Toshiba offers consistency with new desktop, notebook lines

Toshiba America Inc. today released its Equium 7100 desktop PC series powered byIntel Corp.'s latest line of processors and announced that it is offering the Tecra 8000 series of built-to-order notebooks with Intel's new Mobile Pentium III 500 MHz processor and high-capacity hard drives.

The Equium 7100 series features Intel's 650 MHz and 700 MHz processors as well as consistent hardware components and a standard software load—including operating system, drivers, utilities and productivity applications—across multiple chassis styles. That means government customers can upgrade from slim-line chassis through minitower without having to requalify the machines.

"Once customers get a system they like, they want to keep buying it," said Mike Wagner, director of marketing for commercial desktops at Toshiba Computer Systems Group. With the Equium 7100 series, "customers won't have to go through the requalification or testing process," he said. This lowers the total cost of ownership (TCO) and enables customers to seamlessly integrate the new versions throughout their existing enterprise.

Equium 7100 systems with 650 MHz processors start at $1,499 and 7100 systems with 700 MHz processors start at $1,699.

Like the Equium 7100 series, "the Tecra 8000 [notebook] series maintains one software image and uses the same motherboard in order to provide a stable platform and protect the customer's investment," Wagner said.

The Tecra 8000 also is available with an 18G hard drive. It features 256K of integrated Level 2 cache, a 100 MHz bus and memory expandable to 256M. Other options include a 4X DVD-ROM and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT 4.0 operating system.

Toshiba's new service option, known as SystemGuard, offers accidental damage coverage with no questions asked. The company also features an on-call global help-desk network that offers notebook service worldwide.

In keeping with TCO concerns, Toshiba plans to continue to offer the same accessories for the new Tecra 8000 versions as it has for other products in the past. "Government users look for stability of accessories, and we're continuing the same accessory support for docking stations, port replicators, floppy and CD-ROM drives," Wagner said.

Toshiba is offering a high-volume configuration of the Tecra 8000 that is available immediately for $3,999. This configuration features a Pentium III 500 MHz processor, 64M of memory, a 14.1-inch thin film transistor display, a 10.1G hard drive, a 4X DVD-ROM and Microsoft's Windows 98.