Rugged notebook with DVD drive

Panasonic this week launched a rugged, under 3-lb. notebook that includes a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, as well as Intel’s Centrino technology.

The new Toughbook CF-W2 notebook runs on an ultra-low-voltage Intel Pentium M processor (900MHz) with 1M bytes of on-die L2 cache, 256M bytes of DDR RAM (expandable to 512M bytes), and a 40G-byte hard drive, Panasonic said. The notebook has a 12.1-inch XGA TFT active-matrix LCD, with a maximum resolution of 1,024 by 768 pixels (16 million colors). Attached to an external monitor, the notebook can produce resolution of 1,600 by 1,200 pixels and 16 million colors.

The combination drive provides 8x-speed DVD-ROM, 6x-speed CD-R, 4x-speed CD-RW and 24x-speed CD-ROM capabilities. The Centrino technology provides integrated 802.11b wireless LAN connectivity. The notebook also includes a 56K byte/sec. V.90 analog modem, and 10/100 Ethernet port. The notebook has an estimated street price of $2,250, Panasonic said. For more information, go to the Panasonic Toughbook Web site.