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Idea - PCI bus per card slot

This approach is expensive, since it requires a ton of silicon (one PCI bridge per slot, and a core chipset that lets you connect these to begin with), and complicates the layout pretty massively. Consequently, it was only used on server/workstation boards. These often had multiple PCI and...
- Peter
- Post #4
- Oct 12, 2008
- Forum: Motherboards
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sum of reciprocals

There is no exactness in numerical math (i.e. math using finite precision numbers). Creating and arranging algorithms that minimize the inherent error is making an entire subject in CS. Fun it is not, but very useful.
- Peter
- Post #21
- Oct 6, 2008
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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sum of reciprocals

Have we tuned into the Homework Channel again? :) Iteratively: double result=0 for (i=1; i<=N; i++) result += 1.0/(double)i; Hardly "highly technical", or is it?
- Peter
- Post #4
- Oct 4, 2008
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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can you only use one part of a soundcard?

There isn't any problem in having multiple sound devices in the same computer. Windows, and sometimes even the individual applications, let you choose which one to output to. So just add that card for the MIDI port, let it install all its drivers - and then go set Windows audio preference to...
- Peter
- Post #3
- Sep 21, 2008
- Forum: Peripherals & Components
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Hangs durning booting w/ additional serial port card

Let's skip the "IRQ conflict" myth this time. This isn't an ISA card, it's PCI, right? Windows hanging for a long time at boot much more often is storage or ethernet related. Try disabling unused IDE and SATA channels, make sure that no Ethernet channels are set to DHCP with no cable...
- Peter
- Post #3
- Sep 20, 2008
- Forum: Operating Systems
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2x Socket F AMD Opteron Barcelona quad cores, what to do with them?

These are 8000 series, to be used in two-, four- or eight-socket mainboards. Registered DDR2 DIMMs are required, ECC-enabled if desired. The stillborn Athlon-FX platform is the exception, allowing unbuffered DIMMs (at the expense of fewer DIMM slots per CPU). In my opinion, they'd be utterly...
- Peter
- Post #4
- Sep 20, 2008
- Forum: Motherboards
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32-bit RAM Limit

Graphics chips typically map a 256-MByte window into system space, not a flat view of their entire RAM. This is done exactly because else 32-bit systems would be left with too little space left for system RAM. Your X2 card maps twice that (probably). You can see for yourself in Device Manager...
- Peter
- Post #6
- Sep 19, 2008
- Forum: Operating Systems
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Case USB drives aren't recognized

So your case USB wiring can't cope with USB 2.0. You are aware that you have now limited your USB speed to 1 MByte per second (from 30)?
- Peter
- Post #5
- Sep 16, 2008
- Forum: Peripherals & Components
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AMD or Intel

AMD have the much better graphics engine, and lower power consumption under light CPU load. Intel's processors are faster and consume less power under high load. Your applications list sounds like you want the former.
- Peter
- Post #2
- Sep 15, 2008
- Forum: Laptops
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Case USB drives aren't recognized

Nope, you just have to wire them up correctly.
- Peter
- Post #2
- Sep 15, 2008
- Forum: Peripherals & Components
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have this old motherboard.....

This thing has the "right" age for capacitor flatulence disease. Check for bulged, leaked or otherwise not-quite-right looking capacitors, particularly in the hot areas around the CPU and RAM.
- Peter
- Post #4
- Sep 15, 2008
- Forum: Motherboards
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Asrock 939Dual sata2 not recognizing new sata2 drive on 1.5 sata connector

Nope, that's a speed negotiation screwup in the SATA-II spec. This causes 3-Gb capable drive to not link up on SATA-I controllers. This is a double-posted thread btw. Long form answers in the other one.
- Peter
- Post #3
- Sep 12, 2008
- Forum: Motherboards
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ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 - Socket 939 with PCI-E and real AGP and Socket AM2 upgrade path

Exactly. That's a protocol fsckup in the SATA-II specification, with the result that 3-Gb capable drives won't link up to SATA-I host controllers. Many drives indeed do have a jumper to limit them to 1.5-Gb. Some of those that don't can be soft-configured via a vendor specific utility...
- Peter
- Post #1,805
- Sep 12, 2008
- Forum: Motherboards
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Need to buy 40 small-form-factor high-end, ridiculously rugged PC's

Proper rugged computers don't use standard mainboards. Any socket, slot and cable connector compromises shock, vibration, humidity and other parameters. There's a whole industry doing these things properly (which I happen to be working in). And yes, we do -40 to +85 degrees Celsius...
- Peter
- Post #6
- Sep 11, 2008
- Forum: Laptops
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Best/cheapest AGP 4X/8X card for server?

