What else is new from the PC world?
By Zatni Arbi
JAKARTA (JP): How fast should your computer be? Well, it seems that the sky is the limit. PC power users crave more speed, and chip manufacturers respond with faster and faster processors.
Last year, IBM came up with their 33/100 MHz Blue Lightning chips, the clock-tripled 486 CPUs that worked internally at the speed of 99 MHz but externally at 33 MHz.
Intel, in its continued efforts to create market confusion to drive away its competitors, has just released its own version of clock-tripled 486 CPUs. There are three of them, running at 100, 83 and 75 MHz each.
And if you think that the name of the new generation of computer brain cells is 486DX3 -- based on the fact that the clock-doubled CPU is called 486DX2, you're wrong. It's called 486DX4. Why? Perhaps only the gods and the people at Intel know.
There are several speculations surrounding the inconsistent naming. Some say that Intel has deliberately chosen the DX4 as the successor of DX2 for legal purposes. On the other hand, Intel says that the name 486 has been dropped and replaced by the figure 4 after DX, making the official name IntelDX4 rather than i486DX4. Can you figure out the real logic behind it all? I can't.
Controversies aside, a new generation of CPU usually means good news. The new processor chips, although not all of them run three times faster internally, are more suitable now for portable PCs because of lower power consumption, 3.3 Volt, and better built-in power-management features. The performance level of the fastest DX4 reportedly falls somewhere between 486DX/2 66 MHz and Pentium 60 MHz processors.
Another good news from Intel is that it has, as of the beginning of this month, lowered the price of 66 MHz Pentium chips from US$871 to $750 in quantities of 1,000.
That will certainly bring a faster processor closer to replacing my old but faithful 386DX EPS. Or, should I wait for PowerPC systems and their applications to become more widely available instead? You see, the future is becoming more and more uncertain.
TrackPoint
Yes, that's true. And the TrackPoint alternative to conventional rodents, which debuted in IBM ThinkPad series notebooks, has become a very popular one. My dream subnotebook, the Toshiba Portege T3400CT, for instance, also features a similarly designed pointing device. Lexmark International, a subsidiary of IBM that brings us keyboards and laser printers, has just released the keyboard. In fact, if you had attended the OS/2 seminar in Jakarta last week you would have seen it attached to one of the newer ValuePoint model.
IBM's keyboards have always been my best favorite ever since I bought my PS/2 Model 30 in 1987. I like the firm tactile response and the click-clack sound that they produce. Unfortunately, they used to be very costly.
When I was putting together my current PC, the price of an IBM keyboard was much too expensive for my budget. At that time IBM told me I would have to pay $300 for a PS/2 keyboard. So I settled with Northgate Omnikey 101, which was in fact another award winning keyboard. But now that IBM has lowered its prices across the board, the new Lexmark keyboards list only for $129 to $149. That sounds more affordable.
Space Travel by CD
You know why I'm so depressed by the educational system of this country? Just imagine, the teacher of my eight-year-old daughter recently had her memorize all the earth, moon and sun stuff word by word. She had to memorize -- not visualize -- that the moon circled around the earth, and that both of them circled around the sun.
Here's a CD ROM that I wish I had when my daughter had to prepare for her test: Space Missions, by IMSI, San Rafael, CA. The CD ROM contains all sorts of information about all worldwide space programs. You can watch videos, look at photos, listen to original audio clippings, and read reference materials.
It's truly shameful to force our youngsters to reproduce lesson materials verbatim, while an interactive CD such as this one can be had for only $49.95. But, I guess, that's what development of underdevelopment is all about.