Tech News
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Vacuum Tubes by AOpen
Published: Monday, December 23, 2002 | By: DennisNormally you see this sort of thing on a hardware review site but AOpen has pulled out the big guns on this one, or there is some hardware nut with some pull at News.com, either way AOpen has gone mainstream with their vacuum tube sound system.
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Intel to Fight VIA Antitrust Win
Published: Monday, December 23, 2002 | By: DennisVIA posted an announcement of their win on their website but really didn't go into detail as to what they won. The Inquirer article doesn't do much better but I'm thinking it has something to do with this.
" This slab of a complicated set of legal proceedings relates to a law suit Intel started last year in this country claiming Via's CPUs and chipsets infringed five Intel patents."
So, there you have it.
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SiS Gets HyperThreading License
Published: Monday, December 23, 2002 | By: Dennis"Chipset designer Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) recently revealed that it has acquired licensing for Intel’s Hyper-Threading Technology and that five of its products support the new standard. Instead of an official announcement, SiS released the information on its website last week. Most motherboard makers said that they had not been informed and were unaware of the news."
Negotiations are not over for SiS since HyperThreading isn't the only license SiS will need to get.
"SiS says that it is still negotiating licensing for the 800MHz FSB technology." -
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. -
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: DennisI 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: DennisSome 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." -
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. -
MSI and Leadtek First with GeForce FX
Published: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 | By: DennisSimply 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. -
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!
