McPanic - Re: " no one except Paul can get excited over KNI."
Oh yeah.
These developers can - and did !
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pcworld.com
Intel Building a 550-MHz Pentium III
Preview showcases speedy graphics software customized for Pentium III.
by David Needle, special to PC World February 17, 1999, 6:52 p.m. PT
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA -- Intel saved one surprise for Wednesday's preview event for its Pentium III processor: A yet-faster model due out in a few months. As expected, Intel confirmed that Pentium III systems running at 450 and 500 MHz will ship February 26, the chip's official release date. But a 550-MHz version of the chip will be available by the end of the second quarter.
In keeping with the event's "preview" nature, Intel and its PC vendor partners kept specific performance specs and pricing for the Pentium III (formerly code-named Katmai) under wraps, though some details leaked out.
A major PC retailer confided it will unveil PIII-based versions of its house brand PC "starting at under $1900" without monitor. Early reports indicated that PIII systems would start in the $2000-to-$2500 range, but Intel Vice President Paul Otellini says several vendors will offer PIII systems for less than $2000. Still, with consumers flocking to sub-$1000 (and certainly under $1500) PCs, buyers will want significant value from the higher-priced PIII systems. Intel plans to spend $300 million marketing the Pentium III, about twice what it spent two years ago promoting its now seemingly ancient Pentium with MMX line.
Why Buy?
Unlike past years, when Intel was quick to tout its chips' raw processing performance, the company positions the PIII as an advanced PC engine for dealing with Internet and multimedia content. Still, Intel easily claims it has the top spot for desktop systems.
"The Pentium III is the fastest processor out there by a comfortable margin," says Richard Doherty, president of Envisioneering, a high-tech consulting firm. "Apple won't be able to make any claims about the Mac being faster than the fastest Pentium." "The Internet is going to be a lot more fun," says Craig Barrett, Intel's CEO. "The Pentium III aids in the creation of rich content and the way the user displays the content, interacts with it, and communicates."
Intel's claims were supported some by the accompanying software showcase, although vendors demonstrated little that could be considered a radical jump over users' experience with Pentium II systems. Over time, more developers are expected to write programs that take specific advantage of the PIII's Katmai instruction set and other features that provide for better streaming media, faster graphics, and overall faster processing.
Fast Talk
Speech recognition software has long required fast processing and seems a good match for the PIII. Dragon Systems claims an 85-percent improvement in training time for its Dragon Naturally Speaking software when running on a Pentium III versus Pentium II or older PCs.
"We used to estimate it takes eighteen minutes for a user to train the software to recognize his or her own voice, but with the Pentium III the time's been cut to three minutes," says Mark Herrick, a Dragon representative. He also says the PIII speeds the processing of spoken word to text.
Doherty says the Pentium III really shines when it comes to rich media content from different sources, such as the Internet, a network, wireless data, and CD-ROM and DVD files.
"If you just want a faster spreadsheet, you may be better off buying a faster, bigger hard disk," says Doherty. "But there is an increasingly pulsating nature to how we get information from different sources, and the Pentium III is a kind of shock absorber to give the user a smoother ride, or more balanced performance."
In some cases, users must decide how they'll explore Web sites optimized for PIII. Disney Online, for example, has optimized parts of its site for an educational animated comic book called Cybernetiquette. Before entering the site, which goes live next month, users can choose the optimized version or one that is not.
"For non-Pentium IIIs, we provide a smaller image and the playback is slower," says Jason Everett, a producer with Disney Online. Everett says animations run five to six times faster on a PIII. Similarly, the Onsale auction has developed a tutorial that teaches new users how to bid on the Web site. The tutorial is optimized for PIII systems, offering more detailed graphics to those users.
Graphic Speed
Michael Murray, product marketing manager with THQ, showed off his firm's Brunswick First Strike Bowling game, which features realistic bowling action complete with lifelike bowlers, speed control to view each roll of the ball, and even sounds and views on each side of the screen of other bowlers in action. The company is talking to PC makers about bundling the software with their systems and plans to release a retail version in June for both standalone and Internet play. "You would be disappointed in the performance on a Pentium II or less after seeing this," claims Murray.
Several vendors showed new DVD video technology they say would not exist if not for the faster graphics processing made possible by the Streaming SIMD Extensions in the PIII. Both Ligos Technology and MGI Software build digital VCRs that capture and manipulate a TV signal. The software uses the PIII's graphics expertise to encode and decode MPEG images faster than other processors.
Playback moves at half the speed of a T1 and is of higher quality than television, says Josef Zankowicz, a representative of MGI Software, which plans to ship its unnamed "personalized digital entertainment" application in April. Ligos Technology plans to release its GoMotion TV this spring, says Peter Forman, president and chief executive officer.
And eventually readers of the cybermagazine Launch will have to buy a PIII to view the latest issue. The company's CD-ROM-based monthly music magazine features interviews and music videos. But the PIII edition, scheduled to debut in the third quarter, takes advantage of streaming video and generates real-time 3D screens, says David Goldberg, chief executive officer. Viewers can walk around in a scene, which changes with their angle and movement--courtesy of the PIII's fast graphics processing.
Adobe has added a lighting plug-in to its PhotoDeluxe software specifically for PIII users. Adobe Photoshop, which is for professional designers, features lighting, but the PIII allows the consumer-oriented PhotoDeluxe to use lighting, according to Adobe representative Lori Singer. As an example of how PhotoDeluxe software is optimized for the PIII, Singer added lighting and shadow effects to a 15MB image file, and the effects appeared in only 3 seconds.
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