The most recent articles from Computing

RIM gears up for BlackBerry sales push

Rosalie Marshall — 2008-09-26T13:13:00.000Z

Rosalie Marshall, Computing, Friday 26 September 2008 at 13:13:00

Firm sells 6.1 million devices in its second quarter

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) has reported a $495.5m profit for its 2008 financial second quarter, representing a per-share profit increase of $0.86, and has announced a new BlackBerry sales push during the rest of the year.

RIM's profit marks a 2.7 per cent increase since its first quarter earlier this year, with the main revenue coming from the sale of new devices. The firm's second quarter ended on 30 August.

RIM reported total revenue of $2.58bn for the second quarter, up 15 per cent on $2.24bn in the last quarter.

Some 82 per cent of this revenue came from the sale of approximately 6.1 million devices. The rest came from services and software sales. Around 2.6 million new BlackBerry subscriber accounts were added in the quarter.

"We shipped over 11 million BlackBerry smartphones in the first half and we are gearing up for an even stronger second half," said Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive at RIM.

RIM's intentions for the near future can be seen by a 42 per cent increase in research and development spend since the firm's last quarter, and a 16 per cent increase in selling and marketing spend.

Intel goes for Core branding

Ambrose McNevin — 2008-08-11T10:43:00.000Z

Ambrose McNevin, Computing, Monday 11 August 2008 at 10:43:00

Latest branding efforts will be built about the "Core"

Intel's next generation of chips will be branded "Core."

The company is renowned for its obscure code-names for products in development and has opted to promote its products around a term that it has been pushing to become shorthand for speed and capacity of processors.

Intel's marketing efforts are key to the company, as it provides vast marketing budgets to PC and server manufacturers to push co-branded hardware based on its chips into the market.

Intel will use the the term "i7" as part of the "Core" brand building exercise.

The funds it provides are part of the the anti-trust investigation Intel is currently engaged in with the European Commission.

After Gates: what the future holds for Microsoft

Computing staff — 2008-06-26T17:50:00.000Z

Computing staff, Computing, Thursday 26 June 2008 at 17:50:00

As the iconic leader departs, the software giant is defending its position

Almost 10 years ago Bill Gates said in an interview that one day Microsoft would be replaced.

Gates’ prescience was accurate. The rise of Google is a threat to the future of Microsoft. Not just because of the rise of search as the key internet tool, but also because the web is becoming the platform for software development and delivery.

Microsoft’s failed $47bn (£23.8bn) bid for Yahoo shows how important search and web advertising is to the future of any software company.

On the business side other threats may yet undermine Microsoft’s dominance.

The rise of virtualisation and software as a service pose threats, though Microsoft says these are opportunities. And the adoption of open source operating systems and applications have all eaten into Microsoft’s business, especially in the public sector.

As Gates departs we examine where next for the world-beating company.

Operating Systems

Some believe the ubiquitous Windows operating system faces an uncertain future. In the medium term Windows Vista has been assailed on all sides as too slow and over-functional.

Support for Windows XP has been extended and it is only through relentless pressure that Microsoft has convinced large organisations to adopt its latest operating system.

Windows 7 is likely to be the next version of the Vista client and is expected in 2010, though reports have suggested that Microsoft may never opt for another blockbuster client operating system release.

Windows Server 2008 was released in February 2008 with the next version Windows Server R2 expected in 2010. On the virtualisation front the Windows Hypervisor, named Hyper V, is scheduled for delivery in September 2008.

Specialised Windows Server versions for storage file and print servers will continue shipping through resellers

Development tools

Microsoft’s professional application development platforms have been under threat recently from open source programming tools.

The firm owns the Visual range of developer tools and languages, including Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual C# and the Visual Studio suite, as well as web development platforms such as ASP.Net, Internet Explorer and Silverlight. It also offers the .Net framework and database languages and tools based on SQL Server.

Microsoft says it has no problems selling development tools despite costly user licensing schemes and complex feature sets.

But in smaller software houses, education institutions, and those looking to build simple applications at low cost, it is struggling to compete with leaner open source development tools.

The supplier faces development platforms based on Java and PHP from groups such as Apache, Eclipse and Ruby on Rails, as well as database management platforms such as MySQL, now owned by Sun Microsystems.

Most are available either for free or at lower cost than licensed software, and are designed to run on open source operating systems such as Linux.

