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February 20, 1999
News
- I’ve got some nice prizes to give away today courtesy of
Microsoft, including a Diamond SuperSonic Dual 56K modem and a copy of SimCity 3000.
- There’s lots of interesting chip developments that will
be going on in the coming week, including the official debut of Intel’s next
generation Pentium III processor. Both the chip and systems based around it are expected
to be released on Friday, Feb. 26. As I’ve reported on before, the Pentium III is
essentially a Pentium II processor with the addition of 70 new processing instructions
that the company is calling Streaming SIMD Extensions. Initially there will be 450 and 500
MHz versions of the chip, but last week the company also revealed that they will be
producing a 550 MHz version of the chip, as well. It’s apparently not expected to be
available until May. For software that takes advantage of the new Pentium III
instructions, there can apparently be some fairly significant performance increases, but
the problem is, virtually none of your existing applications will be affected. In other
words, you’ll have to buy new software and/or upgrade your existing programs to
versions that are specifically designed for the Pentium III before you’ll see much
benefit. Apparently because of a technology referred to as Streaming Memory, the 450 MHz
version of the PIII may be a bit faster than a 450 MHz PII, but it won’t be very
noticeable. The other big "feature" of the Pentium III is its embedded serial
number, which has caused the company a great deal of trouble already. Because of the
initial outpouring of negative reaction to the serial number, the chip will now ship with
the serial number off as the default, but it will come with software that lets you turn it
on or off. Look for systems built around the Pentium III to debut just under $2,000 in
many cases, and up to $3,000 for well-stocked systems.
- That’s not the only big chip news of the week, however.
Intel competitor AMD is also debuting an important new chip as well: the K6-III. The
K6-III improves on the existing K6-2 by incorporating 256K of L2 cache directly into the
processor itself, which should give it a big performance jump over existing K6s, which
currently only connect to their L2 cache at the speed of the computer’s system bus.
The K6-III is expected to debut at speeds of 400 and 450 MHz, with a 500 MHz version due
in March. Like the K6-2, the K6-III includes the 3Dnow processor instructions, which are
conceptually similar to but different from the Pentium III’s Streaming SIMD
Extensions. Again, software has to be specifically written to take advantage of those
instructions before you’ll see any benefit. In the case of 3Dnow, some games have
already done so, but that’s about it. In other AMD news, the company this week
announced a new deal with Gateway in which Gateway will begin selling systems with
AMD’s chips.
- There’s a nasty new trojan horse virus called Happy 99
that’s wreaking havoc on many Windows systems, apparently Windows 98 systems in
particular. The Happy99 trojan is sent via e-mail and, once you’re infected, will be
sent to any people to whom you send an e-mail message. What it does is basically infest
your Winsock files, which is a critical system file used to make dial-up Internet
connections. If you haven’t already been infected by it, a company called Privacy
Software has developed a free utility called SockLock that prevents your Winsock file from
being damaged. You can find a link to a page where you can download on my This Week’s
Links page.
- Palm Pilot fans should be happy to hear that two new versions
of the Pilot are expected to debut on Monday. First the Palm IIIx, which will retail for
$369, features the same basic form and size of the current Palm III but includes a better,
easier-to-read screen, 4 MB of memory, and an upgrade card slot for adding additional
memory or other accessories. The $449 Palm V also features the improved screen, but only 2
MB of built-in memory. Its primary differentiating factor, however, is that it’s only
half as thick as existing Pilots, which makes it a very sleek-looking machine.
- Adobe this week introduced a new version of their Acrobat
electronic document authoring program. The new version, which is expected in the second
quarter of this year for both Macs and PCs at a price of around $249, offers multiple
improvements over existing versions. One of the primary ones is the complete compatibility
and integration with Microsoft Office, which allows you to convert any Microsoft Word,
Excel or PowerPoint files into PDFs by simply dragging the files over the Acrobat program.
In addition, the program provides the ability to edit both the text and images within PDF
files, and lets you convert single HTML pages or entire web sites into PDF format. The
company also now has a beta version of the free Acrobat Reader 4.0 available for download
from their web site.
- Apple this week introduced a new Java engine for Power
Macintoshes called the MacOS Runtime for Java 2.1, or MRJ. The company is claiming that if
you download and install the free upgrade, Java applications can run up to 5 times faster.
However, that will only hold true for Internet Explorer on the Mac because Netscape
Communicator on the Mac uses its own Java Virtual Machine and cannot be re-directed to use
the new, faster version.
- Finally, Sony officially debuted some very slick new
computers this week, including a tiny notebook with an integrated digital camera, and a
new small desktop system based around a flat-panel display. First, the PCG-C1X picture
notebook, which weighs only 2.5 pounds and is 1½" thick, features a tiny digital
video camera that can be used to record still images or up to 60 seconds of motion video.
The notebook is based around a 266 MHz Pentium MMX processor and features a widescreen
1,024 x 480 pixel active matrix display. In addition, the $2,299 notebook includes 64 MB
of RAM, a 4.3 GB hard drive, built-in 56K V.90 modem, and both a USB and IEEE 1394 (which
Sony calls i.Link) port. The new PCV-L400 desktop is tiny footprint machine that together
with the 14.1" active matrix flat-panel display and integrated stereo speakers, makes
for a very slick-looking new system. A system with a 400 MHz Pentium II processor, 64 MB
of RAM, 6.4 GB hard drive and 24x CD-ROM drive is priced at $2,299. In addition the system
features a slot for Sony’s proprietary Memory Stick storage technology along with a
free 4 MB Memory stick. The main system case weighs only 12 pounds and includes two PC
Card slots for expansion.
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