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The segment refers to a page table

No, it doesn't. It just has a 32-bit base linear address, a 20-bit length (which can either be in units of bytes or 4K pages), and a bunch of other flags. A 48-bit far address gets translated to a 32-bit linear address, and that is what gets translated to a 32-bit or 36-bit physical address via the page table.

See (this page that has a link to the PDF document) Intel Architecture Software Developers Manual Volume 3: System Programming for the full story.

See info on Intel's web site.. About time too - the current StrongARM hasn't been updated much in 3 years. The new one (to be produced on a 0.18micron fab) can run up to 600Mhz (while consuming just 0.45W), while in low power mode it consumes just 0.04W while running at 150Mhz.

Acctually a good place for information about IEEE-1394 is the 1394 Trade Association page
In this Press Release the licensing fee is discussed. Interesting to note that they say Intel is a new member, and Intel has a page on 1394

-Steve

I still think it's prettier than the half-melted-plastic-case-with-cards-poking-out-in- celluloid-alien-cocoons-complete-with-sl ime-feel design!

Can't they just build computers like they'd build a car? Don't drown the functionalities in the design, and don't give it a sombre design just because it's practical. Do a good job, then put a nice, curvy and colourful exterior.

If Intel didn't try so damn hard to come up with something original, they might actually come up with something that's aesthetically pleasing for once.

People! Don't have fashion designers design your PC cases! They know ergonomics as much as they know comfort!

"There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion than to contaminate it with the facts."

As for OS X, that's going to be BSD Unix (free), gcc for G4 (free) with a Mac GUI ($) and an updated version of the NextStep API. I suspect the full development tools will not appear in the OS X Client release, I hope they'll be free (in the best possible sense), but I'll settle for cheap with source code available (if not Open Source in some form).

Mac OS 8.6 (the current shipping version) is very stable. I just finished a support contract with a Fortune 100 company, and I had our 8.6 machines running perfectly (with the exception of the occaisonal packet storm on the network and of course well all know Lotus Notes isn't (very) stable on the Mac (although 4.57b cuts the random crashes to a minimum, and those probably reflect insufficient error checking given the unstable TCP/IP environment at that site).

A few notes on the 'benchmarks' shown during the keynote. Photoshop is a valid single-app benchmark, since tens of thousands of people spend all day using it. I expect the G4 acceleration to be similar in scope to the MMX or PIII acceleration. Watch the canned video of the tests, they show marked superiority in Photoshop, QT video compression (admittedly an Apple technology and almost certainly more optimized for a G4 than a PII), SETI@HOME and some scientific analysis (3D rendering of Mars Observer data).

I'm looking forward to Intel's rebuttal of these tests, and I'd also like to see someone run some of Intel's tests in the PIII performance area (PIII benchmarks). Speaking of whom, Apple does have the specs of Intels' tests online here. Note that without the Convolve test, their average is 2.24 times faster than a PIII (adjusted for MHz) instead of 2.94. Still...

Intel's explanation of the tests Apple ran are available here.

Interestingly (and some will find suspiciously), these tests aren't in the PIII benchmark area. Of course, most of those that are use Microsoft software and so aren't really suitable for testing Apple systems. If anyone optimized the test suite for the G4, it would have been Motorolla, since AltiVec is their baby.

As for OS X, that's going to be BSD Unix (free), gcc for G4 (free) with a Mac GUI ($) and an updated version of the NextStep API. I suspect the full development tools will not appear in the OS X Client release, I hope they'll be free (in the best possible sense), but I'll settle for cheap with source code available (if not Open Source in some form).

Mac OS 8.6 (the current shipping version) is very stable. I just finished a support contract with a Fortune 100 company, and I had our 8.6 machines running perfectly (with the exception of the occaisonal packet storm on the network and of course well all know Lotus Notes isn't (very) stable on the Mac (although 4.57b cuts the random crashes to a minimum, and those probably reflect insufficient error checking given the unstable TCP/IP environment at that site).

A few notes on the 'benchmarks' shown during the keynote. Photoshop is a valid single-app benchmark, since tens of thousands of people spend all day using it. I expect the G4 acceleration to be similar in scope to the MMX or PIII acceleration. Watch the canned video of the tests, they show marked superiority in Photoshop, QT video compression (admittedly an Apple technology and almost certainly more optimized for a G4 than a PII), SETI@HOME and some scientific analysis (3D rendering of Mars Observer data).

