What Is New

October 11, 1999

• Apollo Pro133A
  VIA's 4x AGP, 133 MHz FSB, ATA-66, Asynchronous Memory Architecture.

http://www.viatech.com/news/99pro133a.htm

• Athlon Petition
  "As early as August 18th, reports began to surface in the PC industry's various online publications regarding the cause of this motherboard shortage, as well as the inexplicable lack of interest of motherboard manufacturers to design and produce boards for this hot new CPU."
  
  Follow this link if you would like to sign a petition requesting support for the Athlon.
• Those dirty guys
  No, we aren't talking about the dogs. We are talking about memory prices. Spot pricing continues to fluctuate. This article is publishing that spot prices have stayed double the contract pricing AND that contract pricing is continuing to rise. Boo Hiss.
  
  Contrarian to the end -- we keep holding out that panic buying is the cause of the inflated prices. Once common sense starts to settle into the minds of the brokers -- we'll see prices on memory drop.
• Good morning !
  Howdy - did you have a wonderful weekend? Great ! We spent the weekend working and catching up on everyone's orders. Athlon sales continue to climb in percentages. The addition of the Biostar product has helped Athlon Sales.
  
  We are still testing the Gigabyte motherboard and Microstar board. We took the Microstar board home for our DVD movie test. Using the Sigma Designs DVD decoder and NT workstation 4.0, we watched "Absolute Power." Well, the dogs slept.
  
  We did find an IRQ conflict that didn't show up until after we started the movie. We removed the 3Com NIC, and were able to watch the movie without the blue screen of death.
  
  AMD states that an IRQ document is being prepared for their website. It should be available next week.

April 1, 1999

PRESS RELEASE

FOR RELEASE: April 1, 1999

WinChip, IBM, AMD, and Ingram Micro face the future through Coopetition.

SAN DIEGO -- Four industry powerhouses stood center stage this morning and took turns introducing their new WIZ technology. WinChip introduced the Win650T, IBM introduced the Stallion, AMD discussed its CaT technology, and Ingram announced it's "go direct" initiative.

WIZ, also known as Wow It's Zomething-or-other technology, has taken the industry by firestorm. The first company to make formal public announcements regarding WIZ technology was Intel. Last week, they disclosed their copiloted projects 'thunder' and 'lightening'. Unfortunately the outdoor public event was rained out due to an unforeseen and unseasonable weather condition.

WinChip will start shipping their 650 MHz socket 7 processor next week. They started shipping Win650T and Win651R samples to OEMs last year. Reviewers were delighted that the Win650T could be overclocked to operate at 850 MHz without using a heatsink. Using soon to be released thermal regulators, the Win650T can operate close to 1 GHz.

Enthusiasts are also grateful that the Win650T does not have the Serial Identification Number (SIN). Privacy advocates were rejoicing that WinChip did not embed Intel's SIN. "The omission of SIN is a great relief," said Weah B. Head, CEO of Private Life Industries.

Developed under the code name sparkling water, the Win650T will only be made available to emerging Original Equipment Manufacturers. Model Win651R, project rainbow, is expected to be made available to the retail channel following strong consumer interest in quiet, extensive beta testing.

Heralded as breakthrough technology, this product puts WinChip ahead of the competition by offering the fastest x86 processor on the market. Using Copper technology patented by IBM (code named stallion), WinChip was able to produce stable silicon with their efficient .18 micron process. More amazing is the news that this processor offers both AMD's 3D Now! Technology as well as Intel's steam engined SIMD Technology (sic).

AMD helped establish the 0.18 process. Mr. Sump T. Heng of AMD stated, "We have extensive expertise in the 0.18 process which we leased to WinChip. We see our earlier blunders with the K6 and K6-2 as the forerunner projects for our new co-opetition strategy, code named CaT."

At the end of the show, Ingram Micro announced it's "go direct" initiative. Ingram will lend its team of 1400 formerly fired telephone representatives to make the WinChip processor available worldwide. SKU number 654987 will sell for $92 each for quantity 1000 units. Individuals may purchase the unit bundled with A&W rootbeer at the upcoming Modesto Anti-Graffiti Car Show.

John Samdowski of Peter's Principled Industries and Brokerage House was asked to comment on the surprising turn of events. Mr Samdowski is the leading industry buffoon of the day. He holds a doctorate in Triangular Research. Mr Samdowski stated "It was a square deal. These announcements will turn the industry on its side." Later we overheard him telling his business partners, "I bought each company's stock this morning and expect to add a million by midnight." Each company's stock has been actively traded today.

Other industry leaders were showing off their new $199 PCs designed with the new Win650T processor. Unfortunately, no one was able to find a matching power plug for the MicroATZ form factored Power Supply. The MicroATZ units require a proprietary plug to connect the motherboards to the external power sources.

