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| June '99 | WORK IN PROGRESS!!! May '99 |
UPDATE OF THE LOCALTEL OFFER - Revised 17th May Finally got through and spoke to an accounts manager with Localtel. I'm hardly surprised, but the lady I spoke with apologised for the lack of response and confirmed that they are massively oversubscribed, but endeavouring to catch up with the work. I've got them to send me all the disks etc, while I think about it and read the small print. On the subject of how they manage to do this, not unreasonably, she wouldn't go into details other than to say a mixture of advertising and finance, commenting that they do the same in America. Actually, they don't. In North America, local calls are unmetered fixed rate billing. For 0800 access, they are paying the cost of your phonecall. I can't comment of the level of discounts they apply (up to 70% I believe), but at normal rates, it would be very, very, easy for a heavy Internet user to run up costs of £200 a month. I understanding how a telco can offer flat rate billing, but, as I understand it, Localtel are buying line time off BT and giving it to you. I just can't get my head round it! All things being equal, for all I ridicule BT, they do have a brilliant Quality of Service and look after their customers. At present I have decided not to change over as I feel, personally, that it will be better to leave things as they are and wait for ADSL to role out. BT offering unmetered local calls would be nice, but, citing OFTEL as an excuse, they say this just isn't going to happen - ever. Truely an amazing deal - 0800 internet access. It's a joke, in my opinion. Oh, I don't doubt the offer may be genuine, but if so, it's I have grave reservations about it's viability. The fax line appears to be turned off, the on-line registration failed due a CGI script fault, on occassions, the phone is either not answered at all (I recorded 130 rings before being cut off) or it's permanently engaged. E-mail and verbal requests for an installation disk have been ignored. And the one time I got through, I was unable to get a straight answer to the most basic technical queries. My concern is such - this offer, if true [is does appear to be so], is so good they are virtually guaranteed around 5,000,000 subscribers by my estimates. Localtel appears unable to cope after even a few days of promotion. Can you imagine what the screaming.net service is going to be like... According to their own site:
BROADCOM DEMONSTRATES WORLD'S FIRST GIGABIT ETHERNET CHIP FOR EXISTING COPPER CABLING xDSL News Alert - Tuesday, May 11, 1999 "Broadcom Corporation, a leading developer of integrated circuits enabling broadband communications to the home and business, today demonstrated at NetWorld+Interop '99 the world's first Gigabit Ethernet transceiver chip for existing copper cabling..." Full story ADSL FORUM SUMMIT FOCUSES ON REGULATIONS AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES Thursday, May 06, 1999---Workshop to Focus on Giving Voice to DSL May 24th Full Story: xDSL News Release ARE YOU GETTING A RAW DEAL? I've got my angry head on at the moment. Not content with facing extortionate telephone charges, the British public faces new insults from the software industry. Long aware of prices difference for applications (and computer books) it seems you are to face a similar slap in the face from Interplay in the games area. On May 5th, in America, Interplays' Baldurs Gate add-on "Tales of the Sword Coast" was released - at $19.99 (about £13). On May 14th, it will be released in the UK - at $31.00 (£19.99 with the current exchange rate around 1.55) I asked their head office why they felt it necessary to hike the price a massive 50% for this country - No answer as yet. The UK copy is said to include "Magic the Gathering" which may take the sting off slighty, but is still no justification for such a massive difference for what is basically a small add-on... CHEAPER INTERNET CALLS FOR THE UK If you follow this site, you'll quickly realise I feel that the UK (and Europe) are being held to ransom by the utility companies, the greediest being the telephone companies. At least one of whom feels: "We are not a monolopy, but as we alone own the local loop, we can charge what we like, for as long as we like and there's nothing you can say or do to change it. We LIKE these levels of profit..." Not that I'll name names... ANYWAY, things are starting to charges, at leat as far as Internet access is concerned - read on. Kingston Internet Started the ball rolling by offering unmetered telephone call to the Internet for a flat rate fee of just £15.
