GP2X

The GP2X is a Linux-based handheld video game console and portable media player developed by South Korean company GamePark Holdings. It was released on November 10, 2005, in South Korea only.
The GP2X is designed for homebrew developers as well as commercial developers. It is commonly used to run emulators for game consoles such as Neo Geo, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, TurboGrafx-16, and MAME.
Overview.
The GP2X was designed to play music and videos, view photos, and play games. It had an open architecture (Linux based), allowing anybody to develop and run software. Also, there was the possibility for additional features (such as support for new media formats) to be added in the future due to the upgradeable firmware.
A popular use of the GP2X was to run emulators, which allows one to use software from a video game of another system on the GP2X.
History.
Shortly after the release of the GP32 in 2001, its maker Game Park began to design their next handheld. A disagreement within the company about the general direction of this system prompted many of the staff to leave and create their own company, GamePark Holdings, to produce a 2D-based handheld system which they saw as the sequel to the GP32.
GamePark Holdings spoke to previous GP32 distributors and developers to determine the specifications for the new machine and how it should be promoted. Meetings were held in Seoul, Korea, where the final design of the new console was agreed upon.
The first name of this console was the GPX2. However, it couldn't be used as a final name due to a possible trademark violation with the name of a Japanese printer, the GPX. A contest for a new name was announced on August 3, 2005. Around 1500 names were submitted in total. The winner of the competition was Matt Bakse who chose the title GP2X. For this he was awarded a free GP2X console, although delivery of his prize was rather delayed.
The GP2X has seen several minor hardware updates, most notably the changes from the First Edition to Normal Edition and the Normal Edition to the MK2. Also, a new version called the "F200" was released October 30, 2007 and features a touchscreen, among other changes.
As of October 16, 2006, the GP2X had sold 30,000 units. On August 31, 2008, the CEO of Gamepark Holdings told German GP2X distributor Michael Mrozek (aka. EvilDragon) that 60,000 GP2X units had been sold.
On 26 August 2008, GamePark Holdings announced the successor to the GP2X, the "Wiz".
As of September 1, 2008 a version of the GP2X is still being sold in Korea by [[Vocamaster]] that is geared toward Koreans who wish to learn English. In fact, according to the official GP2X distributor for the UK, Craig Rothwell, most GP2X units sold to date have been sold through Vocamaster as English-learning tools.
Hardware.
Specifications.
From http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/gp2x.cgi:
The ARM940T was used by GPH's implementation of Linux to control video processing. Using the 940T core in Linux for other tasks apart from video processing is difficult but possible. Accessing the hardware directly makes it easier to use both CPUs.
The F-200 version of the GP2X hardware replaced the joystick with a directional pad and adds a [[touchscreen]].
Expandability.
The GP2X had an expansion "EXT" port on the base of the unit into which a range of special cables (for USB host, TV-out etc.) or break out box could be plugged, allowing four USB devices to be connected to and used with the GP2X directly. The only thing limiting what can be used through this interface is the availability of drivers.
The connector used to expand the GP2X is hard to come by on its own but it is used with a few other devices. The Samsung e810/e730 and LG U8110/20/30/36/38 mobile telephone data cables, along with the official GP2X TV-Out adapter are suitable connectors.
This connector isn't proprietary; the specifications of this connector are fully open, encouraging home cable construction.
TV output.
The GP2X also supported TV-out with a special cable that plugs into the EXT port. This allows videos that are normally scaled down to fit the GP2X's screen to be played at native resolution on a TV. It also lets software be displayed on the higher resolution TV rather than the screen. Not all software supports this natively, but 3rd party software exists that enables TV-out functionality in all applications. This is done by launching a background process.
Power.
The GP2X requires 2 [[AA battery|AA]]-sized batteries if not running from an external power supply. Due to the high current drain, standard [[Alkaline battery|alkaline]] batteries will not function for very long in the GP2X; [[Nickel-metal hydride battery|NiMH]] or [[Lithium battery|lithium]] batteries are recommended.
Battery life varies depending on the type of activity being performed and can last anywhere from 10 minutes (using alkaline batteries) to over 6 hours (using high-capacity NiMH batteries). When listening to music, power can be conserved by turning off the backlight and display.
The GP2X has a socket for an external power supply. It must be rated 3.3V DC at 1A with a standard center-grounded (negative center) connector. The power supply should be regulated, as [[voltage spike]]s can permanently damage the unit.
Storage.
The GP2X's primary storage device is the [[Secure Digital card]], which can be placed into a socket at the top of the unit. Older firmware only supported SD cards up to 4 [[gigabyte|GB]] in capacity. SD cards must be formatted as either [[File Allocation Table|FAT16, FAT32]] (32 is more reliable), or [[ext2]]. The GP2X also has 64 [[megabyte|MB]] of internal [[flash memory]] storage, of which 32MB can be used for user data.
From firmware release version 4.0 the GP2X F200 is capable of addressing the new [[Secure Digital card#SDHC|SDHC]] standard and thus now works with SDHC cards up to 64GB in size.
Overclocking.
The two ARM processors in the GP2X can be overclocked beyond their rated speed in software. The maximum speed one can reach through overclocking varies from system to system, with about 1 in 50 reaching over 300 MHz and others barely reaching 240 MHz (many systems can be overclocked beyond 240 MHz with no problems. The highest they are advertised to overclock to is 266 MHz.)
Software.
Because the tools required for development on the GP2X are freely available, there is a wealth of software available for the GP2X, much of which is free. Types of software available includes emulators, games, PDA applications and multimedia players.
Built-in software.
The GP2X has several pieces of software built directly into the firmware. There is a version of [[MPlayer]] which is used to play music and video, an image viewer, an e-book reader (which can display the contents of standard text documents on-screen) and a utility to adjust the LCD update frequency to eliminate any flickering.
Other applications available (though not accessible directly through the menu) were a [[Samba (software)|Samba]] server, for transferring files to the machine using the default Windows network file sharing protocol; an [[Hypertext Transfer Protocol|HTTP]] server, for providing web pages; an [[File Transfer Protocol|FTP]] server, a different way of transferring files; and [[telnet]] access allowing for direct command line access from outside the machine.
These servers operate over the included USB networking functionality, allowing one to connect the GP2X to a wider network through a PC. The new GP2X-F200 supports none of these network programs.
Version 3.0.0 of the firmware comes with 5 games pre-installed in the NAND memory. The games are "[[Payback (video game)|Payback]]" (demo), "Noiz2sa", "Flobopuyo", "[[SuperTux]]", and "[[Vektar]]" (freeware version). This firmware is currently shipped with new GP2Xs.
Emulators.
There are many emulators available for the GP2X which allow you to run software from other systems on the GP2X. Many emulators will run most software perfectly and at the intended speed, but some others may have various issues (often to do with speed or sound). Popular emulators include [[GnGeo]] which emulates the [[Neo Geo (console)|Neo Geo]]; [[List of video game emulators|GNUboy2x]], [[Game Boy]] and [[Game Boy Color]] emulators; [[MAME]], an emulator of various arcade machines; DrMD, which emulates the [[Sega Master System]], [[Sega Game Gear|Game Gear]] and [[Sega Genesis|Mega Drive/Genesis]]; SquidgeSNES and PocketSNES, which emulate [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|Super Nintendo]] games; and [[Picodrive]], which emulates Mega Drive and [[Sega CD]] games; [[psx4all]] which emulates [[PlayStation]] games. [[Stella (emulator)|Stella]], an emulator for the [[Atari 2600]] has also been ported to the GP2X
Games.
Since the GP2X has a much smaller following than other handheld consoles, such as the [[PlayStation Portable|Sony PSP]] or the [[Nintendo DS]], there are very few commercial games available for it. "Vektar", "[[Payback (video game)|Payback]]", "Quartz²", "retrovirus RTS", "[[Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles]]" and "[[Blazar (video game)|Blazar]]" have been released as commercial games for the GP2X, and the games "[[Odonata (video game)|Odonata]]" and "[[Elsewhere (video game)|Elsewhere]]" were released in October 2006 for Korean distribution only.
However, there are many ports of games from other platforms, mostly Linux, to the GP2X. Popular ports include "[[SuperTux]]" and "[[Frozen Bubble]]" as well as the "[[Duke Nukem 3D]]", "[[Quake (video game)|Quake]]", and "[[Doom engine|Doom]]" engines (which can run the original games if the user owns a copy with the correct data files). There are also hundreds of original freeware games such as Tilematch and Beat2X, made by GP2X programmers in their spare time.
Multimedia players.
There are several unofficial multimedia players available for the GP2X, intended to support more formats than the built-in music and video players can handle. One such program is a port of [[FFmpeg|FFPlay]] that allows you to play several RealMedia and Windows Media formats. Since the release of the MPlayer source code, several unofficial builds have been released for various purposes. One of these adds support for playing music in the AAC format.
Music Creation Tools.
The GP2X natively runs the free homebrew application Little Game Park Tracker, a music tracker program which was created by chip musician M-.-n specifically for the GP2X. Little Game Park Tracker, also known as LGPT or Little Piggy Tracker, allows for sample-based music production with a myriad of sample tweaking abilities. LGPT borrows the interface of the popular Game Boy music tracker Little Sound DJ. It has since been ported to the PSP, Dingoo, Windows, OS X, and other platforms.
PDA Applications.
Two popular PDA desktop environments have been ported to the GP2X: [[Qt Extended|Qtopia]] and [[GPE Palmtop Environment|GPE]]. Both contain a range of programs such as a web browser, word processor, etc. and can be controlled with either the GP2X controls or a USB mouse and keyboard connected through a USB cable attached to the EXT port.
Open source development.
SDKs (software development kits) are freely and easily available for the GP2X allowing anybody with the required skills to write an application or game. Most SDKs are based around a gcc cross-compiler toolchain and [[Simple DirectMedia Layer|SDL]]. SDL is available for many systems, allowing for cross-compatibility of code with other platforms such as Microsoft Windows and GNU/Linux.
A port of the [[Allegro (software)|Allegro]] game programming library is also available for the GP2X, as are ports of the [[Fenix Project|Fenix]] and [[BennuGD]] game toolkits.
Other libraries under development include Minimal Library SDK, which allows for direct hardware access inside the GP2X Linux environment, and sdk2x a set of libraries and a program which allows you to leave Linux completely for total control of all the hardware with no operating system to interfere.
Currently in development is gpu940, a soft 3D renderer that can do many rendering types, including true perspective texture mapping/lighting. It utilizes the ARM940T CPU of the GP2X, and allows for the GP2X to run basic OpenGL functions. In January 2007, the renderer's OpenGL functions allowed for the 3D roleplaying game "[[Egoboo (video game)|Egoboo]]" to be ported to the GP2X at a playable speed, and a month later updated with increased speed and added lighting effects.
GP2X executables.
GP2X [[executable file]]s have one of two 3 letters file extensions. For games, the extension is used. These are listed in the Games section of the menu. Utilities have the extension , and appear in the Utilities section of the menu; in firmware 3.0.0 they appear along with the games.
DRM controversy.
There was debate before launch over the implied inclusion of [[Digital rights management|DRM]] in the GP2X. However, since release, the GP2X platform was shown to be clear of any form of DRM.
External links.
[[Category:Seventh-generation video game consoles]]
[[Category:ARM-based video game consoles]]
[[Category:Linux-based devices]]
[[Category:Game Park]]
[[Category:Regionless game consoles]]
[[Category:Handheld game consoles]]


