2/1/98 Computer Gaming World 122 (SEE BOLD BELOW)
1998 WL 9534452
Computer Gaming World
COPYRIGHT 1998 Golden Empire Publications Inc.
Sunday, February 1, 1998
Comdex sightings. (Industry Trend or Event)
Loyd Case
If you want to see how big the computer industry is, spend a few hours
at Comdex. This year about 250,000 people made the pilgrimage to Las
Vegas for what is now the largest trade show in the world. With 10,000
products on display, it's impossible to see everything, so you have to
pick your targets. After surviving the thronging crowds, here's what I
have to report.
I saw several new 32x EIDE CD-ROM drives that looked promising, but I
didn't see any UltraATA drives. Wandering through the Creative Labs
booth, I noticed 3Dfx's software chief intently eyeing users' reaction
to Creative's Voodoo 2 demo. And speaking of Voodoo 2, there were demos
in a number of places, mostly running TUROK and a couple of racing
games. The QUAKE II demo was oddly absent. Creative Labs showed some
other interesting stuff, including a DVD-RAM drive (though the standard
is still up in the air) and a--gasp!--PCI sound card. It looks as if
1998 will be the end of the ISA sound card. (And there will be much
rejoicing.)
Other graphics sightings included Intel's new 2D/3D accelerator, the
i740 (code-named Auburn; see 3D IronWorks), a Pentium II laptop (no, it
doesn't use Slot 1; it's the next-generation chip), and several USB
mice. Logitech showed a wireless keyboard/mouse combo that will be sold
as a bundle. It uses Logitech's radio technology, so no line-of-sight
is needed to an IR receiver.
Several companies, including 3Com and Diamond, showed technology
using modems that can be paired together to deliver an aggregate
throughput of 112Kbps. Of course, this technology requires two phone
lines, but unlike ISDN, much of the technology for supporting these
dual-line connections is already in place (in ISPs that use Ascend
routers). I also got a peek at 3Com's new cable modems. One problem
with cable modems is that most cable companies aren't equipped for
two-way traffic. 3Com's newly acquired U.S. Robotics division has
solved that problem by using standard V.34 modems to handle upstream
traffic, potentially opening up much more of the country to cable modem
technology. This might be great for Web browsing, but I expressed my
concerns to 3Com about potential latency problems. The good news is
that the company will check out the issue in its lab.
New mass-storage options abounded. Syquest had a couple of
interesting items, the first one being their new 1GB removable
hard-drive. Dubbed the Sparq, it will retail for $199 (with cartridges
for only $33). This looks like a killer piece of gear. Another
interesting product is the company's not-yet-shipping 4.7GB removable
drive. It will list closer to $600, but a 4.7GB cartridge will cost
less than $200. Seagate showed its new Cheetah II. As with the earlier
Cheetah (which we selected for our Ultimate Game Machine), it spins at
10,000RPM, but the access time is down to 5.2 milliseconds, and it runs
much cooler than the original part.
On the processor front, we caught a glimpse of the capabilities of
the AMD K6 3D chip. The K6 adds additional instructions that don't
exist in Intel processors to help speed up mathematical operations used
in 3D graphics. Cleverly, AMD has developed a HAL for Direct3D, so
programmers can use the additional instructions in a standard way. For
example, we saw 3D WinBench run faster on a prototype K6 3D/300 than on
an identically configured Pentium II/300. What's more, we saw a demo of
Dreamworks' upcoming TRESPASSER: JURASSIC PARK that looked better on
the K6 3D than on the Pentium II. The frame rate was the same on both
CPUs, but the Pentium II ran at 320x200 while the K6 ran at 512x384.
Oh, and the K6 version had translucent water and filtered textures.
---- INDEX REFERENCES ----
COMPANY (TICKER): Logitech International SA; Logitech International SA; 3Com Corp. (LOGIY Z.LOG COMS)
KEY WORDS: COMDEX-FALL
NEWS SUBJECT: High-Yield Issuers (HIY)
INDUSTRY: Computers; Computer Makers; Communications Technology; Telecommunications, All (CPR CPM CMT TEL)
SIC: 3571
Word Count: 620
2/1/98 COMGAMWLD 122
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