VHJ: Old news

I am deactivating the link to AnandTech because the quality and objectivity of Anand's material has degraded to the point that it is an embarrassment to the hardware review community. Likewise, I am killing the Tom's Hardware link. I will compile a list of direct hyperlinks to my THG articles since their search engine has been modified so that only a handful of my roughly 40 articles can be quickly pulled up.

AMD Opens Boston Design Center

Mario writes:

AMD's HyperTransport™ technology received an important boost when AMD announced the opening of the Boston Design Center. The new design center will be responsible for developing server and HyperTransport™ interconnect solutions supporting AMD’s Computation Products Group. Gerry Talbot, former president and chief technical officer of API Networks, has been named senior AMD fellow and director of the AMD Boston Design Center. The team of prominent engineers who form the foundation of this design bureau, has a proven record of developing customer-driven solutions and technologies based on HyperTransport technology.

the inquirer reported the problems that API Networks ran in to with the demise of Alpha. It looks like AMD was able to pick the cream of API Networks' engineers. It should be noted that API Networks co-developed the HyperTransport™ technology specification. They were also the first company to have HyperTransport™ technology in silicon, and they have created intellectual property that has been licensed to industry leaders. It's clear that this design team is fully switched on and up to speed and will contribute greatly to the development of HyperTransport™ technology.

Mario writes, "AMD's Hammer technology reached another milestone this week. SuSE Linux AG, one of the world's leading providers of the Linux operating system, has submitted enhancements to the official Linux kernel to support AMD’s x86-64 instruction set. The Linux kernel is the fundamental source code upon which all Linux operating systems are based. This achievement will further drive Hammer's development. "

The Driver Depot Launches Computer Driver Site

My good friend Phil Trent has launched a new site.

Computer hardware users around the world can archive and maintain their driver links and files for Windows, MAC, LINUX, UNIX, OS/2 and BeOS

Visitors to the site are able to submit driver information to the database, create a new device category, and report bad or incomplete driver records to The Driver Depot staff for review. Three clicks will find any driver in the database, regardless of the correlating operating system.

For more information contact:

phil@thedriverdepot.com

http://www.thedriverdepot.com

Evan sends this in, "If you look closely at the picture, you'll see that AMD burned in the music notes to Intel's 'token' theme. Also notice that the two stickers above the music notes are covering a picture of an actual hammer, which I assume is supposed to crush Intel's 'token' theme. ;)"

Gamers should steer clear of the USB 1.1 version of the Creative Labs’ Sound Blaster Extigy. In a quick test we conducted on a low-end PC, Quake III frame rates fell by nearly 40% from 54.9 fps to 33.7 fps. Extigy is a completely external PC sound “card” solution that utilizes lowly USB 1.1 to stream audio data to the device. Perhaps FireWire or even USB 2.0 versions of Extigy might be worth considering in the future, but with the staggeringly high CPU dependency of the current iteration of this device, perhaps only notebook users with extreme 5.1 audio requirements should consider buying this $150 PC sound card alternative.

AMD Upstages Intel at IDF

Mario writes, "Intel's Prestonia, hyper-threading, and Itanic announcements were rapidly relegated to news fodder when AMD high-jacked the IDF show and demonstrated two running ClawHammer systems with silicon less than a month old, one with Windows XP and another with 64-bit Linux. What a way to change the news agenda.

When ClawHammer and SledgeHammer debuts, AMD will introduce two new socket platforms to support these CPUs, Socket 754 and Socket 940. Both chips support an Intel like heat spreader which will protect the core and enhance thermal performance. The demo motherboard used is code-named Solo 2 and supports the AGP3.0 Graphics Tunnel which is part of the AMD-8000 HyperTransport chipset. PC Watch in Japan has a nice collection of photos showing the CPU packaging and sockets. The press release is here. The press presentation is here. "

Intel Dropping Rambus - Birds of a Feather Parting Ways

As we have been saying for about a year, Intel has been secretly eager to divorce itself from the Mountain View, California-based IP company. In fact, we are certain that the rift goes back much further than this. According to Reuters, MSNBC and other news sources, nearly two years ago one of my articles caused Rambus's stock price to plummet over $150 in one day. That piece and my other Rambus exposes were actually praised in private to me by key Intel personnel, highly ironic at the time since the Santa Clara chipmaker was publicly pushing RDRAM as the next generation memory standard for personal computers.

The moral of the story? If you work with Intel, watch your back, although it is hard to have sympathy for Rambus, a company whose ethical composition closely mirrors Intel's.

