Engine upgrades more than ECU upgrades
on
Hack Your Car
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· Score: 1
If you think getting more power out of the engine is just an ECU modification, they don't understand how to really upgrade an engine.
In Germany, where companies like Alpina (for BMW's), Brabaus (for Mercedes-Benzes) and Ruf (for Porsches) do specialized ultra fast versions of German cars, they do things like upgrading the engine innards and putting in stronger transmissions, better suspension pieces, better brakes and better tires in addition to upgrading the engine's ECU. The result is a car that can go past 300 km/h (186 mph) safely yet be very docile to drive at slower speeds.
In my opinion, the only ECU-only upgrade worth talking about is the upgrade that increases the horsepower of the 1.8-liter I-4 turbocharged engine used on VW and Audi cars, mostly because the engine innards were designed for that type of power boost. For example, when VW upgraded this engine from 150 to 180 bhp all it needed was an ECU programming change.
I think for now that Linux will primarily stay a server operating system, since on a server OS ease of use is less of an issue but licensing costs can be an issue.
Linux is not yet a desktop OS that is usable by less-experienced computer users, especially if you have to download and edit movie files from a MiniDV/MicroDV digital camcorder or image files from a digital still camera. Linux is getting better but it's still a bit behind with what you can do easily with a machine running Windows 2000 Professional/Windows XP or a Macintosh running MacOS X.
...the race will come down to between DLP and LCOS digital technology, especially with technology improvements that will make them far less expensive.
Unlike CRT's, DLP and LCOS suffer no "burn-in" image problems, and of course there is no such thing as convergence problems, either. And they can be made potentially cheaper on the per inch (diagonal) basis than direct-view LCD or plasma displays, and changing the illumination bulb is a US$100 proposition every 8,000 hours or so.
Yes, direct-view CRT's still win when it comes to contrast, but the sheer mass of CRT's make them impractical for displays beyond 40" (diagonal).
The small record or book store are disappearing because they just can't compete on sheer volume against the superstores--both brick and mortar and online.
I mean think about it. What happened when stores like Borders and Barnes & Noble with their very large book selection spread all over the USA, not to mention the rise of online bookstores like Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com? It effectively killed off the smaller book store almost everywhere (as evidenced by the decline and fall of A Clean, Well Lighted Place for Books, Stacey's, and Printers, Ink in the southern San Francisco Bay Area).
The same is now happening to the music and home video business. The rise of superstores such as Best Buy and the sheer volume of business done by Wal-Mart's audio and video software departments (not to mention the rise of online record and home video stores) are pretty much killing off a lot of smaller record and video stores all over the place. Tower Records--because of its major brick and mortar presence--is suffering because of this sea change in music/home video retailing.
Actually, from what I've read many high-end CAD/CAM users and illustration program users like the finer DPI accuracy afforded by USB mouse connections, because they can manipulate a drawing or image with great accuracy. From the information provided by Logitech on their MouseWare 9.76 and newer drivers for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, in order to get 800 DPI accuracy with their higher-end mouse pointers (e.g., MX500) you do need to plug the mouse into the USB port.
I personally think that Windows XP Home/Professional for the AMD x86-64 CPU architecture is closer to release than people think.
They're probably right now redoing much of the OS code so it does take full advantage of x86-64 registers, and is waiting for other Microsoft departments to complete their work so an improved version of Internet Explorer 6.01 (Service Pack 2?) and all the Windows XP Service Pack 2 improvements are incorporated into the final version. Don't be surprised that when Windows XP SP2 ships some time this summer we'll see both 32-bit and the x86-64 64-bit version come out at the same time.
I think in the end, the new BTX motherboards will likely dispense with the PS/2 mouse port but will keep the PS/2 keyboard port.
Unusual? Not when you consider the following:
1. Keyboard data transfer rates tend to be quite low, so using the USB port may be overkill. Also, given the massive amount of legacy keyboards out there with AT or PS/2 connectors you don't want to obselete those keyboards overnight.
2. It's actually a good idea to switch the mouse pointer to the USB connector. I use a Logitech MX500 mouse pointer and its very high pointing accuracy is a result of the fact you can get much finer accuracy when the mouse is plugged into the USB port.
