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So computer and part prices may be on the rise

Eric Chevallier — Fri, 30 May 2008 06:31:28 +0000

Apparently computers and computer parts are too cheap. DDR2 memory bottomed out a while ago and at some points was actually being sold under cost. Prices have risen slightly over the last month or two and is continuing upward. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the largest contract chip foundry making chips for Via, Nvidia, and AMD (ATI graphics

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higher speed and fixed replacement AMD Phenoms available in stores

Eric Chevallier — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:53:58 +0000

AMD has pushed back the release multiple times and has kept the release date vague. They then released the Phenom X3 triple-core CPUs a couple weeks ago but only to large OEM computer makers. The much delayed faster B3 stepping AMD Phenom CPUs have finally been released, along with B3 stepping replacements for the originally Phenoms. The B3 stepping Phenoms don’t contain the TLB erratum and don’t require the performance lowering bios work around. Making the release dates slightly more odd, AMD has yet to release the Phenom x3 tri-core CPUs to end users.

The newly released higher end models are the Phenom 9850 Black Edition running at 2.5GHz and Phenom 9750 running at 2.4GHz, with the replacement model being the Phenom 9550 running at 2.2GHz. The Phenom 9650 has not yet appeared in stores.

For prices and availability check Newegg.com, Mwave.com and Directron.com. Other large stores like TigerDirect.com and ZipZoomFly.com have yet to list the new Phenoms. Newegg has lowered the prices of the originally released B2 stepping Phenoms that probably won’t be around for all that much longer, with the Phenom 9500 being $168.30 and the Phenom 9600 being $179.99.

Montalvo Systems may be having money problems

Eric Chevallier — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:59:04 +0000

Montalvo Systems, a Silicon Valley startup aiming to develop an energy efficient x86 mobile CPU that we covered last month, has up to this point has raised $73 million but it’s being reported that their funds are running low and they’re having trouble getting more. Venture capitalists are apparently have become leery of costly semiconductor startups says VentureBeat, no doubt going against Intel, one of the largest semiconductor corporations, isn’t helping matters.

AMD planning new ATI Radeon HD 3000-series cards

Eric Chevallier — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:19:24 +0000

It’s being reported that AMD is getting higher yields on their RV670 core which may lead to lower prices on ATI Radeon HD 3000-series cards. The higher yield is also allowing AMD to release a new low end card in the series, the Radeon HD 3830, with a price around $99 to $150 and is expected in April or May. Most hardware enthusiasts would be interested in the Radeon HD 3850 X2, which will be a dual-GPU card and will have 512MB to 1GB of GDDR3 or 1.8GHz DDR2. It will be positioned to compete against the 8800GTS (G92) and is expected to be priced around $299 to $379 and expected to be available in May.

Some information on the discrete GPU Intel is developing

Eric Chevallier — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:50:52 +0000

Rumors of Intel developing discrete graphics chipsets (GPUs), codename Larrabee, have been around for a couple years now. Intel is finally talking about it and some info has come to light. Intel has decided to go with an x86 based instruction set for the GPU which is quite different from all current GPU designs from Nvidia and ATI/AMD. Intel says they will be competitive with what other vendors have released at the time. 3Dlabs had previously developed a more generalized GPU, though it wasn’t x86 based, but it couldn’t compete speed wise with what ATI or Nvidia had at the time and now 3Dlabs no longer makes video chips for PCs. Hopefully Intel has better results. Another thing that has me worried is the Chief Architect of Larrabee was also the Chief Architect of the Pentium 4. The Pentium 4 was a step back design wise from the Pentium 3 and Intel didn’t get back on track until the Pentium M and Core 2, which both are much more of a progression from the Pentium 3 than the Pentium 4. For more info check here and here.

AMD now shipping Phenom 8000-series triple-core CPUs to large computer makers

Eric Chevallier — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:34:39 +0000

AMD stated Wednesday that they are now shipping their Phenom 8000-series triple-core processor to large computer makers. The release date for end useres and small system builders has yet to be announced but is expected to be sooner rather than later. According to PC World, Mesh Computer out of the UK is already selling models based on both of the previously announced Phenom tri-core CPUs, the 2.1GHz Phenom 8400 and the 2.3GHz Phenom 8600.

