News Bits: Intel "Montevina" News, Toshiba Core 2 Duo Updates, Foxconn to Make Apple MacBooks

<!-- Generated by XStandard version 1.7.1.0 on 2006-10-11T17:07:29 -->

Intel Santa Rosa Platform to be followed by 'Montevina'

Although Intel has not yet shipped the next-generation Centrino platform, Santa Rosa, it is already working on its successor, codenamed 'Montevina'.

The new platform is due to ship in 2008, and will support the new 'Penryn' 45nm processors, which are die shrinks of the current Core 2 Duo CPUs. Penryn will appear in late 2007, and initialize the changeover to 45nm. In 2008, Intel will follow with the 'Nehalem' 45nm processors, the next major architecture revision.

Penryn is supposed to consume 29W of power, compared to the Merom's 35W. It will also introduce SSE 4, which adds 50 new instructions.

The Montevina platform as a whole will include the 'Cantiga' chipset, along with a new wireless module, 'Shiloh'. The new chipset supports a 1,067MHz FSB and probably 800MHz DDR3 RAM. The platform's integrated graphics chip will have 10 pixel shaders and a 475MHz core clock.

Read More

Toshiba announces Core 2 Duo notebooks

October 10^th - Toshiba has announced three notebooks featuring the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor - the ultraportable Satellite U205, the 14.1&quot; Satellite M115, and the desktop replacement Satellite P105. All three notebooks are available with the new entry-level Core 2 Duo T5200 processor, which has a 1.6GHz clockspeed, 2MB L2 cache, and 533MHz FSB.

The Satellite P105 is Toshiba's 17&quot; desktop replacement notebook, and features the latest technology that comes with Intel's Centrino Duo platform. The new models are the P105-S6124 and the S6134, with estimated retail prices of $1,499.99 and $1,549.99 respectively. Both feature the Intel Core 2 Duo T5200, external TV tuners, and a new Onyx Metallic Blue color. The Satellite P105-S6114 has a similar configuration sans the TV tuner, and is available for $1,399.99.

More Information

The 14.1&quot; Satellite M115 offers portable power in a thin-and-light form factor. The new model is the M115-S3144, which features the Intel Core 2 Duo T5600 processor and a new Onyx Blue Metallic color. The estimated retail price is $1,249.

More Information

Toshiba's Satellite U205 ultraportable notebook features a 12.1&quot; display and weighs only 4.1 lbs. The new models include the U205-S5034 and S5044, which are expected to retail for $1,299.99 and $1,599.99 respectively.

More Information

Devon IT announces Safebook

October 10^th - Devon IT has announced SafeBook, the thin client notebook which has features businesses expect from a thin client terminal, including a low purchase price and total cost of ownership savings. President of Devon IT, Joe Makoid, said in a statement:

&quot;The business imperative for thin client computing has never been greater. Security, manageability and lower total cost of ownership are demonstrated benefits of implementing thin clients in an enterprise IT environment. But what has been missing until now is a cost-effective solution that offers thin client security combined with notebook-style mobility.”

The SafeBook is a thin client notebook and does not have a hard drive; no data or applications are stored on the client. Remote access to applications is provided through Citrix ICA or Microsoft RDP protocols. The battery life of the SafeBook is over six hours, and can run anywhere on wireless, Ethernet, or 3G Broadband connections. The SafeBook starts at $799.

Read More

Foxconn secures Apple notebook orders

Foxconn has received notebook orders from Apple Computer, and will start volume shipments of the new MacBook to Apple by the end of 2006. Asustek Computer could see its Apple notebook orders cut by one-third in 2007 in comparison to the amount it received this year.

Read More

OpenOffice.org 2.0.4 released

October 10 ^th - OpenOffice.org today released version 2.0.4 of its productivity suite, which fixes numerous bugs - you can find the release notes here. A download link can be found here. OpenOffice.org provides a free alternative to Microsoft Office, and is the most popular non-Microsoft office suite.

Read More

Novatel Wireless announces first HSDPA ExpressCard

October 11^th - Novatel Wireless today announced that it has started commercial shipments of its Merlin XU870 ExpressCard to HSDPA and UMTS carriers worldwide. It is the first commercially available HSDPA ExpressCard. It fits in both /34 and /54 slots, and is a tri-band HSDPA/UMTS and quad-band EDGE/GPRS product. The XU870 is initially configured for 3.6Mbps data speeds, and a software utility will be available to upgrade the card to 7.2Mbps data speeds once mobile operaters start providing 7.2Mbps service.

Read More

 

Yay for OO

 

Holy crap... 45nm, 1066 FSB, 800MHz DDR3, and 29W of power? I certainly will want to see the H1 2009 lineup of notebooks then!

 

Interesting. Don't recall ever hearing Foxconn's name mentioned as a major player in the OEM market (like Quanta, Compal, Asus) for any major PC manufacturer before. Does anyone else use them?

 

interesting on the macbook news... I wonder if it will look the same? When they change OEM's, does the case design change or is it just an internal thing?

maybe it won't have overheating issues... =P

 

I'm just amazed at how quickly the CPUs are changing. It does make purchasing notebook quite depressing to know that a year later, a vastly revamped line-up cost less for more bang.

 

Definitely. I've been using OpenOffice.org since the beginning of the year (when I was too lazy to get my M$ Office disc so I installed OpenOffice.org instead), and have never looked back.

It won't change, no. The MacBook is going to be the same no matter who makes it.

 

Foxconn currently manufactures the Mac mini and iPod for Apple.

According to the wikipedia article on them, Foxconn seems to do a lot of other things as well, including designing and manufacturing motherboards for OEMs like Dell and HP. It sounds like they might do some other PC stuff for HP as well.

They also apparently manufacturer the Xbox 360, PS2 and the PS3 (or they are at least one of the manufacturers of them).

 

True, although there can always be a case re-design (most people are expecting that a case redesign of the MacBook Pro at least is almost guaranteed when Santa Rosa comes out).

I got the impression from the Foxconn story that they have actually gotten the contract for a new MacBook model (i.e. something other than the current 13" MacBook or 15 and 17 inch MacBook Pros), so it could also be something genuinely new, rather than just taking over manufacturing of the existing models.

 

Everything moves too fast, stop the world, I want to get off.

 

10 PS and 475MHz on integrated graphics... wow. That's notable. Can't wait to put my hands on one of those.

And couldn't agree more about OO. Been using it since my freshman year in college and it made me wonder why I ever used MS.

C.

 

Unfortunately that's life in the technology market. You will never be able to be "cutting-edge" for very long. Advances are continual. As long as you get something that will get you through to the next system, you don't have anything to feel bad about .

I downloaded OO, but didn't spend enough time to get used to the differences between it and MS Office. For business though, I often need an MS format to stay compatible. I'm sure there's a workaround, but I couldn't put in the time to figure it all out.

 

Wow...such amazing news. This certainly has made an impact upon my decision on purchasing a notebook over the coming new year.

 

The faster it goes, the sweeter the ride. Hang on!

 

I just wanted to mention that the last stable version of OpenOffice is 2.0.3. Version 2.0.4 is only available as a release candidate. Quote: "The software is not recommended for production deployment at this stage. There are no guarantees. For production, use 2.0.3."

 

Man Santa Rosa is coming but now I want Montevina! Aah stop it, I want to finally upgrade.

Charlie

 

I'm all for Montevina with WiMAX since it's a really new technology

 

Just when I will upgrade

Yay!

Edit: Re below, I didn't bother to check the dates Who has time for that!

 

May I ask you why you resurrected a 5-months-old-thread ?