It's the early Pentium 4 all over again.
on
Intel Prescott Released
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Does anyone here remember the early Pentium 4 1.4 and 1.7 GHz chips built on the Socket 423 form factor? With only 256 KB of on-die L2 cache and few programs (at that time) that could take full advantage of the Pentium 4's SSE2 multimedia extensions, small wonder why the CPU was much-disliked originally. It wasn't until Intel came out with the newer Pentium 4's with the 512 KB L2 cache and software that fully took advantage of SSE2 extensions that the CPU finally took off in popularity.
I don't see the Prescott-core CPU's become popular until software catches up with supporting all the functions of the CPU; we may see that with Windows XP Service Pack 2 and later builds of the Linux 2.6.x kernel.
...And in fact, it could be worse in terms of tracking Internet usage!
Does anyone here know about Red Flag Linux and the locally-developed Dragon RISC CPU? Given that both are sanctioned by the Chinese government, you have to really openly wonder does the Chinese government have access to back doors via software and/or hardware that will allow them to quickly track Internet usage with Red Flag Linux and the Dragon CPU-based hardware.
The Chinese could have easily done the same thing with UNIX-based or Linux-based systems.
Indeed, that's why I have concerns with Red Flag Linux and the locally-developed Dragon CPU chip; the Chinese government might have access to back doors via software and/or hardware that could make tracking of Internet surfers even easier than many people think. (wagging fingers)
Surprisingly, the increasing heavy use of multimedia on home computers is a GREAT reason why 64-bit X86-64 CPU-based systems could have a surprisingly big impact on home computing.
32-bit computing today maybe fine for business tasks and surfing the Internet, but when you start doing things like processing images from digital still cameras (especially now with increasing file sizes from digital still cameras that have five megapixel or higher resolution sensors) or downloading movies from your MiniDV/MicroDV digital camcorder to be edited and processed, these tend to put a massive premium on both processing power and system RAM needs.
Besides, with x86-64-based CPU's, you can partially or fully recompile your current x86-based program code to 64-bit operations. This is not true with Itanium-based systems, which has to be coded from almost literal scratch to take full advantage of the Itanium's CPU registers.
I think Steve Jobs' decision to sever Pixar's relationship with Disney maybe the final straw that will force Michael Eisner out of running the Walt Disney Company.
This turn of events is not surprising, given that Roy E. Disney is a close friend of Jobs. I believe that Jobs did this out of his friendship with Roy E. Disney.
Given what has happened with Disney's 2-D animation department lately in addition to losing Pixar, I would not be surprised that we will see a shareholder revolt that forces Eisner and his cronies from the Disney Board of Directors. In Eisner's place, Roy E. Disney becomes the new head of the Board of Directors, and Steve Jobs will be offered (and accepts!) a Disney Board of Directors position.
I think what WiMax will do is finally make broadband Internet available to most of the USA.
You see, one of the biggest problems with trying to set up broadband in the USA is the sheer size of the country and the fact USA metropolitan areas are so widely spread out, which drastically increases the cost of setting up DSL and cable modem broadband access. With WiMax, you essentially have solved the Last Mile problem of getting broadband access into the home, especially in rural areas. Also, because WiMax works with moving vehicles and trains up to 250 km/h (155 mph), it also means mobile access isn't an issue, too.
I think there are two good reasons to start the phaseout of IPv4:
1. The number of Internet-enabled devices out there are growing at an explosive rate. You really need the vastly larger number of IP addresses available in IPv6 for all those devices out there, even with modern router boxes.
2. It might improve Internet security, since we might have a chance in IPv6 to trace the very specific IP address of the person and/or machine trying to cause security problems on the Internet.
I think while Earth-based telescopes have equalled or surpasssed the Hubble Space Telescope thanks to the use of segmented mirror designs and adaptive optics, you still want to have a powerful telescope that will operate beyond the refractive interference of the Earth's atmosphere for very distance object imaging.
The is where the James Webb Space Telescope now in development comes in. It will have a much larger primary mirror than the HST, and will of course sport adaptive optics so the precision of the primary mirror need not to be so extreme. The new space telescope might have high enough resolution that we might be able to see even the effects of smaller, rocky crust planets circling around other stars.
While the TGV managed to go 515 km/h, that was done on a four-car trainset on an extremely straight stretch of track with specially-modified overhead catenary pickup units.
