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September
After months of speculation, it seems to finally be official. IBM and Cyrix are breaking up. PC Week Online and Techweb are both reporting that National and IBM are dissolving their long-standing manufacturing and licensing partnership. Yawn, does anyone care about Cyrix anymore? I don't and I used to be the biggest Cyrix cheerleader on the Internet. So many market stumbles in so little time. Here today gone today in the brutal microprocessor industry. The only time I recommend Cyrix M-II processors anymore is in an upgrade situation where the mainboard doesn't support a 2.2V core voltage. I recommend the K6-2 to anyone who is buying new system or CPU/mainboard combination. Cyrix, in part, is turning National Semiconductor in to a penny stock. National bought Cyrix for their MediaGX technology. Together the Cyrix MediaGX and Compaq ignited the sub-$1000 PC phenomenon. Eventually consumers demanded more CPU horsepower for the same price and Intel, AMD, and Cyrix were forced to accommodate them to earn their dollars. The irony is that Cyrix was the least likely to succeed in the environment that they helped create. Consequently, they are literally a victim of their own success. I I hope AMD can stay on the ball. Intel's new Celeron 'A' is the alternative camps worst nightmare. The Celeron is fast, cheap, getting good press, earning one design win after another, and is backup up by the Intel brand name. AMD may be able to undercut the price of the Pentium II by 25%, but there is no way they can do this against the Celeron. It will be interesting to see how their marketing and pricing strategy will change now that the Celeron is a legitimate threat to their business model. Also, there are major changes in the works at AlternativeCPU.com. This site will cease to exist in its current form sometime before the middle of October. Stay tuned for more information and inflammatory editorials.
The buyer for my benchmarking machine backed out on me unexpectedly. Consequently, it is once again available for purchase. In an effort to expedite the process, I've decided against another auction format and I posted a price. In addition, I added a 32X CD-ROM, soundcard, and set of multimedia speakers to sweeten the deal. Get all of the details here if you are interested in this killer PC. BTW, don't miss Mondays update below for important information about AlternativeCPU.com. August
I'm going mobile! I hinted at this fact earlier, but I've finally decided to purchase an Alternative CPU based notebook computer. I've been wanting one for a very long time and current prices are extremely attractive. Compaq is offering some very nice K6 based notebooks. In an effort to raise funds, I've reluctantly decided to sell more hardware from the lab and part with one of my thoroughbred benchmarking machines. This machine is a screamer and produces benchmark scores that will make you cry. Is anyone interested in owning this workhorse? Get all of the details here.
The mainboards, video card, and CPU has found an owner. Thanks go to everyone who was interested. You asked for more mainboard reviews. Your wish is our command. Check out Tom Moran's latest comprehensive work. Read the "Tale of Two Upgrades". Tom's saga of getting both his home systems going with Super 7 motherboards.
I have a few product and status updates that I think everyone will be interested in. I received a note from Nate at PowerLeap Products. Many of you may remember PowerLeap. They were an early sponsor of mine. PowerLeap is a leading manufacturer of CPU upgrade adapters. The latest version of their PL/ProMMX adapter makes it possible to run a AMD K6-2 on systems that don't support a 2.2V core voltage and/or a 4+ clock multiplier. I am sure that this product is welcome news to those of you are wanting to upgrade to a K6-2 or 2.2V K6, but don't want to go through the hassle or expense of upgrading your current mainboard. I apologize for not mentioning it earlier. Jeff Fields, at the Upgrade Center, reviewed this product earlier. Check out his review for detailed information. IBM informed me that they released their 6x86MX PR333 to General Availability. IBM now feels that there are enough viable Super Socket 7 motherboards in the channel. The down side, of course, is that IBM doesn't have the brand recognition that Cyrix does in the United States so they are not sure how many USA distributors will start carrying the part. IBM's stronghold is in Europe and as a result European users should not have any problems obtaining it. Microsoft has released DirectX 6.0 to production. It is available for download at their DirectX website. Microsoft officially supports AMD K6-2 3DNow! technology with DirectX 6. John Howland at Specialty Tech published a number of K6-2 benchmarks on his site - both with DirectX 5 and 6. The end result, DirectX 6 makes a big difference if you own a K6-2. I recommend this download to all K6-2 owners. Tom Moran has been hard at work building industry relationships. Hardware companies are being more selective than ever in determining which websites they will work with. There has been a massive influx of hardware oriented websites over the last six months. Some are good and others are not. Hardware companies are getting bombarded with hardware requests from individuals who are simply looking for free stuff. Expect more AMD information from Tom this week. Tom is producing excellent work and I don't know how this website existed so long without him. On a sad note, Real World Technologies ceased retail operations. Real World Technologies supported AlternativeCPU.com for almost 18 months and I owe them a lot. They were one of the most upstanding vendors on the Internet. Unfortunately, they couldn't survive against the Pricewatch.com and Killerapp.com mentality that is persuasive with today's consumer. July
The Alternative Processing Message Board is finally back online. Sorry about the downtime. Also, check out the the latest announcement from the AMD camp - Profits, 450-MHz chips to come from AMD. Sweet!
