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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (51240)	2/28/1999 2:47:00 AM
From: Yougang Xiao	Respond to of 1580018

K6-2 based Toshiba Notebook coming to America: March 01, 1999, Issue: 831 Section: Systems & Peripherals Toshiba adds two Satellites, Portege Jennifer Hagendorf Irvine, Calif.-Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. broadened its lineup with two new value-priced notebooks and a faster ultraportable model. The Satellite 4060CDT completes the trio of Satellite notebooks to incorporate the latest processors from Intel Corp., announced in January. The 4060 features the 333MHz Pentium II processor, a 13.3-inch active-matrix display, a 4.3-Gbyte hard drive, a 24X CD-ROM drive and a floppy drive. The system will ship this month for $2,699. The company, based here, also introduced a new low-end model, the Satellite 2540CDS, the first Toshiba notebook to feature a processor from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. The 2540CDS and its counterpart retail version 2545CDS are targeted at customers whose primary consideration is price but still want a compelling feature set, said Chris Pollitt, Toshiba's group marketing manager for the Satellite line. The systems include AMD's 333MHz K6-2 processor with 3DNow technology, a 13-inch Color Bright display, 32 Mbytes of RAM and a 4-Gbyte hard drive for $1,599. In its choice to feature the AMD processor, Toshiba was considering more than just the bottom line, said Pollitt. "We're just not out shopping for the lowest price on a component," said Pollitt. The K6-2 offers solid performance with a high megahertz rating and strong 3-D graphics capabilities, he said. Toshiba also rolled out the Portege 3020, which will replace the Portege 3010 introduced last November. The 3020 offers two key enhancements: a faster processor and a larger hard drive. While the 3010 featured Intel's 266MHz Pentium processor with MMX technology and a 4-Gbyte hard drive, the 3020 includes a 300MHz Pentium processor and a 6.4-Gbyte hard drive. It also includes a durable magnesium-alloy case, 32 Mbytes of RAM and a 56-Kbps PC Card modem. Priced at $1,999, the system is slated to ship this month. While the Portege 3000 series, with its 10.4-inch display and smallish keyboard, is still a niche product, it carries appeal for a broader audience, said Pollitt. "Savvy notebook users [who have already owned several notebooks in the past] are looking at it very seriously," he said. Ultraportable notebooks also are making inroads with enterprise customers, Pollitt said. Companies are rolling them out for sales-force automation and for employees who do presentations or data analysis from the road. March 01, 1999, Issue: 831 Section: Systems & Peripherals Toshiba adds two Satellites, Portege Jennifer Hagendorf Irvine, Calif.-Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. broadened its lineup with two new value-priced notebooks and a faster ultraportable model. The Satellite 4060CDT completes the trio of Satellite notebooks to incorporate the latest processors from Intel Corp., announced in January. The 4060 features the 333MHz Pentium II processor, a 13.3-inch active-matrix display, a 4.3-Gbyte hard drive, a 24X CD-ROM drive and a floppy drive. The system will ship this month for $2,699. The company, based here, also introduced a new low-end model, the Satellite 2540CDS, the first Toshiba notebook to feature a processor from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. The 2540CDS and its counterpart retail version 2545CDS are targeted at customers whose primary consideration is price but still want a compelling feature set, said Chris Pollitt, Toshiba's group marketing manager for the Satellite line. The systems include AMD's 333MHz K6-2 processor with 3DNow technology, a 13-inch Color Bright display, 32 Mbytes of RAM and a 4-Gbyte hard drive for $1,599. In its choice to feature the AMD processor, Toshiba was considering more than just the bottom line, said Pollitt. "We're just not out shopping for the lowest price on a component," said Pollitt. The K6-2 offers solid performance with a high megahertz rating and strong 3-D graphics capabilities, he said. Toshiba also rolled out the Portege 3020, which will replace the Portege 3010 introduced last November. The 3020 offers two key enhancements: a faster processor and a larger hard drive. While the 3010 featured Intel's 266MHz Pentium processor with MMX technology and a 4-Gbyte hard drive, the 3020 includes a 300MHz Pentium processor and a 6.4-Gbyte hard drive. It also includes a durable magnesium-alloy case, 32 Mbytes of RAM and a 56-Kbps PC Card modem. Priced at $1,999, the system is slated to ship this month. While the Portege 3000 series, with its 10.4-inch display and smallish keyboard, is still a niche product, it carries appeal for a broader audience, said Pollitt. "Savvy notebook users [who have already owned several notebooks in the past] are looking at it very seriously," he said. Ultraportable notebooks also are making inroads with enterprise customers, Pollitt said. Companies are rolling them out for sales-force automation and for employees who do presentations or data analysis from the road. techweb.com

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (51240)	2/28/1999 10:14:00 AM
From: Bill Jackson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1580018

Tenchu, The standard K6-2 chip is as reliable as intel chips. Failures are rare. As to clone boxes...they are far more serviceable than Dell, IBM or Compaq boxes since the parts can be bought anywhere for less money than CompaqIBM or Dell parts. Most parts now made have a lifetime that exceeds the normal life of the computer. The only weak point in the clones are those cheap mice and keyboards, they will not stand up to 8 hour/day office use, but they are OK for home use. Business buyers know this and buy MS, logiteck, Mouse systems etc good mice instead of those $5 cheapos. Keytronics and Maxiswitch are better than the cheapo $10 keyboards. All motherboards, cards, power supplies etc are made of standard parts in robot factories and work very well. Less than 1% of clones fail in first year dut to hardware failure. Strangely enough rough shipping causes more dead-out-of-the-box failures than any other cause. Once those are fixed they all soldier on....with one exception...smoking environments...the fine ash destroys bearings in floppy drives, hard drives and cooling fans. The CBC in Toronto had the overhaul their tape editing decks twice a year for nicotine gum and ash wear...then strict no smoking rule with smoke detector and alarms(they found a rule without the smoke detector was ignored)....it took 3 years for the same amount of wear to accrue. Apart from that you are quite right about retail, it is dog eat dog out there. Businesses may buy at retail, but they get some insite or onsight service staff as they cannot afford to haul boxes away to a mall when they have a software problem(most problems are software/setup related). An AMD machine or an Intel machine will work at the same level of reliability as we have become commoditised with regard to CPUs. In addition, the down time for an IBM/Dell/Compaq for any work will be more than clones since in most areas you must ship them away, but clone stores and on site clone fixers are everywhere. Dell has a good onsite staff for large metro areas, and IBM and compaq have a similar and very pricy service in large areas. All others must ship to somewhere and if it is a software fault you get to pay for it bigtime. The achilles heel of the big companies is the repair loop, it is long . Bill

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (51240)	2/28/1999 1:48:00 PM
From: Trey McAtee	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1580018

tench-- where is the computer market growing now? the costs dont have to come down to VCR levels, but instead can remain where they are now pretty much. as for the money, yeah its on the retail end. why? cause thats where the volume is. ask SGI where the money is...its in the mass market. on the business end, as corporate profits are squeezed, which they undeniably ARE, its going to be harder to hide excessive spending on IT. DELLs most recent revenue numbers should have told you something. good luck to all, trey