Rugged goes semi-rugged

Rugged notebook maker Rugged Notebooks recently launched a semi-rugged model aimed at traveling business executives and sales professionals who don't need a fully rugged system. The Hawk Notebook includes "ruggedized" features such as a spill-proof keyboard, magnesium case and a hard drive (40G bytes) protected by an impact-absorbing gel to guard against accidental drops. The Hawk Notebook starts at $2,399, and is now available.

The Hawk notebook includes a 2.2GHz Pentium 4 processor (upgradeable to 2.6GHz), up to 256M bytes of DRAM (expandable to 640M bytes), integrated 802.11b wireless LAN connectivity (without a protruding antenna), built-in 10/100 Ethernet and 56K bit/sec modem ports, a 15.1-inch XGA resolution display (with an NVIDIA MAP 17 AGP 4x graphics accelerator that supports a 128-bit 3-D engine and either 32M bytes or 64M bytes of DDR video RAM), and a standard CD-RW/DVD combination drive.

For companies that need a more rugged offering, the company offers the Rough Rider line, a series of notebooks that meet the U.S. military standard for computers in a combat environment (including surviving a three-foot drop on concrete and exposure to four-inch-per-hour rainfall, and resistance to dust and desert sand). For more information on the company, go to the Rugged Notebooks Web site.