10/14, 3:20pm
Toshiba unveils Win 7 PCs with no clutter
Toshiba on Wednesday updated its notebooks with Windows 7 and a rare promise among Windows PC makers. The company promises that all of its systems running the new OS, including its touchscreen models, will go without any icons on the desktop except for the default Recycle Bin. System performance should get a boost as the PCs will run as little software in the background as possible, in many cases only running anti-virus tools.
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09/23, 5:30pm
Toshiba Qosmio X500 for US
Quickly following the UK release, Toshiba has brought out an American version of the Qosmio X500. The 18.4-inch desktop replacement notebook is the PC builder's first to use a Core i7 processor and revolves around the 1.6GHz quad-core chip's added power for games and movies. It similarly comes with a 1GB GeForce GTS 250M for video. The 1080p display is stock, though for the US release Toshiba notes that not every model will have a Blu-ray drive.
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09/23, 11:20am
Toshiba Core i7-powered Qosmio X500 dated for UK
Toshiba UK on Wednesday announced it has added a new flagship gaming notebook, the 18.4-inch Qosmio X500. The system is just the second notebook driven by Intel's mobile Core i7 CPU, which normally runs at 1.6GHz but can operate at 2.8GHz when in Turbo Boost mode. Toshiba also regards it as a media system beyond the processor and gives it both a 1080p display as well as a Blu-ray burner and HDMI-CEC support for remote control from other peripherals.
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12/12, 1:00pm
Toshiba Qosmio FX, GX
Toshiba on Friday introduced three new Dynabook Qosmio-series notebooks for its home territory of Japan, with the multimedia-focused G50 and GX and FX pair meant for gamers with nearly identical specifications. All three feature a dual-core 2.4GHz Intel CPU set into Intel's PM45 Express mainboard and an NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics card with a dedicated 512MB of memory, along with 4GB of RAM. The two gaming notebooks get 320GB hard disk drives and an integrated draft-N 2.0 Wi-Fi module. The key difference between the two is the GX notebook's 18.4-inch, 1680x945 LCD screen and the FX notebook's 15.4-inch, 1280x800 display.
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10/21, 8:35am
Toshiba Qosmio X305 Quad
Toshiba this morning gave the Qosmio X305 a major upgrade by updating nearly all its architecture. The 17-inch gaming system's new Q708 variant adds a 2.53GHz Core 2 Extreme quad-core chip and upgrades from the GeForce 9700M video hardware of before to dual GeForce 9800M GTS graphics chipsets that should provide more desktop-like 3D performance than before. Like the MacBook Pro, however, the X305 also uses a GeForce 9400M as its mainboard chipset and so is not only more space-efficient but can switch to integrated video to save power when the system isn't attached to a wall outlet.
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09/22, 12:30pm
45nm Cell PS3 Chip in 2009
Sony and Toshiba today said they would start producing 45 nanometer versions of the Cell processor next year. The process is 50 percent more complex than the 65 nanometer process used for most current Cell chips and will allow the PlayStation 3 to use both a much smaller and cooler-running processor but also to cost less. Versus the current manufacturing process, the two companies' new technique can produce about 50 percent more chips at a time, reducing the cost for each processor.
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07/18, 12:45pm
GeForce 9700M and 9800M
NVIDIA today quietly published details for its two highest-end GeForce 9M series notebook graphics chips following leaks by PC makers. The 9800M line is now NVIDIA's flagship and is much closer to desktop-class graphics than the earlier 9600M; the top-end 9800M GTX has 112 effects processors that compares closely to the 128 of the desktop 9800, suiting it to desktop replacement portables and very compact desktops. It runs at 500MHz at its core with a 1.9GHz effective memory speed.
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07/15, 2:50am
Toshiba ships Qosmios
With announcements from HP, Lenovo, and Sony, Toshiba also took the opportunity to announce (and ship) new Centrino 2 versions of its recently announced notebooks for faster networking, better performance, and improved battery life. The Satellite Pro S300 laptop, updated with latest Core Duo processor and Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD, offers Toshiba's fourth-generation EasyGuard technology, sleep-and-charge USB ports, optional SSD/flash-memory drive configurations, built-in docking capabilities and Webcam with business card reader software (starts at $1,2993). For its business-oriented Tecra models, Toshiba is using Intel's Centrino 2 with vPro micro-architecture to manage and secure mobile workforces using hardware-assisted remote isolation, diagnostics and repair: the Tecra M10 has a starting MSRP of $1,399, while the Tecra A10 pricing has yet to be determined.
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06/17, 9:15am
Toshiba Qosmio G55 More
Toshiba this morning revealed a near-total overhaul of its Qosmio notebooks with three new models, all of which are the first with new features. The Qosmio G55 is the first-ever notebook to build in a variant of the Cell processor from Sony's PlayStation 3. In the portable, the chip is set to use just four cores but uses them to transcode video far faster than would be possible using the main processor. A 10-minute video that would take an hour to process takes just one minute to handle on the G55, the company says. It also upscales DVDs to 1080p to minimize the low-resolution artifacts that creep up on an HD-capable screen.
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12/17, 8:45am
Toshiba Qosmio HD DVD-RW
In a late addition to its PC range, Toshiba on Monday revealed its first-ever portables to support HD DVD re-recording. New versions of the 15.4-inch Qosmio F40 and the 17-inch G40 each sport HD DVD-RW drives that allow them to be used hundreds or thousands of times for HD DVD content, such as large data backups or for videos. An update in February will allow either of the systems to burn copies of unprotected HDTV broadcasts pulled from their built-in digital TV tuners, the company adds.
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