News Bits:Gateway Battery Recall, Intel Processor Roadmap, New Samsung Hard Drives
Gateway recalls notebook batteries due to risk of fire
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Gateway announced today the voluntary recall of Gateway lithium ion notebook battery packs. According to the CPSC, the battery packs can overheat and pose a fire hazard. About 14,000 of the units have the problem; so far no injuries have been reported.
The battery packs were sold between May 2003 and August 2003. The CPSC recommends that consumers stop using these battery packs immediately and contact Gateway to get a replacement.
Read More (CPSC.gov)
Intel's summer notebook processor roadmap revealed
This summer Intel plans to release several new processors for notebooks. The first group will come on July 8, consisting of the Core 2 Extreme X7800 and the Celeron M 540. On September 2, Intel will release the Core 2 Extreme X7900, Core 2 Duo T7250, T7800, L7700, U2100, U2200, and Celeron M 550.
In addition, two un-announced CPUs, the Core 2 Duo T5450 and T5250, have been spotted in the specifications of Dell's Santa Rosa Inspiron notebooks. The specifications of these processors are detailed in the table below.
| Processor Model | Clockspeed (GHz) | Cache | FSB (MHz) | Price |
| Core 2 Duo Extreme X7900 | 2.8 | 4MB | 800 | $851 |
| Core 2 Duo Extreme X7800 | 2.6 | 4MB | 800 | $851 |
| Core 2 Duo T7800 | 2.6 | 4MB | 800 | $361 |
| Core 2 Duo T7250 | 2.0 | 2MB | 800 | $209 |
| Core 2 Duo T5450 | 1.66 | 2MB | 667 | N/A |
| Core 2 Duo T5250 | 1.5 | 2MB | 667 | N/A |
| Core 2 Duo L7700 | 1.8 | 4MB | 800 | $316 |
| Core 2 Solo U2200 | 1.2 | 1MB | 533 | $262 |
| Core 2 Solo U2100 | 1.06 | 1MB | 533 | $241 |
| Celeron M 550 | 2.0 | 1MB | 533 | $134 |
| Celeron M540 | 1.86 | 1MB | 533 | $107 |
Panasonic and Verizon Wireless today announced that embedded access to the high speed BroadbandAccess network is now available on the broad range of Panasonic Toughbook notebooks. Products now certified to run on the Verizon Wireless Revision A network include the Toughbook 30 notebook, the Toughbook 19 convertible tablet PC, and the Toughbook 74. Verizon's Revision A network has average download speeds of 600kbps to 1.4 Mbps; average upload speeds range from 500 to 800 kbps. Access to the Verizon Wireless BroadbandAccess service requires the purchase of the Sierra Wirreless embedded MC-5725 PCI express card and VZAccess software. The full line of Panasonic Toughbook notebooks is available now nationwide through authorized Panasonic Toughbook resellers and "buy now" partners available on www.panasonic.com/toughbook. Samsung today introduced its new Spinpoint N2 series 1.8-inch mobile hard drives. They feature the highest capacity available in a 1.8-inch form factor (120GB) and the fastest speed (4200RPM). Samsung claims the N2 series offers the fastest boot times, lowest power consumption, and quietest operation available in 1.8-inch hard drives. The N2 series ranges in capacity from 80GB to 120GB.
The new 2.5" hard drives include the MH80 hybrid hard drives available in 160GB capacities, and the Spinpoint M5 series which offers single-disk capacities up to 160GB and dual-disk models in 250GB capacities. All of Samsung's new models are shipping now. The FlashON MH80 hybrid hard disk drive features a 256MB flash memory cache that is optimized to work with Windows Vista notebooks. When used with Microsoft's ReadyDrive software, it offers increased system performance. The MH80 hard drive has a $299 MSRP. Answer: Re: News Bits:Gateway Battery Recall, Intel Processor Roadmap, New Samsung Hard Drives In addition, two un-announced CPUs, the Core 2 Duo T5450 and T5250, have been spotted in the specifications of Dell's Santa Rosa Inspiron notebooks. well i hope this is just a mistake from Dell's side, because otherwise the new Inspirons won't be any Santa Rosa platform with a 667MHz bus ! :( Answer: Re: News Bits:Gateway Battery Recall, Intel Processor Roadmap, New Samsung Hard Drives OK maybe I'm stupid but what is the difference between these 2 other than the name and huge price??? Core 2 Duo Extreme X7800 2.6 4MB 800 $851 Core 2 Duo T7800 2.6 4MB 800 $361 Answer: Re: News Bits:Gateway Battery Recall, Intel Processor Roadmap, New Samsung Hard Drives well i hope this is just a mistake from Dell's side, because otherwise the new Inspirons won't be any Santa Rosa platform with a 667MHz bus ! :( They will still be on Santa Rosa's Socket P, just as budget alternatives. Answer: Re: News Bits:Gateway Battery Recall, Intel Processor Roadmap, New Samsung Hard Drives Core 2 Duo Extreme X7800 2.6 4MB 800 $851 Core 2 Duo T7800 2.6 4MB 800 $361 whats the difference between these two? the price is more than doubled! Answer: Re: News Bits:Gateway Battery Recall, Intel Processor Roadmap, New Samsung Hard Drives The Core 2 Extreme has an unlocked multiplier. Not sure of exactly what it does, but I think its related to overclocking. Also I think the Extreme series of chips has more L3 cache, but thats knowledge from the Pentium 4/D EE chips, so I'm not sure if that still applies now. What I want to know is, is it a straight jump from 7250 -> 7800, or are the other models still going to be there, with price cuts? And what happened to the ULV Core 2 Duo chips? And I actually first spotted the 1.66GHz T5450 in HP's dv2500/dv6500 release materials. Answer: Re: News Bits:Gateway Battery Recall, Intel Processor Roadmap, New Samsung Hard Drives The first group will come on July 8, consisting of the Core 2 Extreme X7800 and the Celeron M 540. The Celeron M 540 is already available (apparently) from Zepto. What am I missing? Answer: Re: News Bits:Gateway Battery Recall, Intel Processor Roadmap, New Samsung Hard Drives they will not be available to the consumer as retail boxed units (off newegg and such) until July 8/September 2. Ah yes - I forgot that they even could be bought alone. Barebone laptops are still a pretty niche market. Thanks for the clarification. |
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