As Kingston Communications own the local loop they can do this - and still make decent profits. They also offer ADSL (albeit at a far higher cost) - something BT (with their ISN Trials) is unwilling, or unable to do, despite tests and trials that have been going on for a number of years, and the widespread availability of ADSL in North America. Next X Stream took up the baton by offering Free e-mail, 20Mb free space and freephone 0800 Internet access at selected times. Initially it was all weekend, Currently it is 12pmm to 2am weekdays. Times aside, they say the model is here to stay. Download times can be as low as 0.01Kb/s instead of 4Kb/s at times, with Ping rates measured in minutes rather than seconds (up to 400x slower due to dropped packed etc) but I persevere - and it is free... This month see's a number of folk joining the race. Tempo, in conjunction with Screaming.Net and Localtel are offering free internet access, email etc AND, if you swap over from BT (if must be BT!) to Localtel for billing, 0800 freephone access for off-peak hours. That's 6pm to 8am and weekends / bank holidays. They also offer a further 10% discount against your normal billing - even allowing for existing discounts like Friends & Family. (Shows how much the Telco's make, huh!) This service has only just started (another body on the telephone lines wouldn't hurt, guys!) and as yet they have no figures or estimates for QoS (Quality of Service) or subscriber line ratios*, but hey, it's free... (*Number of users to modems 10:1 is excellent, 30+:1 is common, 100+:1 not unknown - and a waste of time...) NTL, bless there cotton socks, are now offering 512Kb/s Cable Modems to end users - with flat rate charging The NTL HiSpeed Internet, is, in the UK at least, a pioneering new internet service which harnesses NTL's broadband cable network to a new 3Com cable modem - to offer internet access at up to four times the speed of the fastest service currently available. Costs are as follows: Sadly the Merseyside and Cheshire areas are not on the roll-out for this year; however NTL are in talks with the other cable companies about sharing the technology etc. Finally, AOL are a bit miffed as someone leaked news of their trials. AOL are not saying it will definately happen, just being trials and all, but a number of sources, including someone I spoke to in their call sector in Ireland, have said that the idea is for unmetered internet access for a flat rate charge of just £14.99 a month. If - when - it happens, just watch AOL's subscriptions rocket - and BT (et al) squirm when asked why AOL can afford it - but they can't. The really daft thing, I'm told by a number of telephony consultants and insiders, is that the telephone charges reflect the cost of billing for local calls, and not the overheads of connecting the calls. i.e. You are paying to be billed, rather then paying for the cost to connect. INTEL PRICING
UPDATE I've LOADS to add this month, including Intel prices up to September, with news on memory and motherboards, and a host of others. If you've not been there yet, take a lot at the Technical Site Links and the IT Industry Trade Journals sections which have had a darn good overhaul this month. WINDOWS Microsoft will graciously offer Windows 2000 beta 3 to users for $59.95 ($89.90 for the Advanced Server Edition). Oh joy, the idea of paying for a time limited demo to help find Bill's bugs! It's a tad cruel and the Windows 98 final beta was very stable; HOWEVER, I still have nightmares over the beta of Windows 95 and still recall the joys of arguing with one of MS's more narrow minded managers over the stability of the initial release (and 95b) - "There are NO bug at all in our product" he says, hand on heart, as a growing crowd of resellers stare in disbelief. Depending on my mood, and workload, I might have a play with the release version, but I can't see it getting anywhere near my main system without two or three revisions AND a really good reason! If it isn't broke, don't fix it, or in the case of Windows, if it doesn't crack too often, put up with it! I couldn't find it last night, but I'm told the first Service Release for Windows 98 is out - and there are compatibility concerns with Intel® network cards For NT, Service Release 5 is now out, though I'm not sure what features it adds - or breaks... I read one review of the Soundblaster Live! soundcard on NT. Apparently, if you install the drivers and have SR 4 installed (which you should as it's the Y2000 stuff) NT will crash irretrievably. This fault is down to Creative, but it's one to be aware of. Apr '99 |
Intel Processor Roadmap Here's a link to Intels' processor road, which has been updated to the end of 1999. It shows details of the upcoming 133Mhz PIII 600's. Matrox G400 Launch Sample chips of the G400 are with manufacturers now, with retail release date set to late summer in the UK. Plans for its successor, the G800 are also in the pipeline with release for this estimated at mid summer, 2000. Smiling contentedly, I point out that with 256 bit architecture (if not memory bus), 32Mb memory and 4x AGP it exactly matches the spec. I predicted late last year for them to regain lost market share. Matrox G400 Announcement (copied below:) Matrox introduces its next generation chip technology March 16, 1999 - Matrox is proud to announce the dawn of a new era in graphics acceleration. Introducing the highly anticipated Matrox G400: the first AGP 4X/2X device to offer unprecedented image