List of Intel Celeron microprocessors

The Celeron is a family of microprocessors from Intel targeted at the low-end consumer market. CPUs in the Celeron brand have used designs from sixth- to eighth-generation CPU microarchitectures.


List of Intel Pentium 4 processors

The Pentium 4 microprocessor from Intel is a seventh-generation CPU targeted at the consumer market.


Armored Hunter Gunhound EX

 is a Japanese video game developed by Dracue for the PlayStation Portable. It was originall released in 2013 for the PlayStation Portable and later ported to Windows in 2014 and given a release outside of Japan. The game started originally as a doujin game, and is a mecha action game.
Story.
The story is set in the far far future, where warfare is fought with giant mecha. The story involves a pilot of one of these machines, fighting in a war.
Gameplay.
The game features the player taking control of a large humanoid mecha, and is a 2D action game.
The game plays somewhat similar to and is a tribute to "Assault Suit Leynos", and "Assault Suit Valken".
Development.
The game was originally a Japanese doujin (independent) game.
Norihiro Furukawa worked on arrangements for the main theme of the game.
The game was released for the PlayStation Portable in Japan on January 13, 2013.
The soundtrack for the game titled "PERFECT SOUNDTRACK Kisou Ryouhei Gunhound EX" was released as a bonus with purchase of the limited edition of the PSP release.
Dracue software closed, and president Tomino Yuki left to join the company Garuru Labs. The original source code for Gunhound was made open source. Due to the suspension of Dracue software, the game was removed from the Steam and Playism stores on October 18, 2018.
Reception.
The game was well received upon release. Several reviewers compared the game to "Assault Suit Valken".
Four reviewers in "Famitsu" gave the PSP version a score of 8/7/7/7 for a total of 29/40.
The EX version released for PC was equally well received. "USGamer" gave it a score of 4/5. Polish gaming magazine "CD-Action" gave the game a score of 7.5/10. Though overall positive, they noted that the ideas in the game weren't implemented to the extent that they could have been, and that they wished that a sequel could expand upon these ideas.


Live USB

A live USB is a USB flash drive or external hard disk drive containing a full operating system that can be booted. They are the evolutionary next step after live CDs, but with the added benefit of writable storage, allowing customizations to the booted operating system. Live USBs can be used in embedded systems for system administration, data recovery, or test driving, and can persistently save settings and install software packages on the USB device.
Many operating systems including , , Windows XP Embedded and a large portion of Linux and BSD distributions can run from a USB flash drive, and Windows 8 Enterprise has a feature titled Windows To Go for a similar purpose.
Background.
To repair a computer with booting issues, technicians often use lightweight operating systems on bootable media and a command-line interface. The development of the first live CDs with graphical user interface made it feasible for non-technicians to repair malfunctioning computers. Most Live CDs are Linux-based, and in addition to repairing computers, these would occasionally be used in their own right as operating systems.
Personal computers introduced USB booting in the early 2000s, with the Macintosh computers introducing the functionality in 1999 beginning with the Power Mac G4 with AGP graphics and the slot-loading iMac G3 models. Intel-based Macs carried this functionality over with booting macOS from USB. Specialized USB-based booting was proposed by IBM in 2004 with "Reincarnating PCs with Portable SoulPads" and "Boot GNU/Linux from a FireWire device".
Benefits and limitations.
Live USBs share many of the benefits and limitations of live CDs, and also incorporate their own.
Setup.
Various applications exist to create live USBs; examples include Rufus, Fedora Live USB Creator, and UNetbootin. A few Linux distributions and live CDs have ready-made scripts which perform the steps below automatically. In addition, on Knoppix and Ubuntu extra applications can be installed, and a persistent file system can be used to store changes. A base install ranges between as little as 16 MiB (Tiny Core Linux) to a large DVD-sized install (4 gigabytes).
To set up a live USB system for commodity PC hardware, the following steps must be taken:
Knoppix live CDs have a utility that, on boot, allows users to declare their intent to write the operating system's file structures either temporarily, to a RAM disk, or permanently, on disk or flash media to preserve any added configurations and security updates. This can be easier than recreating the USB system but may be moot since many live USB tools are simple to use.
Full installation.
An alternative to a live solution is a traditional operating system installation with the elimination of swap partitions. This installation has the advantage of being efficient for the software, as a live installation would still contain software removed from the persistent file due to the operating system’s installer still being included with the media. However, a full installation is not without disadvantages; due to the additional write cycles that occur on a full installation, the life of the flash drive may be slightly reduced. To mitigate this, some live systems are designed to store changes in RAM until the user powers down the system, which then writes such changes. Another factor is if the speed of the storage device is poor; performance can be comparable to legacy computers even on machines with modern parts if the flash drive transfers such speeds. One way to solve this is to use a USB hard drive, as they generally give better performance than flash drives regardless of the connector.
Microsoft Windows.
Although many live USBs rely on booting an open-source operating system such as Linux, it is possible to create live USBs for Microsoft Windows by using Diskpart or WinToUSB.


SPARC64 X


LOADXM.COM


WTX (form factor)

WTX (for Workstation Technology Extended) was a motherboard form factor specification introduced by Intel at the IDF in September 1998, for its use at high-end, multiprocessor, multiple-hard-disk servers and workstations. The specification had support from major OEMs (Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intergraph, NEC, Siemens Nixdorf, and UMAX) and motherboard manufacturers (Acer, Asus, Supermicro and Tyan) and was updated (1.1) in February 1999. , the specification has been discontinued and the URL www.wtx.org no longer hosts a website and has not been owned by Intel since at least 2004.
This form factor was geared specifically towards the needs of high-end systems, and included specifications for a WTX power supply unit (PSU) using two WTX-specific 24-pin and 22-pin Molex connectors.
The WTX specification was created to standardize a new motherboard and chassis form factor, fix the relative processor location, and allow for high volume airflow through a portion of the chassis where the processors are positioned. This allowed for standard form factor motherboards and chassis to be used to integrate processors with more demanding thermal management requirements.
Bigger than ATX, maximum WTX motherboard size was . This was intended to provide more room in order to accommodate higher numbers of integrated components.
WTX computer cases were backwards compatible with ATX motherboards (but not vice versa), and sometimes came equipped with ATX power supplies.


