MaximumPC 2006 09

110 MAXIMUMPC SEPTEMBER 2006

We tackle tough reader questions on...

P1MB L2 PDigital DeckPNet Neutrality

PWorkstation Graphics

512KB OF CACHE—MISSING!

I noticed that the AMD AM2 Athlon 64 X2 4400+

and Athlon 64 X2 4400+ CPUs are no longer being

offered. Do you know what happened?

—Bob Guadagno

SENIOR EDITOR GORDON MAH UNG RESPONDS:

AMD says it has axed all dual-core CPUs that

feature 1MB of L2 cache (except for the FX and

Opteron series) to “simplify” its roadmap. AMD

says stores and retailers thought there were too

many model numbers available and it was con-

fusing the hell out of customers. There’s also a

rumor that AMD axed the 1MB chips because it

needed to get more CPU cores out of each wafer.

As you know, the larger the L2, the larger the

die. The larger the die, the fewer cores yielded

per wafer. What’s the truth? We’d buy AMD’s line

except that the axe conveniently fell on only the

large-cache chips. That seems mighty suspicious.

NEED MORE HDMI!

Thank you for reviewing the Digital Deck Media

Connector (August 2005). I’ve tried to get more infor-

mation about the product from the company but have

not been successful.

You mentioned in the article that there is no HDTV

support. Does that mean you cannot stream high-def

files or that there is no HDMI or high-def connector?

And, if you cannot stream HDTV recorded files, do you

know of a product that does?

—Don Noble

EXECUTIVE EDITOR MICHAEL BROWN RESPONDS:

The Digital Deck doesn’t have any digital-video

output, neither DVI nor HDMI. The device streams

video by encoding it to MPEG-2 format at the

receiving end, and decoding it at the delivery end.

The only streaming-video product equipped

with an HDMI output was Thomson’s Acoustic

Research Digital Media Bridge (reviewed February

2006). Unfortunately, for reasons the company

never explained to me, the product was pulled off

the market. It’s worth mentioning that you can

stream HDTV files from a Windows Media Center

2005 machine to an Xbox 360; although the 360

doesn’t include HDMI, it does feature component

and VGA output options.

NET NEUTRALITY, PART DEUX

Tom Halfhill’s “Fast Forward” column (June 2006)

ignores the real issues at play with the battle for

network neutrality. He failed to notice the three

huge problems that erupt when the elephants of

the Internet fight.

First, there is the dangerous possibility of exclu-

sionary behavior. If your broadband ISP is partnered

with MSN, for example, it could refuse to sell priority

delivery to Google—at any price. Broadband com-

panies who are divisions of content companies will

especially love the new arrangement—they can hurt

the competition and enhance their own products for

free. A regulated market could control this problem,

ensuring everyone has access to priority delivery at

comparable rates, but it doesn’t solve other problems.

Priority also adds a significant level of com-

plexity onto the network for content providers. Are

your packets timing out because of a hardware

failure, massive load, or because a provider some-

where along the way has decided to lower your

packets’ priority? Do you want to have to explain

this to nontechnical customers?

Finally, artificial performance constraints add to

the complexity of the broadband marketplace for cus-

tomers. Now you not only need to compare through-

put, reliability, and price, but also who has the best

delivery relationships, which may change over time.

A non-neutral model makes sense in certain

swaths of the market. Corporate or college net-

works could use priority with filtering policies, and

users with specific quality-of-service needs could

benefit from specialized services that offer priority.

But home and small business broadband custom-

ers don’t want to reshape their Internet usage to fit

their provider’s tastes.

—Jack Zeal

We Got

Letters!

EDITOR IN CHIEF WILL

SMITH WRITES: I just

want to send out a big

“Thank You” to all the

folks who responded

to our Reader Surveys

in the January and

April 2006 issues. We

got several thousand responses

and had a couple of lucky winners!

Once we finish tabulating the results,

we’ll use them to improve Maximum PC,

making it a magazine that more closely

suits your tastes. An extra-special thanks

to all the folks who included handwritten

notes, pictures of their rigs, and

other correspondence. We can’t respond

to all the letters, but we read every one.

Thanks again!

inoutYOU WRITE, WE RESPOND

CUTCOPYPASTE

uOur review of Logitech’s Wireless Music System for PC in the

July issue misstated the product’s range, which is 330 feet.

uA news story in the August issue of Maximum PC incorrectly

stated the L2 cache size and bus speed for Intel’s midrange Core

2 Duo CPUs. The CPUs will feature 4MB of L2 cache and run on a

1066MHz front-side bus.