Motherboard makers start shipping Intel x48 chipset boards

Eric Chevallier — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:03:57 +0000

Intel was supposed to launch their new high end enthusiast x48 chipset in January but the rumored release date had been pushed back a couple months to a mid-March time frame. It’s being reported that Gigabyte and Asus are now shipping x48 motherboards in small quantities, with mass quantities to follow soon. Other first tier motherboard makers are expected to be shipping boards soon if they aren’t already.

Project: Rogue, Part 20

craigbru — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 08:47:37 +0000

I thought I’d get a quick update posted. I’ve got a little more work done on the face. After the hole cut for the Matrix Orbital LCD, I thought I’d go ahead and get the holes cut for the Dakota Digital gauges. I used a hole saw for the initial cut, which you can

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Havok now offers free non-commercial licenses… too little, too late?

Eric Chevallier — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:58:05 +0000

Havok, now owned by Intel, is one of the leading providers of physics APIs for games and applications and is now planning to offer it for free for non-commercial use and to “approved game developers on the PC platform” starting in March. It’s unclear why someone would go with Havok though at this point when Ageia, now owned by Nvidia, has their physics

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Project: Rogue, Part 19

craigbru — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:13:44 +0000

Since I had the Matrix Orbital display arrive, I thought I’d jump to a little work on the front panel. The LCD will be situated on the lower center of the front face. The Dakota Digital gauges will flank it on the left and the right, with the widescreen LCD sitting above it.

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Project: Rogue, Part 18

craigbru — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 06:04:08 +0000

Sometimes you just have to improvise… As (bad) luck would have it, the Via Artigo that I wanted to put in this case, seems to be out of stock everywhere I look. Most eta’s put it’s arrival at the middle of March. Well, I’m way to impatient to wait almost a month before it arrives.

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Nvidia releases Geforce 9600GT, AMD lowers some prices in response

Eric Chevallier — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:08:07 +0000

Nvidia’s Geforce 9600GT cards have shown up in stores for as little as $179.90. Both cards with stock clock speeds and overclocked models are available now. The performance level of the GF 9600GT is slightly faster than the GF 8800GS and slightly slower than the GF 8800GT in most benchmarks, so for the price point is definitely worth a look. With that said, AMD has turned up the heat as well by lowering the price of the Radeon HD 3850 and Radeon HD 3870 cards, with 3850 cards as low as $149.99 and 3870 as low as $184.99. I have yet to see the Radeon HD 3870 be benchmarked against the GF 9600GT but the Radeon HD 3870 is roughly the same or slightly lower than the GF 8800GT, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Radeon HD 3870 beat the GF 9600GT at roughly the same pricepoint. The Radeon HD 3850 and the GF 8800GS compete at a similar price point but the GF 8800GS bests the Radeon HD 3850 slightly in most tests. Their’s definitely compelling options from both companies at the sub-$200 price range.

Geforce 9600GT:

Shuttle gives finalized specs on KPC, their budget PC/barebones platform

Eric Chevallier — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:24:42 +0000

Shuttle previously announced the KPC, their budget PC and barebones platform, at CES but much of the specs weren’t finalized yet. That changed recently, as they’ve posted a mini-site for the KPC on their webpage. As we previously reported, the KPC uses an Intel 945GC/ICH7 chipset, Intel GMA950 on-board graphics, 10/100 NIC, 5.1 HD Audio, ability to mount 2 total HDs, and 100w power supply. They did decide to give users a PCI slot for hardware upgrades but they have left out the option of mounting an internal optical drive. It’s an unfortunate decision to leave out the 5.25″. The mini-site seems to mainly be for the full PC version of the KPC, so their’s a slight chance the barebones will allow for an optical drive while the full PC version won’t but it’s not very likely they’ll manufacture two different cases for such a low cost setup.

Click here to check out Shuttle’s mini-site for the KPC.

Project: Rogue, Part 17

craigbru — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:05:12 +0000

I love days like today… I had a long awaited package on my doorstep when I got home.