Rambus RDRAM offers high bandwidth, low pin-count memory technology that is well suited for embedded applications where low pin-count and granularity are paramount. However, as main memory for personal computers, RDRAM has several drawbacks that make it less attractive than other high performance alternatives, namely DDR SDRAM. These shortcomings include relatively high latencies, challenging thermal characteristics and innately higher production costs than conventional memory technologies.

Mario writes, "Pre-orders are now being taken for AMD's Athlon XP 2100+. Thermal constraints will probably make this the last speed grade increase using the 0.18 micron process. It might also be possible to see Thoroughbred launch at this speed grade as well using the next generation 0.13 micron process. Cost for this part is $299. With pricing still in the stratosphere for Intel's 2.2 GHz Northwood, $467 on Price Watch, AMD's new addition to its stable of very fast horses looks very good in value."

Spencer Kittelson writes, "As a Cub Scout den leader with planned future involvement in Boy Scouts, I'd be proud as can be if one of my scouts pulled this off. Via GMSV comes the story of the radioactive boy scout."

Office of Strategic Influence To Close

Kathy writes, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet...."

Yahoo News Updates: WASHINGTON _ Rumsfeld says Pentagon to close Office of Strategic Influence, criticized as designed to spread misinformation.

Sources have informed VHJ that Ziff-Davis Media's massively funded, self-proclaimed "Uber hardware site" might be in serious financial trouble. Allegedly, one client has claimed that advertisements promoting ExtremeTech have not been paid for in months, costing them thousands upon thousands of dollars in lost revenue. A corporate oddball in a crowd of low-budget websites, allegedly ExtremeTech has had difficulty winning the trust of the highly influential computer hardware enthusiast community.

Program Successfully Defeats Microsoft XP Product Activation
A small program called "XP KeY ReCoVeRER AND DiSCOVErER 5.12" appears to be capable of successfully neutering Microsoft's notorious WPA.

NOTE: We obtained XPKeyGen from the site MSBetaNG. Although the program remained available through them for days after our article, predictably, the site has recently been taken down -- Microsoft has long arms and many eyes. MSBetaNG provided an alternative outlet for material posted in certain "alt.binaries.warez..." newsgroups.

Mario writes, " Silicon.com's On the Spot program interviewed AMD's Patrick Moorehead, VP of Customer Advocacy. This is the intro to the program: Intel's insistence on measuring chip performance in megahertz is misleading, according to AMD. It wants to focus on 'total performance' instead. Is this any more than a marketing initiative designed to confuse the end user? Or should Intel be running scared? Tony Hallett investigates... The RealMedia video clip can be seen here. FAQs of AMD's True Performance Initiative (TPI) can be read here."

Kentron Losing QBM Support?

An industry insider has informed VHJ that a major chipset vendor has backtracked and decided to forgo Quad Band Memory support in its upcoming products. According to the source, the company’s decision was not due to technical reasons, but was made in order to cost reduce its products in an economy that remains tight. The core logic manufacturer believes that the $10 cost premium for QBM support added to the total price of the motherboard is a prohibitive disadvantage in the highly competitive mainstream chipset arena.

If true, this could be a debilitating setback for Kentron and its promising technology. Although almost all of the DRAM makers we have spoken with agree that QBM is a workable solution, there exists a pronounced lack of enthusiasm for the additional cost of Quad Band Memory, even though it represents a relatively small bump in total price while greatly boosting performance.

If you are interested in seeing Kentron’s QBM reach the mainstream desktop, we suggest that you contact your favorite chipset vendors and let them know. We believe that a market exists for Quad Band Memory-enabled motherboards, despite the slightly higher cost these products will demand. QBM is a more elegant solution to doubling memory bandwidth than adding multiple memory channels at the motherboard level. With DDR-II not scheduled to appear for several years, there is an acute need for a cost effective path to higher memory bandwidth platforms in the interim.

Press Release: "The DDR Tester Company", CST and Netlist Join The QBM Alliance

The Quad Band Memory (QBM) Alliance announces the addition of CST, Inc. and Netlist, Inc. to the growing membership roster. The need for speed is evident, as design engineers try to reduce the widening gap between microprocessor performance and memory performance, more commonly called the “Memory Wall”.

Mario writes, "Having accomplished the coup of sponsoring Ferrari, which VHJ reported last week (6th), AMD moves from the high octane world of Formula One, to the finely manicured greens of the golf course. AMD will sponsor pro golfers Chris DiMarco and Brian Gay on the newly formed AMD “Extreme Performance” golf team. This sponsorship deal will target another high exposure audience, PGA Golf, and will nicely complement AMD's efforts to further promote its name and its products."

