John and ALL: Article...IBM and Hitachi introduce Tillamook Notebooks...
infoworld.com
IBM, Hitachi ready notebooks sporting Tillamook chip
By Dan Briody
InfoWorld Electric
Posted at 2:06 PM PT, Sep 3, 1997
IBM will use the introduction of Intel's mobile Pentium chip, called Tillamook, next week to unveil the ThinkPad 770 series of high-end, high-performance notebooks that the company is dubbing its Extreme Notebook.
Meanwhile, Hitachi also plans a roll out of Tillamook-based portables on Monday.
For IBM's part, the company will discontinue sales of the ThinkPad 760 series early next year and has completely redesigned the 770 series.
The new models will do away with the lift-up keyboard and instead go with the more traditional anchored keyboard. The floppy disk drive and CD-ROM drive will be accessed from the side of the notebook using the Ultra-Bay II.
The components, however, will be cross-compatible with 760 components, according to sources.
All of the new models will weigh less than eight pounds and will come with a new trackball that enables double-clicking on the ball itself, according to sources. It will also feature a third thumb paddle for Web-page scrolling and panning.
Pricing will start at $5,000 for the low-end models. The configurations are as follows:
The base model will come with a 200-MHz Pentium MMX processor, a 13.3-inch active matrix display, 32MB of RAM (expandable to 256MB), a 3.2GB hard drive, an optional 20-speed CD-ROM or digital video disc (DVD) drive, 2MB of video RAM, 3-D surround sound and Dolby digital output, MPEG2 hardware, and Windows 95.
The midrange system will come with a 233-MHz Pentium MMX processor, a 13.3-inch active matrix display, a 4GB hard drive, 32MB of RAM, MPEG2 hardware, a 20-speed CD-ROM or DVD drive, 2MB of video RAM, 3-D surround sound and Dolby digital output, and Windows 95.
The high-end system will come with a 233-MHz Pentium MMX processor, a 14.1-inch active matrix display, a 5.1GB hard drive (expandable to 10.2GB), 32MB of RAM, standard MPEG2 hardware, and a standard 36Kbps fax/modem (expandable to 56Kbps with software upgrade).
Meanwhile, Hitachi is also readying a release of new VisionBook Pro and Elite notebooks that include the new Tillamook processors from Intel.
The VisionBook Pro will include a 233-MHz Pentium MMX processor, 32MB of RAM, a 13.3-inch active matrix display, a 20X CD-ROM drive, a U.S. Robotics 56Kbps integrated modem, and a 4.5GB hard drive.
The VisionBook Elite will weigh in at just more than 5 pounds and will include a 200-MHz Pentium MMX processor, a 13.3-inch active matrix display, a 3.2GB hard drive, and 16MB of RAM.
Both products are expected to ship in November and prices will start at $4,599.
IBM, in Armonk, N.Y., can be reached at ibm.com. Hitachi PC Co., a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., is in San Jose, Calif., and can be reached at hitachipc.com.
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