Anything will do as long as it's 1.5V AGP ... I'd like to mention that you'll be hugely disappointed by the storage bandwidth in that rig. Come on, if you're going to spend this much on disks, why not use at least a low grade server board with PCIE 4x or PCI-X slots and a RAID controller with...
- Peter
- Post #5
- Sep 10, 2008
- Forum: Graphics Cards
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Configuring network card in SuSe RedHat 10

You might want to play with the device's settings, particularly the "when to start" thing. If it's set to "when cable is connected" or "user", try "at boot" or whatever other choices it offers you.
- Peter
- Post #2
- Sep 9, 2008
- Forum: Operating Systems
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vhs to dvd using tv tuner card

That KWorld card takes the same apporach as the (much older) Leadtek I had recommended - just the video decoder chip, no tuner. Although the later Conexant chip on the KWorld has the potential for better image quality (in color depth and contrast, mainly), I'd trust Leadtek's software much more...
- Peter
- Post #21
- Sep 1, 2008
- Forum: TVs
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vhs to dvd using tv tuner card

The Xeon is very much capable of converting the stream in realtime, no need to go through an intermediate AVI file. Plain PCI video or TV tuner cards always supply the raw stream, with adjustable horizontal resolution. From there, you adjust your MPEG2 encoding parameters the way your...
- Peter
- Post #15
- Aug 31, 2008
- Forum: TVs
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Evolution Question

It goes in small steps. Every newborn has random genetic mutations, some are useful, some are irrelevant, some are a disadvantage. If such a random mutation has an advantage in everyday life, it'll be passed on - not the least because the more successful hunters are healthier, and are also...
- Peter
- Post #6
- Aug 30, 2008
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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vhs to dvd using tv tuner card

Nevermind the quality ... resolution and sharpness on VHS is so poor to begin with, it won't matter. Something simple, like Leadtek's WinFast VC100XP, will do. This is a pure video digitizer, the MPEG-ization into DVD format will have to be done in software. This requires a halfway strong CPU...
- Peter
- Post #10
- Aug 30, 2008
- Forum: TVs
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Can a photon become stationary (like a proton)?

Does photon-emitting stationery count? ;)
- Peter
- Post #8
- Aug 29, 2008
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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Motherboard supports RAM w/ four "ranks" max.

One DIMM side (usually) constitutes a "rank". You do the math ... the answer to your question most probably is No, since two-gigabyte DIMMs typically are made from two ranks of eight one-gigabit chips.
- Peter
- Post #2
- Aug 29, 2008
- Forum: Motherboards
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Need a PC that will work with minimal airflow and high heat

Power consumption is not a secondary factor if you want "low ventilation requirements, low heat", it is in fact the one primary factor.
- Peter
- Post #2
- Aug 28, 2008
- Forum: Laptops
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Modern Chipsets and an Opteron 1212

Opterons don't internally handle anything better than other members of the AMD64 family. It's the same processor design throughout, varying only in core count, L2 cache size and external interfaces. In essence, in the AM2 socket, you can get better performance from an Athlon X2 than from an...
- Peter
- Post #7
- Aug 28, 2008
- Forum: Motherboards
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Modern Chipsets and an Opteron 1212

The chipsets don't care - HyperTransport is compatible back and forth. Your actual problem is more like, does any random board's BIOS support the Opterons, does the board design provide for ECC RAM? If your answer is "I don't want no ECC RAM", then you don't want an Opteron either. Buy an...
- Peter
- Post #2
- Aug 26, 2008
- Forum: Motherboards
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Driving slower = better gas mileage. Fact or myth?