Because today's very fast trains still rely on steel rail and overhead wiring, you will soon run into issues of increased physical wear and tear on both the track and the rolling stock at speeds above 300 km/h (186 mph). I don't see steel-rail trains going much faster than 350 km/h because of this limitation.
Because maglevs don't have physical contact with the guide track, this allows for far higher speeds than steel-rail trains on a regular basis. Speeds exeecding 500 km/h (310 mph) are well with the possibility of maglev trains, especially with careful aerodynamic design of the trainset itself.
I think what NASA plans is NOT to fire the nuclear rocket until after it's launched into space on more conventional rockets. A nuclear rocket's forte is not one big burst of thrust from a ground launch, but a lower-powered steady stream of thrust for very long periods of time after the space vehicle leaves Earth orbit. It's this ability that makes a spacecraft potentially possible to travel from Earth to Mars in six weeks instead of six to nine months.
Interestingly enough, your computer--if it had enough RAM (like at least 256 MB)--could have run Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP easily.
The big issue with Win2k Pro and WinXP is that you really need a LOT of RAM to make the OS work properly. If your old machine used a motherboard with the Intel 440BX chipset, with just a flash BIOS upgrade you could have installed as much as 768 MB of system RAM, which is far more than enough to run Windows XP Professional and most of Microsoft Office 2003 easily.
I think the reason why Microsoft is extending Windows 98/98SE/Me support is the fact that a lot of older computers out there are not ready to run Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP.
For example, Intel motherboards made before the Atlanta (AL440LX) motherboard have very low RAM memory expansion limits; even the AL440LX and the Seattle (SE440BX) motherboards require a flash BIOS upgrade before they can use 168-pin 256 MB SDRAM modules, and these motherboards are limited to at most 768 MB of RAM, which may not be enough to run Win2K and WinXP plus Office XP/2003 in some cases.
There's a good reason why IBM will support Linux: it helps IBM sell hardware. Porting Linux so it runs under AS/400 and S/390 big iron means IBM can lease and/or sell mainframe-quality hardware at very low prices, since the specter of OS licensing costs are very low.
I think right now the thing that will drive the wide adoption of larger-screen widescreen TV's will NOT be flat-panel LCD, plasma or OLED displays for the immediate future. OLED's may have a chance once the issues of display longevity is solved--but that is still several years down the road.
The real breakthrough will be Liquid Crystal on Semiconductor (LCoS), which will offer the same advantages of DLP (namely no convergence problems and "screen burn" problems that plague CRT-based rear-projection TV's) but will likely do it at a much lower price than DLP units. Sure, LCoS TV's do have the disadvantage of needing about 6-8" of depth on the TV box, but then, it's going to be vastly cheaper than large-screen plasma displays (which are still going to be very expensive to build and also plasma TV longevity is a issue--they tend to lose picture quality after a few years).
I can envision within 24 months wide-scale availability of LCoS-based RPTV's, something that will last until OLED's finally become practical.
However, there are still serious issues of the life expectancy of OLED displays that manufacturers have yet to overcome. Meanwhile, LCoS rear-projection TV's will only have around 6-7" depth, will soon be very inexpensive and will not suffer convergence and "screen burn" problems that plague CRT-based rear-projection TV's.
I believe that if Intel can get LCoS working properly at a low price and we get decently bright displays from LCos-based Rear-Projection TV (RPTV) units, it could finally spell the end of high-end large-screen CRT TV's (except for a few models to satisfy CRT fans) and could even threaten CRT-based RPTV's on the low end of the market.
This might be the thing that finally get the critical mass of widescreen TV's needed to deploy 16:9 ATSC-standard HDTV and get a large viewing audience. I can see two years from now LCoS-based RPTV's being available from 38" to 65" diagonal sizes in 16:9 aspect ratio at well under US$2,500 in price for the 65" model.
Two things conspired against Laserdisc's success: 1) the size of the disc, which presented storage problems, and 2) you could at most squeeze in one hour of video per side in CLV mode.
DVD's avoided both problems by allowing for over 2 hours of video per side and using a disc size (the same as a Compact Disc) that made storage vastly easier. It also helped that DVD's ability to have multiple soundtracks and subtitles per disc made it possible to have both Dolby Digital and DTS sound tracks on the same disc, not to mention finally settling the argument of dub versus subtitled on Japanese anime releases! =)
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If you think getting more power out of the engine is just an ECU modification, they don't understand how to really upgrade an engine.