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HD DVD is dead

Eric Chevallier — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 07:59:42 +0000

Well, Toshiba hasn’t officially announced it but Reuters is saying a source is saying that Toshiba has “entered the final stage of planning to make our exit from the next generation DVD business,” and that an official announcement may come next week. It’s unfortunate that the better technology lost. Feature wise, HD DVD’s current spec is the same as the yet to be

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S3 Graphics announces new video card with DirectX 10.1 and more

Eric Chevallier — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:24:41 +0000

S3 Graphics, a devision of Via technology, has announced the Chrome 400-series of graphics cards. It’s been two years since S3 Graphics released their last batch of video cards, the Chrome S25 and Chrome S27. The Chrome 400-series has all the features one would expect from a new video card, DirectX 10.1, OpenGL 2.1, Shader Model 4.1, HD video acceleration, PCI Express 2.0, Dual-Link DVI, and HDMI with HDCP. Like Via’s CPUs, one of the main focuses with S3 Graphics’ video cards is low power usage and the Chrome 400-series is no different. They claim the Chrome 400-series “brings the highest performance-per-watt ratio ever to a new breed of energy-efficient desktop systems and portable notebook PCs.” The HD video acceleration is called ChromotionHD, which supports 1080p playback for HD DVD and Blu-Ray, as well as H.264, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VC-1, WMV-HD, and AVS. Chrome 400-series supports a technology for running multiple GPUs similar to Crossfire and SLI, which S3 calls MultiChrome. Currently, the performance level of the Chrome 400-series is unknown but at the most they may be mid-range cards. More realistically though, especially since it has 64-bit memory bandwidth, it’s probably an entry level solution.

To read the press release click here.

Alone in the Dark

Doomzilla — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:44:55 +0000

I was looking at some videos of the new Alone in the Dark video game and it is really impressive. The new inventory system is more realistic and the ability to combine everyday items in multiple ways allows you to really choose how you want to play the game. It reminds me of MacGyver, especially the reliance on “sticky tape”. Also, the graphics are absolutely stunning

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Project: Rogue, Part 16

craigbru — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:43:30 +0000

I was out of town last weekend, and it’s been a busy week, so I wasn’t able to get much in the way of real modding done, but work still continued. I was able to get a few more miscellaneous parts ordered, including the elusive LCD screen.

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Geforce 8-series to run PhysX in hardware

Eric Chevallier — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 09:54:08 +0000

Not much was revealed in the press releases given by Nvidia before and after their recent purchase of Ageia, a hardware and software vendor for physics in computer and game console applications, but more details have come to light. During a conference call on fourth quarter financial results Nvidia’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang revealed that they are planing to port the PhysX engine to their CUDA programing interface. CUDA is a C-like application programming interface that allows general purpose code to be executed by any CUDA compatible GPU, which all the Geforce 8-series cards are. Nvidia believes this encourage people to buy better GPUs, SLI and Three Way SLI systems and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with that. This should also encourage developers to have greater support for hardware PhysX, since their’s a much greater install base of Geforce 8-series video cards than their is PhysX PCI cards.

For more information click here.

New rumor that Nvidia may buy AMD

Eric Chevallier — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 09:19:11 +0000

Rumors about Nvidia making an x86 compatible processor have been swirling for at least a few years now but nothing substantial has been revealed thus far. Their is a new rumor that Nvidia may buy AMD, even though doing so might make AMD lose it’s x86 license. The reason AMD could lose their x86 license is that it may be part of a non-transferable cross licensing agreement with Intel. They’re saying that Nvidia would want to do this because Intel and AMD are planning CPUs with integrated video. Their is also a rumor that Intel has discrete video cards in the works to combat AMD’s purchase of ATI.

This rumor seems odd to me. It could make sense that Nvidia would want to make an x86 CPU, though it’s quite risky to develop one as all the other companies that have tried to compete with AMD and Intel in non-niche x86 markets have failed. Via has success with their x86 CPUs but for the most part they haven’t gone head to head with AMD and Intel, they’ve carved out a niche in the industrial and embedded markets where they have a larger install base than both AMD and Intel. Nvidia already has high end and solid video cards and chipsets and if they’re already developing an x86 processor then AMD has nothing but licenses that Nvidia would want. If AMD may lose those license if purchased, why would Nvidia want to pay a large amount of money for lots of overlapping technology from AMD and potential non existent licenses? Then their’s the inevitable anti-trust suits with the two large graphics card companies merging into one. Some previous rumors have stated that Nvidia may buy Via for their x86 license and this makes more sense to me. Via would probably be cheaper for Nvidia to buy and has already withstood being sued by Intel over x86 licensing. Via also has some technology that Nvidia currently doesn’t have such as AC’97 and HD Audio chips.

