I.T. Times
Volume 3. No 2 Information Technology News of the University of California, Davis Winter 1995

CAIT's Corner

CAIT Welcomes Your Feedback


A joint project of the General Library and the Division of Information Technology, the Center for Advanced Information Technology (CAIT) is located on the first floor of Shields Library. Hours are 9 a.m. - noon and 1 - 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. CAIT's Corner is brought to you by the CAIT staff.

At the CAIT, our 1995 New Year's resolution is simple. We want to get to know you better. Which topics interest you? What kind of presentations would you like to attend now -- and in the future? Please send us your feedback via mail, e-mail, advancedit@ucdavis.edu, or phone 752- 5711. You're welcome to visit us in person on the first floor of Shields Library. Or you can travel online to the CAIT through Gopher (cait.ucdavis.edu) or the World Wide Web (http://cait.ucdavis.edu).

New Equipment

Macintosh 8100/110: The latest in the Power Mac line, the 8100/110 is the fastest and most powerful Mac yet. Our machine has a 2 GB HD, 16 MB RAM, and a CD-ROM. If you want to try out multimedia, rendering, or authoring software, now is your chance.

Evaluations

Internet Tools: Sick of searching the network to find the "best" thing out there? Well, the CAIT has been evaluating commercial, shareware, and freeware products to find the best Telnet, Gopher, FTP, newstreader, and Web browser for Macintosh, PC, and terminal users. Links to our findings will soon be posted on our home page (http://cait.ucdavis.edu).

Technical Talk

Speed Bumps: You may have heard the latest catch phrase, "Speed Bumps." Unlike their counterparts on the roadways, which slow you down, these bumps will make your applications run faster. The whole line of Power Macs has been bumped up. The 6100/60 now runs at 66 Mhz. The 7100/66 at 80 Mhz. The 7100/66 at 80 Mhz, and the 8100/80 at 100 Mhz. You may be asking, "Well, how much more do I have to pay?" Compared to their slower counterparts, the 7100 and 8100 have dropped in price. For the 6100, you will have to pay about $100 more.

Pentium Flaw: A hot issue in recent months has been the flaw in the floating point unit of the Pentium processor. According to Intel, the flaw can produce reduced precision in floating point divide operations once every nine billion random number pairs. As of Dec. 21, 1994, Intel instituted a Pentium exchange policy. Any owner who requests it can exchange the current version of the Pentium processor for an updated version in which this floating point divide flaw is corrected free of charge anytime during the life of the computer. Just call 1-800-628-8686.

ietpubs@ucdavis.edu