In Germany, where companies like Alpina (for BMW's), Brabaus (for Mercedes-Benzes) and Ruf (for Porsches) do specialized ultra fast versions of German cars, they do things like upgrading the engine innards and putting in stronger transmissions, better suspension pieces, better brakes and better tires in addition to upgrading the engine's ECU. The result is a car that can go past 300 km/h (186 mph) safely yet be very docile to drive at slower speeds.
In my opinion, the only ECU-only upgrade worth talking about is the upgrade that increases the horsepower of the 1.8-liter I-4 turbocharged engine used on VW and Audi cars, mostly because the engine innards were designed for that type of power boost. For example, when VW upgraded this engine from 150 to 180 bhp all it needed was an ECU programming change.
I think for now that Linux will primarily stay a server operating system, since on a server OS ease of use is less of an issue but licensing costs can be an issue.
Linux is not yet a desktop OS that is usable by less-experienced computer users, especially if you have to download and edit movie files from a MiniDV/MicroDV digital camcorder or image files from a digital still camera. Linux is getting better but it's still a bit behind with what you can do easily with a machine running Windows 2000 Professional/Windows XP or a Macintosh running MacOS X.
...the race will come down to between DLP and LCOS digital technology, especially with technology improvements that will make them far less expensive.
Unlike CRT's, DLP and LCOS suffer no "burn-in" image problems, and of course there is no such thing as convergence problems, either. And they can be made potentially cheaper on the per inch (diagonal) basis than direct-view LCD or plasma displays, and changing the illumination bulb is a US$100 proposition every 8,000 hours or so.
Yes, direct-view CRT's still win when it comes to contrast, but the sheer mass of CRT's make them impractical for displays beyond 40" (diagonal).
Let's face it folks.
The small record or book store are disappearing because they just can't compete on sheer volume against the superstores--both brick and mortar and online.
I mean think about it. What happened when stores like Borders and Barnes & Noble with their very large book selection spread all over the USA, not to mention the rise of online bookstores like Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com? It effectively killed off the smaller book store almost everywhere (as evidenced by the decline and fall of A Clean, Well Lighted Place for Books, Stacey's, and Printers, Ink in the southern San Francisco Bay Area).
The same is now happening to the music and home video business. The rise of superstores such as Best Buy and the sheer volume of business done by Wal-Mart's audio and video software departments (not to mention the rise of online record and home video stores) are pretty much killing off a lot of smaller record and video stores all over the place. Tower Records--because of its major brick and mortar presence--is suffering because of this sea change in music/home video retailing.
Actually, from what I've read many high-end CAD/CAM users and illustration program users like the finer DPI accuracy afforded by USB mouse connections, because they can manipulate a drawing or image with great accuracy. From the information provided by Logitech on their MouseWare 9.76 and newer drivers for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, in order to get 800 DPI accuracy with their higher-end mouse pointers (e.g., MX500) you do need to plug the mouse into the USB port.
I personally think that Windows XP Home/Professional for the AMD x86-64 CPU architecture is closer to release than people think.
They're probably right now redoing much of the OS code so it does take full advantage of x86-64 registers, and is waiting for other Microsoft departments to complete their work so an improved version of Internet Explorer 6.01 (Service Pack 2?) and all the Windows XP Service Pack 2 improvements are incorporated into the final version. Don't be surprised that when Windows XP SP2 ships some time this summer we'll see both 32-bit and the x86-64 64-bit version come out at the same time.
I think in the end, the new BTX motherboards will likely dispense with the PS/2 mouse port but will keep the PS/2 keyboard port.
Unusual? Not when you consider the following:
1. Keyboard data transfer rates tend to be quite low, so using the USB port may be overkill. Also, given the massive amount of legacy keyboards out there with AT or PS/2 connectors you don't want to obselete those keyboards overnight.
2. It's actually a good idea to switch the mouse pointer to the USB connector. I use a Logitech MX500 mouse pointer and its very high pointing accuracy is a result of the fact you can get much finer accuracy when the mouse is plugged into the USB port.
