Tech News

• Concern About Intel Springdale Licensing

  Published: Friday, December 20, 2002 | By: Dennis

  "For the new platform, though Intel did not ask clients not to manufacture products based on the Taiwanese-made chipsets, the chip giant has been reminding its customers during recent monthly meetings that the three Taiwanese chipset designers have not yet acquired licensing on its new technologies, motherboard sources said."
  So Intel is saying that even though the chipset company doesn't have a license mobo makers can still make boards right?
  "Without the licensing, manufacturers will not be able to feature support for the new-generation P4 processors in their products. As a result, if Taiwanese chipset designers are unable to get the licensing, board makers will have to adopt more Intel chipsets."
  It would appear that the answer is yes and no. They can make the boards without recourse from Intel as long as the additional features of the Pentium 4 are not enabled.

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• AOL patents instant messaging

  Published: Thursday, December 19, 2002 | By: Dennis

  "America Online has quietly secured a patent that could potentially shake up the competitive landscape for instant messaging software. The patent, filed in September this year, grants AOL instant messaging subsidiary ICQ rights as the inventor of the popular IM Internet application. The patent covers anything resembling a network that allows multiple users to see when other users are present and then to communicate with them."
  This could be good and it could be bad. ??

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• Soltek nForce2 Board Announced

  Published: Thursday, December 19, 2002 | By: Dennis

  I have posted the relative info and product image in the forums. The color has changed since Comdex but that was to be expected.

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• Desktop-Concept Moble PC from Quanta

  Published: Thursday, December 19, 2002 | By: Dennis

  Some of you may remember the Freeway FWD-P3C4XD review we did quite some time ago, well one of the fellow sister companies is called Quanta. Since our latest Freeway reviews both Freeway and Quanta have gotten out of the motherboard business though it would seem that they may venture back into building stuff for themselves.
  "According to the company, it will use desktop CPUs, motherboards, graphics cards, hard drives and memory. Consequently, the mobile PC will be heavier and larger than existing mobile PCs. Including the battery, it will weigh seven kilograms and measure 52mm in thickness. Mobile PCs now on the market weight about 3-4 kilograms."

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• VIA Wafer Orders Increase to Meet Demand

  Published: Thursday, December 19, 2002 | By: Dennis

  "VIA Technologies recently confirmed that it has placed an extra order of 3,000-5,000 wafers at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to resolve the tight supply of its KT266A, P4X266A and P4M266A chipsets. Output of the products is expected at the end of this month."
  These older chipsets are much cheaper than the higher end models thus making upgrades easier on the end user.

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• MSI and Leadtek First with GeForce FX

  Published: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 | By: Dennis

  Simply put
  "Based on the production schedule, GeForce FX graphics cards are expected to hit the market at the end of January at the earliest."
  This is some good news for sure, it also means that the cards will be pretty spendy at first.

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• 800MHz FSB Roadmap Updates

  Published: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 | By: Dennis

  "The updates were in response to Intel’s specification changes in its new Springdale platform. The chip giant had announced that instead of 677MHz FSB and dual-channel DDR333 standards, its Springdale products, expected to be launched in the second quarter of 2003, will come with 800MHz FSB and dual-channel DDR400 designs."
  Go Intel!

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• AOpen AX4PE Max Review @ Active Hardware

  Published: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 | By: Dennis

  Another AOpen motherboard under review at Active Hardware this time it's the AX4PE Max. This AOpen board is one of those that doesn't have the "tube" style audio but performs about the same with more PCI slots. Be aware the review is a little light in the image department.

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• Springdale Benchmarks

  Published: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 | By: Dennis

  The next chapter in Pentium 4 performance has yet to be written but we can always rely on rumors and leaked info to get us by. Though I endorse HyperThreading I will have to say that I agree with this statement.
  "THE SAME document showed "positive press coverage" across print, TV, and Web sites. Those quoted as endorsing Hypethreading were [H]ardOCP, Ace's Hardware, Extreme Tech and Cnet. Intel reached over 1,000 press and analysts when it launched the 3.06GHz, apparently. It got two of us from the INQ, that's for sure, so reaching its "critical mass" target. However, no-one at the INQ has been let loose on HT technology yet, unless Andrew Thomas has got one in his bottom drawer and hasn't told us yet. Our jury of four is, therefore, still out on this technology... "
  Ninjalane hasn't gotten one either.

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• DFI AD77 Infinity Review @ ExtremeCooling

  Published: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 | By: Dennis

  This DFI board is based on the KT400 chipset and looks to be a very solid package. All of the needed connectors come included in the box, even a serial ATA cable. Even though the EC guys didn't post any benchmarks they still give the board an 8 of 10.

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