Intel is expected to re-announce a special mobile converter which will allow the MicroATZ power supplies to be plugged into laptops. Intel resented the pre-announcement show and therefore responded with its own privately held announcement of the converter. According to inside sources who attended the Intel trade show, the converter will allow Intel it's continued success in reaching the goal of "a billion PC's connected."

Monday, March 29, 1999

• This website will be changing layout again. You can see the layout at IP address 209.196.185.48. Please let us know about the new layout and if you have any suggestions. It is important to also let us know what browsers you are using to view the new layout.

Wednesday, March 24, 1999

• Good afternoon -- we have a substitute webmaster today. So be easy on the poor chap.
• Our company was approved as a CNET Certified Merchant. The new graphic will appear on our shopping website after Lora starts breathing again.
• After reviewing sales for the first quarter, AOpen AX6B and AX6BC motherboards are the number one motherboards. AOpen replaced the ASUS product line for the first time. Corsair memory and Crucial continue to be neck and neck in sales. AMD processors have continue to chase Intel sales. The Pentium III processors still lag behind Pentium II processor sales.
• An Intel Monopoly story. (The Register)
• Wrapping up the loose ends

Tuesday, March 23, 1999

• Did you miss us? Yes, it's true. There wasn't an update to this page yesterday. Each time that there is a tremendous spike in our sales, we are concerned that the little things get lost in the rush. Therefore, we have a new saying -- "Breath -- and all will fall into place."
• Which brings us to the first topic. New products are being introduced. Now, we just need to find out what they are -- what they do -- what they cost -- and most importantly -- finding an answer to the traditional question -- "Are they really making it? and is it available?"
• Intel's introduction of the Celeron 433 MHz Celeron
• Oh lighten up. Now go hug your family and quit hanging around your computer. Add a little meaning to your life by adding meaning to a family members life. And if you are at work then share a hug with a peer. No, no. No kissing.
• Off the cuff (PC Week) Not only is your family your most important asset, the possible loss will bring you back to reality.
• Now, if you dislike girl talk -- then please ignore this bullet. Admit it. You were in tears after reading Rob O'Regan's story of his mom.
• Prince arrived on Saturday. Albert was very accepting of this male poodle. Gracie, on the other hand, wasn't impressed. She is the boss.

Wednesday, March 17, 1999

• We have had multiple inquiries about Gigabyte's GA-6ZOZ motherboard. Gigabyte is offering this motherboard in a YY-8201 (white) chassis. They will introduce small numbers into the US, and increase production based on the response.

  Since we offer YY-8201 chassis, we have made special arrangements to purchase this Gigabyte motherboard without the chassis. The motherboard will cost approximately $280. It is an NLX motherboard, based on Intel's ZX chipset, and will support the Celeron or Pentium III processor. The chassis (white or black) is $62. Riser card may be separate. We will offer the motherboard and case. Sorry, no board only orders.

  We will offer the YY-8201 (black chassis) with the motherboard by by special arrangement only. We will not offer the board by itself. Not all of the details are worked through yet. If you are interested, please let us know.

• The YY-8201 chassis works with Microstar and Gigabyte's motherboards and riser cards. YY suggests only using the case with these two boards.
• We received a surprise shipment of Boxed Pentium II 450 MHz processors this morning.
• We have extra ASUS P2B-F and Epox MVP3G-M motherboards in inventory.
• Intel Celeron 433 MHz PPGA is available in limited quantities. At this time, we're special ordering the processor until quantities increase.
• We're finally starting to update our video card product line. ATI's Xpert99 is now available in small numbers. The advantage to this card is that it's an affordable option for home users and supports DVD without MPEG-2/DVD decoder card.
• Last week we added ATI's new Xpert 128, 16MB, AGP card. This graphics card will also work with DVD drives.
• Since multiple video cards are available now with the software to work with DVD, we will offer bare DVD drives. When ordering, please make sure that you are ordering the proper drive. At this time, we will stay with the Sony product line. The Sony bare DVD drive will be approximately $119.00. It comes with a small installation guide. Any cables needed you will need to provide yourself.
• When will we add Western Digital Expert drives (7200 RPM, UDMA/66)? Good question. We're watching supplies daily, and once the product is off backorder we will add them. (We do have product on backorder with distributors too.) Western Digital's large capacity Caviar line are available in small numbers upon special request. It may add a day or two to your order processing time.

Thursday, March 11, 1999

• Why can't I read yesterday's What's New?

  We used to have our news section set up so you could browse through any date. When we changed file formats to speed up the loading of the pages, we lost that capability. We're working on a way to restore the function. It will just take us a while to figure out how to do so easily.