Does anyone here remember the early Pentium 4 1.4 and 1.7 GHz chips built on the Socket 423 form factor? With only 256 KB of on-die L2 cache and few programs (at that time) that could take full advantage of the Pentium 4's SSE2 multimedia extensions, small wonder why the CPU was much-disliked originally. It wasn't until Intel came out with the newer Pentium 4's with the 512 KB L2 cache and software that fully took advantage of SSE2 extensions that the CPU finally took off in popularity.
I don't see the Prescott-core CPU's become popular until software catches up with supporting all the functions of the CPU; we may see that with Windows XP Service Pack 2 and later builds of the Linux 2.6.x kernel.
...And in fact, it could be worse in terms of tracking Internet usage!
Does anyone here know about Red Flag Linux and the locally-developed Dragon RISC CPU? Given that both are sanctioned by the Chinese government, you have to really openly wonder does the Chinese government have access to back doors via software and/or hardware that will allow them to quickly track Internet usage with Red Flag Linux and the Dragon CPU-based hardware.
The Chinese could have easily done the same thing with UNIX-based or Linux-based systems.
Indeed, that's why I have concerns with Red Flag Linux and the locally-developed Dragon CPU chip; the Chinese government might have access to back doors via software and/or hardware that could make tracking of Internet surfers even easier than many people think. (wagging fingers)
Surprisingly, the increasing heavy use of multimedia on home computers is a GREAT reason why 64-bit X86-64 CPU-based systems could have a surprisingly big impact on home computing.
32-bit computing today maybe fine for business tasks and surfing the Internet, but when you start doing things like processing images from digital still cameras (especially now with increasing file sizes from digital still cameras that have five megapixel or higher resolution sensors) or downloading movies from your MiniDV/MicroDV digital camcorder to be edited and processed, these tend to put a massive premium on both processing power and system RAM needs.
Besides, with x86-64-based CPU's, you can partially or fully recompile your current x86-based program code to 64-bit operations. This is not true with Itanium-based systems, which has to be coded from almost literal scratch to take full advantage of the Itanium's CPU registers.
I think Steve Jobs' decision to sever Pixar's relationship with Disney maybe the final straw that will force Michael Eisner out of running the Walt Disney Company.
This turn of events is not surprising, given that Roy E. Disney is a close friend of Jobs. I believe that Jobs did this out of his friendship with Roy E. Disney.
Given what has happened with Disney's 2-D animation department lately in addition to losing Pixar, I would not be surprised that we will see a shareholder revolt that forces Eisner and his cronies from the Disney Board of Directors. In Eisner's place, Roy E. Disney becomes the new head of the Board of Directors, and Steve Jobs will be offered (and accepts!) a Disney Board of Directors position.
Here's what will happen: Microsoft cuts a check for 5 billion Euros. Case closed.
Given Microsoft's huge liquid reserves, that is barely a dent in their operations.
I think what WiMax will do is finally make broadband Internet available to most of the USA.
You see, one of the biggest problems with trying to set up broadband in the USA is the sheer size of the country and the fact USA metropolitan areas are so widely spread out, which drastically increases the cost of setting up DSL and cable modem broadband access. With WiMax, you essentially have solved the Last Mile problem of getting broadband access into the home, especially in rural areas. Also, because WiMax works with moving vehicles and trains up to 250 km/h (155 mph), it also means mobile access isn't an issue, too.
I think there are two good reasons to start the phaseout of IPv4:
1. The number of Internet-enabled devices out there are growing at an explosive rate. You really need the vastly larger number of IP addresses available in IPv6 for all those devices out there, even with modern router boxes.
2. It might improve Internet security, since we might have a chance in IPv6 to trace the very specific IP address of the person and/or machine trying to cause security problems on the Internet.
I think while Earth-based telescopes have equalled or surpasssed the Hubble Space Telescope thanks to the use of segmented mirror designs and adaptive optics, you still want to have a powerful telescope that will operate beyond the refractive interference of the Earth's atmosphere for very distance object imaging.
The is where the James Webb Space Telescope now in development comes in. It will have a much larger primary mirror than the HST, and will of course sport adaptive optics so the precision of the primary mirror need not to be so extreme. The new space telescope might have high enough resolution that we might be able to see even the effects of smaller, rocky crust planets circling around other stars.
While the TGV managed to go 515 km/h, that was done on a four-car trainset on an extremely straight stretch of track with specially-modified overhead catenary pickup units.