MacOS Catalina

macOS Catalina (version 10.15) is the sixteenth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop operating system for Macintosh computers. It is the successor to macOS Mojave and was announced at WWDC 2019 on June 3, 2019 and released to the public on October 7, 2019. Catalina is the first version of macOS to support only 64-bit applications and the first to include Activation Lock. It is also the last version of macOS to have the version number prefix of 10. Its successor, Big Sur, is version 11. macOS Big Sur succeeded macOS Catalina on November 12, 2020.
The operating system is named after Santa Catalina Island, which is located off the coast of southern California.
System requirements.
macOS Catalina officially runs on all standard configuration Macs that supported Mojave. 2010–2012 Mac Pros, which could run Mojave only with a GPU upgrade, are no longer supported. Catalina requires 4 GB of memory, an increase over the 2 GB required by Lion through Mojave.
It is possible to install Catalina on many older Macintosh computers that are not officially supported by Apple. This requires using a patch to modify the install image.
Changes.
System.
Catalyst.
Catalyst is a new software-development tool that allows developers to write apps that can run on both macOS and iPadOS. Apple demonstrated several ported apps, including Jira and Twitter (after the latter discontinued its macOS app in February 2018).
System extensions.
An upgrade from Kexts. System extensions avoid the problems of Kexts. There are 3 kinds of System extensions: Network Extensions, Endpoint Security Extensions, and Driver Extensions. System extensions run in userspace, outside of the kernel. Catalina will be the last version of macOS to support legacy system extensions.
DriverKit.
A replacement for IOKit device drivers, driver extensions are built using DriverKit. DriverKit is a new SDK with all-new frameworks based on IOKit, but updated and modernized. It is designed for building device drivers in userspace, outside of the kernel.
Gatekeeper.
Mac apps, installer packages, and kernel extensions that are signed with a Developer ID must be notarized by Apple to run on macOS Catalina.
Activation Lock.
Activation Lock helps prevent the unauthorized use and drive erasure of devices with an Apple T2 security chip (2018, 2019, and 2020 MacBook Pro; 2020 5K iMac; 2018 MacBook Air, iMac Pro; 2018 Mac Mini; 2019 Mac Pro).
Dedicated system volume.
The system runs on its own read-only volume, separate from all other data on the Mac.
Voice control.
Users can give detailed voice commands to applications. On-device machine processing is used to offer better navigation.
Sidecar.
Sidecar allows a Mac to use an iPad (running iPadOS) as a wireless external display. With Apple Pencil, the device can also be used as a graphics tablet for software running on the computer. Sidecar requires a Mac with Intel Skylake CPUs and newer (such as the fourth-generation MacBook Pro), and an iPad that supports Apple Pencil.
Support for wireless game controllers.
The Game Controller framework adds support for two major console game controllers: the PlayStation 4's DualShock 4 and the Xbox One controller.
Time Machine.
A number of under-the-hood changes were made to Time Machine, the backup software. For example, the manner in which backup data is stored on network-attached devices was changed, and this change is not backwards-compatible with earlier versions of macOS.
Apple declined to document these changes, but some of them have been noted.
Applications.
iTunes.
iTunes is replaced by separate Music, Podcasts, TV and Books apps, in line with iOS. iOS device management is now conducted via Finder. The TV app on Mac supports Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, and HDR10 on MacBooks released in 2018 or later, while 4K HDR playback is supported on Macs released in 2018 or later when connected to a compatible display. Although you can install any version of iTunes as said on Apple’s website.
Find My.
Find My Mac and Find My Friends are merged into an application called Find My.
Reminders.
Among other visual and functional overhauls, attachments can be added to reminders and Siri can intelligently estimate when to remind the user about an event.
Voice Memos.
The Voice Memos application, first ported from iOS to the Mac in macOS 10.14 Mojave as version 2.0, was incremented to version 2.1.
Removed or changed components.
macOS Catalina exclusively supports 64-bit applications. 32-bit applications no longer run (including all software that utilizes the Carbon API as well as QuickTime 7 applications, image, audio and video codecs). Apple has also removed all 32-bit-only apps from the Mac App Store.
Zsh is the default login shell and interactive shell in macOS Catalina, replacing Bash, the default shell since Mac OS X Panther in 2003. Bash continues to be available in macOS Catalina, along with other shells such as csh/tcsh and ksh.
Dashboard has been removed in macOS Catalina.
The ability to add Backgrounds in Photo Booth was removed in macOS Catalina.
The command-line interface GNU Emacs application was removed in macOS Catalina.
Built-in support for Perl, Python 2.7 and Ruby are included in macOS for compatibility with legacy software. Future versions of macOS will not include scripting language runtimes by default, possibly requiring users to install additional packages.
Legacy AirDrop for connecting with Macs running Mac OS X Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks, or 2011 and older Macs has been removed.
Reception.
Catalina received favourable reviews on release for some of its features. However, some writers and bloggers said that the OS was unreliable. Similar to the addition of User Account Control dialog boxes on Windows Vista the previous decade, prompts for allowing software access to sensitive data were criticized by some writers as annoying.


MOVAPD

In the x86 assembly programming language, MOVAPD is the name for a specific action performable by modern x86 processors with 2nd-generation Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE2). This action involves copying a pair of numbers to temporary space in the processor for use in other computations. MOVAPD is one of the fastest ways to accomplish this effect - it is faster than the comparable instruction MOVSD.
Specifically, MOVAPD causes a 16-byte-aligned packed-doubles source to be copied to an XMM register or a 16-byte memory region.
Usage.
The source operand can be either an XMM register ("xmm2") or a memory address ("m128").
The destination operand can be either an XMM register ("xmm1") or a memory address ("m128"). Note, however, that the source and destination operands cannot both be memory addresses.
Potential Exceptions.
If a memory address operand is not 16-byte-aligned, a general protection exception (#GP) will be raised. This can cause strange interoperability bugs when ordinary code calls an external code that was compiled with the assumption of a 16-byte-aligned stack frame boundary.
See also.
x86 instruction listings


Sega Mega Play


MacOS Sierra

macOS Sierra (version 10.12) is the thirteenth major release of macOS (previously known as and ), Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. The name "macOS" stems from the intention to uniform the operating system's name with that of iOS, watchOS and tvOS. Sierra is named after the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California and Nevada. Its major new features concern Continuity, iCloud, and windowing, as well as support for Apple Pay and Siri.
The first beta of macOS Sierra was released to developers shortly following the 2016 WWDC keynote on June 13, 2016. The first public-beta release followed on July 7, 2016. It was released to end users on September 20, 2016, as a free upgrade through the Mac App Store and it was succeeded by macOS High Sierra on September 25, 2017.
System requirements.
macOS Sierra requires at least 2 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage space and will run on:
Sierra is the first version of macOS since OS X Mountain Lion, released in 2012, that does not run on all computers that the previous version supported. Developers have created workarounds to install macOS Sierra on some Mac computers that are no longer officially supported as long as they are packed with a CPU that supports SSE4.1. This requires using a patch to modify the install image.
Changes.
The default desktop picture is an image of Lone Pine Peak.
System features.
Siri.
The user can access the Siri intelligent assistant via the Dock, the menu bar or a keyboard shortcut and results are shown in a window in the upper-right corner. Siri can send messages, search the web, find files and adjust settings. Results can be dropped into other applications or pinned to Notification Center. For instance, pictures from search results can be dragged into a document.
iCloud Drive and Optimized Storage.
iCloud Drive can upload the user's documents and desktop directories and sync them to other devices. The System Information application has a new section that gives the user detailed information about space usage per application or file and provides tools and suggestions for freeing up space. For instance, the user can let the system upload old files to iCloud Drive and remove their local copies, keeping them available on-demand in Finder. It can also remove old files from trash automatically. iTunes can delete watched, purchased films and TV programs from its library.
Auto Unlock and Universal Clipboard.
Building upon Continuity, an "umbrella term [for] features that facilitate the communication between [Apple devices]" using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, Sierra adds two features. With Auto Unlock, the user can unlock their user account by holding a paired Apple Watch close to the device. Time of flight is used to prevent relay attacks. Auto Unlock requires a Mac that was introduced in 2013 or later. With Universal Clipboard, the user can share the clipboard for cut, copy and paste between macOS Sierra and iOS 10 devices, including text and rich content, such as pictures or videos.
Tabs and Picture-in-Picture.
Applications that support multiple windows can support multiple tabs within a single window, allowing the user to keep windows organized similarly to Safari. With Picture-in-Picture, videos can be played in a window that follows the user across the system.
Apple File System.
Apple released a preview of a new file system in Sierra, called Apple File System (APFS), to overcome the limitations of HFS Plus. It is intended for solid-state drives and flash memory and will adopt several features found in modern file systems, such as snapshots and cloning, as well as native support for features that Apple already provides in HFS Plus through supplementary software, such as file-system encryption and TRIM support. The file system was released in macOS High Sierra.
Night Shift.
Night Shift is new in macOS 10.12.4, with the same functionality as its iOS counterpart. Night Shift reduces blue light at night to aid sleep. This can be scheduled in the System Preferences app (in the Displays menu) and can be toggled on or off in the Notification Center or using Siri.
Since this feature relies on the Metal framework, Night Shift is not available on all systems that support macOS Sierra.
Application features.
Photos.
Apple says it has improved the face recognition of the Photos application, adding object and scene recognition. It groups similar pictures together using faces, locations and object recognition to create "memories". Memories contain picture slideshows with transitions and music selected by the algorithm, which can be modified to the user's liking. The "People" album organizes photos by the people in them, and Places shows all photos on a world map.
Safari and Apple Pay.
Safari provides an "extension point" which enables developers to bundle Safari extensions within their Cocoa applications and communicate with them directly from the applications. Safari conceals the presence of installed "legacy" plug-ins, such as Adobe Flash Player, Java applets, Microsoft Silverlight, and QuickTime – from websites and requires the user to enable a specific plug-in on a per-use or per-website basis.
Apple Pay allows vendors to embed an Apple Pay button on their websites. In Safari, users can click the Apple Pay button to check out, then complete a purchase using an iPhone or Apple Watch. Apple Pay requires a Mac that supports Continuity (2012 or later models) and either an iPhone 6 or later with iOS 10, or an Apple Watch with watchOS 3.
Messages.
The Messages app adds aesthetic effects to messages, such as three times bigger emojis and click back with hearts or thumbs-up on a message bubble. The ability to play YouTube videos and preview links in a conversation was introduced. Users can view interactive content added to iMessage in iOS 10. The app also allows you to turn on or off read receipts on a conversation by conversation basis.
iTunes.
Apple Music within iTunes has been redesigned, making it simpler to find favorite songs and discover new ones. A new "For You" tab has been added, which suggests new music the user might like (similar to the existing Genius). A refined MiniPlayer with the ability to view lyrics while listening has also been introduced.
Notes.
The Notes app allows the user to share and collaborate on notes. This is done by clicking on a share button at the top of the window.
Security improvements.
Gatekeeper.
macOS Sierra slightly changes the Gatekeeper user interface and adds two new mechanisms. A new default in System Preferences hides the "Anywhere" option which allows the user to disable the mechanism and execute programs from any source without needing to approve each new one individually.
The first new mechanism allows developers to code-sign disk images that can be verified as a unit by the system. This allows developers to guarantee the integrity of external files that are distributed alongside the application bundle on the same disk image. An attacker could infect these external files with malicious code and with them exploit a vulnerability in the application, without having to break the signature of the application bundle itself. By signing the disk image, the developer can prevent tampering and force an attacker to repackage the files onto a new disk image, requiring a valid developer certificate to pass Gatekeeper without a warning.
The second new mechanism is "path randomization", which executes application bundles from a random, hidden path and prevents them from accessing external files relative to their location. To avoid this, the developer has to distribute the application bundle and its external files on a signed disk image or in a signed installer package. The user can avoid this mechanism by moving the application bundle without its external files to a new location.
Directory permissions and sudo.
The Unix permissions for writing to the /Volumes directory are now restricted to root and no longer "world-writable". Apple expanded System Integrity Protection to , a directory that contains a list of applications that are allowed to "control the computer", and restricts write access to programs which were signed with an Apple "private entitlement". The file-hosting service Dropbox has been criticized for manipulating the directory to add their Dropbox application to the list, rather than asking the user to do it for them explicitly in System Preferences.
The sudo command-line utility with which a user can execute a command as another user, typically as root, is configured with the "tty_tickets" flag by default, restricting the session timeout to the terminal session (such as a window or tab) in which the user authenticated the program.
Removed functionality.
Sierra removes support for garbage collection from the Objective-C runtime, a memory-management system that was added in Mac OS X Leopard (version 10.5) and declared deprecated in favor of Automatic Reference Counting in OS X Mountain Lion (version 10.8). Applications that have been compiled with garbage collection will no longer run.
Apple removed native support for the VPN protocol PPTP and made recommendations for alternatives that it considers more secure.
The "time remaining" estimate has been removed in the 10.12.2 update after complaints of the battery life of 2016 MacBook Pros.
The Game Center app has been removed. However, the service still exists.
Reinstallation.
Following the download of macOS Sierra (10.12) from the Mac App Store, the installer does not show under a users' "Purchased" tab in the Mac App Store app. Users can still re-download the Sierra installer by visiting the macOS Sierra page on the Mac App Store.
Reception.
macOS Sierra has received generally positive reviews. Users and critics have praised its functionality, including the addition of Siri and support for Apple Pay in Safari. Macworld gave it 4.5 stars out of 5. Engadget gave it a rating of 87 out of 100 praising the new features such as Siri integration, Universal Clipboard, and Apple Pay while criticizing the unreliability of Auto Unlock, that "Siri isn't always smart enough" and some of the Messages features are only available on iOS 10. Developers of apps that rely on the PDFKit library built into macOS have complained that radical changes to PDFKit introduced in Sierra are causing instability and potential data corruption.