Ten weeks after a court ordered shutdown of the Interior Department’s computers, lease payments to American Indians are finally beginning to trickle out again. This money comes from lands that the government used to try to divide tribes by allotting plots to individuals. The government then “managed” the land by leasing it out for purposes such as oil and gas drilling or timber harvesting. Over the course of time, Indian tribes claim up to $100 billion (U.S.) have been lost due to mismanagement and graft.

Kathy writes, "Need a brief history on today's holiday? Be the toast of your dinner celebration with your enlightening conversation. This website is a great place to go to kids' crafts, activities and pre-K educational materials."

Choosing a 19” Monitor to Fit Your Needs and Budget: The Sony G420S and Hitachi CM721F Evaluated

Joel looks at the elements involved in choosing a monitor. He uses both a high-priced and a low-priced monitor to discuss exactly what to look for when making a purchase.

Mario writes, "The European Union's Council of Economics and Finance Ministers has approved, which the EU Parliament still has to ratify, a web tax which would apply to digital products that are sold in Europe via the Internet, despite disapproval from the Bush administration. Because VAT across Europe varies from as low as 15% in Luxembourg, to as high as 25% in Denmark, non-EU companies will be at a disadvantage because EU companies can register with VAT authorities in any one of the 15 EU states, and charge the tax of that country, regardless of whether that customer lives in that country. For non-EU companies, they will have to pay the tax at the prevailing rate of the customer's country of purchase."

Mario writes, "On Monday, VHJ reported that AMD would sample its infrastructure partners with Hammer in the second quarter. Yesterday, Xbit Labs reported that AMD's closest partners already have samples of ClawHammer, and in March, AMD would showcase this product at the CeBIT show in Hanover. If this is true, this would give AMD the flexibility to launch Hammer earlier than the end of the fourth quarter if market conditions are warranted."

Mario writes, "In a twist of political intrigue, Microsoft's lobbying budget exceeded that of Enron to become the largest in US corporate history by the time the anti-trust case was underway. When one sees the political favors that Enron was able to cultivate, due in large part to its donations, it's clear to see the parallels that will probably apply to Microsoft. Bigger donations, bigger political favors. Let's hope that Senator McCain's campaign finance reform bill becomes law as it would put a stop to the "soft money" that Microsoft, Enron, and others have used to lobby and garner influence.

Hypertext Links - Will We Pay To Use It?

Mario writes, "British telecommunications company BT Group PLC (British Telecom), has brought a case to the US federal court to hear preliminary arguments to determine if the most elemental of Internet activities, using hypertext links, is the business property of one company and is protected by patent. BT holds a patent covering hypertext links, so it now wants to cash in. This case will probably be one of the most closely watched patent disputes in history.

"It's probably among the top ten most controversial patents in the world," said Charles Cella, a former patent attorney and co-founder of BountyQuest, a U.S. startup that monitors patent cases. "It's a rock star in the patent world," he added. "That's a scary thought."

Mario writes, "Following Bill Gates Trustworthy Computing memo, more breaches have been found in the Swiss cheese of software. Security holes have been found in Exchange 2000 and Windows 2000. This follows hot on the heals of a privacy flaw in MSN Messenger; and yesterday, Microsoft released a collection of software fixes to plug six security problems in Internet Explorer. Microsoft is currently on a one month sabbatical to try to fix its leaky software. They will also use this time to train their developers to better incorporate security in its software. It looks like they've still got some work to do."

Mario's Thoughts on Best Buy's Introduction of ‘Intel-only’ vpr Matrix PCs

Best Buy has just launched their own PC brand. Unfortunately, they are Intel-only solutions. This is the second time in as many months that Best Buy has launched an Intel-only range of PCs. Again, consumers are offered second rate systems that are very poor in value.

MMR triple vaccine concerns in the UK - Measles Mumps and Rubella vaccinationn

Mario writes: "There is great concern in the UK about the possible side effects of the MMR vaccination, these include autism and bowel disease. The Panorama Program link will go off air today, Sunday, at 2:15 PM pacific time. The Panorama Q&A Program should be available indefinitely."

Kathy writes, "In the U.S., Van and I have neighbors whose son reacted to the MMR vaccine several years ago. During the past 1.5 years I have watched as they struggle to find answers to what exactly are the results of the reaction and how their son can be treated to minimize the effects of the reaction."

