Sony's Vaio X: Like TiVo on Steroids

CHIBA, JAPAN -- Sony will begin selling in Japan in November a combination personal computer and video server that can record up to seven channels of television simultaneously, it said at the Ceatec 2004 exhibition here. The Vaio VGX-X90P goes on sale in Japan on November 20 and will cost around $4727.To understand the Vaio X computer it's best to think of it as three things packed into one black, shiny box.

On one side it's a multimedia personal computer, with two 250GB hard drives and a television tuner. Users can do all the normal things they would with one of the company's Vaio computers including recording television programs from a single analog channel or, via an optional unit, a digital TV channel. Also packed into its tower-PC sized case are two video server boards. Each unit contains three analog TV tuners and is connected to a 250GB hard drive. The unit runs on the Micro iTron operating system and the interface with the rest of the PC is via an Ethernet port, says Junji Tsuyuki, a senior product producer at Sony's IT and mobile solutions network department.

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