^/\^ PeaK /\^/\

It was a sad day back in 1998 when BYTE magazine declared that they be no longer publishing in print form. Their insightfulness coupled with real journalism shaped the nature and format of computing today. Today, the corporations are diversify to define products that are real breakthroughs(Palm Pilot, Everyday Unix via Linux , Digital image processing,) or those that follow the marketing mantra of the GAP. The result I think is an insecurity that places most of the faith of what computer should I buy this year in the hands of publications which push next years computer like the car industry pushes a car every 4 years. The result are 19" monitors and a computing device with three separate fans(CPU, power supply and video) to increase the ever expanding 3D performance mark and heat . To put this into perspective, the Apple McIntosh had no fans, period, when in was introduced in 1984. I think that it has indirectly spilled into the car market as adequate acceleration in a car is now defined as being relative to that of a 150 HP powered car. A generation of drivers grew up on 4 cylinder 100 HP cars with adequate passing and merging capabilities. The large baby boom generation to which even IKEA commercials(Gilligan's Island and the Brady Bunch) and Tim Horton Ads (Paul Henderson's 1971 goal over Russia) are attempting to appeal to a very educated and financially stable segment of the population. My prediction is these very powerful computers selling for about $800 a pop (Celeron with large drives and a Quake capable 3D video card running Linux) will find a legacy of applications over the next 5 to 10 years and truly revolutionize communities. The plethora of software development tools (compilers, debuggers, graphical tool boxes) available under Linux has already made a huge impact to the underground software development community composed of engineering students and computer science majors that use to be employed by accounting companies and in engineering sales. They are now designing and experimenting with the creation and capturing of tools that express valuable and useful thinking.

What does this have to do with ATI ? ATI's many chip offerings and diversity enable it fill the computing needs of a very diverse market composed of business(includes students), families (most have Nintendo boxes or Playstations), and now consumer goods such as set-top boxes. The result is about 30% market share of a huge market with many bit players 30% of the market means that for every success in the market place will be met by two other selections...I hate to say the word "loss"...as it is inapproriate.

The Desktop computer of the feature will more and more be a meld of today's destop computing and laptop. The large CRT monitors will give way to wall mounted displays that can be held in your lap and read like a book. The mouse controls will need to be duplicated onto the monitor so that we have some way of flipping the virtual pages...maybe voice command will become a reality by then. The modern computing device will need to support this interface at the very least and do so in a way that is complimentary to todays laptop. It should be power efficient and the level of processing power that we have today will probably be more than adequate. The challenge is to offer this level of performance with long battery life (8 hours or more) by offering power efficient architectures and integrating support of popular interfaces such as flat panel interfaces. ATI will soon be releasing these combinations of technologies that should provide a extremely good balance of power consumption, power and features. Recently, the Mobility-P line of chips has been setting both performance records and deployment records for 1999 and Y2K Laptop systems.

ATI today as a company today continues to be very profitable and increasing revenues by working with a market of a few large players and a huge number of smaller players. For the volume of chips sold, ATI has probably the fewest number of compatability and reliability issues of any chipset manufacturer due to the minimization of heat. The large heat sinks found on competing products is due to a relation called the Arhenius failure rate model

For me, the level of 3D performance available is so truly astounding that only two of the the hundred or so games available today are wanting and only when played at high resolutions (>1024x768) which are best described as overkill. The integration offered by the 810 chipset is architecturally flawed for performance 3D while the 3D emphasis/022um technology selection from the NV10 is at the expense(heat/reliability, die size and cost/yield,) of features. Expect to see ATI's future offerings offer integration at a different interface level that will be complimentary to a merged Desktop and Laptop segment that I think will define next generation computing platforms. Hopefully no fans or heat sinks. Wow. I imagine that it will be possible in the future to plug a portable motorcycle version of a battery into a car cigarette lighter on a drive to a woods. Pack up a backpack and hike into wilderness for a three day weekend, setup camp and leave a truly portable computing setup tethered to a umbilical cord powered on the whole time....on second thought why just becuase you can. Now, a moutain top cabin with no power and a solar cell is a different matter.

1. Go to this page that points to a link of interest
2. Near the bottom of the page, add the following link to you Bookmarks:
   Benchmark Results - Quake 3 Test v1.08 - High Quality or goto to this page and add this bookmark
3. Open a new browser window with the following of this page and compare thre result with clicking on the following direct link to Benchmark Results - Quake 3 Test v1.08 - High Quality

In a similar vein, the level of performance shown by the Fury in back in September 1998 set a standard that was not only top of the class in terms of frame rate but also in terms of overall image quality. What exactly is it about framerate test today that makes it so right to gauge a graphics card but yet so wrong ? Read on.

