8/25/2000: ROUTE tries to sell the Cyrix III for PCs of less than 500 $

    ROUTE has proposed an alternative "piece of news" for PCs bargain sales (according to them, of between 199 and 499 $) that would be based on his processor Cyrix III, a chipset with integrated video, audio and modem, and support USB. Optionally Firewire might add grooves PCI, ports to themselves 1394...
    In fact, similar designs go appearing several years without going so far as to curdle completely, by what the idea of ROUTE seems more directed to sell the biggest possible number of Cyrix III... and since we are, probably any chipsets.
    In any case, the idea is good; he would allow not only to gain access to Internet with a minimal cost, but also to use you programme standard software for PC as processors of text, spreadsheets... To low the price of even more costs, the above mentioned software might be included in the device in not volatile memory.
    ... Although in ROUTE they are some optimists cuendo they speak of "of using a lot of popular (...) games at acceptable yield levels". It is known the fact that Cyrix III, despite having a good yield in many applications, fails when it is a question of using games 3D. But good, also it is true that not the whole world plays Quake, it does not even do it to 1600x1200x32 bits...

8/24/2000: Nintendo GameCube will be the most powerful console... in one year

    Although it will not be thrown to the market until July, 2001 in Japan, and despite the scarce success of the current Nintendo 64, the famous Japanese company of video - game has already decided to reveal the characteristics of his future Nintendo GameCube (earlier named Dolphin)... and they seem very promising.
    The first thing that will impress of this console is his aspect: approximately cubic and very small (15x16x11 cm), in addition to (seemingly solid and resistant, what is the whole need on the infantile market; his control control seems to be made for beings with four or five hands (or for children, that it is the same); and with a practical handle to transport it (or that seems to us to identify in the photos).
    And in the technical aspect it seems no to have rival, at least nowadays: a microprocessor 405 MHz Gekko , derivative of the IBM Power PC, with 64 KB of cache memory L1 and 256 KB of cache memory L2; graphic chip to 202,5 MHz, made by ATI, capable of up to 12 million polygons per second; a whole of 40 MB of memory; and a support for games for optical disc Matsushita 8 cm (Panasonic) .
    This storage system can be one of the factors that make triumph to the new Nintendo product... or to sink. His enormous capacity (1,5 GB) will allow games much more complex than those of the Nintendo 64, and his size turns out to be practical; but the true thing is that the CD - ROM and DVD-ROM are more standard and easier formats to "practise piracy", what can be a villain for the programmer... but that sometimes it turns out to be beneficial for the manufacturer of the console.
    Now "only" he stays to convince in this project the games programmers, to extract it on time and to wait that while it is not overcome by the competition (there be read Sony and, perhaps, Microsoft). Will they obtain it?

8/24/2000: Everybody wants memory DDR (enclosed Intel!)

    Debatable yield, complexity of manufacture, payment of royalties or simply a high price... for some of these motives or since it is, it seems that finally the market has not just adopted the memory Rambus, and most of manufacturers turns towards his competitor the DDR (or "DDR-SDRAM").
    In case of the mikes AMD, it does not turn out to be an innovation: some time ago that declared his preference to the DDR, and his chipset AMD 760 for Athlon, with support of DDR and 266 MHz bus, it is waited for before the end of the year. ROUTE is working intensely to offer as soon as possible its own chipset with DDR for Athlon, and ALi has his practically completed.
    What turns out to be a finished innovation is that Intel turns towards this technology... between other things because she is a Rambus partner, because till not long ago he was declaring that his next mikes (Pentium 4 and Itanium) only would use memory Rambus, and because an agreement with Rambus prevents Intel from developing chipsets with DDR support for the market of computers of dessert.
    But "the one who did the law, did the pitfall": Intel glides to give licenses to other manufacturers to make chipsets with DDR for his Pentium 4 (probably even to ROUTE!), and also his future chipset 870 for the McKinley (version for servants of the Itanium) also will support this type of memory... because it is for servants, not for teams of dessert.
    If even Intel leaves Rambus, his future seems slightly difficult, especially bearing in mind the discomfort of most of the manufacturers for the attitude of clash of Rambus, his debatable claims of patents and his many judgments...

8/22/2000: Revealed the final details on the Pentium 4

    We already know how there are called the new technologies of that, in principle, it will be the last processor of 32 bits of Intel, the Pentium 4 or Willamette: his names are Netburst and Rapid Execution Engine (REE).
    Netburst refers to the architecture of the mike, which has been designed almost completely from zero; the fact of his name is Pentium 4 is a marketing question, since it is not a question of an evolution of the design of the Pentium (outstanding figure, MMX, Pro, II, III... for not speaking about the Celeron). Between the innovations of this architecture they are the 400 MHz bus (100 MHz with double technology DDR???) and the instructions SSE2 of 128 bits (at present they are 64 bits).
    As for Rapid Execution Engine (REE), it promises to improve perceptibly the yield of the chip, since it refers to his aptitude to make work the arithmetical-logical unit of points (ALU) to the speed double that the rest of the chip.
    There has already been demonstrated a prototype forced up to 2 GHz, undoubtedly a speed much bigger than the one that will be used in his introduction on the market. The first systems based on memory Rambus, are waited by the end of this year; the next year systems will leave for memory SDRAM and/or DDR-SDRAM. The mike will use a new connector type socket, probably of 423 pines.