Eric Grevstad

Like its rivals, Sony Electronics has offered recordable DVD drives on its Vaio desktop PCs for some time. But the company’s new holiday lineup adds DVD burning to three notebook models, and bundles both laptops and desktops with new, exclusive Click to DVD software that can import camcorder video and generate a DVD with one […]

And you thought they were conceding the speed race to the Pentium 4 until the Hammer shipped… AMD says the third anniversary of its Athlon CPU calls for a real jump in performance, so Intel’s archrival has introduced 0.13-micron-process Athlon XP “Thoroughbred” processors with model-number performance ratings of 2400+ (2.0GHz) and 2600+ (2.133GHz), the latter […]

AMD fans can breathe now — the chipmaker has finally shipped its long-anticipated “Thoroughbred” desktop CPU. Hailing from AMD’s Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany, the new Athlon XP 2200+ is built using an 0.13-micron copper process versus prior versions’ 0.18-micron process, letting AMD create a smaller, less power-hungry chip while maintaining compatibility with its proven […]

The Linux community’s and Windows bargain hunters’ best hope for an alternative to Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, has officially debuted under the name of OpenOffice.org 1.0, and the open-source Windows, Linux, and Solaris suite is now available for free download — if you can get onto the server, which has been swamped since the announcement. Soon […]

Here’s a prediction: Apple Computer Inc.’s new desktop designed for education, the eMac, will encounter considerable demand from consumers as well as K-12 teachers, although the former can’t buy it unless they submit proof that they home-school their kids. Why? Because the eMac fixes the main problem with the original, aging iMac design, offering a […]

MTV Music Television has announced that a line of PCs bearing its logo and designed for college dorm rooms will appear this spring. Built by OEM vendor Lan Plus, which sells systems under Northgate and several other brands, and powered by AMD’s Athlon XP processors, the hip ‘n’ happening computers will be “geared toward the […]

LAS VEGAS — Britney Spears, as big as Godzilla, covers an entire wing of the MGM Grand. Microsoft, having apparently hired the same berserk banner printer, has wrapped the 17-story Marriott Suites in Windows XP wallpaper, and an Intel Pentium 4 poster adorns the Hilton. Between them and the huge American flag added since September […]

LAS VEGAS — The go-go ’90s have gone-gone from Las Vegas, with casino building projects stopped (one of the most recent and ritzy, the Aladdin, is bankrupt) and Japan Air Lines canceling its once-crowded tourist flights in the wake of September 11. Even so, there’ve never been so many tourists in town during Comdex/Fall. The […]

If you want to back up files, record CDs, and watch DVD movies on the road, Sony Electronics suggests you travel light: The companys new CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drives are ultra-slim (measuring just 5.1 by 5.3 by 0.7 inches) and lightweight. Available with either PC Card (model CRX85A/A1) or USB 2.0 interfaces (model CRX85U/A2), the compact […]

For most shoppers, Dell Computer Corp.‘s low-end desktop PC is the Dimension 2100 — a compact minitower with Intel’s Celeron processor and integrated graphics and audio chipset, starting at $699 before buyers apply their choices from a myriad of disk, display, and other options. But for consumers looking for a no-fuss, easy-to-order, Model T type […]

The annual Microprocessor Forum conference in San Diego always brings enough processor PowerPoints to send CPU buffs spinning. Today, even while it introduced new Athlon MP chips for dual-processor workstations and servers, AMD revealed some details of its long-awaited, 64-bit “Hammer” architecture for servers with as many as eight processors, scheduled for production in the […]

The nondisclosure agreements and legal forms have expired, so Hardware Central can confirm what CPU buffs have been buzzing about for weeks: AMD‘s fastest new processor — the “Palomino” upgrade of its Athlon desktop family — is named AMD Athlon XP 1800+ with QuantiSpeed Architecture. Though built on the same 0.18-micron process with the same […]