David E. Orton

David E. Orton (born 1955) is an American engineering executive and the CEO of GEO Semiconductor Inc.
Orton earned a BS in mathematics and economics at Wake Forest University, and a MS in electrical engineering from Duke University. He worked in the graphics and semiconductor industry as an engineer at Bell Laboratories in 1979 to 1983 and then General Electric through December 1988. He joined Silicon Graphics (SGI) in 1990, and was senior vice president of visual computing and advanced systems through 1999. In 1996 SGI bought Cray Research and Orton had to deal with merging the companies' overlapping technologies.
Orton joined ATI Technologies as a result of an acquisition of ArtX in April 2000, where he was president and CEO. ATI posted losses after the dot-com bubble collapsed, although losses were reduced by June 2001.
He was named CEO of ATI in March 2004.
Though ATI's principal location was in Markham, Ontario, Canada, Orton spent most of his time in California where he resided.
After the announced merger of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) with ATI on July 24, 2006, as ATI Technologies became a subsidiary of AMD, Orton became an executive vice-president of AMD, reporting to AMD CEO Hector Ruiz and COO Dirk Meyer. On July 10, 2007, AMD announced the resignation of Orton as executive vice president. One trade journalist rated Orton as the top of the "CEOs that went in 2007".
From 2007 to 2009, he served as CEO of the startup DSM Solutions. On July 15, 2009, Orton became the CEO of Aptina, a privately held image sensor company located in San Jose, California. He left Aptina in September 2012. He served on the board of directors of SuVolta.


Uniform Driver Interface

The Uniform Driver Interface (UDI) is a defunct project developed by several companies to define a portable interface for device drivers.
The Uniform Driver Interface (UDI) allowed device drivers to be portable across both hardware platforms and operating systems without any changes to the driver source. With the participation of multiple OS, platform and device hardware vendors, UDI was intended to be the first interface which was likely to achieve such portability on a wide scale. UDI provided an encapsulating environment for drivers with well-defined interfaces which isolated drivers from OS policies and from platform and I/O bus dependencies. In principle, this allowed driver development to be totally independent of OS development. In addition, the UDI architecture was intended to insulate drivers from platform specifics such as byte-ordering, DMA implications, multi-processing, interrupt implementations and I/O bus topologies.
While UDI could potentially benefit open source operating systems such as Linux and *BSD by providing more driver support from companies, some open source/free software advocates feared that UDI would cause a proliferation of closed source drivers and a reduction in open source support by companies, undermining the purpose of the free software and open source movements. Richard Stallman (the leader of the free software movement) has claimed that the project does not benefit the free software movement.


List of disk operating systems called DOS

This is a list of disk operating systems in which the acronym "DOS" is used to form their names. Many of these are simply referred to as "DOS" within their respective communities.


Visteon Dockable Entertainment

The Visteon Dockable Entertainment System (officially referred to as "Dockable Entertainment featuring Game Boy Advance") is a portable DVD player created by Visteon in 2006 for the US market at an MSRP of $1299 USD. The player is notable for containing officially licensed Game Boy Advance hardware, as Visteon partnered with Nintendo to announce the product at CES 2006. Initially due out in April, the product was then delayed to May before finally launching in July of that year. To celebrate the product's launch Visteon held a photography and writing contest.
The device was not sold at general retailers, but rather at car dealerships in combination with a roof docking head mount for installation, or already equipped in select models of certain vehicles.
On April 1, 2008 Visteon introduced a model mounted into headrests for $1699. Later that year the company expressed interest in creating similar products for the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms, though neither materialized.
Hardware specifications.
The most common roof-mountable version is based on the Visteon XV101 portable DVD player, and shares specifications in all aspects except those regarding Game Boy Advance compatibility.
Alongside this, the player came with a wireless game controller (a modified Sky Active gamepad), a set of wireless headphones, a remote control, and compatibility with MP3 and WMA CD files.
Unique to the headrest model was a 7" TFT LCD screen, backlit DVD controls plus an additional remote, headphone and game controller.
Neither version of the hardware was backwards compatible with Game Boy or Game Boy Color games.


CLASSES.DAT


Benoit Schillings

Benoit Schillings is a Belgian software engineer, who is a distinguished engineer at Google[x] leading the early projects at X. He is known for being one of the lead developers of the Be Operating System (BeOS) and is a noted amateur astronomer.
Schillings' association with Be Inc. began in 1990 when, as a developer of software for the Apple Macintosh, he visited the Apple Expo in Paris and met Jean-Louis Gassée. Gassée, who had just left Apple Computer to found Be, asked Schillings to become the second engineer at Be where he would work on the operating system for a new computer called the BeBox. Schillings accepted the offer and, starting in March 1991, developed a file system (now known as the Old Be File System or OFS) and an associated user-space database application (called Zookeeper) that indexed the metadata in the file system. The file system was fast and efficient, but was later replaced by Dominic Giampaolo's Be File System.
Schillings also developed the graphics system for BeOS (known as the App Server), as well as programming frameworks such as the Interface Kit and Application Kit that are used by software developers to write software for the operating system.
Before joining Trolltech in October 2005, Schillings worked as a "Distinguished Engineer" and CTO at OpenWave where, with Mike Reed, he led a team that developed Version 7 of the Openwave Phone Suite mobile phone applications.
Benoit also ran the android and iOS mobile teams at Yahoo from 2013 until 2017.


Arm Image Format

In computer programming, the Arm Image Format (AIF) is an object file format used primarily for software intended to run on ARM microprocessors. It was introduced by Acorn Computers for use with their Archimedes computer. It can optionally facilitate debugging, including under operating systems running on other processor architectures.
Format.
The file can be either executable or non-executable and is loaded at 0x8000 unless otherwise specified. Executable files can relocate themselves if necessary and non-executable files are prepared for execution by an image loader. An extended AIF is a type of non-executable which includes information to enable the placement of code and data within specific areas of memory.
The file includes a header and separate areas of read-only and read-write code/data. It can optionally include data for debugging and the code (with list) for self-relocation.
The header includes information about self-relocation, entry point, exit instruction, area sizes and locations, debug type, addressing mode and memory placement (in the case of the extended file).
An allocation was later made in the header to mark executables as being "StrongARM-ready", to address some backward compatibility issues.
Debugging.
The files can be run for debugging under DOS and SunOS using the "ARM Windowing Debugger".
Other uses.
Microsoft's MMLite modular system architecture supports the loading of various image formats, including AIF files. Porting of Wind River Systems' VxWorks operating system to the StrongARM EBSA-285 board involved using AIF files.


