MaximumPC 2008 04

40 MAXIMUMPC | APR 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com

The name of AMD’s new CPU, Phenom, refers to

A single-rail power supply

Which chipset is compatible with Intel’s 1,600MHz

FSB Core 2 Extreme QX9770?

nForce 680i

Intel x48

Intel 955X

AMD 790X

John Phenom, AMD’s fi rst engineer, who died in a Segway collision

The city of Phenom, located just outside Austin, Texas

A tributary that fl ows into the Orinoco river

AMD’s belief that the chip is phenomenal

Uses a single quick-release rail to attach the supply to the case enclosure

Follows the new Thomas Technology eXtended (TTX) spec for use in single-

board computer systems

Delivers all of its 12-volt power on one rail instead of multiple rails

Is an older standard that has been supplanted by multirail power supplies

How many platters did the fi rst

1TB drive sport?

Three

Four

Five

Nine

PCI Express 2.0 doubles the

Data rate of PCI-E

Length of the connector of the PCI Express 1.0 slot to support x32 cards

Power to the slot from 50 watts to 100 watts

Speed of PCI-E from 500MB/s to 1000MB/s

Caltech faculty and alumni have received 49 National Medals of Science, 32

Nobel Prizes, and 10 National Medals of Technology, but not a single Heisman

Trophy. However, Caltech students have made their mark on the gridiron—at

the 1961 Rose Bowl, in particular, which is now better remembered for this

prank than the eventual outcome of the game (Washington 17, Minnesota 7,

in case you were curious).

Rose Bowl halftime festivities that year included an elaborate fl ip-card routine

organized by Washington’s cheerleaders. To put their own stamp on the proceed-

ings, Caltech students stole a copy of the instruction sheet and, working through

the night, rewrote the instructions, made thousands of copies, artifi cially aged

them, and then swapped them out for the originals.

The routine began as expected, but the eleventh display showed what

appeared to be a beaver, the next spelled “Washington” backwards, and the pen-

ultimate display read “CALTECH.” The cheerleaders decided not to see what was

on the fi nal card (legend has it the Caltech students left it untouched).

We could easily have fi lled this article with only Caltech pranks, but this one

stands out for both its audacity and the number of times it has been reproduced

by students at other schools—though never to such spectacular effect.

CALTECH EARNS A SPOT IN THE ROSE BOWL

Answers  15-c, 16-b, 17-d, 18-c, 19-a, 20-b, 21-b, 22-d, 23-d

The average amount paid for Radiohead’s

name-your-own-price download of In

Rainbows in the U.S.

How many megahertz do you have if you add a

Phenom 9900 to a Core 2 Duo Q6600 and subtract

a Pentium Extreme Edition 955?

In this Intel-standard front-

panel header, which jumpers

plug into the reset switch?

Which technology increases the color gamut

on LCD displays?

1,000MHz

1,267MHz

1,333MHz

2,666MHz

LED backlighting

Wide cold-cathode fl uorescent lighting

Frame-rate control

All of the above

$6

$10

$ 7. 2 5

$8

Red

Blue

Yellow

Green

GREATEST GEEK PRANKS

PHOTO COURTESY OF CALTECH

A B C D A B C D A B C D A B C D

20

21

22

23

A B C D A B C D A B C D A B C D

A

B

C

D

15

16

17

18

19

EEK QUIZ