Benchmark fraud again --- why Intel loses on SPEC but win on others

Via has this CPU called Nano, its CPUID can be changed to anything, such AuthenticAMD or Intel. Surprisingly, when one sets the CPUID to AMD, its benchmark score becomes lower. When the Via CPU's CPUID is changed to GenuineIntel, it jumps 47.4%.

Dirk Meyer and Ruiz

AMD's biggest problem is its 65nm process. Today, its 65nm process produces chips slower than its 90nm process. So who is to blame?

Sun's OpenSolaris lacks copyright license

Sun's Jonathan Schwartz likes to tout how many copies of Solaris people have downloaded. Now, it turns out that Sun actually had no license to do it. Sun purportedly acquired the license from SCO, but SCO did not have the right to grant the license at all.

So, Novell will ask Sun for $1billion and Sun will sue SCO for indemnity, but since SCO has no money, Sun will have to pay the bill. $100 per download may not be a unreasonable number, given the importance of UNIX code.

Why Microsoft will die

I have been using Windows Vista for quite while. This operating system shows how stupid Microsoft engineers really are. Microsoft exists solely because of the monopoly it enjoys, but others are improving and Microsoft is becoming worse and worse every day -- more crap piled up by low IQ people makes each version of Windows worse and worse. Read page 18 of this UN report.

One of the fundamental problems of Windows Vista is its instability. It is fatally flawed in its design. Even when the system is still running, the computer become unusable.

For instance, when I right click a file in Explorer, the Explorer will freeze and then the system will prompt you to restart. Many people have the same problem, the suggested solution was to de-associated programs that are causing the freeze. Since you don't know which program is causing the problem, you have to try one by one.... But the problem is why Vista allows such thing to happen in the first place -- an unknown piece of software running in user mode causing the whole system unsable.

Intel to be charged with more bribery

The Europeans find Intel guilty of more anti-trust violations.

Pat Gelsinger likes to say Intel chips are hot. The reality is, Intel has to pay bribes to people in the rights places to get them sold.

Nvidia GTX 280 Die On Many Customers

It seems that Nvidia GTX 280's massive heat production is causing a lot of stability issues. Many users are reporting that their card dies on them soon after some use. Read these reviews by newegg.com customers (you can see they bought the card from Newegg). Let me copy some of the reviews below:

Ownership: less than 1 day
This user purchased this item from Newegg.com

7/11/2008 7:10:31 PM

Dead Pros: Looks cool, might be powerful if it worked.

xz Tech Level: high

Ownership: less than 1 day

This user purchased this item from Newegg.com

7/10/2008 3:07:04 PM DEAD

Calvin Tech Level: average

Ownership: less than 1 day

This user purchased this item from Newegg.com

7/3/2008 9:13:20 AM

Pros: none Cons: D.O.A

On the other hand, AMD's 4800 cards are selling like there is no tomorrow.

The HP 8 Socket 32 Way Opteron Server Rules the World

Very impressive. Simply the fastest in SAP and Microsoft SQL performance. HP really knows how to make servers that can deliver the performance that enterprises can depend on. Sun had this 8 socket machine, but it pales when compared to HP.

Also, a 4P 16 core 2.5GHZ DELL Opteron server scores 166 in SPEC_2006. A 4P 16 core 2.93GHZ Xeon X7350 scores only 119. The 2.5GHZ opteron is 39.5% faster than the 2.93GHZ Xeon. With such huge performance difference, only idiots will buy Intel.

AMD owns Nvidia

The massive 800 SPs with 1 TFLOP is a killer. AMD folks finally learnt some art of war -- strategic concealment and deception. They kept the 4000 series specs under lock for long, then launched the product with volume availabilty.

At this point, the only thing Intel can do is bragging about their future roadmap. But AMD has something even more lethal in stock.