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April 11, 1998
News
New Intel processors and lots of big changes
in computer technology are on their way to a computer near you. At long last, this week
marks the formal introduction of Intel’s next group of fast Pentium processors as
well as computer systems with 100 MHz system buses—an important development enabled
by the introduction of the 440BX chipset. But first, the processors. On tax day, April 15,
Intel will be announcing new 350 and 400 MHz versions of the Pentium II as well as a 266
MHz version of their low-cost Celeron chip, which is the company’s first member of
the Pentium family that doesn’t carry the Pentium name. The actual guts of the
Celeron, however, is essentially a Pentium II chip minus the onboard L2 cache. While this
allows Intel to keep its costs down and target the chip towards sub-$1,000 PCs, it
apparently does have a negative impact on performance because L2 cache makes a big
difference in terms of a PC’s overall performance. Once real systems start to ship
we’ll be able to see exactly how much impact, but initial reports suggest that
Celerons are not as fast as older Pentium MMX systems on certain tasks.
On the other end of the performance
perspective, the combination of the faster 350 and 400 MHz processors and a 100 MHz system
bus should create an impressive new performance standard for systems that take advantage
of all the latest new PC technologies. We won’t know until later in the week what
you’ll have to pay for a new system, but given the way prices have been moving
downward, I’m hoping it will be less than we all expect. Of course, older Pentium II
systems will see price cuts as well in order to make room for these fast new systems.
At this week’s National Association of
Broadcasters, or NAB, convention, there was lots of talk about new developments in
combining PCs, TVs and other consumer electronics devices. To be honest, it’s not
entirely clear what all is going to be happening but there’s no question that
we’re moving to a world where digital television signals will be common. Instead of
just being able to watch those signals on TVs, however, you’ll also be able to view
them on computers equipped TV tuner cards (and probably Windows 98, which has standard OS
support for television viewing built into its WebTV for Windows feature), as well as other
types of access devices. Microsoft and Intel this week announced that Windows 98 will also
include Intel’s Intercast technology, which lets you receive data embedded into a TV
signal so that, for example, you can get additional information about a show you’re
watching, such as web site links, sports statistics and more. Microsoft also announced a
deal with Sony for figuring out ways to hook all these various devices together into
simple home networks. Look for announcements regarding the IEEE 1394, or Firewire, spec
and using it to connect to together all the entertainment components in your house
sometime in the future.
If you’re interested in the notion of a
"wearable PC"—somewhat along the lines of what I talked about a few weeks
with "ubiquitous" computing, you’ll want to check out Seiko’s new
Ruputer, which is basically a computer inside a wristwatch. Of course, this isn’t the
first one—I believe Timex’ DataLink owns that honor, but the new Seiko Ruputer,
which is supposed to be available in June for $280 to $350, has some neat capabilities of
its own. Apparently the watch will include its own 16-bit CPU and 128K of memory and will
be able transfer text and images back and forth between itself and three Windows 95 apps
that will come bundled with the device. In addition, you’ll be able to play games on
it and against other watch wearers via infrared signals. Look out Dick Tracy, here we
come.
After last week’s onslaught of new
Pentium II notebooks, several companies made a few more additions. Gateway, for example,
introduced a revised version of its Solo 9100XL. The new notebook, which retails for
$4,699, comes with a 266 MHz Pentium II, a DVD drive, a hardware MPEG-2 decoder and a
14.1-inch active-matrix screen. It also offers 64 MB of RAM, a 5 GB drive and a 56K modem.
On the low end of notebooks, Compaq announced
some price cuts for certain models, including one that will bring the Armada 1530DM, which
includes a 133 MHz Pentium, 12.1" display, 1.4 GB hard drive, and CD-ROM down to
$1,099.
- Finally, don’t forget that it’s not too
late to do your taxes. Not only can you purchase federal and state tax programs online,
and download them straight to your computer’s hard disk, you can also pay a smaller
amount of money to simply "use" software online through your web browser. You
can find out more at the TurboTax and TaxCut sites, which you’ll find linked from
This Week’s Links.
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