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February 21, 1998
News
- Today’s guest is Kathie Blankeship of Smart Valley,
www.svi.org. a non-profit organization that helps schools get free computers for their
classrooms, as well as providing other useful services.
- Lots of interesting processor news from Intel’s
Developer Conference this week. First, the company confirmed that they will be introducing
a new low-cost processor designed specifically for the rapidly-growing sub-$1,000 PC
market. As reported before, the chip, which is code-named Covington, will be based on the
Pentium II, although it will apparently not be called a Pentium II. Instead, the company
will be coming up with a new name. Functionally, the chip is essentially a Pentium II
without the high-speed L2 cache, which means it won’t be nearly as fast as existing
Pentium IIs. It will, however, still use the Slot One connector that today’s Pentium
IIs use. The company also announced that there will be a new 440EX chipset that goes along
with the new processor—it’s essentially a cut down version of the current 440LX
chipset found in most Pentium IIs [explain]. One characteristic of the chipset is that it
will be limited to supporting 66 MHz system buses, which is the speed at which all current
PCs run. Just to confuse matters, Intel will also be introducing the 440BX chipset in
April, which will enable mid-range and high-end desktop computers to use 100 MHz system
buses, which should offer a significant increase in performance over existing systems.
[explain] Getting back to the Covington and 440EX, however, the new processor and chipset
are part of a standard that Intel is calling the Basic PC, which is a new category of PCs
that Intel expects vendors to offer starting in April. In addition to these internal
changes, the systems will apparently have a smaller motherboard, which will result in
smaller-sized PCs. Specifically, they referred to a new mini-tower specification that is
several inches shorter and less deep than most of today’s existing machines.
- On the high end, Intel also discussed the new Slot 2 standard, which will enable servers
and other systems to offer multiple Pentium II processors. Processors that plug into the
Slot 2 connector and upgraded chipsets required to support the standard are expected
sometime in the middle of this year. They too will apparently have a new name, although
reports I read suggested it will be "Pentium II something," with the
"something" to be determined (or at least announced) at a later date. Of course,
multiple processors are only useful if you’re running Windows NT or another operating
system that supports them, because Windows 95 and the upcoming Windows 98 do not.
- Finally in the world of notebooks, April is also the expected launch date for the first
mobile versions of the Pentium II. As with existing notebook processors, the new mobile
Pentium IIs will be packaged in the Mobile Module format, which will allow you to upgrade
them at a later date. I’ve not seen any specific announcements regarding this yet,
but I suspect this also means Intel will start to offer Pentium II processor upgrades for
existing notebooks that use the Mobile Module format for their processor.
- 3Com has shipped what they claim are the first modems to support the new V.90 56K modem
standard. Expected to be available by the end of this month or the beginning of March,
these modems support both the V.90 standard as well as the company’s proprietary x2
technology, which means it should work with other modems that use either standard (but not
any that still only use K56Flex). The problem is, the V.90 standard is still not an
officially ratified standard—the final ratification won’t occur until September
of this year. So, not surprisingly, the V.90-compatible modems are still
software-upgradeable, which means if there are changes made to the standard, it can be
upgraded to those changes. At a press conference this past week, officials from 3Com and
the Lucent/Rockwell K56Flex faction said that interoperability tests they’ve run to
ensure that modems upgraded from x2 and K56Flex to the new V.90 standard were successful.
This means, that once you’ve upgraded your modem to the new standard, it should work
with any other modem that’s also been upgraded to the new standard. However, I’m
still a bit skeptical that everything is going to work perfectly the first time. In any
event, if you do upgrade your modem, make sure it still supports the older standard after
the upgrade because if it doesn’t, and your ISP hasn’t upgraded their modems
yet, then you’re newly upgraded modem won’t connect with your ISP, so be
careful.
- Frustrated by limitations in the Windows 95 Explorer? Looking for an easy way to be able
to view different file formats or convert graphics formats from one type to another? Then
you’ll want to check out the new PowerDesk Utilities 98 from Mijenix. I have to admit
I haven’t tried this yet, but it looks really cool. The product’s main component
is a replacement for the Windows 95 Explorer that lets you view over 80 different file
formats, including compressed files in may different formats, and convert individual
graphics files or batches of files from one format, such as .bmp, to another, like .jpg.
The product can also decompress or decode e-mail attachments that are uuencoded or
otherwise difficult to read, let you send encrypted e-mail messages and gives you a
graphical overview of your hard disk, showing which folders are taking up the most space.
Designed to work with Windows 98, Windows 98 or NT, PowerDesk 98 costs about $40. To find
out more, or to download a free 30-day trial, check out their web site at www.mijenix.com.
- OK, now it’s time for toys. Of course, my wife would probably argue that a lot of
this computer stuff is nothing but toys anyway, but here’s some info on some really
cool things. A few weeks ago in New York, the toy industry held it’s annual
convention and lots of computer-based toys were introduced. The coolest by far is the new
Lego Mindstorms system from good ‘ol low-tech (or so I thought) Lego. Developed in
conjunction with the MIT Media Lab, Mindstorms is a building set that also includes
special microprocessor-controlled brick called the RCX that lets you create a wide variety
of robotics-based projects. Basically, you can use pre-done programs or create your own
programs and download them wirelessly via infrared to this RCX controller, which can then
run the programs and control motors and other devices attached to it. The potential
results are amazing—their web site showed a copy machine and an ATM for dispensing
candy among other really cool creations. The basic system, which also includes light and
motion sensors as well as over 700 Lego pieces, is schedule to be available in September
for around $200. Very cool.
- Finally, here’s an interesting story about what can happen to a company if they
don’t take good care of their customers. This week, Iomega announced that they had
reached an agreement in a class-action suit brought against the company by a 15-year old
boy who spent hours waiting online for a tech support (which he still had to pay for, by
the way). In the terms of the settlement, the company promises to dramatically improve its
tech support services by offering a greatly improved web support service, as well as free
phone support for a period of time for Zip, Jaz and Ditto customers. Given that the
company used to charge $20/call, even on the first day that you bought a product,
that’s a big improvement. Let’s hope other companies willingly follow their lead
and improve their tech support, or be forced to do it as well.
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