[03/31/2000]
Beige G3 issues
xlr8yourmac notes that some failures with Beige G3 Macs equipped with third party CPU upgrades may be caused by the VRM (Voltage Regulation Module) that has obviously been delivered in two flavours, from two different manufacturers. And one kind seems to be picky about CPU power consumption. Maybe those "Copper G3 failures" may actually be a matter of the VRM. I'm about to check which one I have.

[03/31/2000]
No MP Coppermines
the register notes that the 1GHz version (and faster I guess) of the Coppermine P3 chip will NOT be able to work together with another chip of the same kind in a multiprocessing environment. Well, to me that means that once Apple ships its "Mystic G4" machines with 2 or 4 G4 chips on it, no matter how fast, they'll crush any GHz CuMine.

[03/31/2000]
Bigger wafers, lower cost
the regsiter notes that Infineon, one of the leading semiconductor researching companies (former part of Siemens) is now starting to produce chips on 300mm wafers (12 inch) instead of the older 8 inch ones. This allows for more cips to be produces at once, resulting in higher yields again resulting in lower production costs and thus making chips cheaper for the end user. Motorola is, btw, part of the research behind this new technology.

[03/31/2000]
Ballmer works
the register reports on the latest reorganisation plans from Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer. Looks like a mess!

[03/31/2000]
G4, IBM, MOT hassles
MacWEEK analyses the situation around the PowerPC alliance AIM (Apple, Motorola, IBM) and concludes in the statement that they better get their acts together, before Apple jumps over to the Intel platform. Oh beware, behave...

[03/31/2000]
3dfx interview
FiringSquad has another ineterview with 3dfx regarding their aquisition of GigaPixel Corp. Read on what we might expect when and how.