Perceived advantages include better community-based support and modification of the underlying source code.

Microsoft recently freely offered skimmed-down versions of its development tools to compete. “It’s important for people to look at the free support offered in the Microsoft Software Development Network library,” said Clive Howard, of development agency Howard Baines.

Server/desktop

The death of Microsoft’s cash cow PC applications such as Office has been predicted for many years. But even though open source alternatives are freely available Office continues to ship in vast numbers, with sales expected to hit $10bn by 2010.

Following last year’s Office upgrade no further releases have been announced, but another is expected in 2010.

In business applications, Microsoft is up against the likes of SAP, Oracle and Sage. The firm says its approach to customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning packages is that of “composite applications” which it describes as “tying together functionality from different sources”.

In 2010 Microsoft’s highest-end integrated business productivity product, known as AX, is expected to receive an upgrade, which will be based around web services.

Dynamics CRM 4.0 is expected to get an upgrade no sooner than 2009.

“We are bringing business systems together with productivity and collaboration software and the online world,” said Microsoft chairman Bill Gates.

Cloud computing

Cloud computing services are central to Microsoft’s strategy as it diversifies its revenue models.

It already offers services online under the “Windows Live” banner. For consumers, there is email, photo sharing, and online storage services. All are still at the beta phase of testing, but the services will be free and funded by advertising. Final versions are expected next year.

Business versions of the Exchange e-mail, SharePoint document management, Office Communicator, and Dynamics CRM systems are available as hosted services on a subscription basis to companies with fewer than 5,000 workers, and will be available for all companies this year.

Search Server 2008 Express will be available as a free download this year.

Earlier this year chief executive Steve Ballmer indicated that the company was working on providing services such as virtualisation, security and datacentre management in the cloud; no dates have been set for rollout, although announcements are expected before the end of 2008.

The recent announcement from SAP that its ByDesign hosted business software package for small firms will be delayed by over a year will provide further incentive for Microsoft to accelerate its move to capture the market.

A key notable absence is the availability of Word or Excel online a move Google has already made with its Google Apps software.

The internet

Microsoft’s attempts to boost its presence in the search engine market by buying Yahoo apparently ended this month, when its quarry announced a renewed advertising partnership with Google.

But while the corporation publicly states it has given up its pursuit, not everyone is convinced. “We don’t fully believe that the Yahoo deal is dead,” said David Mitchell Smith, Gartner Fellow. “There is still a chance for some kind of arrangement at some kind of price, but failing that there are plenty of other firms they could look at.”

An extension of Microsoft’s existing deal with Facebook is one possibility, while online rumours suggest a possible interest in eBay, said Smith.

Retail

At the start of June Microsoft opened online stores serving UK and Germany, the first in a wave of e-retail outlets. While the company maintains that it will still work with third-party vendors, the new sites allow Microsoft to directly sell software to consumer users.

The Xbox 360 console will also play a large role in Microsoft’s ongoing strategy. A new 60GB hard drive version of the machine is expected to be revealed in the US next month.

Mobile

Microsoft is aggressively pushing its Windows mobile software to smartphone makers. The company has tie-in deals with Samsung and Motorola and shipped 4.3 million units in the first quarter of 2008.

Analyst IDC estimates sales of Windows Mobile smartphones will be double that of the iPhone over the next four years. Microsoft has announced it will improve the music-playing software on its mobile devices to challenge in an area traditionally dominated by Apple.

Ambrose McNevin, Martin Courtney, Tom Young, Angelica Mari, and Neon Kelly contributed to this article.

Microsoft is growing faster than ever

Lara Williams — 2007-10-26T00:00:00.000Z

Lara Williams, Computing, Friday 26 October 2007 at 00:00:00

The world's biggest software provider made profits of $5.92m (£2.88m) in the last quarter

Microsoft's revenue was $13.76bn (£6.88bn) in the last quarter, up 27 per cent on last year, and profits were up 29 per cent to $5.92bn (£2.88bn).

The results prompted Microsoft shares to rise to levels not seen since July 2001.

The company attributes the success to consumer demand for Windows Vista, Office 2007 and video game Halo 3. But all of business segments had double digit growth.

Revenue predictions for 2008 are now forecast to reach between $58.8bn (£29.4bn) and $59.7bn (£29.85bn).

The period has seen the fastest revenue growth of any first quarter since 1999, said Chris Liddell, chief financial officer at Microsoft.