Of course it does. The Hybrid system doesn't help there, and at its top speed, the Prius is well beyond its efficiency window - while the BMW is still in its efficient midrange RPMs, and brings aerodynamics for much higher speeds than that. If you want to run that kind of comparison at a much...
- Peter
- Post #95
- Aug 26, 2008
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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One Motherboard - Two Processors

They should be the same ... while the separate front side busses would theoretically allow different speeds or even FSB clocks, your operating system will have a real headache trying to balance loads between processors of differing performance. Also, you are well advised to use processors of the...
- Peter
- Post #3
- Aug 26, 2008
- Forum: Motherboards
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Driving slower = better gas mileage. Fact or myth?

... and standardized fuel efficiency and emission tests that include speeds up to 130 km/h. However, we don't drive anywhere near as much on highways as you people in the US do. Europe is densely populated, we don't (and don't need to) drive around for hours to get stuff done.
- Peter
- Post #90
- Aug 22, 2008
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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Quick: Marvell 88SE6111 SATA Controller. MSI P35 Neo2-FR

Since it's on a separate controller, you won't be able to RAID it with the others, and it's run by its own BIOS and driver. Typically, those extra ports aren't very good at DVD drives.
- Peter
- Post #2
- Aug 18, 2008
- Forum: Motherboards
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Pentium Dual Core T2390 versus Turion TL-60

Slower or faster at what? Please state the nature of the computational problem.
- Peter
- Post #6
- Aug 18, 2008
- Forum: Laptops
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cant boot with usb cd-rom

That won't work. Bootable CDs are special in their fundamental format - it's not in the files, simply speaking.
- Peter
- Post #4
- Aug 16, 2008
- Forum: Operating Systems
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cant boot with usb cd-rom

Whatever boot device you attempt to use, the machine's BIOS will have to bring the boot support for it. Check there whether you can enable something in this direction.
- Peter
- Post #2
- Aug 16, 2008
- Forum: Operating Systems
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What's the difference between a "business notebook" and a normal one?

Business = durability, battery life, "business" type OS not "home", quiet operation, no "fun" software preinstalled. And no shiny screens plesae, I want to work not shave, kthx.
- Peter
- Post #11
- Aug 15, 2008
- Forum: Laptops
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PC Repair Question

I'd tend to think that rather than the mainboard, you either have a dying power supply there, or some heat problem. Open it up and check for any fans not spinning and dust clogged heatsinks and air vents.
- Peter
- Post #2
- Aug 15, 2008
- Forum: Laptops
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Reverse KVM?

Exactly. You can have as many human interface devices on USB as you please, so just leave them all connected and use whichever you're close to.
- Peter
- Post #5
- Aug 9, 2008
- Forum: Peripherals & Components
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What ever happend to xgi

They're well alive, just off the public radar - their focus is 2D and 3D graphics chips for the embedded computing market.
- Peter
- Post #3
- Aug 9, 2008
- Forum: Graphics Cards
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the personal fission device

Why not: * The world's Uranium supply is far from infinite. * Plutonium isn't just radioactive, it is also hugely poisonous - you don't want the stuff around people. * The #1 unanswered question of nuclear power: Where do we put the waste?
- Peter
- Post #6
- Aug 8, 2008
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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Keyboard USB ports with powered hub?

If you've got the keyboard directly on the computer now, then no, plugging it into a self-powered hub won't change how much stuff you can plug into the keyboard. That's because the computer itself counts as a "powered" USB hub as well (quite obviously). bruceb is technically correct ...
- Peter
- Post #4
- Aug 8, 2008
- Forum: Keyboards
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S-Video out dumb question

2) You can /feed/ a high resolution, but the SVideo /signal/ will never be more than 480 lines in NTSC. Horizontal actual resolution is around 360 pixels - but for practical reasons you'd be selecting 640x480 to get an exactly reproduced picture out to SVideo.
- Peter
- Post #3
- Aug 8, 2008
- Forum: Graphics Cards
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Rank the available Integrated Graphics solutions

For that kind of requirements list, I've recently been using the Biostar 740G board (has DVI) plus a dual-core Sempron 2100 and 2x1 GiB of DDR2-800. The #1 issue with existing cases is power supply connections. Check whether the PSU has SATA power wires, check whether it has 24- or 20-pin...
- Peter
- Post #9
- Aug 4, 2008
- Forum: Graphics Cards

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