I'm looking forward to Intel's rebuttal of these tests, and I'd also like to see someone run some of Intel's tests in the PIII performance area (PIII benchmarks). Speaking of whom, Apple does have the specs of Intels' tests online here. Note that without the Convolve test, their average is 2.24 times faster than a PIII (adjusted for MHz) instead of 2.94. Still...

Intel's explanation of the tests Apple ran are available here.

Interestingly (and some will find suspiciously), these tests aren't in the PIII benchmark area. Of course, most of those that are use Microsoft software and so aren't really suitable for testing Apple systems. If anyone optimized the test suite for the G4, it would have been Motorolla, since AltiVec is their baby.

I believe Intel is working with (and invested in) Cygnus to help GCC with Merced compatibility and performance. Anyone else know of any official statements?

My cablemodem works just fine in Linux. Why shouldn't it? All I need is for Linux to recognize my ethernet card and do DHCP properly.

Perhaps the original poster meant, by "USB scanner and cablemodem", "(USB) (scanner and cablemodem)", i.e. "USB scanner and USB cable modem", not "USB scanner and (Ethernet) cable modem". The GVC Corporation has a USB cable modem, and the Intel Architecture Labs have a reference design for USB cable modems.

(I make no comments about the relative merits of USB and Ethernet cable modems, nor am I saying anything about how easy or hard it is to get USB cable modems to work on FreeBSD or Linux, I'm just noting that USB cable modems are being designed, and some appear to already exist.)

What kind of advantage is Joe User going to see with a 600 MHz PIII that he won't with a 500 MHz Celeron?

No, you don't understand! The Pentium III (r) makes the Internet come alive! It gives you dancing Intel bunnymen and strange viking-type people to enrich your Web experience! If you're not using a Pentium III (r) processor to browse the Web, you're missing out!

I am a computational scientist (as opposed to a computer scientist), who doesnt know much about kernel type stuff; however, I see the 2GiB (?!?) memory limit is currently a real limit for ia32 linux for large problems.

Intel has a pag e that says describes its Extended Server Memory Architecture (ESMA) that extends the limit to 64GB, and says they are "working with the community" to get this into the linux kernel.
I have no idea what this means.

SGI's bigmem patch seems to be a little step in the right direction.

My question to anyone who knows: Is large memory support coming anytime soon??

This will be true when nVidia releases their next chipset code named NV10, which has full hardware transform and lighting acceleration...This is really going to piss Intel off...

"Ah well, someday I may buy a new system but I haven't found ample justification to spend $700 to get something like a Celeron 433 with 128 megs of ram, Abit BX6v2 motherboard, etc."

You can upgrade your system for far less; approximately $450 now that's assuming you need a new case (AT -> ATX) plus 128 megs rams. Now you dont have to take my word it, you can go to www.computernerd.com for MBoard/CPU/Case bundle and to www.mwave.com for memory and see for your self. You can also checkout www.killerapp.com for computer hardware prices.

Now me personally I plan to purchase Abit's new dual slot 370 motherboard with two 366Mhz celerons guaranteed to overclock to 550Mhz for $412....

For more information about this check out Intel's spec sheets.

Ex-Nt-User

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but this system is just a re-skinned version of Intel's SC450NX server platform. The machine is made by Intel for system integrators. You can find the Intel information at http://developer.intel.com/desig n/servers/SC450NX/. The company I run sells systems based on these, and the placement of the status LEDs, the lock, and other things that I can see in the pictures in the PDF that's found in a comment above are exactly the same.

Romen

Only programmers call the 8088 a 16-bit cpu. Intel's own literature and any engineer calls it an 8-bit cpu.

Please double check your "facts" before attempting to correct anyone else. Otherwise it just makes you look stupid.

I haven't used it, but Intel sells their AC450NX "Server Platform", a quad Xeon board sporting five 64bit PCI slots and two 32bit buses for six 32bit slots. It also supports 8gig of ECC (isn't that architecturally impossible?)