Broken Helix

Broken Helix is a third-person shooter game developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation in 1997. It was marketed as featuring "4-D" gameplay, referencing the fact that the game's events all unfold in real time (time is sometimes referred to as the fourth dimension). This allows the player to activate and deactivate certain objects in later levels of the game. It also has four plot lines, allowing the player to finish the game in four different ways.
Plot.
The game takes place in the year 2026 in a fictitious version of Area 51. The main character is explosives expert Jake Burton of the Marine division, voiced by Bruce Campbell. His father worked at this top-secret military base when Jake was nine years old. He had "died in a plane crash on his way to work 15 years ago, along with 10 other scientists." After Jake's father's death, the government denied any existence of Area 51. Jake got orders via telephone from a man who would not give his name, but said he knew Jake's father very well. Jake was deployed and the game begins.
Jake's mission is to defuse explosives set on levels one and two of the base. A scientist named Fitz demands "two million dollars in unmarked bills, a private jet, and a televised interview" and the timer starts counting down at 20 minutes. A platoon of six Marines, led by the sinister Marine commander Black Dawn, whose orders are to "clean things up after you complete your mission."
The first bomb, located in the men's bathroom on Level 1 for reasons untold, is defused. The automated guns on Level 2 are deactivated in the Satlink. Jake heads down to Level 2 and defuses the second bomb. Jake is then given orders to hold his position and Black Dawn is given orders to kill him. A mysterious man who wants to help Jake tells him of Black Dawn's orders. A strange field surrounds the base, preventing radio contact from outside the base. From here, the player has four choices on how to complete the game.
Plot 1.
Jake meets a reporter who gives him a satellite link (satlink) amplifier. He is also given a key for an express elevator up to the Satlink. The amplifier is installed and the strange man tells him of Project Broken Helix and gives him the password to access the file. Jake acquires the file about Broken Helix from the Level 3 Lab and gives it to Fitz in the Command Centre on Level 4. Black Dawn and his team enter the command centre and Fitz is killed. Jake meets up with a scientist named Reese on Level 6 and finds out why his father was murdered. Reese leads him down to Level 7, where he shows Jake what Broken Helix actually is. "Their DNA is unraveling at an alarming rate, causing strange mutations to occur. Freezing them was the only way to stop them until we find a cure."
Jack finds out that Project Broken Helix was an experiment for biological warfare. It turned humans into hybrid aliens, but an unintentional side-effect made them see humans as enemies, and therefore, kill them. For this reason, the military wanted to shut it down because it had gone too far. Reese did not want the aliens to die, so he locked up the elevators to Level 6 so he could find a cure that would reverse the effects of Broken Helix. Jake's father had found this cure, and was killed for this reason.
Jake is told to get a force field device from Level 10, bring it back to Reese, and set up an explosive on a fusion reactor droid on Level 9. However, someone lets Black Dawn into Level 6 and Jake has to activate a teleporter. Jake kills three of the remaining Marines, as two were killed on their way down to Level 6. Jake sets the explosives and he and Reese get down to Level 10 to activate the droid. They head across the level to activate a force field device to contain the explosion. On their way, they meet up with Black Dawn and a traitor named Jenkins. Jake blows up Black Dawn with the other detonator and they activate the force field device in an alien ship. Jenkins meets up with the two in the ship and Jake finds out that he was the one who killed his father. Reese is knocked out by Jenkins and the alien queen eats Jenkins alive. The alien queen is then killed by Jake. Jake and Reese head out of range of the force field so they do not get blown up with the aliens.
Jake and Reese exit the base only to be confronted by a sergeant. The strange man gives him new orders to let them go and Jake is evacuated. Jake and his wife retire. As for Reese, he disappeared two days after the Area 51 incident and Jake never saw him again.
Plot 2.
Jake acquires a key from a stunned scientist. He uses this to open one of the gas chambers, talks to one of the hybrids and is given another key that looks something like a blue flame. Jake uses this on the gas chambers and a hybrid gives him a blue jewel. When on Level 8, he goes into a side passage and uses this gem to get into a room. The alien queen telepathically talks to Jake and tells him she needs his help. He uses the gem on a pillar and turns into a spider-like hybrid. A door blows open and a bunch of Marines are freed. Jake is told by the alien queen to get an alien warrior to follow him to the queen's ship (she wants to go to her home world, and the warrior has the co-ordinates). On the way, he runs into Black Dawn and Psyches. He kills them, moves on and enters the ship with the alien warrior.
The alien queen insists Jake comes with her so he does not get killed. Jake helps pilot the giant ship and readies himself for his new life.
Plot 3.
On Level 2, Jake meets a reporter that was supposed to interview Fitz, but her cameraman died on his way down to the command center (Fitz' hideout).
Development.
Early in development, "Broken Helix" was a first-person shooter.
Reception.
"Broken Helix" received overwhelmingly mixed reviews, with critics generally praising the story progression but criticizing the gameplay and graphics. The most common complaint was that the grainy polygons, poor lighting, and rigid over-the-shoulder perspective often make it difficult for players to see what they're doing. Some critics also cited control issues, and a review published in both "IGN" and "Next Generation" (with minor changes between the publications) reported that the detection on the cameras is faulty, occasionally resulting in an immediate game over without the player having made any mistakes.
Reviews generally praised the game's humor, particularly Bruce Campbell's deadpan delivery, though "Next Generation" and Shawn Smith of "Electronic Gaming Monthly" both said that all the non-Campbell voices are overacted and annoying.
Most critics were impressed by the intriguing storyline and its multiple paths, often arguing they make the game worth consideration in spite of the gameplay issues. For instance, Josh Smith summarized "Broken Helix" in "GameSpot" as "a complex web of plotlines in a 3D shooter/adventure whose shortcomings in control and graphical clarity are made up for by the game's narrative twists and tough real-time challenges." Likewise, "GamePro" concluded that ""Broken Helix"s so-so action gameplay is in need or repair. Science fiction sleuths, however, may find Helix's plot twists and turns a compelling turn-on."


The 3DO Company

The 3DO Company (formerly THDO on the NASDAQ stock exchange), also known as 3DO, was an American video game company. It was founded in 1991 by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, in a partnership with seven other companies. After 3DO's flagship video game console, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, failed in the marketplace, the company exited the hardware business and became a third-party video game developer. It went bankrupt in 2003 due to poor sales of its games. Its headquarters were in Redwood City, California in the San Francisco Bay Area.
History.
Console developer.
Trip Hawkins wanted to get into the hardware market after the software market exploded with interest thanks to his involvement at Electronic Arts. When the company was first founded, its original objective was to create a next-generation CD-based video game system called the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, which would be manufactured by various partners and licensees; 3DO would collect a royalty on each console sold and on each game manufactured. For game publishers, 3DO's $3 royalty per sold game was very low compared to the royalties Nintendo and Sega collected from game sales on their consoles. The launch of the console in October 1993 was well-promoted, with a great deal of attention in the mass media as part of the "multimedia wave" in the computer world.
The 3DO console launched in October 1993 at the price of US$699 (). Poor console and game sales trumped the enticingly low royalty rate and proved a fatal flaw. While 3DO's business model attracted game publishers with its low royalty rates, it resulted in the console selling for a price higher than the SNES and Sega Genesis combined, hampering sales. While companies that manufactured and sold their own consoles could sell them, at a loss, for a competitive price, making up for lost profit through royalties collected from game publishers, the 3DO's manufacturers, not collecting any money from game publishers, and owing royalties to the 3DO Company, had to sell the console for a profit, resulting in high prices. As the console failed to compete with its cheaper competitors, game developers and publishers, while initially attracted by low royalties, dropped support for the console as its games failed to sell. Stock in the 3DO Company dropped from over $37 per share in November 1993 to $23 per share in late December. Though the company's financial figures dramatically improved in the fiscal year ending March 1995, with revenues nearly triple that of the previous fiscal year, they were still operating at a loss. The console's prospects continued to improve through the first half of 1995 with a number of critical success, including winning the 1995 European Computer Trade Show award for best hardware.
In January 1996, The 3DO Company sold exclusive rights to its next generation console, M2, to Matsushita for $100 million. Thanks in part to revenues from the sale of M2 technology to Matsushita and other licensees, in the first quarter of 1996 the 3DO Company turned a profit for the first time since it was founded, with a net income of $1.2 million. Over the second half of 1996, the company restructured to focus on software development and online gaming, in the process cutting its staff from 450 to 300 employees. President Hugh Martin was given full operating control, while Hawkins remained with the company as chairman, CEO, and creative director.
Third-party developer.
After selling the M2 technology to Matsushita, the company acquired Cyclone Studios, New World Computing, and Archetype Interactive. 3DO established a new office in Redmond, Washington devoted to PC games development, with Tony Garcia as its head. In mid-1997 it sold off its hardware business to Samsung for $20 million, making a final break from its origins as a console developer.
The company's biggest hit was its series of "Army Men" games, featuring generic green plastic soldier toys. Its "Might and Magic" and especially "Heroes of Might and Magic" series from subsidiary New World Computing were perhaps the most popular among their games at the time of release. During the late 1990s, the company published one of the first 3D MMORPGs: "Meridian 59", which survives to this day in the hands of some of the game's original developers.
After struggling for several years, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2003. Employees were laid off without pay, and the company's game brands and other intellectual properties were sold to rivals like Microsoft, Namco, Crave and Ubisoft, and also to founder Trip Hawkins, who paid $405,000 for rights to some old brands and the company's "Internet patent portfolio".
In April 2020, over 30 of the company's titles were purchased from Prism Entertainment by Ziggurat Interactive.
3DO Rating System.
The "3DO Rating System" was a rating system created by The 3DO Company and used on games released for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. The rating system, which went into use in March 1994, uses the following four categories:
These ratings would appear on the lower front and back of the packaging, while the back of the packaging also specified what content was present in the game. In late 1994, the majority of 3DO's competitors signed on with a new rating system from the Entertainment Software Rating Board; despite this, the 3DO Company opted to continue providing their own rating system, leaving publishers of 3DO games to decide whether to use the 3DO Rating System or the new ESRB ratings. The 3DO rating for each game was designated voluntarily by the game's publisher, in contrast to the ESRB ratings, which were determined independently by the ESRB.


