It took the life of the computer industry in order to finally get the
desktop CPU up to 1GHz.  As we sit here today, and even before the 1GHz
CPUs were announced, companies already have plans for 1.5GHz chips and
beyond.  Now, Intel is making speed upgrades in 100Mhz (0.1GHz)
increments.  I remember back in the earlier nineties I thought the
486DX4/100MHz CPU was the king of the hill.  Now, the next Pentium iii CPU
will be 100Mhz faster than it’s closest speed daemon.

It’s great that technology has moved so fast that road signs and land marks
are blowing by at mach speed.  But it sickens me to think that a machine
that I would have put $2500 into in 1990 is only worth $25 now.  It’s great
that computers now only cost $500, but it’s sad that within one year, that
computer will only be wroth $100.  I remember when my parents bought a PC
recently.  It was a 166MHz Pentium MMX machine, and they bought it when it
was cream of the crop, right when the Pentium w/MMX came out.  Total cost,
$2,200.  They took out a second mortgage on their home in order to buy this
machine (as well as a 2.5 car garage, and a new driveway) and are still paying
for it.  Now, it’s only worth $200 dollars, tops.

I’ve always been an advocate for having to borrow to buy instead of renting,
but when the value of a purchase falls faster than you can pay it off, it’s time
to rent.

RAMBUS
There has been MUCH Rambus controversy going on.  And of course, paving
the controversy is Dr. Tom Pabst, founder of Tom’s
Hardware. A trek over to his site will reveal approximately 3 articles on
Rambus.  Reading them finds glittering new of the defeat of Rambus in
Chipzilla’s eyes. (Intel)  Possibly even the i815 chipset’s successor will
support DDR-SDRAM, and not Rambus.  Rumor also abound that Intel is dropping
all of their Rambus stock, and future chipsets will feature support for an SDRAM
derivative of some sort.  It’s even been mentioned in the PC
Mechanic Forum.

Guest Writer
Next week, Transistorized and the Tormented will feature a guest
writer.  Jeffery Powell, a
Contributing Editor at PC Mechanic.  In the mean time, yours truly will
probably be fishing, or putting in my time and the local country club.