Yours for the low, low cost of an internal organ of your choice.

http://www.intel.com/design/s ervers/ac450nx/index.htm

I would say Cyrix more than likely has rights to Intel's Slot 1, but how that transfers to VIA will be up to the lawyers. My guess is VIA is in the game and they will begin legally producing slot 1 chipsets. I can see no other compelling reason for VIA purchasing Cyrix. Sorry for not doing the research for the first post.

February 3, 1998
Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC) and National Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE: NSM) announced they have settled a patent infringement lawsuit and extended the term of the existing patent cross-license agreement between the two companies. The settlement dismisses a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Cyrix Corporation against Intel in May 1997. Cyrix became a wholly owned subsidiary of National Semiconductor on Nov. 17, 1997. Under the settlement, Intel and National agreed to extend the term of their long-standing broad patent cross-license. Other terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Links
National and Cyrix Press Release
Intel's Press Release

This info found easily thanks to Google. Google rules!

PII 450 18.5
PIII 450 18.7
PIII 500 20.6
PIII 550 22.3

http://www.intel.com/procs/perf/Celeron/productivi ty/specint95.htm

Celeron
300A 12.0
333 13.1
366 14.1
400 15.1
433 16.1
466 17.0

PII 450 18.5
PIII 450 18.7
PIII 500 20.6
PIII 550 22.3

http://www.intel.com/procs/perf/Celeron/productivi ty/specint95.htm

Celeron
300A 12.0
333 13.1
366 14.1
400 15.1
433 16.1
466 17.0

Does anyone know where I can find an equivalent of this for the Athlon?

$12,000 for the first 386 chip? Might not be a bad deal if you knew the price of transistors back in the early days cost $100 each.

The 386 had 250,000 transistors. So this would mean you are getting a damn good deal. Go for it!

This press release from March says that VA Research is working on the port and that "VA Research will deliver the optimized port, in synch with Merced-based system availability in mid 2000." Apparently, HP, SGI, Caldera, Debian, RedHat and SuSE are all working on it as well.

I saw the bottom middle picture with the caption "The FLEX Design by InSync is a flexible unit allowing you to take the desktop from the office to the home conveniently" and all that came to mind was:

Is that "bunnyman" giving a nazi "Sie Hiel"?



<opinion>probably saw gates comin on stage</opinion>

Dammit, I'm bitter now.

--

PS-ON is an active low signal that turns on all of the main power rails including 3.3V, 5V, -5V, 12V, and -12V power rails. When this signal is held high by the PC board or left open circuited, outputs of the power rails should not deliver current and should be held at a zero potential with respect to ground. Power should be delivered to the rails only if the PS-ON signal is held at ground potential. This signal should be held at +5VDC by a pull-up resistor internal to the power supply.

There's also more info on ATX at http://www.teleport.com/~atx/

/.'ed pretty quick.

The Register, which I'de call the European equiv to /. also ran the story so im guessing that poor server's been crunching bandwidth for a while. I too am an intel hater. Originally a Mac lover and just plain anti-PC, it wasn't until I really found out what a horrible company intel was. Plus, when I went shoppin this last summer to build my own machine, I was impressed with how small, fast, and inexpensive the K6-2s are/were. I've always figured that having a big ass chip that heats up a house is poor design: I could put a jet engine on a pinto and speed by a porsche, but i'de still have a piece of shit car.

Intel Inside has several really neat items. besides the jackets/t-shirts/hats/etc... they have really neat jewellery items like earings pendants etc... that seem really cool One of my favorite items is a P2 chip mounted in Pewter to be worn as a pendant. get your BunnyPeople dolls, shirts, and other stuff.- http://www.intel.com/intel/intelis/shop/bunny.htm

Interesting that they say on the page linked to by Intel Serves Up UNIX that the first version of UDI will be released Q2 99 with Linux as the reference platform. It's been a while since I heard anything significant about UDI. And the Q2 is almost half way over...

If you ever watch ZDTV you'd notice that they have a big deal with Intel to give away a couple tons of the net cams, then have people call in and ask questions on the air and such... it would be great if some of us linux and solaris users could get on there also... and tell Leo and Kate what thier doing wrong (despite all thier cool linux props on the set) I remember seeing the Intel Bigpicture card/capture card as being one of the few supported by Video4Linux... pretty cool also, if anyone can point me to the java version of the Zdtv realplaces chat software, that would be great (I just cant find it)

Well this was a really usefull contribution! Good thing you were there for us, to set the record straight.