For more information click here and here.

Nvidia completes acquisition of Ageia

Eric Chevallier — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 06:34:51 +0000

Nvidia today issued a very short press release stating they had completed the acquisition of Ageia, one of the leading makers of physics hardware and APIs for PC and game consoles. The press release didn’t contain any new information but when Nvidia announced it’s plan to acquire Ageia last week that they plan to “bring GeForce®-accelerated PhysX to hundreds of millions of gamers around the world.” They haven’t said anymore than that on how they’re going to implement PhysX with their videocard line.

Nvidia Geforce 8800GS shows up on Newegg

Eric Chevallier — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:12:12 +0000

Nvidia Geforce 8800 GS cards showed up at Newegg today, no other stores so far. They have both the normal clock speed at $159.99 and the overclocked version at $169.99. Both cards are from XFX. We previously reported that XFX cards were only going to be available in Europe, with eVGA being the only company to have cards in the US but apparently that’s not the case. The prices on Newegg are lower than we previously expected and apparently the prices have already gone down today, with the original prices of $179.99 for the stock speeds and $189.99 for the overclocked version. The GF 8800GS appears to be good deal since it’s similar pricing than the ATI Radeon HD 3850 with mostly higher performance, according to the benchmarks that have been posted (link1, link2, link3).

Frets on Fire melts my face

Doomzilla — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:07:09 +0000

Okay, so Eric C. knows how much I want a console to play Guitar Hero and Rock Band, so he was nice enough to let me know about Frets on Fire when he found out about it. Basically it is a free open-source Guitar Hero clone for the PC. You can either use your Guitar Hero guitars (with some extra software/drivers I assume) or just hold your keyboard upside down and use the F1 through F5 keys as the frets

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Some B3 stepping Phenom CPUs may be pushed up to April

Eric Chevallier — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:03:04 +0000

Last week we reported on more rumors that AMD was delaying the B3 stepping Phenom 9750, 9550 and 9650 are scheduled for release in early-June and that the Phenom 9950 to Q3. Well, Xbit Labs and Anandtech are reporting that the Phenom 9750, 9550 and 9650 will actually be released in April. Both June and April are within AMD’s official release schedule of Q2 2008 but AMD hasn’t commented on any of the specific release dates.

New player in mobile x86 processor market

Eric Chevallier — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:46:49 +0000

Via’s not the only one planning a new energy efficient x86 compatible CPU, a start-up named Montalvo Systems has an energy efficient x86 processor in the works as well but this one is dual core. Montalvo Systems is targeting the CPU at notebooks and ultraportables. Little else is known about the CPU and no official announcement has been made, though one is expected later this year. Their have been a hand full companies that tried to compete with Intel and most haven’t been as lucky as AMD or even Via. Most have put out one or two generations of products that weren’t very competitive and didn’t do well in the market, such as Rise Technology with the mP6, IDT with the Winchip, and Transmeta with the Crusoe and Efficeon. Cyrix came the closest to succeeding and had more generations than any of the other failed manufacturers but in the end ultimately couldn’t compete. As a side note, it’s interesting that Via bought Centaur Technology from IDT and bought Cyrix from National Semiconductor (after Cyrix was bought by them). Since Rise Technology was bought by SiS and Transmeta still exists as a patent holding company, it appears that Montalvo Systems is making their chip from scratch with no announcements of patent licensing yet. Montalvo Systems does seem to have the pedigree to be successful, “such as Montalvo CEO Matt Perry, who was previously CEO of Transmeta; Montalvo board member Vinod Dham, a former Intel architect from the Pentium days who later joined NexGen and finally AMD; Greg Favor, former chief architect on the AMD K6 processor; and Mike Yamamura, who also worked on the K6 project.” according to TechReport.

For more information click here.