Intel’s Springdale appears in new PCs

Several PC vendors Wednesday released systems based on new technology from Intel, including new processors and a new chipset.

IBM, Gateway, Dell, HP and Acer America were among the vendors introducing PCs with the new technologies. Most of the PCs will use Intel’s Springdale chipset, now known as the 865G. The new chipset supports Pentium 4 processors with an 800-MHz front-side bus, and systems with DDR400 (double data rate) memory.

As part of Wednesday’s announcement, Intel is also bringing its hyperthreading technology to slower processors in its Pentium 4 product line. Hyperthreading is a technique that convinces a system’s operating system that two processors are present on a single-processor system, causing it to send more instructions to that processor. Prior to Wednesday’s announcement, hyperthreading was only available on the 3.06 GHz and 3 GHz Pentium 4 chips, and Intel’s Xeon server chips.

New Pentium 4 processors at 2.4 GHz, 2.6 GHz and 2.8 GHz now support both hyperthreading and 800-MHz front-side buses. The new chips are priced at $178, $218, and $278, respectively, in quantities of 1,000 units.

IBM’s ThinkCentre S50 and M50 are designed for corporate customers considering enterprise-wide PC replacements or new deployments, said Dilip Bhatia, worldwide segment marketing manager for IBM. IBM will also release the A50p, a desktop designed for media applications, on Wednesday.

The new PCs were designed with IT managers in mind, Bhatia said. IBM will guarantee that drivers and other components will remain stable for at least a year, and the PCs will ship with ImageUltra, the company’s software for managing images on a network’s PCs. IBM will also include an improved version of its Rapid Restore feature in the new PCs, and customers can opt for an integrated security chip that can store important data away from the hard drive.

The S50 is a small desktop, measuring 12.2 inches wide by 14.1 inches deep by 3.3 inches high (31cm by 36.5cm by 8.4cm), when set up horizontally. It is made completely out of steel, and all components such as the hard drive or system board can be removed without tools, Bhatia said. A base configuration with a 2.0GHz Intel Celeron processor, 128M bytes of memory, a 40G-byte hard drive, and a CD-ROM drive costs US$729.

IBM’s M50 is available in three shapes: tower, desktop, or small desktop, Bhatia said. It comes with enhanced support for Linux distributions from Red Hat and SuSE Linux AG. A base configuration with a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 processor, 256M bytes of memory, a 40G-byte hard drive, and a CD-ROM drive costs $979.

The A50p is designed for smaller businesses interested in media applications, Bhatia said. A base configuration with a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4, 128M bytes of RAM, a 40G-byte hard drive, and a CD-ROM drive costs $699. Later this year, IBM will release a similar model called the A30 at a lower starting price of $469, Bhatia said.

IBM will also release four new monitors Wednesday: two 17-inch flat-panel monitors and two cathode ray tube (CRT) displays. The L170 and L170p flat panels are immediately available for $499 and $539, respectively. The 17-inch C170 and 19-inch C190 CRT monitors will be available on June 6 for $189 and $249, respectively.

HP is planning a new business strategy along with the release of two desktops and a thin-client device Wednesday. It plans to sell to its enterprise customers bundled products and services that focus on three main areas, reducing total cost of ownership, improving security and integrating mobile and wireless devices, said Tore Fretheim, manager of cross-platform solutions in worldwide marketing for HP’s Personal Systems Group.

HP’s two new desktops, the d530 or d330, make use of the new Intel processors and chipsets. The d530 comes in three different models: small form factor, ultra-slim desktop and convertible minitower, which costs $30 extra. A typical configuration of the small form factor d530 with the new 2.6-GHz Pentium 4 processor, 256M bytes of DDR SDRAM, a 40G-byte hard drive, and a CD-ROM drive costs $1,019. The d330, in a base configuration, costs $499 with a 2.2-GHz Intel Celeron processor, 128M bytes of DDR SDRAM, a 40G-byte hard drive, and a CD-ROM drive.