Mario writes, "After AMD's acquisition of Alchemy Semiconductor, EBN reports on how this will impact the PDA market. The Electronic Times has a story on the release of Intel's XScale processor which will compete against the dominant ARM based designs. The EETimes addressed the single biggest issue at the International Solid-State Circuit Conference - will integrated-circuit technology continue to scale? the inquirer reports on AMD's joint venture with Infinion to develop future advances in semiconductor technology. The Register has written a piece on the possibility of Sun becoming a major tier one supplier of x86 systems using AMD processors. CNet has a story on Intel's hyper-threading technology which will debut soon. Akiba has more details of AMD's Cool'n'Quiet technology that is being pushed in Japan and which VHJ reported on last month (18th). The Register also reports on the impact that the collapse of Enron continues to have on increased DRAM pricing without the corresponding demand. HardwareCentral has details of Sigma Designs X-Card which is an MPEG-4 add in card for the PC, the press release can be read here."

European Union To Continue Intel Probe

Confirming our exclusive report two days ago, the European Union has now substantiated that its investigation of chip giant Intel will, in fact, continue. This follows false reports circulated last week by major new organizations claiming Intel had been found not guilty of breaking EU competition laws.

Taiwanese chipset maker VIA Technologies has dropped its side of the Intel complaint, allegedly to accelerate individual civil cases filed in national courts. However, American MPU maker Advanced Micro Devices has expressed commitment to press its EU petition to resolution.

So far, no retractions have been published by either MSNBC or Reuters regarding last week's fallacious accounts.

STMicroelectronics announced today that it will drop out of the graphics accelerator market in a retreat to its core business areas. Popular among many budget conscious computer enthusiasts, STMicro’s Kyro and Kyro II graphics chips introduced effective and innovative “tile-based” rendering. Due to its bandwidth efficient design, Kyro technology might prove to be a very attractive plum to savvy chipset vendors interested in extracting maximum performance from integrated graphics cores.

Various Security Laughers

Spencer Kittleson writes, "In recognition of Bill Gates efforts to make their porous software a little more "trustworthy" (a Sisyphean effort if ever there was one) see: TrustworthyComputing.com (No, your eyes don't deceive you, it's a correct URL redirect to Google that produces over 400,000 hits on MSFT security weaknesses...)

The second most arrogant techno-pooh-bah on earth, Larry Ellison, has trumpeted that his Oracle 9i is "unbreakable". Here's how lame his claim really is: http://www.nextgenss.com/advisories/oraplsextproc.txt, http://www.nextgenss.com/advisories/orajsp.txt, http://www.nextgenss.com/advisories/oraplsbos.txt"

Big Brother's Eyes Are Opening

Five years from now, the United Kingdom is expected to have 25 million public surveillance cameras deployed, a tenfold increase over the already staggering 2.5 million unblinking electronic eyes the country has today. Reportedly, the average Brit is now caught on camera 300 times every 24-hours. Combined with networked facial recognition systems, it may become possible to track anyone's movements about the Isles.

Ashcroft is likely beaming at the possibilities. Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Chief Joseph, Chief Sitting Bull and their ilk, who were willing to fight and die for freedom, would be outraged.

How much invasiveness are we willing to tolerate for single digit reductions in pick-pocketing? How much pride are we willing to swallow? Have the terrorists won? Are we willing to give up our liberties and dump our sacred way of life into the garbage bin in exchange for pervasive paranoia under increasingly fascist, omnipotent governments who promise us safety from bogeymen? I am not!

Right now our biggest enemies are not terrorists, but our own fears.

Contradicting widely reported rumors claiming that the European Commission will soon be wrapping up its investigation against chip giant Intel, sources close to the case have told VHJ, “We have no information to substantiate press reports that the Commission has concluded its investigation of Intel. Our only information is that the investigation is continuing.” The European Commission has been reviewing complaints against the Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker alleging that Intel has abused its dominant position in the CPU and chipset markets to unfairly exclude competition.

Mario follows up with the judgment on Microsoft's proposed settlement. Cnet reports that Microsoft Corp. and the U.S. Justice Department are considering changing the proposed settlement

Sun to Join the MS Litigation Train

Mario writes: It is no surprise that Sun will file suit against Microsoft. This repeats what AOL Time Warner did last month. These suits could have been avoided if the DOJ had not negotiated such a weak and inept anti-trust settlement with Microsoft. We can only hope that Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly can see that this settlement falls far short of the requirements of The Tunney Act. If not, then litigation against Microsoft will continue into the foreseeable future.

