(Lots PC Off Topics) Be, Opera, Bitstream, Risky Chips, Kick Yourself Tomorrow.
CL the Only, I recall that you and Thor keep up with this pc stuff, so the
following is mostly for those pc challenged and not afraid to admit it folks
like *****, and even for those like the *** who try but fail to understand
that they have failed to understand.
As for the Sydney Opera House, it would be a good place for the next Global
Shareholders Meeting as the Global Story could be told in sad song and loud
voices as done on this thread. I bet Thor would make the lead male singer
if he could yell the same way as he posts. JACK could dress up as the female
who has beened wrongly treated by the villans Jensen & Twiford. I'm sure
JACK would agree to do double duty and also write the words to be spoken,
and a second version could be done using JACKs words also spoken in the
same English language, but heard as a foreign language, but letting Chuca
rewrite JACK's words into ChucaSpeak. No doubt Chuca would want a Big and
Important Part in the opera, but I heard that Chuca has a squeaky voice,
so mayB Chuca could represent the hurt'ed'ing female rather than JACK,
but I doubt Chuca would be able to deliver the sorrow, as Chuca has anger
where JACK is gifted to obtain/receive and collect and keep anguish.
Be to bundle Opera's Web browser
By Grant Du Bois, PC Week Online
December 8, 1999 4:19 PM ET
Be Inc. and Opera Software A/S announced Wednesday a joint development
and marketing agreement to integrate Opera's Web browser with Be's Stinger
Internet appliance software platform and BeOs desktop operating system.
Under the agreement, Be will bundle the Opera browser with BeOS,
and the browser will serve as the user interface for the Stinger platform,
allowing licensees of Stinger to create customized interfaces for
Internet appliances, company officials said.
Stinger, which will be introduced in the first quarter, is the code name
for Be's software that creates appliances for information and entertainment
over the Web. Based on BeOS, it is fully customizable and supports
popular streaming audio and video standards, officials said.
"We're working together to incorporate media technologies into the
browser framework," said Steve Sakoman, chief technical officer and
general manager of the Internet Appliance Group at Be. "The basic thrust
is to provide a full-featured, media-rich Web browsing experience."
Opera's browser, recognized as efficient and robust, is compatible with
leading Web standards, including HTML 3.2, JavaScript, Secure Sockets
Layer 2.0 and 3.0, and Cascading Style Sheets, allowing most online
content to be viewed easily and enabling secure transactions for
e-commerce, officials said.
The companies expect to deliver the product in the first quarter of 2000.
Another agreement
Be today also announced an agreement with Bitstream Inc. to license Font
Fusion, Bitstream's next-generation font rasterizing engine, for Stinger
and BeOS.
Font Fusion gives developers full font fidelity and high-quality
typographic output at any resolution on any device while maintaining
the integrity of the original character shapes, Be officials said.
Sakoman said the rasterizing engine enables characters to look more
readable on TV and LCD screens.
In addition to operating systems and software applications, Font Fusion
is designed for Web applications, low-resolution screen devices, multimedia
servers, HDTV screens, set-top boxes, continuous tone printers, PDAs,
embedded systems, Internet appliances and small wireless systems.
Be to deliver software under this agreement in the first quarter of 2000.
Be, of Menlo Park, Calif., can be reached at be.com
Opera, of Oslo, Norway, is at opera.com
Bitstream, of Cambridge, Mass., is at bitstream.com
Berst Alert WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 08, 1999
Risky Chips: Upgrade Today -- And You May Kick Yourself Tomorrow
Jesse Berst, Editorial Director ZDNet AnchorDesk
In a few months the U.S. will be mired in another presidential election.
Democrats and Republicans trying to convince us they're the party of the
people. They're the ones who know what this country needs.
In similar fashion, AMD and Intel are in a fierce campaign to convince
you their chip is the fastest. The best. The one you can trust.
The two-party system forces Democrats and Republicans to keep each other
honest -- in principle, anyway. The competition between Intel and AMD
keeps both companies aggressive. Which means consumers are seeing chips
with more power, rolling out with head-spinning regularity. Plus beefy
price drops on older chips with perfectly respectable clockspeeds. Click
for more. What a contrast to the days past when Intel would bring out a
new processor, then milk it for months on end before releasing a new one.
I'm not complaining, but the constant chip churn leaves consumers in a
pickle. Trying to figure out whether to upgrade today. Or wait for an
even better deal tomorrow. To help, I've put together a CPU roadmap for
the next six months or so.
INTEL MOVES ON 64-BIT
Yesterday, the world's biggest chip maker announced shipment (to
developers) of prototype systems running its first 64-bit processor.
Though some analysts are skeptical of the Itanium's performance
advantage, PC Week says early test results show the new high-end
server/workstation processor exceeding performance predictions. The chip
isn't due in commercial volumes until mid-2000. Click for more. For the
desktop, look for:
An 800 MHz Pentium III chip in Q1 of 2000 Celeron chips will move from
the P2 processor core to the P3 core based on Intel's Coppermine
technology. Resulting in high power, low-cost PCs in the first half of
next year. Click for more P3 successor Willamette -- with a clock speed
exceeding 1 GHz -- in the second half of 2000 The low-end Timna chip,
based on the 0.18-micron manufacturing process, also in the second half
of next year Click for more.
AMD OUT AHEAD AT 750 MHz
AMD jumped out ahead in the speed race, offering a 750 MHz version of
its Athlon chip earlier this month. The move capitalizes on what
industry sources say is a limited supply of Intel's fastest (700/733
MHz) P3 chips. Click for more. Here's what else is on tap from AMD:
With a 533 MHz K6-2 chip just released for the budget PC market, AMD
will follow in early 2000 with K6-2+ -- adding integrated secondary
cache An 800 MHz Athlon chip in Q1 of 2000 Thunderbird, a new 1 GHz
version of Athlon with an integrated secondary cache, due mid-2000
WILL TRANSMETA UP THE ANTE?
Next month the secretive startup Transmeta promises to reveal what it's
been working on. Started by former Sun Microsystems' chip architect
David Ditzel, the company created a stir when it snared Linux founder
Linus Torvalds. Several theories on what Transmeta will bring to the
chip party:
Its Web site identifies a Crusoe product that it describes as an
unconventional hardware and software offering developed for mobile
applications Patents awarded to Transmeta show it's working on a new
chip that can emulate an Intel chip -- but avoids two key Intel chip
patents that have proven costly for other cloners
There's more on the way, of course. And I'm leaving the G4 roadmap for
Mac expert Chris Albrecht to cover in his column. Click for more. But
this gives you a pretty good idea of the direction the chip market for
Windows machines is heading. And the choices you'll be making.
So tell me, what matters most when you make CPU upgrade decisions?
Price? Speed? Brand? Use the TalkBack button to tell me your strategy.
You can also jump to my Berst Alerts forum.
When it comes to the presidential campaign trail, I don't see many
choices I like so far. Not so on the chip roadmap, where promising
candidates are plentiful.
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