quality without sacrificing 3D, 2D or DVD performance. The new Matrox G400 uses a unique 256-bit DualBus architecture and a full 128-bit memory bus to continue Matrox’s tradition of providing the ultimate in 2D performance. Powered by its new 3D Rendering Array Processor, the Matrox G400 also delivers explosive 3D graphics acceleration. It also unveils a new dimension in image enhancement technology by improving on Matrox’s trademark Vibrant Color Quality rendering, while adding cutting-edge features like true Environment Mapped Bump Mapping, an UltraSharp DAC and breakthrough DualHead Display technology, which drives two independent displays while supporting different resolutions and refresh rates. The Matrox G400 offers support for key industry products and standards, including Microsoft Windows® 2000, the AMD 3D Now! and Intel Pentium III processors, the PC 99 specification as well as AGP 2X and 4X systems. In fact, Matrox was the first company to design a fully optimized AGP 4X chip, which it has been sampling to OEMs and other industry partners since October 1998. The Matrox G400 has also been thoroughly evaluated and tested by Intel to ensure superb stability and reliability. Simply put, the Matrox G400 is the new standard by which all other graphics solutions will be measured. Matrox invites you to experience the difference true speed and image quality makes. Gamespot delivers details of the upcoming release of DirectX 7.0 Mar '99 |
Update 30th March PC Modem veteran Hayes has sold its european business to Zoom Telephonic It is the UK's and EC's intention that every student will have a PC and access to the Internet by 2002 (Call charges not withstanding!). To this end, the British government has announced it will provide poorer families with recycled PC's as part of a £400 million package announced last week. David Blunkett, Secretary of State for Education & Employment revealed how low income families would be eligible for the computers from as little as £5 a month. I am not clear as yet were cost of ownership, support and maintenance comes into the equation though! Microsoft is to announce the release date for Windows 98 Second Edition shortly, and availability for the Service Release update / patch. Next month in the US MICROWORKZ will retail a fully specified $299 PC. This, I must see! GRAPHICS SCENE Voodoo3 launches shortly in the UK with RRP's of £99 for the 2000 and £149 for the 3000, with the faster 3500 and 4000 series to follow in late summer. 3Dfx is to spend $20 million to promote the launch. Everyone else however (including Creative and Diamond Multimedia) is backing NVidia's Riva TNT2 chipset. I've not followed this chip as closely myself, but I'm told it is shipping. It offers 32 bit colour rendering, 32 bit z buffer and 32Mb frame buffer. Tom Pabst has given it a good review anyway! Following on is S3's Savage 4 which is a current bed-mate with Intel as they work on a PC on a Chip together. Diamond Multimedia, backing two horses, are expected to release a card based on the chip in the second 1/4. As is becoming entry level for this type of card, it will offer 4x AGP, 128 bit path and 32Mb RAM. Hands up all those who remember considering a second mortage to buy a 5Mb hard-drive... Choking on my coffee, I offer Intel's (1,000 quantity) prices for the PIII Xeon at 500Mhz
Bit late this next bit as it's from my January notes, but I'll enter it anyway. As I took my first steps in 1963, Douglas EngelBart at Stanford Research Central, California, invented the Mouse Now my daughter has begun walking, it's replacement is heralded. Varatouch has created a new sensor using a patented technology they call Resistive Rubber - R2. Given that keyboard giant Sejin Electron is to oem the product, it should at least get a look in. If I remember I'll come back to this is a few months and see where they have progressed too. My feeling is there will be a truly vicious techno / price war as we lead up to the millenium and that the result will be a big charge in the way computers and sold and used. I know what WILL happen in the next 5 - 7 years, but in the meantime the giants controlling the converging industries (communications, computers and broadcasting) will be to busy fighting for "their" product/protocol/standard to be the "one" everyobody adheres to that nothing will ever get done. Duh. Too much face and corporate expenses involved to consider details like - compromise! FIC, with it's KA-6110 (supporting PIII to 700Mhz, and 768Mb PC133 SDRAM (3x 256Mb)) is one one the first motherboard manufacturers to announce on-board support for super fast UDMA 66 drives such as Seagates 17.2Gb U4 Medalist 17242 or IBM's and Quantum's own UDMA 66's. Most surprisingly, I've yet to see one reviewed. If Tom's Hardware or Anand ain't quick I'll do the reviews myself :-) Multi-tech is shipping one of the first USB modems. The multi-modem V90 is available now with a rrp of £99 ex vat. The line up for RAMBUS memory continues with Cyrix and AMD in with the list of supporters, though the chip (which needs Intel's Camino chipset boards) will have slow and expensive built up before it reaches towards mainstream, late next year. To while away the time other vendors, like SIS, Acer, IBM and VIA are preparing the faster PC133 SDRAM's for volume availability this summer I saved this dozy till last in todays update. Here's a nice snippet I pulled from a computer trade magazine which should have a few of the older (more experienced) techies and users