In other litigation news, the inquirer reports that Intel was found not guilty of breaking EU competition rules. This case was not helped when Intel successfully prevented AMD from showing the European Commission court details of the Intergraph v Intel case. What did Intel have to hide? Without full disclosure of information, judgments of this type will always be in doubt, and in the worse case scenario, Enron is the result of such abuse.

Some claim that recent advances in quantum entanglement may lead to the teleportation of large objects.

Mario writes, "Nvidia officially launched its next generation graphics processor chip, the GeForce4. This chip comes in a variety of flavors to cover a broad market segment. Nvidia has developed this design for use in laptops, desktops, and even the Mac. The improvements can best be described as an optimization of current technologies which will translate into a nice bump in graphics performance. The press release is here."

AMD Sponsors Ferrari!

Mario writes: In an effort to further publicize the AMD name and its products, the chip manufacturer has signed a sponsorship deal with the best known name in motor sport, Ferrari. With the exposure that Formula 1 and Ferrari receive throughout the world, this can only be seen as a major coup for AMD in its efforts to establish their name as a world class brand.

It's ironic that AMD has been using the names of horse breeds to identify future products, because the image that Ferrari uses to symbolize its cars is a prancing horse. Maybe future AMD products will now receive a Ferrari inspired name. We'll see. The press release can be read here.

Mario writes, "After closing its doors for the last time on Sunday, which was caused by excessive levels of bandwidth that could not be maintained, AMDWORLD is again open for business. No explanation has been given for this apparent turnaround. Welcome back anyway. With StorageReview to now remain open, the fighting spirit to survive is certainly in evidence.

LinuxWorld Roundup

Mario writes: ZDNet reports on last weeks event. Newsforge reported on the movers and shakers. EdgeReport share their LinuxWorld pictures. IDG announced the winners of the Open Source Achievement Awards. The Register reports that Linux is in the running to power the world's biggest computer.

In hardware news, LinuxHardware reviews Pogo Linux's latest Altura which comes saddled with AMD's Athlon XP 1800+. Also, using the cream of last year's components, they put together their 2001 System of the Year. Of course, it's based on AMD's Athlon XP.

Mario writes, "the inquirer reports that Intel is having supply issues with their high end Celerons. Last week, VHJ reported on the shortage of Northwood P4s. Both these products are manufactured on the 0.13 micron process, so these issues may be connected. More good news for AMD sales."

Mario writes, "Tiny Computer, the UK's largest PC manufacturer and an Intel-only account, has collapsed. Time Computer, AMD's biggest UK customer, snapped up Tiny for a song. This is a significant boost for AMD as it consolidates their position in a very competitive market. The Time/Tiny combo will now be the second largest PC retailer in the UK. This big change in the retail landscape will not only stimulate healthy competition, it will also give more choice and better value to the UK consumer. More details can be read here."

We have been told that upstart Taiwanese motherboard vendor ECS has purchased rivals Shuttle and Biostar, but we have not yet been able to confirmed these transactions. If you have inside knowledge into these companies, please let us know.

According to reliable sources, several servers based on Intel's catastrophic 64-bit failure, the Itanium, are being pushed rapidly towards EOL (End of Life) to make room for McKinley, a better performing next generation part that the chipmaker hopes will find much more market success. It is rumored that only a few more than 500 Itanium-based systems were sold last year. It is critical for the Santa Clara, California-based CPU vendor to find more traction with McKinley in the brief window before rival AMD introduces its first 64-bit solution, codenamed Clawhammer. Intel has invested approximately a decade's worth of work in its 64-bit EPIC architecture, upon which both Itanium and McKinley are based.

Via VIA: A big presence

And now for VIA coverage...

nVidia: Mobile AGP and AGP risers

A brief look at nVidia news from the Platform Conference.

AMD Strikes Deal with UMC

Following AMD's November's statement that a partner would be announced to build and operate a 300 mm wafer fab, that day arrived yesterday. United Microelectronics Corporation is that company and Singapore will be the home of the new fab. The joint venture, called AU Pte Ltd., will start production in 2005 at the 0.065-micron processing node. Before this time frame, UMC will also become a foundry to make AMD processors to augment output from the chip firm's own fab in Dresden, Germany. The press release can be read here. The conference call can be listened to from here.

Jerry Sanders, commenting on Intel's plan B, which would come into effect if Itanium should fail in the market, said, "I think it just validates our position, that our solution (Hammer) is better for the customer and Itanium is Itanic." the inquirer has been using Itanic for many months to describe Intel's Itanium, it might just prove prophetic. the inquirer has now cheekily invoiced Jerry Sanders £55,000 for marketing services rendered!

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