Alternative CPU owners love the AMD K6-2 and Quake II. Guess what, so do we! Check out our special focus on the 3DNow! drivers for Quake II on our AMD-K6®-2 FAQ. We're still looking for content sponsors. Send us an email at advertising@alternativecpu.com for a current price sheet. Flat rate monthly pricing is available.
More substantial updates to the AMD-K6®-2 FAQ. Please send comments.
I've teamed up with ComputerHeaven and other hardware oriented websites in the creation of a weekly newsletter. This goal of this newsletter is to inform everyone about the latest news & updates of every website involved in the project. Subscription is free and your e-mail address will not be disclosed. Give it a try! AlternativeCPU.com is looking for new content sponsors. If your business focuses on selling products to Alternative CPU owners or potential buyers, sponsoring this website would be a tremendous addition to your marketing arsenal. Check out our advertising section or email us for additional information. Front page advertising at low flat monthly rates is currently available. I stated earlier that I would redo my Alt.300 numbers after I completed a series of PC100 mainboard upgrades. I picked up an AOpen AX59Pro from Real World Technologies and a Soyo 5EHM from John Howland at Specialty Tech. Listed below in order of performance are Winstone 98 numbers generated on the following platform:
Alt.300 Comparison
I benchmarked the IBM 6x86MX PR333 that I received for testing at 233MHz (66/233). Therefore, I can tell you what to expect from the Cyrix M II PR300. The performance of the Cyrix MII PR300 and the IBM 6x86MX PR300 is virtually identical. The 6x86MX and MII slightly outperform the K6/300 on the Winstone 98, however, the difference is insignificant. The IBM 6x86MX PR333 (83/250) was stable up to 290MHz (83/290) and the K6/300 was stable up to 337MHz (75/337). As a result, I can tell you what to expect from overclocked performance. Please note - the ability to overclock an 6x86MX by 40MHz is extremely rare. Overclocked Comparison
After looking at these numbers, it's easy to understand why the 100MHz bus is a beautiful thing. The performance increase between a K6 300MHz running at 66MHzx4.5 and a K6 300MHz 100MHzx3 is a hefty 10%. A K6/300 utilizing a 66MHz bus holds last place in the above CPU performance table. Higher bus speeds lead to impressive performance gains even with no change to the core speed of the processor. CPU manufacturers benefit because it is much easier for them to gain performance from increases in the system clock frequency rather than the core speed. Currently, the only Socket-7 CPU on the market that officially supports a 100MHz bus is the AMD K6-2. However, in reality people have had tremendous success running the standard K6/300 at 100MHz. 100MHz success with all other Socket-7 CPUs has been mixed. To utilize a 100MHz bus, you will need a mainboard that supports it. Super Socket-7 mainboard are starting to appear in quantities from many different manufacturers. The majority of them are based on the Via MVP3 or Ali V chipsets. PC100 SDRAM is not necessarily a requirement. I have used high quality SDRAM from Macrotron and Advantage 10ns at 100MHz in conjunction with the default BIOS memory timing settings. I recommend buying PC100 SDRAM if you want to guarantee that you memory will run without causing errors. The recently released 6x86MX PR333 (83/250) delivers wonderful performance. However, the 6x86MX PR333 faces an extremely stiff competitor with the release of the AMD K6-2. The 6x86MX remains a great value buy for the price conscious and those that have a mainboard which doesn’t offer a 2.2V core voltage required by the K6/266, K6/300, and K6-2. I will have more to say about the IBM 6x86MX in an upcoming comprehensive review. Personally, I wouldn’t buy anything other than a K6-2 if I were buying a new Socket-7 system today. 100MHz support and 3Dnow! Technology are attractive features that are not found in any other Socket-7 CPU. In summary, AMD remains their own worst enemy. Poor timing and manufacturing difficulties have stymied their progress. AMD has raised the ante with the K6-2 and IBM and Cyrix are going to match the wager to stay in the high performance game.
AMD made a significant design win this week when Hewlett Packard announced they would use the K6-2 300 and 333MHz processor in an upcoming line of consumer-oriented computers. Read the article here, HP Adopts AMD Chip. I had high anticipation today for AMD's planned release for a 3DNow!™ optimized Quake 2™ patch with a 3Dfx Interactive Voodoo2 update and a software rendering update. It was suppose to happen today, but now it's pushed out to July 6th. Visit the AMD/Quake2 page next week for downloads (hopefully)!
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Monday,
September 07, 1998 - Update from Bryan
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