choking. According to David Gregory, Microsoft's Anti-Piracy Manager, "We [Microsoft] are looking at licensing online direct to dealers and additionally we are also developing a smart card solution. This is where you may have to insert a smart card into a PC before you can use the software or indeed the machine itself. Well, David, you and Bill Gates can [insert favourite phrase here] before I'll go back to the lunacy of use once disks and dongles. For all the those out there not sure what this means, it's an old, irrating and extreme form of copy protection that still survives in a few niche (really expensive) products - usually CAD related. Here's an example, the product needs a (non copiable) floppy disk to install. The contents of the disk are moved to the hard drive. If the system crashes - if you can - you must restore the program to its original floppy and re-install. If you can't, then you must buy the product again. Yes this really happened. Dongles are frail bits of plastic that plug into the serial / printer ports. If the dongle isn't detected, the program aborts. If - when - the dongle is damaged, you must return it to the manufactuer for a replacement - for a price. Meanwhile, your productivity goes down the toilet. If you had ever seen a PC with three or more of these blasted things cluttering up the ever present mass of cables you would begin to understand With apologies for lateness! I'll sit down and do a belated update next next. Been relatively quiet really, beyond the usual "x buys y and in taken over by z!" Often as not it's telco's and network companies or Wintel and both. Like Microsoft's recent investment in NTL and their announcement to offer Cable Modems to the UK within 6 months (four buses at once, just watch!). Then there's Global TeleSystems Group's $5 billion merger with Esprit Telecom to create one of the largest independent telcos. Or Intels $2.2 billion take-over of Level One Communications (subject to the usual approval processes). Intel also get further quick mentions for releasing their PIII Xeon this Wednesday (17th March), while their partner HP has brought forward the release of their PA-8600 to early 2000. Sticking with Intel, graphics veteran S3 has announced that their new Savage4 chipset is optimised for the Pentium III's Streaming SIMD Extensions. (Intels answer to AMD's 3DNow...) For the platformers out there, the Playstation 2 (for Xmas 2000) will have DVD, modem and USB capabilities and feature a 128bit 300Mhz RISC processor (6.2 Gflops power) with two support processors. Feb '99 |
In brief - update RSN *ON-LINE* Rumours are two UK regional telcos begin (local) rollout of ADSL shortly and that Cable & Wireless are to follow suit. Also that BT could review local (ie Internet) charges in line with the States by this Xmas. Comments raised are that if so many ISP's can offer free mail, free connection and from 5Mb to (I quote) 'unlimited' free web space - based of their fractional % cut of the connections charges, then the company with the (virtual) monopoly - read GRIP - on the local loop is (£xxx/second profit) taking us for a ride. Es verdad? *Hardware* ATI Rage 128 / Fury are now available, but try and get one in the UK... Pentium III and AMD K6-3 hits the street next week - subject to availability 3Dfx announces Voodoo3 to ship May 15th. Jan '99 |
ADSL It could be live by summer! This is something I am following very closely in the UK. Canadians, depending on location and ISP, already have dedication connections of up to 7Mb/s. At a trade show this week I talked to a number of vendors about products. Most are looking into it...
HAYES The grandaddy of modem makers appears to have gone into liquidation for the final time according to trade reports. One manufacturer I spoke to put this down to high prices combined with a lack of innovation and new products, relying on name alone to bolster sales. Hayes UK is reported as being financially stable. AMD Details of AMDs K6-3 (Sharptooth) are beginning to emerge. Due for release next month at 400Mhz as a spoiler to Intels offer (below) it offers comparable performance and should work of existing K6-2 motherboards, subject to a BIOS update. For the K7 chip, due for release this summer, things look even brighter. According to sources it will have bus speeds of up to 200MHz. They are also on line to release a copper design early next year when, I believe, their Dresden fab comes on line. It will be launching at a gob smacking 1000Mhz. INTEL News continues to circulate that they cannot keep up with demand, with Intels official stance being that there are constrait on the supply of 350Mhz PIIs. It appears that the 450Mhz PII is, for all intends and purposes, entry level standard - particularly in light of the price cuts due in February & April following the release of the 450Mhz PIII (Katmai) next month. On the subject on Katmai, the motherboard manufacturers I've spoken to so far have, as yet, to confirm specific support for the PIII. Katmai review by Kenn Hwang. 3Dfx 3Dfx appears to have stirred up a hornets nest followings its decision to purchase STB and begin selling its own cards to oems. Apparently the move has so upset some vendors - including Creative Labs and Diamond Multimedia - that they have abandoned Voodoo based development. I've said for a while though, that Creatives' support for its 3D Blaster card is diabolical. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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