LPX (form factor)

LPX (short for Low Profile eXtension), originally developed by Western Digital, was a loosely defined motherboard format (form factor) widely used in the 1990s.
There was never any official LPX specification, but the design normally featured a motherboard with the main I/O ports mounted on the back (something that was later adopted by the ATX form factor), and a riser card in the center of the motherboard, on which the PCI and ISA slots were mounted. Due to the lack of standardized specification, riser cards were seldom compatible from one motherboard design to another, much less one manufacturer to another. The internal PSU connector was of the same type used in the AT form factor.
One of the more successful features to come out of the LPX specification was its use of more compact power supplies, which later became widely used on Baby AT and even full size AT cases. Because LPX form factor power supplies became ubiquitous in most computer cases prior to the ATX standard, it was not unusual for manufacturers to refer to them as "AT" power supplies (or occasionally as "PS/2" power supplies due to its use by the IBM PS/2), even though the actual AT and Baby AT power supply form factors were larger in size. The LPX form factor power supply eventually formed the basis for the ATX form factor power supply, which is the same width and height.
The specification was very popular in the early-mid 1990s, and briefly displaced the AT form factor as the most commonly used. However, the release of the Pentium II in 1997 highlighted the flaws of the format, as a good airflow was important in Pentium II systems, owing to the relatively high heat dispersal requirements of the processor. LPX systems suffered a restricted airflow due to the centrally placed riser cards. The introduction of the AGP format further complicated matters, as the design not only increased the pin count on riser cards, but it limited most cards to one AGP, one PCI and one ISA slot, which was too restrictive for most users. Some lower-quality LPX boards didn't even feature a real AGP slot, but simply used a physical AGP slot and connected it to the PCI bus. This was seldom noticed however, as many "AGP" graphics cards of the time were in fact PCI cards internally, and did not take advantage of the features offered by AGP.
LPX was phased out around 1998. NLX was the intended successor, though many manufacturers chose MicroATX or proprietary motherboard formats instead.


XOSL

xOSL (meaning Extended Operating System Loader) is the name of a bootloader, which is a program product class that launches operating systems from a bootable device such as a hard disk or floppy drive. xOSL was originally developed by Geurt Vos.
History.
xOSL is free software released under the GPL license. The project was actively developed by Geurt Vos between 1999 and 2001 and spanned four major revisions and two minor revisions after its initial creation.
From its origin in xOSL version 1.0.0, xOSL underwent major changes in ver. 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.1.2 and 1.1.3. These revisions were significant departures from one another, and introduced new features to the program. These features ranged from drastic user interface improvements to improved compatibility on diverse hardware platforms.
xOSL ver. 1.1.4 and 1.1.5 only introduced improvements to existing functionality and repaired features that should have been functional in their predecessors. Although their improvements were subtle, they did serve to stabilize a developing protocol, and are the most polished revisions of the original to date.
The project lapsed into a dormant state and was abandoned by its original developer from 2001-2007. xOSL remained available for download and use throughout this period.
Survivability.
Despite the lack of active product development, an enthusiastic community of xOSL users began exchanging ideas and product results through the use of Yahoo! Groups and other support sites on the internet. These groups became the foundation of the 'xOSL Culture'. The xOSL groups assisted fellow members with advice and accomplishments through the use of xOSL. After the original xOSL web site expired it was mirrored in multiple locations by Filip Komar and Mikhail Ranish.
Very few enhancements to the original product occurred during this time, most of them being fairly inconsequential. One such enhancement gave the user the ability to change wallpapers and the image displayed at startup, and like most other revisions, it did not add a great deal to the program in terms of core functionality.
Other revisions included the translation of xOSL into several different languages, including German, Czech and French, among others.
XOSL-OW.
XOSL-OW is an Open Watcom Port of XOSL. XOSL is developed by Geurt Vos using the Borland C++ 3.1 tool set while XOSL-OW is based on the Open Watcom version 1.8 tool set.
The XOSL-OW Open Watcom Port allows for future development of XOSL using an Open Source development tool set.
XOSL-OW has no new functionality compared to XOSL but it does give improved behavior on specific PC hardware. In fact stability issues with XOSL on some PC platforms have been the reason for porting XOSL to the Open Watcom tool set.
Examples of stability issues on specific PC hardware are:
In XOSL-OW these stability issues have been solved by an improved A20 line switching algorithm and flushing the keyboard buffer before the XOSL boot manager hands over control to either the Ranish Partition manager, the Smart Boot Manager or the Operating System Bootloader.
Compatible file-systems.
Currently xOSL is capable of booting operating systems from a variety of format types. These include, and may not be limited to:


MDFAT


Jerry Saltzer

Jerome Howard "Jerry" Saltzer (born October 9, 1939) is an American computer scientist.
Career.
Jerry Saltzer received an ScD in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1966. His dissertation was '"Traffic Control in a Multiplexed System"', was advised by Fernando Corbató. In 1966, he joined the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT.
One of Saltzer's earliest involvements with computers was with MIT's Compatible Time-Sharing System in the early 1960s. In the later 1960s and early 1970s, he was one of the team leaders of the Multics operating system project. Multics, though not particularly commercially successful in itself, has had a major impact on all subsequent operating systems; in particular, it was an inspiration for Ken Thompson to develop Unix. Saltzer's contributions to Multics included the now-standard kernel stack switching method of process switching, as well as oft-cited work on the security architecture for shared information systems.
Saltzer led the Computer Systems Research group of MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Computer Systems Research group was one of the key players in the development of the Internet and ring network technology for local area networks. During this time, Saltzer patented the Proteon ProNet ring network. Another contribution in that area was the end-to-end principle in systems design, which is one of the important underlying principles that governs the operation of the Internet.
From 1984 to 1988 Saltzer served as Technical Director of MIT's Project Athena. "Saltzer@mit.edu" is one of the few Athena usernames with a capital letter, and legend has it that several special case hacks were required to support this functionality. In September 1995 Saltzer retired from his full-time faculty position, but continued writing and teaching part-time at MIT.
Family.
Saltzer is known to all (colleagues, students, friends and family) as "Jerry". In 1961 he married Marlys Anne Hughes. They have two children: Rebecca (born 1962) and Sarah (born 1963). He has two grandchildren: Hannah (born 1997), and Caroline (born 1999).
Other interests.
Saltzer is also very interested in 19th century landscape art of the western United States; he has prepared the catalogue raisonné of the paintings of the painter Frederick Ferdinand Schafer ().
Software.
Saltzer has been the programmer, a designer, or the inspiration, for a number of important pieces of systems software, which are either still in use or have descendants still being used today:
As Technical Director of Project Athena, he supported development of the X Window System, an open-source windowing system, still used and developed on Unix-like systems.


John Lions

John Lions (19 January 1937 – 5 December 1998) was an Australian computer scientist. He is best known as the author of "Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition, with Source Code", commonly known as the "Lions Book".
Early life.
Lions gained a degree with first-class honours from the University of Sydney in 1959. He applied, and received a scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge where he earned his doctorate on Control engineering in 1963. After his graduation, he worked at the consulting firm KCS Ltd in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 1967, he briefly took a position at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada before moving on to working for Burroughs in Los Angeles as a Systems Analyst.
Later life.
In 1972 he moved back to Sydney, Australia and became a senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). In 1980, he was promoted to Associate Professor and apart from sabbaticals in 1978, 1983 and 1989 at Bell Laboratories, he remained at the school until retiring in 1995 due to bad health.
Personal life.
John Lions was married to Marianne and had two children, Katherine and Elizabeth.
Posthumous honours.
John Lions Chair in Computer Science.
After his death, John O'Brien, Steve Jenkin, Chris Maltby and Greg Rose, former students of Lions, commenced a campaign to raise funds to create a chair in his name at UNSW, the John Lions Chair of Operating Systems. With donations from many UNSW alumni, corporations, Usenix, Linux Australia, the chair was created in 2006, becoming the first chair at UNSW funded by contributions from alumni. In 2009, Gernot Heiser became the inaugural John Lions Chair.
John Lions Garden.
In 2002, UNSW dedicated the John Lions Garden in front of the new Computer Science and Engineering building to Lions' memory.
John Lions Award for Contribution to Open Software.
In 2011, The School of Computer Science and Engineering at UNSW initiated the John Lions Award for Contribution to Open Software. The Prize is open to high school and undergraduate university students enrolled in an Australian secondary or tertiary institution. Full-time and part-time students are eligible, as well as local and internationals students. The annual prize is valued at $1,000.


Apple A7

The Apple A7 is a 64-bit system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. It first appeared in the iPhone 5S, which was announced on September 10, 2013, and the iPad Air and iPad Mini 2, which were both announced on October 22, 2013. Apple states that it is up to twice as fast and has up to twice the graphics power compared to its predecessor, the Apple A6. It is the first 64-bit SoC to ship in a consumer smartphone or tablet computer. The latest software update for systems using this chip was iOS 12.5.3, released on May 3, 2021.
Design.
The A7 features an Apple-designed 64-bit 1.3–1.4 GHz ARMv8-A dual-core CPU, called Cyclone. The 64-bit A64 instruction set in the ARMv8-A architecture doubles the number of registers of the A7 compared to the ARMv7 architecture used in A6. It has 31 general purpose registers that are each 64-bits wide and 32 floating-point/NEON registers that are each 128-bits wide.
The A7 also integrates a graphics processing unit (GPU) which AnandTech believes to be a PowerVR G6430 in a four cluster configuration.
The A7 has a per-core L1 cache of 64 KB for data and 64 KB for instructions, a L2 cache of 1 MB shared by both CPU cores, and a 4 MB L3 cache that services the entire SoC.
The A7 includes a new image processor, a feature originally introduced in the A5, used for functionality related to the camera such as image stabilizing, color correction, and light balance. The A7 also includes an area called the "Secure Enclave" that stores and protects the data from the Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5S and iPad mini 3. It has been speculated that the security of the data in the Secure Enclave is enforced by ARM's TrustZone/SecurCore technology. In a change from the Apple A6, the A7 SoC no longer services the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass. In order to reduce power consumption, this functionality has been moved to the new M7 motion coprocessor which appears to be a separate ARM-based microcontroller from NXP Semiconductors.
Apple A7 (APL0698).
Apple uses the APL0698 variant of the A7 chip, running at 1.3 GHz, in the iPhone 5S, iPad Mini 2, and iPad Mini 3. This A7 is manufactured by Samsung on a high-κ metal gate (HKMG) 28 nm process and the chip includes over 1 billion transistors on a die 102 mm2 in size. According to ABI Research the A7 drew 1100 mA during fixed point operations and 520 mA during floating point operations, while its predecessor, the A6 processor in the iPhone 5, drew 485 mA and 320 mA. It is manufactured in a package on package (PoP) together with 1 GB of LPDDR3 DRAM with a 64-bit wide memory interface onto the package.
Apple A7 (APL5698).
Apple uses the APL5698 variant of the A7 chip, running at 1.4 GHz, in the iPad Air. Its die is identical in size and layout to that of the first A7 and is manufactured by Samsung. However, unlike the first version of the A7, the A7 used in the iPad Air is not on a PoP, having no stacked RAM. Instead it uses a chip-on-board mounting, immediately adjacent DRAM, and is covered by a metallic heat spreader, similar to the Apple A5X and A6X.
Patent litigation.
The A7's branch predictor was claimed to infringe on a 1998 patent. On October 14, 2015, a district judge found Apple guilty of infringing U.S. patent , "Table based data speculation circuit for parallel processing computer", on the Apple A7 and A8 processors. The patent is owned by Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), a firm affiliated with the University of Wisconsin. On July 24, 2017, Apple was ordered to pay WARF $506 million for patent infringement. Apple filed an appellate brief on October 26, 2017 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, that argued that Apple did not infringe on the patent owned by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. On September 28, 2018, the ruling was overturned on appeal and the award thrown out by the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. The patent expired in December 2016.
Gallery.
"These images are illustrations only."


