News Bits: Intel Preparing Eleven New Processors, Toshiba 320GB HD, Air Force Selects HP

Intel prepares 11 new processors for notebooks

Intel is planning to launch five new 45nm processors for the refresh of its Santa Rosa platform in Q1 2008. Six more will be launched with the introduction of the next-gen Montevina platform in Q2.

The five processors for the Santa Rosa refresh are as follows:

The Montevina processors are as follows:

The 2.13 -2.53GHz processors with the 25W TDP will target the mainstream. The model numbers of all 11 processors are unknown at this point in time. The Penryn processors will make up 53 percent of Intel's total notebook CPU shipments in Q2 2008. Merom processors for Santa Rosa make up the rest.

Read More (DigiTimes.com)


Toshiba announces 320GB notebook hard drive

Toshiba announced its new 320GB 2.5-inch notebook hard drive. The drive has a 3.0Gbps SATA interface and a 5400RPM speed. The drive is composed of two platters holding 160GB each. All of Toshiba's new hard drives have 8MB of cache.

According to Toshiba, the media transfer rate is 801Mbps and the drive has an average seek time of 12 ms.

Read More (DailyTech.com)


Samsung introduces 160GB 1.8-inch hard drive

Samsung today announced its new 1.8-inch hard drive with a 160GB capacity. It is the industry's highest-capacity 1.8-inch hard drive. Samsung expects the 1.8-inch hard drive market to grow in annual sales up to 65 percent by 2010. There is no information available on when this drive will be released.

Read More (Laptoping.com)


Quanta to remain number one notebook maker next year

Quanta is expected to remain as the number one notebook maker worldwide in 2008 thanks to large orders from HP and Acer. Quanta received orders from HP for four million 15.4-inch mainstream notebooks and Acer has placed orders for four notebook models.

Read More (DigiTimes.com)


U.S. Air Force selects HP as the "Best Value Vendor"

The U.S. Air Force has selected HP fo fulfill its desktop and notebook PC orders as part of the USAF's quarterly IT purchase process. The USAF Information Technology Commodity Council named HP the "Best Value Vendor"

HP will provide the USAF with HP Compaq dc5750 desktop PCs (Small Form Factor/Microtower) and HP Compaq tc400 Tablet PCs. HP's Public Sector Volume Sales vice president Sami Zarzour said in a statement: “We are proud that the U.S. Air Force continues to count on HP for top performance and value when fulfilling its computing needs. HP looks forward to building on our longstanding relationship with the service by offering the products, solutions and services it needs to manage its complex IT requirements.”

HP has delivered over $100 million worth of products to the USAF since October 2004.

Read More (BusinessWire.com)


Augmentix introduces XTG630 fully-rugged notebook

Augmentix Corporation announced its new XTG630 fully-rugged notebook. It features the latest Intel and new DirectVue LCD technologies. The XTG630 is based on the Dell Latitude platform and is aimed at military, industrial, government, and commercial customers.

The XTG630 has a 14.1-inch widescreen DirectVue LCD screen, multiple security features, and next-gen wireless performance. DirectVue dramatically improves readability in sunlit conditions.

The Augmentix XTG630 is available for immediate delivery from Augmentix or an authorized business partner. The notebook is available in two color schemes, Desert Tan or Black and Charcoal, although Augmentix has a Custom ID program that allows customers to select their own colors and logos based on minimum order quantities.

Read More (BusinessWire.com)


Intel releases official driver to enable hardware shading on G965

Intel had previously released a beta driver for its G965 Express chipset that enabled hardware shading, however it only enabled shader model 2.0. Now Intel has released an official non-beta driver that adds support for shader model 3.0 and in a WHQL certified package. Owners of machines based on the G965 chipset will receive a small performance boost.

The catch is that the driver is only available for Windows XP right now, and it is not for mobile chipsets. Intel plans to release drivers for both of those in the future.

Read More (DailyTech.com)