise Summit
IT executives vote AMD third consecutive win for clarity, depth of enterprise message.

Press Release: Kentron Technologies® Announces That It Has Licensed Its Advanced FEMMA Memory Technology To Avant Technology
Avant technology will be able to take advantage of this FEMMA license to manufacture and sell low-profile, high density memory modules, which are highly demanded, by the growing 1U, blade and hyper dense server marketplace.

Details on Solid-State Flight Data Recorders from Spencer Kittelson

Today's FDRs and CVRs are all solid state and generally use flash memory for storage.  The physical recorder that Mr. Luke describes is not capable of recording the requisite dozen or so signals that modern systems use.  The physical recorder is a masterpiece of simplicity and ruggedness but simply provides too small a dataset and is too expensive to replace when its capacity is consumed.

 

Solid state units can record 24 hours of flight data (FDR) and two or more hours of cockpit voice (CVR).  I think they are required to withstand 30 minutes of 2000 degree F heat.  There has been a move recently to up that level of heat integrity to slightly higher temps and longer durations but the effort had stalled.

 

In theory, if not quite all of the chips are toasted, at least some data can be recovered from the unit.  However, once the silicon is "cooked" the state of electron charge is lost due to thermal excitation and changes in morphology of the storage cell.  I don't know what that temp is but you could get a rough idea by testing a batch of compact flash cards in your oven with varying time/temp curves.

More C3-In-a-Can Pictures

Fun packaging.

Once Upon a Time: Remembering Chuck Peddle

...and his place in Commodore history.

Guest Analysis: Aircraft Black Box Survivability

David Luke thinks "black boxes" are much more robust than the media -- or the government -- lets on.

Press Release: AMD Announces Closure Of Fabs 14 And 15
The company will close Fabs 14 and 15, two semiconductor wafer fabrication facilities (fabs) in Austin, Texas

Guest Opinion: The New Alliance of Microsoft-AMD-NVIDIA?

And why Intel should be concerned.

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).

Press Release: SIS Launches SiS650 - The Pentium® 4 Chipset with Integrated VGA
Making inroads into the Pentium®4 chipset market, SiS breaks new ground with the dynamic demonstration of the SiS650 chipset, integrating high-performance Real 256 bit 2D/3D graphics engine

A Letter from a Transmeta Employee

After Friday's article publishing preliminary benchmark results of VIA-Centaur's C3 and Transmeta's TM5600, we received the following note from a Transmeta employee who has since requested anonymity:

I think it disingenuous to publish Via/Centaur-related news, reviews, and propaganda on VansHardware without revealing your affiliation with that organization. If you are working for Via (or Centaur), as reported on geek.com today, your site should be relabeled Van's Via Fan Club or some such name indicating the affiliation and bias of the site.

We are most definitely not a fan site of any kind.  I have tried to document the events of VHJ both thoroughly and publicly.  As I wrote earlier this month, I have had to take a job to support my family since site revenue was very poor and we could not find a sustainable business model that would not undermine objectivity (my employment history is also a matter of public record, and my seeking objectivity has always been central to my motivations). 

 

 

As I disclosed, I now work as an MPU compatibility testing engineer for Centaur.  I have stated that VIA-Centaur has put no pressure on Van's Hardware, and the site will remain independent which has been our intention from the start.  In fact, I have to be very careful to clearly avoid inferring a site relationship of any kind with VIA-Centaur because few companies would want to risk being associated with the eclectic and controversial topic mix we carry.

 

As my wife just said to me "the numbers are the numbers."  We will publish our testing methodologies in detail so that any interested third party can reproduce our test conditions.  We will also work with Transmeta to ensure that their product is represented fairly and that there are no innate flaws in our testing procedures regarding the unique performance characteristics of Crusoe.

 

On a positive note, AMD did not flinch when I told them of my new job, and they will continue to work with VHJ in the same manner as before.

Preliminary Benchmarks: The VIA C3 Versus the Transmeta TM5600

A quick look at the relative performances of two competing low-power computing architectures.

