AGP 8X cards are expected to last at least a year before PCI Express cards begin to roll out at the end of 2003. An executive for Dell Computer Corp. said that the OEM would be an early adopter of the PCI Express standard in servers, leading to the possibility that the AGP 8X to PCI Express transition might be somewhat hurried.

The AGP specification is owned by Intel, although it is offered royalty-free to developers.

The announcement is already something of an anticlimax. PC chipset manufacturers, such as Via and SIS, already offer chipsets designed in compliance with the nearly-final revs of the third-generation AGP specification. For its part, Intel said it would offer a pair of AGP 8X chipsets for the workstation market in the fourth quarter.

"The continuous progression of discrete AGP graphics, from 2x to 4x to 8x, will enable graphics hardware vendors to drive more and more vertices processing and pixel synthesizing capability, and lead the software developer community to deliver superb 3-D characterization, digital content creation, editing, and production," said Jason Ziller, Intel technology initiatives manager, in a statement.

feedroom.com - thinkgeek.com: "Will Work for Bandwidth"

This is an interesting on-line seller of tech related toys and gadget's.  How about a pillow that says PILLOW in binary... Corey this is for you!

Click the graphic to launch the video.

TomsHardware.com - Maxtor Atlas 10K III U320 Selected For Dell PowerEdge Servers

Maxtor Corporation, a worldwide leader in hard disk drives and data storage solutions, today announced that the Maxtor Atlas 10K III U320 was selected for use in Dell PowerEdge servers. With its U320 interface and 73 GB capacity, the Atlas 10K III helps meet the needs of Dell PowerEdge customers demanding fast access to their data. It transfers enterprise-class data at burst speeds up to 320 MB/per second, which is double that of the previous industry leading SCSI interface, the Ultra160.

...The Atlas 10K-III draws on proprietary Maxtor technology to boost reliability by guarding against failures from mistreatment during handling and integration. This translates into fewer product returns, lower cost of ownership and satisfied customers.

commodore.ca - Unreal Tournament 3 Demo Released

In a move that may disappoint PC consumers, Advanced Micro Devices ( NYSE: AMD - news) has announced it will delay the introduction of its desktop Clawhammer microprocessor. Marketed under the company's Athlon brand, the hotly anticipated chip will process data in 64-bit chunks, a quantum leap past the 32-bit data chunks processed by today's laptop and desktop PCs

The company said it will make the chips available to manufacturers in early 2003. Therefore, PCs with the Clawhammer chip are slated to ship in the second quarter of next year. AMD originally had said the chip would ship late in the fourth quarter of 2002, according to published reports.

...the chip's design allows it to be backward compatible with 32-bit programs -- a particularly important trait for the consumer market. It uses the same x86 specification as currently available PC microprocessors.

Therefore, AMD is marketing Clawhammer as a faster chip to benefit all applications, not just those based on newer, faster processors. As Forrester principal analyst Carl Howe told NewsFactor, the company sees its task as "getting the next high-performance processor out the door without causing consumers to have to rework things."

Howe added that Clawhammer will significantly boost AMD's market position in relation to Intel ( Nasdaq: INTC - news). The approach AMD used in designing the Hammer chip stands in "stark contrast" to that used by Intel in its design of Itanium, which uses a completely new architecture.

"If you're a buyer who has the alternative: Run all your current stuff and any 64-bit stuff you want on the Clawhammer processor, or [with Itanium] buy entirely new copies of all your applications -- which are you going to chose?" Howe said.

Private Media said that it had offered to acquire the Napster trademark and the Napster.com Internet address for one million shares of Private Media stock, currently valued at USD2.4 million. If accepted by Napster, the offer would be subject to approval by the court that has jurisdiction over Napster's bankruptcy proceedings.

In a statement, Private Media Group said that it planned to create a peer-to-peer (P2P) network that would promote the sharing of pornography. It would also sell pornographic material on the site.

"Along with Hollywood and the recording industry, we have become increasingly concerned about the level of copyright infringement inherent in free peer-to-peer file swapping services," said Charles Prast, president and chief executive officer of Private. "We intend to use the strength of the Napster trademark to build a community for adults to share content provided by Private and our industry partners."

Spain-based Private Media Group trades on the Nasdaq exchange and claims to have the largest library of "quality adult content" in the world, according to Prast.

The announcement comes less than two weeks after a bankruptcy-court judge blocked the company's sale to German media giant Bertelsmann AG. Judge Peter J. Walsh of US Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, said he could not approve the sale of Napster's assets to Bertelsmann for USD8 million, because Napster did not show that the transaction was made in good faith and at arm's length.

Bertelsmann had hoped to resurrect the Napster service with music licensed from the major record labels, including its own BMG label. Napster hoped to become profitable by offering a secure membership-based service that would have provided royalties to record companies and artists.

Bertelsmann had previously offered over USD15 million for Napster, in addition to the USD85 million in loans it provided to Napster to keep the file-swapping service in operation, while it was being pursued through the courts by music industry firms for copyright infringement. The loans provided Bertelsmann with an option to buy 52 percent of Napster.

Reuters - Sun Announces Plans for Low-Cost Linux PC
Peter Henderson

BetaNews.com - Apple Prepares 10.2.1 Jaguar Update
Nate Mook

Apple is set to release the first update for Mac OS X version 10.2, according to a knowledge base article posted on the AppleCare Web site. The update comes less than a month after the debut of 10.2, also known as Jaguar, following Apple's trend of releasing frequent updates to Mac OS X.

10.2.1 primarily focuses on improving the operating system's compatibility with CD writers and other multimedia devices. Notable enhancements to CD burning include better compatibility with Windows and support for additional third-party burners. Bugs in iTunes and Disk Utility have also been corrected...