Battle Squadron

Battle Squadron is a vertically scrolling shooter for the Amiga and ported a year later to the Mega Drive console, for one or two players. It is a sequel to "Hybris". The game was later ported to iOS devices (2011), Android (2012) and in 2013 also to AmigaOS 4, Windows, OS X and MorphOS.
Plot.
Taking place many years in the future in another star system, a century long war is waging between the Earth Defense Fleet and the Barrax Empire. Two Earth Defense Commanders, Lori Bergin and Barry Mayers, were returning from a research and destroy mission regarding the latest Barrax technologies on planet Urania, when suddenly a Barrax cruiser materialized behind them, brought their ship in and took the commanders hostage on planet Terrainia. The player's mission is to rescue the Commanders and eliminate all Barrax threats in the process.
Gameplay.
"Battle Squadron" supports both mouse and joystick controlled play. The game is played from the perspective of elite fighter pilots of the Earth Defense Fleet, known as the Battle Squadron sent to rescue two human agents, Commanders Berry D. Mayers and Lori Bergin, from the clutches of the ruthless alien empire, known as the Barrax. The player's fighters carry unlimited projectile weaponry and a finite number of Nova Smart Bombs. Players acquire weapons by shooting down Barraxian Artillery Gunships which carry weapon Power-Up icons. Weapons include the Red Magnetic Torps, the powerful Green Emerald Laser, the two-way firing Blue Anti-Matter Particle Beam and the sideways firing Orange Magma Wave. Other pick-up items include Barraxian jewel caches marked by small green X's which are worth 1000 points each. The player has the option to increase the number and speed of enemy bullets therefore altering the game's difficulty.
Notable features of the game are relatively big sprites (with Predator-esque cloaking effects applied to a few) and numerous weapon upgrades (supposedly 25 in total). Barraxian opponents consist of ground installations (generally gun turrets and launch platforms), ground vehicles, aircraft and numerous genetically-engineered living weapons.
Specific enemies of note include:


Sinclair PC200


Ettore Perazzoli

Ettore Perazzoli (June 15, 1974 - December 10, 2003) was an Italian free software developer.
Biography.
Born in Milan, Italy, he studied Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano university. He wrote a port of x64, a Commodore 64 emulator for Unix, to DOS, thus turning it into a cross-platform emulator, which was renamed to VICE. He has been a maintainer of VICE for many years, and started the Microsoft Windows port, which is now the most popular version of VICE.
He then started contributing to GNOME, a Linux desktop environment. He helped in writing GtkHTML, Nautilus and Evolution. Close friend of Nat Friedman and Miguel de Icaza, he was invited by them to work for the company they founded, Ximian. He accepted and in 2001 moved to Boston, United States, where Ximian was headquartered.
At Ximian he led the effort to create Evolution and remained the project manager until he died.
He started writing an application for managing digital photo albums, in C#, for personal use. On November 8, 2003, he published it on GNOME Concurrent Versions System (CVS) server, with the name F-Spot.
On December 12, 2003, the GnomeDesktop.org website announced his death.


Pentium Dual-Core

The Pentium Dual-Core brand was used for mainstream x86-architecture microprocessors from Intel from 2006 to 2009 when it was renamed to Pentium. The processors are based on either the 32-bit "Yonah" or (with quite different microarchitectures) 64-bit "Merom-2M", "Allendale", and "Wolfdale-3M" core, targeted at mobile or desktop computers.
In terms of features, price and performance at a given clock frequency, Pentium Dual-Core processors were positioned above Celeron but below Core and Core 2 microprocessors in Intel's product range. The Pentium Dual-Core was also a very popular choice for overclocking, as it can deliver high performance (when overclocked) at a low price.
Processor cores.
In 2006, Intel announced a plan to return the Pentium trademark from retirement to the market, as a moniker of low-cost Core microarchitecture processors based on the single-core Conroe-L but with 1 MB of cache. The identification numbers for those planned Pentiums were similar to the numbers of the latter Pentium Dual-Core microprocessors, but with the first digit "1", instead of "2", suggesting their single-core function. A single-core Conroe-L with 1 MB cache was deemed as not strong enough to distinguish the planned Pentiums from the Celerons, so it was replaced by dual-core central processing units (CPU), adding "Dual-Core" to the line's name. Throughout 2009, Intel changed the name back from Pentium Dual-Core to Pentium in its publications. Some processors were sold under both names, but the newer E5400 through E6800 desktop and SU4100/T4x00 mobile processors were not officially part of the Pentium Dual-Core line.
Yonah.
The first processors using the brand appeared in notebook computers in early 2007. Those processors, named Pentium T2060, T2080, and T2130, had the 32-bit Pentium M-derived Yonah core, and closely resembled the Core Duo T2050 processor with the exception of having 1 MB of L2 cache instead of 2 MB. All three of them had a 533 MHz front-side bus (FSB) connecting the CPU with the synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM). Intel developed the Pentium Dual-Core at the request of laptop manufacturers.
Allendale.
Subsequently, on June 3, 2007, Intel released the desktop Pentium Dual-Core branded processors known as the Pentium E2140 and E2160. An E2180 model was released later in September 2007. These processors support the Intel 64 extensions, being based on the newer, 64-bit Allendale core with Core microarchitecture. These closely resembled the Core 2 Duo E4300 processor with the exception of having 1 MB of L2 cache instead of 2 MB. Both of them had an 800 MHz front-side bus (FSB). They targeted the budget market above the Intel Celeron (Conroe-L single-core series) processors featuring only 512 KB of L2 cache. Such a step marked a change in the Pentium brand, relegating it to the budget segment rather than its former position as a mainstream or premium brand.
These CPUs are highly overclockable.
Merom-2M.
The mobile version of the Allendale processor, the Merom-2M, was also introduced in 2007, featuring 1MB of L2 cache but only 533 MT/s FSB with the T23xx processors. The bus clock was subsequently raised to 667 MT/s with the T3xxx Pentium processors that are made from the same dies.
Wolfdale-3M.
The 45 nm E5200 model was released by Intel on August 31, 2008, with a larger 2MB L2 cache over the 65 nm E21xx series and the 2.5 GHz clock speed. The E5200 model is also a highly overclockable processor, with many reaching over 3.75 GHz clock speed using just the stock Intel cooler. Intel released the E6500K model using this core. The model features an unlocked multiplier, but was only sold in China.
Penryn-3M.
The Penryn core is the successor to the Merom core and Intel's 45 nm version of their mobile series of Pentium Dual-Core microprocessors. The FSB is increased from 667 MHz to 800 MHz and the voltage is lowered. Intel released the first Penryn based Pentium Dual-Core, the T4200, in December 2008. Later, mobile Pentium T4000, SU2000 and SU4000 processors based on Penryn were marketed as Pentium.
Rebranding.
The "Pentium Dual-Core" brand has been discontinued in early 2010 and replaced by the "Pentium" name. The Desktop E6000 series and the OEM-only mobile Pentium SU2000 and all later models were always called Pentium, but the Desktop Pentium Dual-Core E2000 and E5000 series processors had to be rebranded.
Comparison to the Pentium D.
Although using the "Pentium" name, the desktop Pentium Dual-Core is based on the Core microarchitecture, which can clearly be seen when comparing the specification to the Pentium D, which is based on the NetBurst microarchitecture first introduced in the Pentium 4. Below the 2 or 4 MB of shared-L2-cache-enabled Core 2 Duo, the desktop Pentium Dual-Core has 1 or 2 MB of shared L2 Cache. In contrast, the Pentium D processors have either 2 or 4 MB of non-shared L2 cache. Additionally, the fastest-clocked Pentium D has a factory boundary of 3.73 GHz, while the fastest-clocked desktop Pentium Dual-Core reaches 3.2 GHz. A major difference among these processors is that the desktop Pentium Dual Core processors have a TDP of only 65 W while the Pentium D ranges between 95 and 130 W. Despite the reduced clock speed, and lower amounts of cache, Pentium dual-core outperformed Pentium D by a fairly large margin.