Thanx a lot and why don't you open your own eyes, instead of taking other people's opinion for it, for a change?

www.intel.com and www.microsoft.com are really nice sites for you where every one agrees with you! Give it a try why don't you? (instead of bugging the people that do know what they are talking about)

With all due respect, Penguin Computing's claimed 8-CPU support does not seem possible. ftp://download.intel .com/design/chipsets/datashts/24377101.pdf, and every other source I've been able to consult, states that the Intel 450NX chipset supports up to four Xeons. Not eight.

The AD450NX is bigger. :) Up to 8 Gigs of RAM, 12 SCSI-2 Hot-Swap bays, 6 32-bit PCI & 5 64-bit PCI...

AD450NX link at developer.intel.com.

These are REALLY stable SMP under Linux, and I cringe at running NT under ANY processor. (plus at 500Mhz they'll do 5 to 6Mkeys/s)

Intel sells server and workstation motherboards that accept Xeon processors. I think only the server 'boards will accept four processors. (The main motherboard page is here.)

Intel sells server and workstation motherboards that accept Xeon processors. I think only the server 'boards will accept four processors. (The main motherboard page is here.)

Intel sells server and workstation motherboards that accept Xeon processors. I think only the server 'boards will accept four processors. (The main motherboard page is here.)

SPECint95 SPECfp95
Celery 400 + 14.9 10.6
PII 400 + 16.9 12.8
PII 450 ! 17.2 12.9
PII 450 + 18.5 13.3
PIII 450 + 18.7 13.7
PIII 500 + 20.6 14.7
21164 500 ! 15.7 19.5
21164A 533 * 16.1 18.8
21164A 667 * 23.0 30.0
21264 500 * 26.0 49.0
21264 500 ! 27.7 58.7

There's a digital ID engraved inside my eyelid! That feature wasn't supposed to be included in my series. Seriously though it seems to me there was a serial number in some of the 486 chips, or am I dreaming? Wasn't CPUID an individual chip ID? *scratches head to try to stimulate memory* I don't have a 486 handy at the moment.

>the PII's stepping can be updated via software

You're blowing smoke. The stepping is hardware. There is a microcode update that the bios can optionally load into the cpu, but that cannot change the stepping. The S-spec shows what the SLxxx means and the processor Spec Update has a pdf file describing the bugs in each version of the chips (including, for instance a dozen or more versions of the P-II at 300MHz). The earliest P-IIs with the C0 stepping have SMP problems that were fixed in later steppings.

>the PII's stepping can be updated via software

You're blowing smoke. The stepping is hardware. There is a microcode update that the bios can optionally load into the cpu, but that cannot change the stepping. The S-spec shows what the SLxxx means and the processor Spec Update has a pdf file describing the bugs in each version of the chips (including, for instance a dozen or more versions of the P-II at 300MHz). The earliest P-IIs with the C0 stepping have SMP problems that were fixed in later steppings.

Yup... I'm running one with two 333 PIIs in it right now. AFAIK you have to get matched processors for it to work. Someone said something about being able to change the stepping of the processors via the bios but I don't know anything about that... And if I had the option I would go with the matched processors anyway... see: Intel DK FAQ

The problem is not crypto at all. The system serial info (96 bits) is provided upon request by executing a CPUID instruction. This instruction is nonpriveleged so the kernel will have a hard time trapping it.

Thus the problem centers around how to get the kernel to trap this request and emulate, fake, or mangle it.

Does anyone know a work around?

here's some URL's that Phil Karn provides in his patch:
(AP-485) , (AP-909), a href =
"http://www.amd.com/K6/k6docs/pdf/20734j.pdf"> AMD K6

The problem is not crypto at all. The system serial info (96 bits) is provided upon request by executing a CPUID instruction. This instruction is nonpriveleged so the kernel will have a hard time trapping it.

Thus the problem centers around how to get the kernel to trap this request and emulate, fake, or mangle it.

