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Despite AMD's improvements, Intel PIII chips still seem to have an edge in 3D performance and remain the best choice if you do such 3D tasks as animation and rendering.
As for the AMD-Motorola alliance to produce copper-based processor chips, it's far too early to tell how successful the effort will be - though the combination is intriguing.
Announcements so far report that Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector, Austin, Texas, will contribute its manufacturing expertise to the effort, moving both parties to a 0.18-micron, and then to a 0.15-micron design rule with its HiPerMOS copper interconnect process technology.
In return, Motorola will receive the rights to AMD's flash-memory patents, allowing it to begin offering high-density, low-power embedded flash micro controllers sometime next year. The two companies will conduct jointly staffed programs in Austin and at AMD's headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., and will share development expenses.
Keep tuned for more information on future developments.
Check Out WordWeb 1.61, Free Dictionary, Thesaurus
Do you ever get stuck for the meaning of a word, or grope for a synonym that eludes you completely? The handiest tool I've found for such occasions is a software program called WordWeb for Windows.
In fact, I count it as one of the most valuable utilities currently installed on my computer. And the basic program, Version 1.61, is free for the downloading! There is one version for Windows 95/98/NT and another for Windows 3.1. Sorry, DOS diehards, there's no version for you.
As a writer, avid reader and major crossword fan, I've depended on dictionaries since childhood. I taught my kids to use them from the time they were very young, often much to their chagrin. ("Dad, how do you spell ____?" "Look it up; you know where the dictionary is." "Aw, Da-a-d, do I hafta?) But they've thanked me since for that training.
In the five months since I discovered WordWeb, I find myself making fewer trips to the bookshelf for my hardbound Webster's University dictionary or to the big Webster's unabridged version on its own stand in the living room. Instead, I click on the WordWeb icon on my desktop or, if I'm using Word, I simply open the Tools menu and select WordWeb from it.
Version 1.61 contains definitions and synonyms for 120,000 root words, 100,000 synonym sets, many antonyms, a host of proper nouns and more. It also has an installation feature that allows you to tie it to Word, as mentioned above. The Setup program asks if you want to include a template to make WordWeb available from within MS Word.
(I only wish a similar option was available for WordPad, which I use for a lot of my writing, but I guess that might be difficult.)
I've tried WordWeb on several of my computers and it runs fast on all of them, even the oldest model with a 225MHz CPU. It not only comes up fast when using it on a stand-alone basis, but pops up definitions and synonyms in its own window from within MS Word in a hurry, too
All you have to do to get a definition or synonym while in Word is highlight or just click your cursor on the word you want to check. Then open the Tools menu and click on the WordWeb icon.
At the top of the WordWeb dialog box is the Lookup line, which contains the word you want defined. (If you use WordWeb outside of MS Word, you must type in the word at this point.)
Below that line is the definition window, then comes a series of tabs: synonyms, antonyms, types, etc. You click on whatever tab you want to get additional information about your Lookup word.
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