1998 Updates

Processors: Addition of "Copper interconnect" section and extension of "Roadmap" to include confirmed Intel developments for 2000 and beyond;

Inkjet Printers: Addition of "Manageability" section;

Serial Comms: Addition of "Modulation" section and a number of new images to illustrate the principal techniques used for data transmission;
Implementation of design change to reduce the "navigation bar" overhead on "Glossary" pages.

Site Awards: Finally added a page to show off the awards the site has won after it had been honoured with it's first "site of the week" award.

Processors: Addition of "Roadmap" section providing more extensive information on future Intel developments;

Non-Intel CPUs: Addition of "Super7" and "Roadmap" sections, the latter charting future developments by Intel's principal competition in the processor arena;

CD-R/CD-RW: General update, in particular to information regarding CD-R's media and CD-RW's the phase-change technology;

DVD: Update to sections on "Encryption" and the recordable/rewritable DVD formats and addition of "Regional coding" section;

Removable Storage: Addition of section on "Compatibility".

Tape Backup: Expansion of page content to include new sections on "8mm", Mammoth, "AIT", "DLT", "Features comparison" and "Robotic applications" and several new images;

"Last Updated" indication added at top of all information pages;

Digital Video: Addition of new page covering various aspects of the technology which is turning the capture and editing of motion video into a mainstream desktop PC application;

Digital Cameras: Addition of info on IBM's forthcoming 340MB Microdrive device in section on "Disk storage" and of "Digital video" section.

Motherboards: Addition of separate sections and images for each of the "BAT", "ATX", "MicroATX","LPX" and "NLX" form factors and update of "Accelerated Graphics Port" section to cover version 2.0 of the AGP specification;

Hard Disks: Addition of "OAW technology" section;

CD-ROM: General update, including addition of "Digital audio" section;

CD-R/CD-RW: General update, in particular to "Formats" section;

DVD: General update, including addition of DVD-Video "Encoding" and "Other Rewritable formats" sections;

Panel Displays: Addition of "ThinCRTs" section;

Motherboards: Addition of "form factor" image;

Hard Disks: Update to section on "Performance" and addition of sections on "The 8.4GB limit", "Serial storage architecture", "RAID", "SMART technology" and "GMR technology";

DVD: General update, in particular to "DVD-Video" and "Encryption" sections.

Laser Printers: Addition of section on "Colour lasers";

Inkjet Printers: Addition of sections on "Colour perception" and "Colour management" and transfer of information on dye-sublimation printers to the new "Other Printers" page;

Other Printers: Addition of new page with sections on "Solid ink", "Dye-sublimation", "Thermal wax" and "Dot matrix";

Motherboards: Addition of section on "440EX" chipset;

Processors: Addition of "Pentium II" image, section on "Celeron" and transfer of Cyrix and AMD information to a separate "Non-Intel CPUs" page;

Non-Intel CPUs: Addition of new page with sections on "Cyrix Media GX", "Cyrix MII", "AMD K6-2" and "AMD K7".

Graphics Cards: Update to "DirectX and Direct3D" for the DirectX 6.0 release;

CRT Monitors: Update to "Safety standards" section for the TCO99 standard.

Motherboards: Addition of sections on "440GX" and "450NX" chipsets and of an "Interfaces summary" table;

Processors: Addition of section on "Pentium II Xeon";

Addition of a "Links" page;

Addition of a "Site Map" (accessible from "Navigation" on the "Site Info" page)

Addition of a series of "Site Statistics" pages (accessible from "Visitor traffic" on the "Site Info" page).

Graphics Cards: Addition of section on "Digital cards";

Panel Displays: Inclusion of "polarisation" image in section on "DSTN displays";

Serial Comms: Addition of sections on "V.90" and "Cable modems" and expansion of section on "Digital Subscriber Line" and of "Modems" section (to describe analogue modem modulation techniques).

http://www.dircon.co.uk/pctechguide/) following a sudden increase in visitor traffic as a result of finally getting the site listed by a number of Search Engines and, in particular, PC Webopaedia.

CD-ROM: Expansion of information relating to the various CD standards;

Sound Cards: Addition of sections on "PCI audio", "DirectSound" and "Downloadable sound".

CD-R/CD-RW: General update including addition of sections on "Universal Disc Format" and "MultiRead drives";

Digital Cameras: General update and expansion, including the addition of several new sections and two "features" images.

Graphics Cards: Addition of section on "OpenGL";

DVD: Expansion of "DVD video encryption" section to cover regional coding.

System Memory: Inclusion of images to illustrate the SDRAM matrix-based topology and the alternative Rambus bus-based topology;

CD-ROM: Inclusion of "laser" image;

CD-R/CD-RW: Inclusion of "formats" and "disc" images.

"Glossary", a feature designed to aid understanding and navigation of the

"Guide" and to provide a general glossary resource for PC terminology;

Graphics Cards: Addition of section on "Talisman";

Sound Cards: Inclusion of "components" and "MIDI" images and additional text in section on "Sampling and Recording".

CRT Monitors: Inclusion of "distortions" image in section on "Controls" and additional text in section on "Safety standards".

Laser Printers: Sections added on "Consumables" and "Environmental issues";

Removable Storage: Inclusion of "Kerr Effect" image

Serial Comms: Update of 56 Kbit/s section and inclusion of associated image.

Site launched.