Understanding Opteronics

NUM-LOCK HAS A PIECE on the upcoming Opteron. A reader writes to say one of the pictures of the processor happened to reveal the model number, which also has the PR rating on it. "This Opteron (sledgehammer) CPU”, writes Steve Mason, "had the model number of AM8100AV which would insinuate that the model number would be 8100+."

Now, Steve deduces, "if the Opteron has two cores bringing the total PR rating to 8100, divide by two gives you 4050 (round to 4100+). If the estimates are that a 3400+ Hammer would be a 2.0GHz part, what speed would 4100+ be?" We're not at all sure about Steve's analysis, just passing it on...

Anyway, the picture is here. And here's the piece.

Also on the investigative beat is HardOCP which points to the Asus website where they show that BIOS updates for ASUS Intel P4T533 boards support Hyper Threading.

Ocworkbench has a look at the GA-8SG667 SiS 648 mainboard here. It's got overclocking features like "1MHz steppings from 100 - 355 and multiple options for ASync DDR modes that you would love." Most importantly, they say, the performance of this board is excellent.

UK Gamer has published pictures of the first Shuttle PC based on the nForce 2. Also there is a picture of a Geforce 4 Ti4600 cooled with a Zalman heatpipe. Coo! Wibble this way.

TweakTown has a look at the EPoX 4SDA5+ SiS 648 motherboard over here.

SimHQ has a fine piece on how to become a successful simulation pilot, they say over here. Don't tell Osama.

K-Hardware.de has a look some at Terratec, sound cards over here. Here's the translation.

And, for our German readers, Moose writes to say Käpt'n Blaubär is going online. Hey, don't ask me, just have a look over here.

Hexus.net has a look at "the fastest, most feature-rich graphics card in history,” the "ATi Radeon 9700 Pro over here.

And over at 3DChipset.com, Solomon has been reading the Inquirer again. He hates himself for it, as you can tell here.

You can nail the Wibbler here.