“Operating income growth of over 30 per cent also reflects our ability to translate revenue into profits while making strategic investments for the future,’ said Liddell.

Vodafone's 3G take-up doubles

Lara Williams — 2007-05-29T00:00:00.000Z

Lara Williams, Computing, Tuesday 29 May 2007 at 00:00:00

UK mobile phone operator reports strong end of year results

Adoption of 3G services from mobile phone giant Vodafone have almost doubled since last year, according to financial results published today.

3G take-up in the UK increased from one million users in 2006 to 1.94 million in 2007.

The UK results tallied with the overall European trend of 3G adoption which reached 14.66 million at end of year results, from 7.44 million in 2006.

3G take-up was a key component of Vodafone's strong end-of-year results - UK sales of £5.1bn with operating profits of £1.44bn.

Overall results were strong with group revenue results rising from £29.35bn in 2006 to £31.1bn in 2007.

The firm’s global strategy for its positive performance was strong growth in emerging markets.

The company’s recent acquisition,Hutchison Essar in India, significantly increases its presence in high growth markets. Market penetration in India is around 14 per cent and with a population of over 1.1 billion representing a significant opportunity for future growth.

Today's results showed revenue growth of 41 per cent in Egypt, 28 per cent in Romania and 22 per cent in South Africa.

Retail giant opens first store in Second Life

James Brown — 2007-01-10T00:00:00.000Z

James Brown, Computing, Wednesday 10 January 2007 at 00:00:00

IBM is helping Sears to create a virtual store for furniture buying

US retail giant Sears has opened its first virtual store on IBM's island in online computer game, Second Life.

The prototype shop is intended to showcase the ways in which internet-based virtual reality worlds can change and improve consumer experiences.

Providing customers with the best possible shopping experience is very important for the company and it is always looking for new and exciting ways to present products and services, says Sears Holdings' senior vice president for direct commerce, Paul Miller.

'The Sears Virtual Home combines the best of virtual worlds and 3D environments so customers can experience Sears' products in a way that is closer to real life,' he said.

'Sears.com already provides innovative design functionality and this work with IBM in a virtual world is a logical extension of those initiatives.'

Eventually, the customers entering the store using a virtual in-game avatar will be able to see mock-ups of rooms, allowing them to experiment with furniture colours, sizes and layouts.

What do you think? Email us at feedback@computing.co.uk

Further reading

Reuters open virtual news bureau

Lara Williams — 2006-10-17T00:00:00.000Z

Lara Williams, Computing, Tuesday 17 October 2006 at 00:00:00

Online news bureau delivers Second Life news

Global news agency Reuters has opened its first virtual news bureau in the online world Second Life .

The 3D virtual world was created and launched in 2003 by Linden Lab and has its own virtual economy with 275 Linden dollars to the US dollar.

Reuters reporter Adam Pasick, who will be known as Adam Reuters in Second Life, has been named virtual bureau chief.

‘Like any reporter, I'll cover Second Life events as they happen, interview residents and uncover interesting stories,’ said Pasick.

‘Reuters capability and experience in news and financial reporting will be valuable to the thousands of people who need to make decisions about how they run their businesses inside Second Life,’ he said.

The opening of the bureau is part of Reuters strategy to embrace new digital platforms to deliver next-generation news and information.

Second Life residents will receive their news through a new feature called the Reuters News Centre which is similar to a real world mobile device.

A free mobile device, the Heads Up Display (HUD), will stream live Reuters feeds of real-life and Second Life news in the virtual world.

Second Life residents will be able to visit the Reuters Atrium, a town hall community centre where they can meet to discuss events, see images and videos of the day or simply chat with friends.

A button on their Reuters News Centre will alert them to discussions and instantly teleport them to the chat areas in the Reuters Atrium from wherever they are in Second Life.

The virtual world has a real world economy worth $3.2m with $70,000 traded daily on its currency exchange LindeX.

Inhabitants are given an allowance by Linden Lab which can be exchanged back into real money. They can also buy more virtual cash with real world credit cards.

Reuters joins other real world companies to set up shop in the virtual world including Sun Microsystems, American Apparel and Starwood Hotels.

