Itronix, Twinhead target new rugged notebooks at consumers

- Gary Thayer, Editor

September 8, 2005 -- (MobileVillage) -- In separate announcements this week, Itronix and Silicon-Valley based Twinhead have each announced new rugged notebooks for consumers and professionals, meant to withstand the bumps and shocks of normal daily laptop use.

According to analyst firm Technology Business Research, notebook damage costs average of $2,900 per incident, and have been increasing an estimated 22.5 percent over the past three years. Rugged notebook makers claim that organizations may be able to improve their return on investment by providing employees with rugged or semi-rugged notebooks.

Itronix has added the prosumer-oriented, semi-rugged VR-1 to its GoBook line of rugged notebooks. The US $3,329 GoBook VR-1 is designed to meet military standard (MIL STD 810F) for vibration, humidity, and operating temperature range. The unit has a limited three-year warranty. Main features include:

• Magnesium alloy casing with stainless steel hinges
• 12.1"shock-mounted XGA display
• Spill-resistant keyboard and palm rest area
• 40GB (80GB optional) removable shock-mounted hard-disk drive
• 1.86 GHz Intel Centrino Pentium M processor + 533 MHz FSB –
• Up to 2 GB of DDRII DRAM (512 MB standard)
• PCMCIA slot and two USB 2.0 interfaces
• Optional express card and smart card slots
• Full cooling fan and optional hard drive heater for extreme temperatures
• 4-6 hour lithium-ION battery
• Up to four concurrent radios: Wi-Fi, WWAN, GPS and Bluetooth
• Four USB 2.0 ports (2 on the standalone unit, or a total of 4 when used in a docking station
• Firewire device driver
• Two serial ports and one parallel port
• External monitor/CRT port
• Two PS/2 ports (on docking station
• Microphone and speaker jacks
• Fingerprint scanner
• Smartcard reader
• Ability to be used in vehicles with a vehicle cradle
• 1.86 GHz Intel Centrino Pentium M processor + 533 MHz FSB
• Auto-adjusting LCD screen brightness

For a few hundred less, ($2,988), Itronix is also now selling its new Hummer laptop. The Hummer is essentially a GoBook painted in the bright yellow, red, or blue colors associated with the Hummer monster cars. The Hummer has the same features as the GoBook VR-1, except it offers slightly less (1.5 GB) DDRII DRAM, and has no fingerprint scanner or smartcard reader.

For more information, see the Itronix website.

For those more on a budget, Twinhead's Durabook N14RA notebook retails for US $999 (no-frills configuration). Like other models in the Durabook line, the N14RA is housed in a magnesium alloy case which is 20 times stronger than ABS plastic, and has withstood 26 drops from 36-inches onto plywood over concrete (unit off and display closed) -- the U.S. military 810F specification for drop resistance.

The N14RA also features an anti-shock LCD screen and hard drive, a spill-resistant keyboard and a patented optical disk tray lock, all capable of meeting military MIL 810F standards.

The N14RA includes double protection smart battery circuitry, which helps prevent damage caused by overheating and voltage surges, as well as battery calibration that helps fight battery capacity loss after repeated charges and discharges. Finally, a patented DVD/CD tray lock prevents unintentional ejection of the tray and disk due to drops or vibration.

Twinhead says that the Durabook N14RA is the first rugged notebook to feature AMD's Turion CPU - the latest 64-bit AMD processor designed for notebooks. The 6-pound unit offers a 14.1-inch TFT LCD screen with XGA resolution (1024 x 768).

Other features of the Durabook N14RA include a rubber shock-mounted 40/60/80/100/120 GB hard drive, VIA Technologies K8N800A graphics processor, AGP 4X8X 2D/3D video accelerator, and a mini-PCI wireless LAN module with 802.11b/g capabilities.

Twinhead's Durabook N14RA is now shipping and will soon be available through national computer distributors, retailers and e-tailers.

For more information, see the Twinhead web site (http://usa.twinhead.com).

In related news, Falls Church, VA based General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) this month completed its acquisition of Spokane, WA based Itronix. General Dynamics, which employs about 70,800 people, markets information technologies; land and expeditionary combat systems; armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and business aviation. Itronix will now become part of General Dynamics' C4 Systems. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

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