Press Release: AMD Platforms Certified For Pinnacle Systems' State-Of-The-Art Video Editing  Solutions
Recognition from industry leader Pinnacle Systems expands AMD's presence in the digital video market

Press Release: VIA Technologies Sues Intel® Over Intel Pentium® 4 Processor

Centaur patent at the core of suit.

Press Release: VIA Confirms Donation of US$1 Million to aid Victims of Terrorist Attack in the USA

Sadly, this comes at a time when Taiwan has been hit by a devastating storm.

Press Release: VIA Releases Special Edition of the VIA C3™ 800MHz Processor "Cool Chip In A Can" Packaging

We will have a picture of this packaging later today.

LostCircuits: ASUS P4B vs. MSI 845 Pro2-R vs. Intel D850MD vs. Shuttle AV40

The good doctor of hardware sites, Michael Schuette, has produced a detailed article on the currently available core logic platforms for the Intel Pentium 4.  Michael made an interesting quote regarding the recent Intel-Rambus cross licensing agreements:

From the point of view of Intel, there is hardly any other route that can be taken at this time since rumor has it that the Rambus contract could potentially penalize even participation of Intel in DDR roadmap discussions with the proud sum of $500,000,000.00, enough money to have everybody shut their mouth. There is hardly any other way to explain the consistent endorsement and subsidizing of RDRAM by Intel, other than that there were no other alternatives.

I had been told nearly a year ago by an insider that Intel secretly wanted to ditch Rambus and throw its weight behind DDR SDRAM, but could not yet due to contractual obligations.  Further supporting this statement is that while Intel representatives were always quick to point out even the most gentle of criticisms I made towards their company, they actually subtlety complemented me for my Rambus articles -- even those that severely impacted the IP company's stock price.

Intel Goes Crazy

Intel's Jeff Austin, marketing manager for the chip titan's desktop platform group, allegedly claimed the following regarding the newly launched i845 chipset:

The 845 chipset provides a significant performance improvement over Intel's 815 chipset, which uses a Pentium III chip, Intel said. In comparative tests on mainstream applications, a 1.8GHz P4 using the 845 chipset ran between three to four times faster than a 1GHz PIII chipset using the 815 chipset, said Jeff Austin, marketing manager for Intel's desktop platform group.

These are patently absurd claims, since it is widely recognized that on many mainstream applications the 1.8 GHZ P4 / i845 combo performs no better than the PIII -- much less "three to four times faster."

U.S. Govenment Planned Terrorist Attacks Against Own People?

Disturbing allegations were raised in a Baltimore Sun article about a book released earlier this year by a former ABC investigative reporter.

U.S. military leaders proposed in 1962 a secret plan to commit terrorist acts against Americans and blame Cuba to create a pretext for invasion and the ouster of Communist leader Fidel Castro, according to a new book about the National Security Agency.

 

"We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington," said one document reportedly prepared by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," the document says. "Casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of indignation."

...

"We could sink a boatload of Cubans en route to Florida (real or simulated). ... We could foster attempts on lives of Cubans in the United States, even to the extent of wounding in instances to be widely publicized," the document says. Another idea was to shoot down a CIA plane designed to replicate a passenger flight and announce that Cuban forces shot it down.

If anyone has read this Doubleday book, Body of Secrets, please let us know how well the author substantiated his incendiary claims.

VIA C3 Processors Finding Success in Asia

Embedded part a big hit.

The New York Times: Xinoehpoel And the FBI

The New York Times published an article about Xinoehpoel today (you will need to register to get access to the article, but it is free).  We released an extensive interview with the self declared Doomsday Prophet yesterday.  Here is a quote for the NYT piece:

The few people reading the obscure Internet discussion over the prophecies of Nostradamus dismissed it. But seven days after the message, on Sept. 11, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked. Xinoehpoel quickly returned to the discussion to gloat that he had predicted the disaster.

That was when the F.B.I. and antiterrorism investigators in 10 cities started calling the offices of O1.com, a Sacramento company that sells Internet access to smaller Internet service providers. Xinoehpoel's messages could be traced back to one of the company's clients, said Brad Jenkins, the company's president.

