HP workstations go mobile

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) has entered the fledgling mobile workstation market with the release of the Compaq Evo Mobile Workstation N800w., it announced Monday.

ATI Technologies Inc.'s Mobility Fire GL 9000 graphics controller powers the high-quality graphics required by engineering professionals, delivering 64M bytes of dedicated video memory. The Fire GL 9000 was also announced Monday by ATI, and makes its debut in the N800w, said Paul Reed, North American product manager for the workstation division of HP.

High-end graphics are what turns a powerful notebook computer into a mobile workstation, Reed said. "To truly be a workstation, you need to use open 3D graphics, and be able to utilize graphics-intensive programs," he said. Those graphics are displayed on a 15-inch UXGA (1600 pixels by 1200 pixels) LCD (liquid crystal display) screen. The N800w was certified and tested for CAD (computer-aided design) engineers and video editors who need a mobile version of the powerful desktop workstations normally used in those industries, Reed said

The N800w will be available worldwide on Sept. 30. The base configuration in the U.S. includes the 2.2GHz Mobile Pentium 4-M processor, 512M bytes of DDR (double data rate) SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM), a 60G-byte internal hard drive, the 15-inch display, two USB (universal serial bus) 2.0 ports, a DVD/CD-RW drive, and a USB three-button mouse for a list price of US$3,899.

News source: InfoWorld