Customers can choose a fixed-configuration d530 desktop as part of the company’s PC Migration Service Bundle. That model, with a 2.6-GHz Pentium 4 processor, 256M bytes of memory, a 40G-byte hard drive, and a CD-RW drive, costs $909. As part of the migration service, HP will install the PC, set it up, and remove an old PC for an extra $110 per PC.

And just like a used car dealer, HP will offer customers until July 31 a cash refund of up to $220 for desktops or $750 for notebooks to trade in their old PCs for new HP models.

HP also unveiled a thin-client device Wednesday as part of its enterprise announcement. Sources had indicated that HP was planning to launch blade PCs, but the t5700 is a traditional thin client that stores all its data on a server. Blade PCs are thin, rack-mounted PCs that store data on individual user-controlled units housed in an IT department’s server room.

The t5700 comes with a 1-GHz TM5800 Crusoe processor from Transmeta, the first time a manufacturer has used a Transmeta processor in a thin client, said Michael DeNeffe, director of marketing for Transmeta. Many companies like thin clients because of their easy management features and security, but users are skeptical about the performance of thin clients, he said.

The new HP thin client addresses those issues by providing an experience as close to a desktop as possible in a thin client, DeNeffe said. A base configuration with the TM5800, 192M bytes of flash memory, 256M bytes of DDR SDRAM, and a Rage XC graphics card from ATI Technologies, costs $599.

Gateway included the new Intel chipset in an update to its Gateway 500S PC, which is a consumer machine. The Poway, Calif., company plans to bring the new chipset to its business desktops in early June. Consumers can purchase the 500S now for $999 with a hyperthreading-enabled 2.4 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor, 256M bytes of DDR SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM), an 80G-byte hard drive, a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, and a 17-inch monitor.

The company will offer a hyperthreading-enabled 2.6 GHz Pentium 4 processor with its 500X and 500XL desktops starting Wednesday.

Dell updated several desktops with the new Intel technology. The company released the Dimension 4600C, the smallest Dimension desktop the company has released in the U.S. It is 60% smaller than the 4600, which was also released Wednesday as an update to the Dimension 4550. A typical configuration of the Dimension 4600 priced at $1,129 comes with a 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 processor, 512M bytes of DDR SDRAM, a 60G-byte hard drive, a DVD-ROM drive, and a 17-inch CRT monitor.

A base configuration of the 4600C comes with a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 processor, 256M bytes of DDR333 memory, a 30G-byte hard drive, a CD-ROM drive, and a 15-inch flat-panel monitor for $999.

The Round Rock, Texas, company also released new OptiPlex desktops and a new workstation that support the new Intel technology. The OptiPlex desktops are designed for enterprise customers and are the first Dell PCs to offer, as a default setting, technology that has received the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Star rating for power-efficient products. Up until now the energy-saving technology was available as an option.

The OptiPlex GX270 comes with an 2.0 GHz Intel Celeron processor, 128M bytes of DDR SDRAM, a 40G-byte hard drive, and integrated audio and graphics for $599. A base configuration of the OptiPlex SX270 comes with a 2.0 GHz Celeron processor, 128M bytes of RAM, a 20G-byte hard drive, and integrated audio and graphics for $579. Customers can add any of the new Intel processors to the OptiPlex desktops.

For workstation customers, Dell released the Precision Workstation 360, which is based on a new chassis and Intel’s previously released 875P chipset. It comes with a 2.26 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor with a 533 MHz front-side bus, 256M bytes of DDR SDRAM, a 40G-byte hard drive, and a Quadro NVS 280 graphics card from NVidia Corp for $899.

Acer America also released a new PC within its Veriton series based on the Intel 865G. The Veriton 7600G comes with a 2.6 GHz Pentium 4 with an 800 MHz front-side bus, 512M bytes of DDR400 SDRAM, an 40G-byte hard drive, and a CD-ROM drive for $949.