What is disturbing about this article is that it favorably and almost lightheartedly portrays escalating government Internet surveillance technologies, such as Carnivore, as our savior:

Mr. Jenkins, the Internet entrepreneur, said that his view of government surveillance had shifted. "Certainly it appears that one of the ways these guys communicate is electronically," he said. "I think everybody would say, `Let 'em watch it'. "

In our fight to protect our country, we must be careful not to sacrifice our long term freedoms.  Carnivore was not necessary to catch the eccentric and chatty Xinoehpoel -- reportedly, hundreds of people turned him in almost immediately -- and real terrorists recognize that the Internet is not a secure medium.

Press Release: Gainward GeForce2 Pro/500 XP "Golden Sample"

With recent current events, we have a backlog of work, including this press release for Gainward's new video card.

Xinoehpoel Interview

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.

 

Disclaimer:  In no way does Van's Hardware Journal endorse the views Xinoehpoel expresses in this interview.  The interest behind Xinoehpoel has approached mania in some corners of the Internet, and this is understandable given these confusing and often frightening times we live in -- we all yearn for clarity and direction and, for some, Xinoehpoel seems to have delivered a measure of this in his foreboding forecast for September 11th. 

 

It is our hope that by presenting this interview in raw, factual form (as in our direction with technology) that our readers can gain perspective on the Xinoehpoel issue.  Nevertheless, we must warn that some readers might find ideas expressed in this interview to be disturbing and even offensive.  I, Van Smith, take full responsibility for making the editorial decision to publish this interview.  I pray the article serves to expand insight, compassion and awareness of the fragility of the human spirit weakened in a world full of doubts.

AMD Hammer News

On August 3rd we reported news that AMD's first 64-bit processor had been sampling since July.  Our informant has now given us an update on the progress of this highly anticipated and crucial line of MPUs dubbed "Hammer":

I don't know if I can say anything about the roadmap I have seen. But it looks like an anonymous person may go to the German hardware store to get a Hammer, to build a Ramp in November.

We will leave it to our readers to decipher this message.

 

Hammer processors, sometimes referred to as "K8," will first be produced on an advanced 0.13 micron SOI process out of AMD's Dresden megafab.  Unlike Intel's Itanium, Hammer chips will provide uncompromised performance on legacy 32-bit applications as well as open up the 64-bit computing "new frontier."  In fact, Hammers are expected to be the fastest chips in the world at running 32-bit x86 code, while seriously challenging the fastest 64-bit processors on 64-bit code. 

 

The first desktop Hammer product, the so-called "Clawhammer," will also be only slightly more expensive to produce than contemporary Athlons making 64-bit processing a real option for the masses in the near future.

Xinoehpoel: Prophet, Villain, Lunatic or Lucky Scam Artist?

A self declared Doomsday prophet writing under the name "Xinoehpoel" has come under fire for one of his recent predictions.  Writing in an Internet newsgroup dedicated to the famous 16th Century French Astrologer and Physician, Nostradamus, Xinoehpoel started a thread on August 31st entitled "911," a number some have interpreted in retrospect to mean the date of the recent attacks.  Further supporting this is the following post on September 4th, seven days before this week's horrendous events:

Wait 7 days, and then maybe I'll answer this post. You see, I am going away in seven days, and you will not hear from me again.

X

For some, Xinoehpoel's activities have apparently seemed a little too accurate, prompting them to claim that they have notified the FBI of his activities.

 

For those interested, Xinoehpoel, who spends much of his time insulting other posters, is a follower of another self proclaimed Internet prophet, Sollog, who is as infamous as he is popular.  Both believe that this week's tragedies will lead to escalating violence in this country, throwing it into chaos.  Some of the acts they "predict" that will happen this year include the use of so-called "suitcase nukes" against American cities leading to the unraveling of the country before the end of the year.  Sollog himself claims to be a follower of Nostradamus.

 

Despite the fact that it appears Nostradamus was incorrect with his millennial predictions for unrivaled worldwide catastrophes and war, followers of his prophecies seem to be as numerous as ever.

