Notebooks Catch Up

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday February 8, 1993

By SUE LOWE

A NYONE who has paid good money for a 386SX or even 386DX in the past few months will be as sick as a parrot to be told that what they have bought is obsolete technology.

If it was a notebook computer rather than a desktop, then they should feel a little less depressed, but only a little.

Whereas notebook computers used to lag 18 months behind desktop technology- so that a 286 notebook was an acceptable alternative to a 386 desktop - now the time lag is six months at the outside. Even 386DX notebooks are becoming trailing-edge technology.

One of the most depressing companies for 386 notebook owners to talk to is Texas Instruments. Last week it launched three 486 notebooks to add to the three it already sells. It also announced that all 386 product manufacturing had been phased out as of December last year.

TI's fastest notebook is now the TravelMate 4000 WinDX2/50, which uses one of Intel's 486DX2 chips with the clock speed doubled to 50 MHz. It also has a 200 Mbyte hard disk and 8 Mbytes of memory. The cost is almost $7,500.

The most expensive machine, however, is the TravelMate 4000 WinDX2/40 -slightly slower at only 40MHz but with a colour screen that can display 256 colours simultaneously. It too has a 200 Mbyte hard disk and 8 Mbytes of memory for $8,290.

To ensure all that disk space does not stay rattlingly empty, all machines come with Windows ready installed.

A nice touch is that the notebooks also come as standard with one of Microsoft's otherwise extortionately expensive Ballpoint mice. TI has modified the attachment so that the rollerball-style mouse plugs directly into the side of the notebook. That means you need no cable and you can shut the lid of the laptop with the mouse still attached. TI has also modified the driver so you can plug the mouse in when the machine is already running and it will not require you to restart the machine before it acknowledges the mouse is there.

Interestingly, TI has opted not to provide notebooks based on Intel's 386SL and 486SL power-conservation processors. TI's worldwide marketing director, Nassir Ahmed, claims the processors do not extend the computing time per charge by enough to justify the extra cost. Instead, TI has asked Intel to pick out the most efficient of its standard chips. Even without the SL chips, TI claims its 486 notebooks will run for more than four hours per charge, longer than any other 486 notebook and many 386 notebooks.

The company is also staying away from PCMCIA credit card-sized memory devices for the time being. The standards are not well enough established, said Ahmed.

The good news for those who haven't yet bought a notebook computer is that these new 486s will quickly push the price of 386 models down. Obsolescence is, after all, relative. One man's Model T is another's Ferrari.