What do you think? Email feedback@computing.co.uk

Record revenue from interactive table at student bar

Dave Friedlos — 2006-09-12T00:00:00.000Z

Dave Friedlos, Computing, Tuesday 12 September 2006 at 00:00:00

Westminster University benefits from tabletop computers

A trial of interactive computers that allow customers to order drinks from their seats has generated record revenue at Westminster University’s student bar Intermission.

Touchscreen computers, similar to those launched at the Ministry of Sound nightclub recently (Computing, 24 August), are embedded into the table and allow customers to order drinks, play games and flirt electronically by sending gifts to other tables.

Student union vice president of communications Rayhan Omar says the system will go live when the new term starts next week.

‘We held a trial event to identify any potential problems, but instead took £5,000 at the bar from a crowd of 500,’ he said.

The computers have differences from those installed at the Ministry of Sound and include the ability to order taxis, communicate with the university radio station to make music requests and receive information about the union’s activities.

The computers could generate additional revenue, Omar says, as people don’t have to queue for drinks and the bar can charge for some games and quizzes.

Customers can also use a debit card to pay for a radio frequency identification (RFID) card that they can wave in front of any tabletop computer to buy extra drinks.

Intermission shares revenue generated by the screens with vendor Escapism, which developed the computers on Compuware's OptimalJ development tool, and provided the computers for free as transactions are processed by separate tills.

Analyst Verdict Research consulting director Neil Saunders says the technology could help streamline service and prove convenient for customers who are often deterred from buying more drinks because of large crowds.

What do you think? Email us at feedback@computing.co.uk

Further reading

High-tech bingo hall wins full house

Mobile systems to help World Cup beer to flow

Yates improves its IT efficiency

High-tech bingo hall wins full house

Dave Friedlos — 2006-06-15T00:00:00.000Z

Dave Friedlos, Computing, Thursday 15 June 2006 at 00:00:00

First fully electronic bingo club increases membership

Leisure and gaming group Rank has made one of its bingo halls fully electronic, doubling the number of visitors and increasing the amount they spend.

Rank opened the Fountain Park Mecca Bingo club in Edinburgh two months ago and introduced 500 electronic terminals that allow players to access numerous portals from one machine, for greater interaction and seamless game playing.

The club’s tables also have lighting features that change colour and sounds that can be heard at individual terminals or throughout the club.

‘Bingo has not changed from a manual, pen and paper-based game in more than 500 years,’ said Mario Vilela, director of electronic gaming at Rank. ‘But with competition from electronic gaming and consoles, we needed new ways to present the game to capture a larger market.

‘The technology makes bingo an exciting, reaction-based game where customers are entertained. It can recall preferences and offer customers their preferred games, food or drinks.’

IBM Retail provided the server and touchscreen point of sale devices, vendor ECM delivered the software that runs the games and allows random number generation, and XPress Ordering delivered software that links food and drink ordering.

Vilela says spending per head has increased because customers can make purchases from the comfort of their seat.

‘The game pricing should pay for the technology,’ he said.

What do you think? Email us at feedback@computing.co.uk

Further reading

Camelot stakes future on IT

Site for sore eyes - www.gambling.com

Eyes down for a full site

World Cup puts sporting sites on the map

Lara Williams — 2006-06-13T00:00:00.000Z

Lara Williams, Computing, Tuesday 13 June 2006 at 00:00:00

Huge increase in sports-related web pages in the past 12 months

Sports-related web pages have grown 17 per cent in the last 12 months thanks to World Cup fever.

Of the top five countries hosting the highest proportion of sporting web sites, the US lead with 52 per cent, followed by Brazil and Germany at 8.9 per cent, then the UK at 6.3 per cent and Canada at 3.6 per cent.

James Rendell, Senior Technology Specialist at Internet Security Systems the company that undertook the research said: ‘With 5.5 billion web pages on the internet today, a 17 per cent increase is a phenomenal rise in the number of sites dedicated to the sporting world.’

In addition to the World Cup other sporting events such as the Tour de France are factors in making website operators expand their sports websites.

Rendell sees widespread adoption of broadband driving a culture of people searching out the sports they are interested in. He said: ‘It seems the Internet has taken the viewer away from the TV and placed them in front of the computer.

What do you think? Email feedback@computing.co.uk

Further reading:

Sophos issues World Cup virus warning

Fifa network demands World Cup performance

Games make serious move into schools

James Brown — 2006-05-25T00:00:00.000Z

James Brown, Computing, Thursday 25 May 2006 at 00:00:00

Project for engaging child learners bears fruit

Trials to assess the use of computer games in four UK schools are proving successful, but have highlighted the technical barriers of school computing.