Lonely Skies

A VHJ reader writes melancholy prose of a night sky grown suddenly quieter:

You know what's weird? Almost every evening my wife and I sit out on the back porch out here in the country (way past Dripping Springs) and watch the stars come out. There is a major flightpath just north of us and we can usually see the twinkling lights of planes and the distant roar of jet engines passing by every 10 minutes or so.

 

But not for the last couple of nights. If it weren't for the red lights on the broadcast antenna about 20 miles away near Marble Falls, it would seem we were the only ones on the planet now.

 

You don't notice stuff like that until it's gone.

I think many of us have noticed the almost eerie emptiness of our abandoned skies.

Prayer for Our Nation

 

Roz Fulmer sent to us this prayer for our country:

Dear Heavenly Father,

 

We are moved by the alarming news and crisis that our country is facing. This, the greatest nation, founded in the belief that "In God We Trust" & the "Land of the Free". Please have mercy on those suffering, hurting and in fear, and give wisdom & strength to those who are assisting. 

 

May the forces of evil be broken by your power and may we be humble before thee, our strength and refuge.  Give wisdom to our President & all our leaders and bring your comforting peace through the power of your Holy Spirit. Help us  here to reach to those that have been affected by this tragedy.

 

In the name of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. AMEN

It is in times like these where it is most important that we all seek clarity within chaos.  As I have recommended many times in my semiconductor analysis, "Trust what you can verify," but now it is also important to stress to not lose Faith.

Fuel Hoarding, Price Hikes Confirmed

ABC News confirmed early this morning that fuel hoarding and price hikes were occurring in several parts of the country.  Prices as high as $5 per gallon were reported.  However, representatives from multiple oil companies have stated publicly that there is no supply basis for price hikes at the fuel pump.  Government officials are warning those "opportunists" seeking to profit in the wake of this national crisis, that they could be punished.

A mild panic for fuel finally began gripping Austin late last night, according to local media, and prices had elevated in a few local locations.

 

Reader Joe G. reports from Ohio that gas prices in his area had risen as high as $6 per gallon and Ohio's governor is promising investigations into price gouging.  According to Ohio television news reports, the price hikes were being attributed to "a problem with gas tankers being on the roads right now."

Miracles in Mayhem and Creeping Mayhem

There have been many reports of people recounting near misses.  In our circle, a family friend related her family's blessings:

Thank you for your concern.  I thank God that Dan took his time going to the office this morning...he was on the ferry when  he saw the second plane hit.  Rather than continue to Manhattan the ferry headed back to Jersey City where I was relieved to meet Dan at the dock.  His office building was the third to collapse.  His department was successfully evacuated, but we don't know about the rest of the office.  It is  really unthinkable.  I heard both impacts from our apartment and could see the tongues of flames from our balcony.

Joe G. writes of a friend blessed with similar fortune. "I know one of the luckiest women in NYC, a friend who called off sick this AM from her job, in the World Trade Center," Joe wrote, "Sue used to work in an office that overlooked Times Square. Her company a year ago moved into WTC."

 

While the news media is now claiming that "Authorities in Massachusetts have identified five Arab men as suspects in Tuesday's attack on New York City",  "cynical" writes of both his concerns and hopes for our country's reactions -- influenced by provocative images of Arab celebrations replayed many times in mainstream media -- in light of this unprecedented crisis:

Reportedly Arab and Muslim groups in California and elsewhere have been deluged with flames. Even though the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon were without doubt barbaric, blind nationalistic/religious flailing of fists in retaliation is totally unjustified. Decorum is called for. Nothing else would do America, or its people, justice.

 

It is my hope that in future times people will look back on September 11th, 2001 and remember how America conducted itself in the aftermath in pride, and not in shame.

Grace Under Fire

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.

Press Release: VIA Introduces New C3 866 MHz Processor

C3's are selling very well.  In fact, VIA has orders well beyond current production capacity.

Site Update

Hopefully there will be smoother seas ahead.

Intel Sues VIA

And a brief history of their relationships.