Does anyone know a work around?

here's some URL's that Phil Karn provides in his patch:
(AP-485) , (AP-909), a href =
"http://www.amd.com/K6/k6docs/pdf/20734j.pdf"> AMD K6

It most certainly would, which is why the full instruction set manual is up on their web page in plain view for anyone who wants to look at it.

Ideally they'd have released it before the PIII launch, but now that the PIII has been officially released, it's definitely publically available.

The URL is http://developer.intel.com/de sign/pentiumiii/manuals/.

Wrong. For instance, Dell Precision Workstation did 17.6 SpecINT with a PII-450, and the Precision Workstation 610 does 19.0 SpecINT. SpecFP is 15.2.

The important point is that all this is commercially available:

• The Dell Precision Workstation 610 is available at about $5000 without monitor and stripped downat Dell Online Store
• The SPEC benchs were done with the commercially available Windows NT 4.0 and Visual C++ (for the libraries).
• The Intel C/C++ compiler used, designed to be integrated with Microsoft Visual C++ IDE (as a plugin-compiler), is can be ordered by these means for about $429.

And I used the Dell example only because there were uncontestable proofs of the performance of the PII/Xeon. This doesn't imply that dirt cheap PII systems correctly designed couldn't reach the 17 SPECint.

And for compilers, there are no proofs that they are all that bad ; the point is moot anyway since the Intel Compiler is cheap ($400). Any software company having performance intensive applications, and compiler performance problems, would be able to afford it.

a G3 450 doing 20 shows that a G3 is much faster than the pentium

Now I'm waiting for you to provide informations of how to get a G3 doing measured 20 SPECint (where to get compiler, OS and hardware).

Wrong. For instance, Dell Precision Workstation did 17.6 SpecINT with a PII-450, and the Precision Workstation 610 does 19.0 SpecINT. SpecFP is 15.2.

The important point is that all this is commercially available:

• The Dell Precision Workstation 610 is available at about $5000 without monitor and stripped downat Dell Online Store
• The SPEC benchs were done with the commercially available Windows NT 4.0 and Visual C++ (for the libraries).
• The Intel C/C++ compiler used, designed to be integrated with Microsoft Visual C++ IDE (as a plugin-compiler), is can be ordered by these means for about $429.

And I used the Dell example only because there were uncontestable proofs of the performance of the PII/Xeon. This doesn't imply that dirt cheap PII systems correctly designed couldn't reach the 17 SPECint.

And for compilers, there are no proofs that they are all that bad ; the point is moot anyway since the Intel Compiler is cheap ($400). Any software company having performance intensive applications, and compiler performance problems, would be able to afford it.

a G3 450 doing 20 shows that a G3 is much faster than the pentium

Now I'm waiting for you to provide informations of how to get a G3 doing measured 20 SPECint (where to get compiler, OS and hardware).

Featuring: The Performance Database Server. Start with the bottom of the Dhrystone results. Then find the older Whetstone database.

STREAM graph of Memory speed vs MFLOPS. (The STREAM standard results has speed numbers. The CPU Info Center has assorted historical CPU info. Here is Intel's Moore's Law graph. Here is a computer timeline. Here are the top 500 supercomputers since 1983.

• 400/139 = 2.877 Mhz per $1 for AMD
• 400/303 = 1.320 Mhz per $1 for intel

I was unable to find an email address, but there is a discussion forum here.

Here is the message I posted:

"Subject: Intel CoDecs for Linux?

There is currently a discussion on Slashdot:

http://slashdot.org/askslashdot/99/02/12/1342224.s html

...regarding this subject. I would think that Intel would at least consider it, given their support of Red Hat and the commitment to Linux on Merced.

How about it, Intel? At the very least, it would be great to have a free binary available to play files encoded using the latest Intel standards. I'm sure the Linux Community would prefer something open source, but that's not completely necessary.

Please give it some consideration.

Cheers, Matthew"

Perhaps a /. effect of postings might raise some awareness, eh?

The IV4 codec is not completely bound to the Wintel architechture. Intel recently released the Indeo Video 4.4 codec for the Macintosh. It works with Quicktime 3.0. A link to download this is available at Intel site

Need Need Dual Dual Processors Processors

It's a funny old letter thing...

Take a look...