Loyd Case came to computing by way of physical chemistry. He began modestly on a DEC PDP-11 by learning the intricacies of the TROFF text formatter while working on his master's thesis. After a brief, painful stint as an analytical chemist, he took over a laboratory network at Lockheed in the early 80's and never looked back. His first 'real' computer was an HP 1000 RTE-6/VM system.In 1988, he figured out that building his own PC was vastly more interesting than buying off-the-shelf systems ad he ditched his aging Compaq portable. The Sony 3.5-inch floppy drive from his first homebrew rig is still running today. Since then, he's done some programming, been a systems engineer for Hewlett-Packard, worked in technical marketing in the workstation biz, and even dabbled in 3-D modeling and Web design during the Web's early years.Loyd was also bitten by the writing bug at a very early age, and even has dim memories of reading his creative efforts to his third grade class. Later, he wrote for various user group magazines, culminating in a near-career ending incident at his employer when a humor-impaired senior manager took exception at one of his more flippant efforts. In 1994, Loyd took on the task of writing the first roundup of PC graphics cards for Computer Gaming World -- the first ever written specifically for computer gamers. A year later, Mike Weksler, then tech editor at Computer Gaming World, twisted his arm and forced him to start writing CGW's tech column. The gaming world -- and Loyd -- has never quite recovered despite repeated efforts to find a normal job. Now he's busy with the whole fatherhood thing, working hard to turn his two daughters into avid gamers. When he doesn't have his head buried inside a PC, he dabbles in downhill skiing, military history and home theater.
Last week we attended several presentations discussing the future of Windows graphics at WinHEC. What follows is culled from two presentations given during the graphics track on May 27th, 2005. David Blythe, one of the lead architects in the Windows Graphics and Gaming Technologies group, gave a talk titled “Windows Graphics Overview.” The presentation on […]
We last looked at an alpha of Longhorn, Microsoft Corp.s next-generation operating system, in May 2004. We were even able to get elements of the Aero desktop running, plus took a look at the ambitious WinFS file system. Since then, Microsoft has removed the advanced filing system WinFS and made other key changes. Microsoft released […]
The good old magnetic hard drive, with its rotating platters and flying heads, is still the mainstay for mass storage, even as other technologies seem to emerge. Refinements in platter materials, head technologies, and magnetic substrates allow hard drive companies to stay ahead of the cost and performance curve. With Hitachi and Seagate announcing plans […]
When people think of personal computers, they almost always think of the CPU, or memory, or even graphics chips. They often forget that inside a PC is a purely mechanical device that spins at up to 15,000 revolutions per minute. In a more standard desktop hard drive, which spins at a tamer 7,200 RPM, a […]
SAN FRANCISCO—Intel is shifting most of its focus in the processor market to dual-core CPUs, suggesting that by the end of 2006, better than 75 percent of the CPUs that the company ships will be multicore processors. We sat in on a dual-core architecture session Wednesday at the Intel Developer Forum here presented by Benson […]
In 2004, the price per megabyte plummeted in all forms of storage. Hard drive prices headed south, and the price of flash memory of all form factors plunged, even as the thirst for more space to store the digital aspects of our lives skyrocketed. Hitachi Global Storage estimates that the modern house may have up […]
To RAID or Not to RAID?Personal RAID storage is a hot topic—even somewhat controversial. Theoretically RAID 0 offers better performance, but at the cost of increased risk: If one of the two drives fails, you lose your data. RAID 1 offers redundancy and protection, but you only get half the capacity of the two combined […]
AMD has been steadily marching up the processor performance curve, while Intel has been scrambling for a new strategy, having to face up to the fact that scaling to 4GHz and beyond simply may not be possible with this chip architecture. Scaling up the frequency was critical to Intels plans, as the deeper pipeline in […]
When we heard that Sony was shipping a “liquid-cooled” PC, visions of pumps, hoses and thermal fluid danced in our heads. As it turns out, Sonys new VAIO RA-810G uses a more prosaic heat-pipe solution to cooling the 3.4GHz, Prescott-based Pentium 4 processor. We were also intrigued, however, because the RA-810G uses Microsoft Windows XP […]
Storage for your digital stuff has never been cheaper. We recently received an ad in our inbox from a well-known electronics retailer. The startling item in the ad was a 1 gigabyte compact flash card for under $90. Recently, Jim Louderback, in his When Im 64 feature, found a Seagate 160GB ATA drive for roughly […]