The year-long Teaching with Games project started in September, and is run by education innovation charity Futurelab, in collaboration with games giant Electronic Arts (EA).

Futurelab managing director Annika Small says the project has taught the organisation a huge amount about putting its concepts into practice.

‘Computers in schools are not as up to date as we would like to think they are, they tend more towards rubber-band than top-spec,’ she said.

‘We turned up on the first day of the project with a stack of CDRoms ready to go, only to find that the school’s computers have no CDRom drives.’

Small says the project has demonstrated how children who have been under-achieving are engaging with the system and moving into new roles as class experts.

But she believes if the true potential of the innovative technology is to be realised, the UK has to take a long, hard look at its education system. Small says the biggest problem is that technology is overtaking the education system’s ability to adapt.

‘We are operating in a very different world to 150 years ago, when the current education system was devised,’ she said.

‘Just a few weeks ago, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority was up in arms about young people using mobile phones to cheat during examinations.

‘Just as with computer games, young people find their cheats and use persistence to find the right way to get to the next level. Those are skills we need in the 21st century. Instead, we are trying to force outdated practices onto young learners.

‘If you look at a classroom, it has hardly changed at all in the past 150 years. It is still 30-odd desks facing a teacher. The timetable structure hasn’t changed and neither have the subjects,’ said Small.

Unless processes are reformed, schools will move on unaided. Small says teachers are starting to make independent use of concepts such as blogs to share information.

‘They are using these technologies to share good practice and build their own online communities, though whether that links sufficiently into a top-down approach is questionable,’ she said.

‘There is a real problem of synchronisation. We have very few initiatives to help teachers understand technology and think about its place in education, which is a real worry at this point. In any other profession you would just expect it, but teachers get very little.’

Related stories:

Futurelab projects

Fizzee: Similar to a Tamagochi toy, a Fizzee stays alive if the child does things that help maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Racing Academy: A massive multi-player online car racing game that involves building a virtual race car from thousands of car parts, allowing children to learn about teamwork, physics and maths.

Space Missions: Run in collaboration with the National Space Centre in Leicester, the project uses videoconferencing to set groups of children a 90-minute challenge to save astronauts stranded in space.

Six Nations tackles data analysis

James Brown — 2006-02-01T00:00:00.000Z

James Brown, Computing, Wednesday 1 February 2006 at 00:00:00

Rugby tournament takes on new stats tracking system

The 2006 RBS Six Nations Championship is to use business intelligence software to collate match statistics.

The software, from vendor SAS, will supply TV broadcasters and the press with comprehensive graphics and on-screen analysis for games in the rugby tournament that starts on Saturday (4 February).

Six Nations chief executive John Feehan says the competition produces a huge amount of raw data, such as information on tackle counts and time in possession of the ball, and it is essential that information is used properly and is made clear.

‘There are two essential areas where the data is used,’ said Feehan.

‘First, it is there for communications purposes, generating interesting facts we can use to help the media. Second, it can be used over time by each of the member countries, who will be able to request the information from the system for use in their own analysis of the games.’

New ways of looking at data generated from the matches often yield interesting and unexpected insights, says Feehan.

‘The way things are presented can lead to a greater understanding of how international rugby games work. Ten or 15 years ago, we wouldn’t even have been able to tell you the tackle count, but things have developed,’ he said.

Schools adopt single sign-on

James Brown — 2005-10-05T00:00:00.000Z

James Brown, Computing, Wednesday 5 October 2005 at 00:00:00

Open source system designed to streamline access to resources

Schoolchildren in the UK are to use an open source single sign-on password system.

Named Shibboleth, the system is being introduced by the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) to provide parents, teachers and children with secure access to educational content.

‘Pupils and teachers use multiple usernames and passwords, as each web site their school subscribes to has its own, different, login system,’ said John Chapman, technology policy and delivery project manager at Becta.

‘With Shibboleth users will log in once with a single username and passwor

Schools to test scholarly value of PC games

James Brown — 2005-08-17T00:00:00.000Z

James Brown, Computing, Wednesday 17 August 2005 at 00:00:00

£300,000 project will initially involve four UKschools

Computer games giant Electronic Arts and education IT researcher NESTA Futurelab, are to conduct trials to see how computer games can be used as educational tools in schools.