RENAME.COM


M32R

The M32R is a 32-bit RISC instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Mitsubishi Electric for embedded microprocessors and microcontrollers. The ISA is now owned by Renesas Electronics Corporation, and the company designs and fabricates M32R implementations. M32R processors are used in embedded systems such as Engine Control Units, digital cameras and PDAs. The ISA was supported by Linux and the GNU Compiler Collection but was dropped in Linux kernel version 4.16.


Madden NFL 99

Madden NFL 99 is a football video game released for the PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Microsoft Windows. It is the first multiplatform "Madden" game to be fully 3D (and the second one following the N64-exclusive, "Madden Football 64"). The game's commentary is by John Madden and Pat Summerall. The American version of the game features John Madden himself on the cover, while the European version uses Garrison Hearst instead. The game was the top-selling PlayStation sports video game in 1998 in North America, having sold 1.1 million copies on the PlayStation.
Gameplay.
Rankings.
The Denver Broncos has the best team overall in the game with a score of 92. The worst teams in the game are the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins with a score of 70. The best offense in the game belongs to the Green Bay Packers with a score of 95. The best defense in the game belongs to the San Francisco 49ers with a score of 97. The best special teams in the game belongs to the New England Patriots with a perfect score of 100.
Reception.
The game received "favorable" reviews on all platforms according to video game review aggregator GameRankings. "Next Generation", however, said of the PlayStation version, "It can be argued that this year's "Madden" was better than last year's, but the fact remains that compared to its main competitor, the gaming experience has become mediocre. The gap that had existed between the "GameDay" series and the "Madden" series can now only be described as Grand Canyon size."
Kevin Cheung of "Hyper" gave the PlayStation version 82% in its December 1998 issue, calling it "the best NFL sim anywhere." An issue later, Matt Adamsons gave the PC version 85%, calling it "the best NFL simulation money could buy." Martin Kitts of "N64 Magazine" gave the N64 version 88%, saying, ""Madden" is still great stuff, but it hasn't really changed significantly enough to warrant another 92% rating." Steve Bauman of "Computer Games Strategy Plus" gave the PC version four stars out of five, saying, "The perfect synergy of hardcore action and cerebral simulation hasn't been reached yet, but "Madden 99" is as close as anyone has ever managed to get, and as its management features evolve, it will no longer be, 'I guess we'll have to wait until next year.' Now it's more like 'I can't wait until next year.'"


UltraSPARC T3


DR DOS


XDIR


Choro Q 64


S3 Savage

Savage was a product-line of PC graphics chipsets designed by S3.
Graphics Processors.
Savage 3D.
At the 1998 E3 Expo S3 introduced the first Savage product, Savage3D. Compared to its ViRGE-derived predecessor (Trio3D), Savage3D was a technological leap forward. Its innovative feature-set included the following:
Unfortunately for S3, deliveries of the Savage3D were hampered by poor manufacturing yields. Only one major board-vendor, Hercules, made any real effort to ship a Savage3D product. S3's yield problems forced Hercules to hand pick usable chips from the silicon wafers. Combined with poor drivers and the chip's lack of multitexturing support, the Savage3D failed in the market.
Savage 3D also dropped support for the S3D API from the S3 ViRGE predecessor.
In early 1999, S3 retired the Savage3D and released the Savage4 family. Many of the Savage3D's limitations were addressed by the Savage 4 chipset.
Savage4.
Savage4 was an evolution of Savage 3D technology in many ways. S3 refined the chip, fixing hardware bugs and streamlining the chip for both cost reduction and performance. They added single-pass multi-texturing, meaning the board could sample 2 textures per pixel in one pass (not one clock cycle) through the rendering engine instead of halving its texture fillrate in dual-textured games like Savage 3D. Savage4 supported the then-new AGP 4X although at the older 3.3 voltage specification. It was manufactured on a 250 nm process, like Savage 3D. The graphics core was clocked at 125 MHz, with the board's SDRAM clocked at either 125 MHz or 143 MHz (Savage4 Pro). They could be equipped with 8-32 MiB memory. And while an integrated TV encoder was dropped, the DVD acceleration was commendable, and the chip supported an early version of the DVI interface for LCDs.
A "LT" suffixed part featured reduced power consumption and was, like ATI's Rage LT series, intended for laptops. Nevertheless, this ended up in several AGP cards such as Number Nine's S3 Savage4 8MB part (pictured).
The Savage4 gained numerous design-wins with board-vendors, including Diamond Multimedia (Stealth III S540) and Creative Labs. The Savage4 series' single cycle trilinear filtering and S3TC texture compression created a 3D card with exceptional image quality. However, by continuing with a bandwidth-constraining 64-bit memory bus, S3 guaranteed this graphics card would never be a performance part under 32-bit color. Drivers were again an issue with S3's product; holding back overall performance and causing compatibility issues with software and hardware.
Savage4 was hardly a match for the new 3dfx Voodoo3, ATI Rage 128, Matrox G400, or NVIDIA Riva TNT2. In OpenGL games such as Quake II, Savage4 performed about as well as G400 did with its slow initial OpenGL support and was far behind TNT2 and Voodoo3. Within Direct3D titles such as , Savage 4 scored almost 50% slower than TNT2 and Voodoo3 even at a low resolution such as 800x600. The chip was very popular for budget machines, with many generic retail products based on it and OEM PC wins.
Only the high-quality texture capability from its S3TC support gave it good mind share with the gaming community. Unreal Tournament and Quake III Arena, two popular games at the time, shipped with built-in support for S3TC. The compressed textures were a vast improvement over the standard textures used on all other cards. Not only that, but S3TC allowed these much higher quality textures to be rendered with negligible performance impact.
Savage MX/IX.
S3 designed these chips for notebooks, but they were also sold as budget AGP graphics cards. The MX had many similarities to Savage4 but had reduced clocks and added an integrated TV out function with optional Macrovision. The Savage IX was very similar to the MX, but had 8MB SDRAM directly integrated into the chip to make it even more compact.
Savage 2000.
During 1999, Diamond and S3 merged and the Savage 2000 GPU was the first product from the combined companies. The final graphics card was released late that year as the Diamond Viper II Z200.
The GPU consisted of roughly 12 million transistors, approximately half the number of transistors of the NVIDIA GeForce 256. Despite this low level of complexity, it was marketed as being similar to NVIDIA's GeForce 256 series. Savage 2000 supported S3's S3TC texture compression, a hardware transform and lighting engine named "S3TL", and was equipped with a "QuadTexture Engine" capable of a single quad-textured pixel per clock or 2 dual-textured pixels per clock. The 3D engine had texture fill-rate potentially equivalent to GeForce 256 at the same clock speed. At the end of 1999, the Savage 2000 and the GeForce 256 were the only computer game oriented cards with hardware T&L. S3 engineers claimed that the S3TL engine had feature parity with GeForce 256, and that it could render 2.5 million lit and clipped triangles/second. However, S3TL shipped completely non-functional, primarily because initial drivers were Direct3D 6-based (Direct3D 7 was the first release with HW T&L support). Savage 2000 was an AGP 2X/4X card and had an internal 350 MHz RAMDAC. The Diamond Viper II Z200 had 32 MB SDR SDRAM.
The initial pre-release specifications had called for a 175 MHz core clock rate, with a resulting 700 million texels/second fillrate. The final card shipped 50 MHz slower, at 125 MHz, resulting in a fill-rate of 500 MTexels/second (only slightly ahead of GeForce 256). With respect to RAM, the card shipped with 166 MHz SDRAM clocked at 155 MHz. The end result in benchmarks showed the card performing ahead of the prior generation of cards (Matrox G400, ATI Rage Fury MAXX, NVIDIA RIVA TNT2, 3dfx Voodoo3) but it did not always keep up with the GeForce 256. The drivers were discovered to be buggy as well, with issues with numerous game titles.
Diamond eventually released drivers with S3TL support in OpenGL and Direct3D. Unfortunately S3TL does not function properly. It causes missing textures, errors in geometry and models, and minimal performance benefits. Whether the issues are a result of poor drivers or defective hardware is unknown.
Seemingly unwilling to invest the time and effort required to set up a structured internal driver development team, S3's graphics division was sold to VIA for $321 million in 2001. S3 would regroup in later years and create the Chrome series.
Savage XP/AlphaChrome.
The Savage XP was the first chip announced by the regrouped S3 in 2002. The mobile version was going to be called AlphaChrome but was otherwise completely identical.
The Savage XP was basically a repaired version of the Savage 2000 and considered too outdated. It was never sold; only prototypes exist.
Motherboard integrated chipsets.
As a result of being sold to VIA in 2001, development of discrete Savage graphics cards was eventually discontinued. The dominant GPU market share once held by S3, now fell primarily to NVIDIA with its GeForce line, and ATI's Radeon series. Savage hardware designs migrated into integrated motherboard graphics. In this respect at least, S3's economical use of transistors proved highly advantageous. For example, the Savage 4 design became part of an identical integrated GPU in the Twister chipset.
Eventually, hybrid Savage4/Savage2000 'ProSavage' IGP designs became part of VIA chipsets such as the KM133, PL133T, PM133T, KM266, P4M266, and KM333. The ProSavage designs were derived from a combination of the 3D component of Savage4 and 2D from Savage 2000. Variants called SuperSavage MX & IX were used in notebooks as well. A ProSavage-DDR design also exists; the only improvement is DDR memory support - shared with the CPU/system. (The video memory can be set from 8mb to 32mb but this decreases the system's ram size. For example, if your system ram is 512MB and you set your video memory to 32MB, the operating system will read only 480MB ram.)
The Savage / ProSavage IGP range was superseded by the Castle Rock (CLE266) IGP, which later was christened VIA UniChrome. UniChrome continued to be marginally improved evolving into the UniChrome Pro and UniChrome Pro II designs.
Models.
Chronological order