The Time Demo in a game is a recorded sequence of steps/decisions/actions that may take a very good player on the order of 10 minutes to execute but take the computer script about 30 seconds (equivalent frame rate being 60 fps) . Most of the time the game is waiting for the player since the game can run at about 20x faster (in this example) than the best player. Now suppose we pop in a new CPU and the demo time reduced to 15 seconds (twice as fast) and the equivalent framerate translating into (120 fps)...would it reduce the time that a very good player would take to execute the game ? Not a wee little bit . It would be a bit like gauging the performance of a movie by how fast the actors did their dialogue and movements...not very pratical or fow that matter watchable. On the most demanding of games, the Quake 3 framerate of 44 fps (32 bit at high quality settings) is only a tad 10% slower than a normally Diamond Viper 770 (TNT2) running at 50 fps. Today it still outperforms the very new offerings of Matrox G400 and S3 Savage 4 while being one of the few chips to offer a combination of high quality DVD, low heat(read reliablilty) and extremely stable drivers. Is there a practical difference at this level in acutal game play ...No!. Most people using their games today increase the resolution until the framerate drops to the 24 fps region. If you are trying to justify the purchase of a 21 inch monitor and high powered CPU by playing a game at 1600x1200 just to impress your son (who runs Nintendo on a TV)...then I would definitely suggest that the quality of life would improve by unplugging the whole mess. Eyes glued to frame rate counter not requiired

In fact, most of 3DGaming's staff use Rage Fury boards purchased with our own money. Even after Chris Angelini received the TNT2 Ultra based Diamond Viper V770 Ultra as a gift, he continued to use the Rage Fury.

The first impressions that come to mind of Tina are that of a classy, proud, patient, and determined mother of 4 (Paul, David, Andrew and Sarah). Her 47 years of life on this planet began in Cardiff, UK on December 13 1952. The natural friendship that she extended all her neighbours in her apartment complex proved to be the good fortune of my wife's family who lived next door some 25 years ago. It began a relationship of baby sitting, helping each move, weddings, and godfathership. I first met Tina when I was dating my wife and can remember her enunciating my name with that delcious British (Welsh) accent and giving me the knowing smile of a mom that we be in touch. She became my wife's adviser, employer, and confidante. Her gift was one of connecting with people. I got to glimpse it in action many times over the years and it was especially pronounced at events like my wedding, her son Paul's wedding, and at other venues where it comfortably surfaced amongst total strangers. The last time I talked to Tina was about 2 months ago when she arranged to get together and just before here homecoming to Wales for a month. My wife and her sister reminisced about old times with her for about 4 hours out of a 4 and a half hour visit and they navigated around talk of the dreaded disease. Except for the loss of hair due to chemotherapy, she readiate sheer delight and pleasure while nonchantly sipping her herbal tea with us while we caught up. I finally got my chance to sit beside her, one on one, when other two went to pick up some items for Tina down the street. She looked me in the eye, smiled and say dead pan "Real bummer you, know eh, Ray ?". That was characteristic of what I would describe as our relationship. God Bless you and your family Tina...you will be missed but I know you will move to a better place free of physical pain. My regards to your wonderful brothers and sisters: Frances, Eileen and Neil ...here is a reading they picked out that in many aspects personifies Tina:

I'd like the memory of me
To be a happy one.
I'd like to leave an afterglow
Of smiles when the day is done

I'd like to leave an echo
Whispering softly down the ways
Of Happy times, and laughing times
And bright sunny days

I'd like the tears of those who grieve
To dry before the sun
Of Happy memoryies and I leave
Behind--when the day is done

ATi has recently defined the standards (DFP and hardware IDCT for DVD) that people are adopting or about to adopt as well as high quality and low cost video-in capture card capability that is now integrated into some of their latest cards ....when coupled with large hard drives will make editing wedding videos using 3rd generation editing software much more accessible and less tedious. Maybe the next killer app. Fear mongering (quite frequent in the graphics industry) is a instrument used by those who do use on line trading to sell short and on mrgin.. My guess is that ATI will continued to execute good quarters, delivery, price and support on a consistent basis. The quarter end results are in and I urge you to read them when they come out. If past performance over the last three years is any indicator, the net result has always been a buy opportunity that quickly restablishes the original stock price due to industry earnings per share ratio. Hondas or Toyotas with good acceleration or low clearance high maintenance Ferraris ? The choice is yours.

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2. Bring on the Linux apps!
3. Linux for Newbies. Part 1: Introduction