The £300,000 project will initially be rolled out to four schools in the UK, but could be extended to other parts of Europe.

'The focus of the first few weeks will be in selecting the games,' said NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) managing director Annika Small.

'We're very keen to look right across the genres and not rule out the education benefits of any of the different styles out there.

'We're looking at developing some of the softer skills that are needed for the 21st century, such as problem-solving, resilience, persistence and collaboration.'

James Adams, education IT analyst at researcher Datamonitor, says the idea of using computer games may not be popular with teachers.

'While computers are increasingly being used to prep materials, the average classroom is not IT-intensive enough for this kind of thing,' he said. 'To be honest, the applications more likely to take off are ones where students can file homework online.'

ATI Radeon 9000

Laurence Grayson — 2002-10-14T16:28:20.000Z

Laurence Grayson, Computing, Monday 14 October 2002 at 16:28:20

An impressive combination of performance and features.

With all the anticipation surrounding ATI's new high-end chipset, the Radeon 9700 (previously the R300), it would be easy to overlook two new mainstream products that were available in advance of its September launch.

These new chipsets are the Radeon 9000 and 9000 Pro, and they bring a number of features from ATI's previous high-end products into the mainstream.

Although ATI no longer manufactures its own boards for UK retail distribution, we were able to obtain an early reference board using the Radeon 9000 chipset for testing.

Overall, the Radeon 9000 has a great deal in common with ATI's previous top-end chipset, the 8500.

However, there are several key differences. With cards like Hercules' 3D Prophet 9000 128MB set to retail at £119.14 (ex. VAT), this chipset will be selling against products using nVidia's high-end GeForce4 MX series or low-end GeForce4 Ti range.

There are no architectural differences between the standard and Pro versions of the 9000; one is simply clocked higher than the other. The standard part we reviewed has a core speed of 250MHz with 128MB of DDR SDRam clocked at 400MHz. The faster Pro version is set to 275MHz and 550MHz, giving a peak memory bandwidth of 8.8GBps compared to 6.6GBps.

Like the Radeon 8500, the 9000 is based on a 0.15-micron die, but has a reduced transistor count, making it less expensive to manufacture. To achieve this reduction, some of the 8500's architecture has been discarded.

The most notable change is in the texture engine, which is now down to one unit-per-pixel pipeline, rather than two.

However, this is still enough to implement ATI's Smartshader technology for programmable pixel and vertex shader effects - unlike the GeForce4 MX chipset, which has no programmable shader support - so it won't be at such a disadvantage when running DirectX 8.1-based software with advanced effects.

It also means ATI can discard the dedicated circuitry previously required for DVD playback features and replace it with a custom pixel shader, further reducing the transistor count and costs.

As you'd expect, the 9000 is a four-pipeline product, which gives it a raw fill rate of 1gigapixel per second and places it level with the GeForce4 Ti 4200.

However, the loss of a texture unit puts it at a disadvantage against the GeForce4 Ti 4200, which can process eight textures per pipe, compared to the Radeon 9000's six. The same optimisation routines introduced with earlier Radeon chipsets have been maintained, including HyperZ II, which uses Z-buffer compression, occlusion and culling routines.

You also get ATI's version of full-scene anti-aliasing, known as SmoothVision. This is a multisampling technique that's not as highly optimised as Matrox's new fragment anti-aliasing, but does reduce the amount of bandwidth required by only sampling the texture data in the scene once.

Dual 350MHz RAMDACs and HydraVision drivers allow dual-monitor setups and products like Hercules' 3D Prophet 9000 128MB will come with both DVI and VGA ports, as well as a seven-pin Din port for composite and S-Video output.

The key to any graphics card's success, however, is its performance and here the Radeon 9000 takes a clear lead from the GeForce4 MX chipset and brings it quite close to the more expensive GeForce4 Ti products.

nVidia has plans to update the GeForce4 MX chipset later this year, but until that happens, products featuring the Radeon 9000 chipset look well positioned to take the lead in the lucrative mainstream graphics sector.

Price: £119.14 (ex. VAT).Contact: Hercules 020-8665 1881

www.hercules-uk.comFact file

Memory 128MB of DDR SDRAM
Core clock 250MHz
Memory clock 200MHz
RAMDAC Dual 350MHz
Connectors VGA, DVI-I, 7-pin DIN