Because today's very fast trains still rely on steel rail and overhead wiring, you will soon run into issues of increased physical wear and tear on both the track and the rolling stock at speeds above 300 km/h (186 mph). I don't see steel-rail trains going much faster than 350 km/h because of this limitation.
Because maglevs don't have physical contact with the guide track, this allows for far higher speeds than steel-rail trains on a regular basis. Speeds exeecding 500 km/h (310 mph) are well with the possibility of maglev trains, especially with careful aerodynamic design of the trainset itself.
You are absolutely correct.
I think what NASA plans is NOT to fire the nuclear rocket until after it's launched into space on more conventional rockets. A nuclear rocket's forte is not one big burst of thrust from a ground launch, but a lower-powered steady stream of thrust for very long periods of time after the space vehicle leaves Earth orbit. It's this ability that makes a spacecraft potentially possible to travel from Earth to Mars in six weeks instead of six to nine months.
Interestingly enough, your computer--if it had enough RAM (like at least 256 MB)--could have run Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP easily.
The big issue with Win2k Pro and WinXP is that you really need a LOT of RAM to make the OS work properly. If your old machine used a motherboard with the Intel 440BX chipset, with just a flash BIOS upgrade you could have installed as much as 768 MB of system RAM, which is far more than enough to run Windows XP Professional and most of Microsoft Office 2003 easily.
I think the reason why Microsoft is extending Windows 98/98SE/Me support is the fact that a lot of older computers out there are not ready to run Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP.
For example, Intel motherboards made before the Atlanta (AL440LX) motherboard have very low RAM memory expansion limits; even the AL440LX and the Seattle (SE440BX) motherboards require a flash BIOS upgrade before they can use 168-pin 256 MB SDRAM modules, and these motherboards are limited to at most 768 MB of RAM, which may not be enough to run Win2K and WinXP plus Office XP/2003 in some cases.
There's a good reason why IBM will support Linux: it helps IBM sell hardware. Porting Linux so it runs under AS/400 and S/390 big iron means IBM can lease and/or sell mainframe-quality hardware at very low prices, since the specter of OS licensing costs are very low.
I think right now the thing that will drive the wide adoption of larger-screen widescreen TV's will NOT be flat-panel LCD, plasma or OLED displays for the immediate future. OLED's may have a chance once the issues of display longevity is solved--but that is still several years down the road.
The real breakthrough will be Liquid Crystal on Semiconductor (LCoS), which will offer the same advantages of DLP (namely no convergence problems and "screen burn" problems that plague CRT-based rear-projection TV's) but will likely do it at a much lower price than DLP units. Sure, LCoS TV's do have the disadvantage of needing about 6-8" of depth on the TV box, but then, it's going to be vastly cheaper than large-screen plasma displays (which are still going to be very expensive to build and also plasma TV longevity is a issue--they tend to lose picture quality after a few years).
I can envision within 24 months wide-scale availability of LCoS-based RPTV's, something that will last until OLED's finally become practical.
However, there are still serious issues of the life expectancy of OLED displays that manufacturers have yet to overcome. Meanwhile, LCoS rear-projection TV's will only have around 6-7" depth, will soon be very inexpensive and will not suffer convergence and "screen burn" problems that plague CRT-based rear-projection TV's.
I believe that if Intel can get LCoS working properly at a low price and we get decently bright displays from LCos-based Rear-Projection TV (RPTV) units, it could finally spell the end of high-end large-screen CRT TV's (except for a few models to satisfy CRT fans) and could even threaten CRT-based RPTV's on the low end of the market.
This might be the thing that finally get the critical mass of widescreen TV's needed to deploy 16:9 ATSC-standard HDTV and get a large viewing audience. I can see two years from now LCoS-based RPTV's being available from 38" to 65" diagonal sizes in 16:9 aspect ratio at well under US$2,500 in price for the 65" model.
Two things conspired against Laserdisc's success: 1) the size of the disc, which presented storage problems, and 2) you could at most squeeze in one hour of video per side in CLV mode.
DVD's avoided both problems by allowing for over 2 hours of video per side and using a disc size (the same as a Compact Disc) that made storage vastly easier. It also helped that DVD's ability to have multiple soundtracks and subtitles per disc made it possible to have both Dolby Digital and DTS sound tracks on the same disc, not to mention finally settling the argument of dub versus subtitled on Japanese anime releases! =)