The Timeline: 07-08-97 to 08-31-97

This covers the months of July and August. In this timeframe I cover the Hitachi VisionBook Pro, the new Transmonde Vivante' and take a look at the new Nimantics HS-166M, a 14.2" screen'ed notebook.
08-31-97: Transmonde Vivante' Review and Tillamook news
08-19-97: VisionBook Pro review and other stuff
08-11-97: Hitachi VisionBook Pro
08-06-97: Wrong Nimantics info, new stuff and budget notebooks
07-24-97: Nimantics Fieldtrip
07-23-97: Transmonde, Nimantics and some problems
07-17-97: Gateway Solo 9100 Update
07-08-97: Transmonde Review, TX and Tillamook

The TXs are coming...

The Dell vs. Micron Saga

The Archive

* If it has an asterisk next to it, that means I've made an error or corrected something that was in it. These changes can be found in:
Errors and Corrections

07-08-97: Transmonde Review, TX and Tillamook

In other news, it has been confirmed that the new Micron XKE does not use a Mobile Module Operations card. It does, however, use the new 430 TX chipset. I believe they will not use the MMO until the arrival of the 200/233 mobile MMX CPUs. And although the Gateway Solo 9100 does use the MMO, there is speculation on whether or not the current units (150/166MMX) can even be upgraded to the higher speed CPUs. Many people are e-mailing me about when the Tillamook (200/233 mobile MMXs) are going to ship. All I can say is that Intel's official announcement is Fall quarter. I can tell you that the new chips will be made on the 0.25u process, use 1.8-1.9v internally and the MMO will run externally at 2.5v. The current MMO runs at 3.3v externally and may be the reason why there are questions about the upgradeability of the Solo 9100. But supposedly, the MMO is supposed to handle all the voltage/speed/cache requirements so in theory it shouldn't be an issue, but with Intel, you never know. Mobile Computing has a preview on 2 new notebooks that use the 233 MMX mobile CPU, I don't think they were supposed to release this info so the link might expire but it is at their online site (*07-17-97: The URL was changed, so I updated it).

I still haven't heard anything about the mobile K6 but as soon as I know I will put it here.
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07-17-97: Gateway Solo 9100 Update

07-23-97: Transmonde, Nimantics and other problems

Nimantics has busted out with a 14.2" screen on their newest laptop, the HS-166M. It also has the TX chipset, a 512KB L2 cache, CardBus and USB support. I have been told that they are no longer using desktop CPUs in their systems but I will check it out personally because they have supposedly opened a warehouse direct store that is very close to me. I will give Nimantics one thing, they have very aggressive advertising and even more aggressive pricing. The above machine starts at just under $4000!!

Now what are the problems? Well, not really with notebooks but just something I would like to mention to see if any of you have some type of solution. Some program I was working on did something to my hard disk partition and deleted the logical drives on it. So all my stuff on the D: and E: drives are not accessible. I used some disk reader utility and the files are there but I can't get to them. I tried two other software products but they didn't help. FDISK re-activated the D: and E: logical drives but none of the info is available, in order for me to access the drives I have to format them... NO WAY!!! So if anyone knows of any software or utility that I can use that will pull/rescue my files of the secondary partition please let me know. For any one interested, this is how my hard drive is setup:

• 850MB Western Digital Caviar AC2850
• CMOS: Cylinder:1654 Heads:16 Sectors:63 Auto-Mode (Large)
• Partitioned into 2 sections:
  Primary DOS Partition: 512 MB (C: drive)
  Secondary DOS Partition: Has 2 logical drives
  D: 211 MB and E: 70 MB
• Secondary Partition had lost the logical drive information

07-24-97: Nimantics Fieldtrip

08-06-97: Wrong Nimantics info, new stuff and budget notebooks

I'm currently working on getting some more reviews together. I'm trying to get a Micron XKE, some Toshibas and the new Hitachi VisionBook Pro. And, if you haven't seen the Sony notebooks, you should, nice design and very small and light. The Sonys can be found at either Circuit City or CompUSA (for all those who have one near them).

This week's Mining Co. article is on budget notebooks. If you are looking to spend less than $2000, then you should take a look at this article.
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08-11-97: Hitachi VisionBook Pro

Also, thanks to Lilla's help for giving me the article, there will be a 266 MMX mobile chip sometime after the release of the 200/233 MMX mobiles. Please read the ZD Net article for more info.
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08-19-97: VisionBook Pro review and other stuff

I went to Transmonde again and they lent me a pre-production model of their newest notebook, the Vivante', their 13.3" model. This is a very nice notebook and a lot smaller than other 13.3"s that I've seen. I will post a review for this model next week.

I also went to Nimantics again too to see the final production model of their HS-166M, the 14.2" notebook. They are shipping now and they are good looking notebooks. I will try to see if I can review one by September. I also got to look at there new Persona, a Libretto-type mini-notebook. It is almost like a shrunken laptop, as I said before... I think this segment of the market will be very hot in the future. They are better than those WindowsCE machines and have the full power of Windows'95 and Pentiums to boot. We should see a lot more of these type of "notebooks" in the upcoming months.

And soon.... the arrival of the Tillamook (I can't wait!!!!).
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08-31-97: Transmonde Vivante' Review and Tillamook news

It's almost September and I am anxiously waiting for September 8, that is when Intel will "officially" announce the Tillamook, the TRUE mobile 200/233 MMX processors. I would like to know which vendors will also announce their products and what type of time frame it will be before they hit the market. Unlike the first MMX units, I think these notebooks will actually be delivered a lot quicker, but the question is who? Well, the following is a post that I found at the comp.sys.laptops newsgroup but I couldn't track down the original poster... maybe he/she wasn't supposed to release this information but here it is:

> Dell Computer Corp. aims to ship by the end of September a
> new line of systems targeted at small to medium-size
> business users. The line will feature a 13.3-inch
> high-resolution XGA display, a minimum of 32MB of RAM,
> 128-bit graphics, a 20-speed CD-ROM and hard drive
> capacity of up to 4GB, sources said. The line is expected to
> cost less than $5,000.
> 
> Micron Electronics Inc. will introduce the chip into the
> Transport XKE at the end of next month.
> The Nampa, Idaho, company also will release its first
> thin-and-light notebook, based on Tillamook, in the first
> quarter of 1998. The 1.35-inch-thick system, weighing less
> than 5 pounds, will have a 12.1-inch display and a floppy
> drive that can be swapped out for a CD-ROM. It is expected
> to be priced at about $4,000.
> 
> IBM Personal Computer Co., of Somers, N.Y., will announce
> several models of the ThinkPad 770, including a high-end
> model that features a 14.1-inch screen and a Digital Video
> Disk drive, sources said.
> 
> Compaq Computer Corp., of Houston, will make Tillamook
> available first in its Presario consumer notebook line in
> September, followed later in the year by new models in the
> Armada 7700 corporate line, officials said.
> 
> Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., of Irvine, Calif.,
> will launch a 233MHz Tecra with a 13.3-inch screen. The
> notebook is slated to ship in October.
> 
> Gateway 2000 Inc., the only company that's currently using
> Intel's Mobile Module, will add Tillamook to its Solo 9100
> and 2300 notebooks also at the end of September.