• Starting next week an updated version of Microsoft's Java virtual machine will ship with each copy of Windows 98.
• 5 o'clock shopping cart error yesterday. While reinstalling ASP functions on our website, we mistakenly removed many of our visitors. We apologize for the inconvience. Many of you emailed us last night about the error, and we think everything was back in order shortly after we received your messages. Please let us know if you are still having problems accessing the site.
• Intel privacy flap spreads to notebooks

  "Intel conceded today that it has incorporated a prototype version of its controversial processor serial number feature on certain Pentium II and Celeron chips for notebooks." -- News.com

• Ingram sees earnings shortfall, plans cuts

  "Amid uncertainty in the computer sector, U.S. computer distributor Ingram Micro said today it expected first quarter earnings before charges to fall short of analysts' estimates, adding that it would cut 1,400 jobs as part of a corporate realignment."

  Actually this isn't a surprise. Ingram is the back fulfillment house for Buy.com. Prior to this agreement between the two companies, Ingram's success in the market was due to many of the resellers in the industry. As soon as Ingram singled out one reseller (now a few more have joined ecommerce program), they abandoned the model that made them successful. Pricing discounts, volume committments, etc all have lead to their inabilities to grow with the rest of the industry.

• Not only is it fashionable it is wearable (Techweb)

Wednesday, March 10, 1999

• AMD K6-2/450 MHz processor with 3DNow! has been added to our product line. Supply is limited. Tray processors are what we can provide at this time. We will add PIBoxed when they are available.
• Corsair memory price adjustment. We adjusted prices on some PC100 SDRAM Corsair memory modules.
• Yes, Corsair has designed and will release PC133 SDRAM. "Soon." We will let you know when the product is ready for shipment.
• We changed a few things on the shopping site again.
  • We added a bar at the bottom of each item page so you can view items you're planning on purchasing, go back to the main page, or complete your order.
  • Clicking on an item's price adds the product to your shopping cart. You should be returned to the page where the item was located. Hopefully, this will speed up the process for those of you ordering multiple items.
  • The first time you add an item to your shopping cart, you will receive a prompt that asks you where you are located. We added multiple shipping methods. (Yes, the number one request for our site. We finally were able to do it.) You'll need to provide the first 3 digits of your zip code, and at the same time select which option you prefer.
• Have you noticed the new Totem motherboards? Why did we decide to add this company to our product line? We work with a few manufacturers who include computers as part of another product. When we saw the Totem motherboards, we immediately saw the value of the onboard debug sensor for these manufacturers. This way if one of the computer components fails, they will be able to quickly locate and solve the problem. The Debug Sensor is also useful for installation and general troubleshooting.
• ASUS P2B-F motherboards did not arrive as scheduled. We should receive tomorrow and Friday.
• Yeong Yang is introducing a new server chassis. The YY-0420 server cube supports ATX motherboards, and has up to 10 drive bays (8 - 5.25" exposed and 2 - 3.5" exposed). Disk drives are installed with slide rails; power supplies are redundant (2, 300 watt); available for Xeon processor retention mechanism; & extra large cooling fans with filters are available.

Monday, March 8, 1999

• Feeling bored? Make sure that you have a sound card ...
• Movement to halt Pentium III grows (News)
• Windows 98 Sends Hardware ID to Microsoft (PC World)

  There was a time that Microsoft PR tried to convince the buying public that a 'bug' was a feature. Now they are trying to convince you that this 'feature' is a bug; interesting marketing concept.

• Intel settles with FTC (News)
• It is always amazing as to what type of information can be found on the Internet

Thursday, March 4, 1999

• The order status section of our website is still down. The ASP files are not working properly. The ISP says that they will get it working. However, they said this yesterday (and the day before that) and it is still not working. If you are trying to get this information, you may email us your name, invoice number, and date of purchase.
• Readers react to 49.7 day glitch (News)

Wednesday, March 3, 1999

• Good morning !
• Anyone interested in the AMD K6-III should email us. Please include your name, way for us to contact you when the product arrives, motherboard manufacturer, model, and revision. The first 20 people who had contacted us earlier should be receiving product before the end of this month.
• The Totem TM-P2BX motherboard has been added to our product line. We will be running an introductory special, buy 10 get 1 free. Don't let the low price fool you. The board has won several awards. We've added the item because of the diagnostic display built into the motherboard. Easy troubleshooting can be accomplished by reviewing the display. The debug sensor can also be used as a Port 80 diagnostic tool.
• The order status section of our website is down. The ASP files are not working properly. The ISP says that they will get it working. However, they said this yesterday and it is still not working. If you are trying to get this information, you may email us your name, invoice number, and date of purchase.

Monday, March 1, 1999

• We hope you had a great weekend.
• Pentium III advances aren't enough

  "Surprisingly, Intel is guarded in its praise for its own product, saying that Pentium III performance will be "equivalent to Pentium II chips at the same frequency" except with software that supports the Pentium III's new parallel processing instructions." -- PC Week

• Intel's Merced to sample this year (PC World)
• Intel NDA found on floor (The Register)

  "We already knew that Intel had an eight-way system but didn�t know it was called Saber. What is codename Holmdel all about? Here it is:"

• As expected, Pentium II processors are disappearing from the market.
• K7 chipset reported delayed