Toshiba Unveils Cell processor Laptops with Super Upconversion
Posted by Mehar Gill on July 3, 2008
Filed Under: Format War, HD DVD, PC
We have just received word from Wesley Tech that Toshiba has announced their new line up of Qosmio laptops which will feature the new CELL chips along with the much “anticipated” up-conversion technology.
The laptops are dubbed the Qosmio G50 and F40, they will go on sale in mid July at a a unannounced price point. The CELL chip will work by taking load off the video processor as well as the CPU to increase over all performance.
We wonder if this new system will work nativley with applications or if some sort of update would be required to ensure compatibility. Unlike the PS3 Toshiba’s line up of cell processors will work simultaneously with chips from Intel. It’s going to be interesting to see if these increase the lifespan of a product, since it will have the CELL chip aiding the main CPU with it’s tasks.
These seem really appealing and I’m gland I decided to hold on my decision to buy their old lineup of Qosmio laptops. For those who want to see what these devices here is a chart courtesy of Toshiba Japan. As many speculated, the new line up will not feature any sort of “next genenration” drive.
| Â | Qosmio G50/98G | Qosmio G50/97G | Qosmio F50/88G |
dynabook Qosmio FX77G |
| OS | Windows Vistaâ„¢ Home Premium Edition with Service Pack 1 | |||
| CPU | Next Generation Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor | |||
| Memory/Max | 2GB (1GB x 2)/4GB | |||
| Display | 18.4-inch Full HD Clear Super View LCD (1,920×1080 pixels) 2 lamps, high luminance |
15.4-inch WXGA Clear Super View LCD (1,280×800 pixels) 2 lamps, high luminance |
15.4-inch WXGA Clear Super View LCD (1,280×800 pixels) |
|
| HDD | 500GB (250GBx2) (5,400rpm Serial ATA) |
250GB (5,400rpm Serial ATA) |
200GB (5,400rpm Serial ATA) |
|
| Drive | DVD SuperMulti | |||
| Graphics | NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT(PCI Express) | |||
| Image Processor | TOSHIBA Quad Core HD Processor SpursEngineâ„¢ | – | ||
| Sound | 3 speakers (harman/kardon® stereo and sub-wooder) | |||
| LAN | 1000Base-T,/100Base-T IEEE802.11a/b/g/n draft 2.0 (wireless) |
|||
| TV tuner | Dual Tuners for Digital Terrestrial Broadcast | – | ||
| Interface | Optical audio output, RGB, USB2.0x 4 (one usable for eSATA ) , Mike, iLink, LAN, HDMI, Antenna input | Optical audio output, RGB, USB2.0x 4 (one of them usable for eSATA as well) , Mike, iLink, LAN, HDMI | ||
| Battery Life | Approx. 4.0 hrs | Approx. 1.8 hrs | Approx. 2.4 hrs | |
| Dimensions | Approx. 452.3 x 311.0 x 38.2ï½48.3 mm | Approx. 368.0x 278.0 x 38.0ï½47.0 mm | ||
| Weight | Approx. 4.9kg | Approx. 4.8kg | Approx. 3.6kg | Approx. 3.3kg |
| Eco | RoHS Directive,J-Moss (Green Mark) | |||
| Application | Microsoft® Office Personal 2007 SP1with Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007 |
Microsoft® Office Personal 2007 SP1with Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007 |
||
A price point of under $3000 (The old high end line up was $2999 at the end of its cycle)
Official Press Release Here!
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thats pretty cool…upconverters in computers
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again… I’ll never buy another electronic device from Toshiba… let alone a shitty PC laptop
ive never bought anything toshiba…jus thought it was cool…my hd dvd is the add-on with parts from toshiba
For me new tech is new tech, if the price point is low, preferably under 2.5K I will pick one up.
I really don’t care much about the super upscaling features, I’m more interested in seeing how CELL will make my life better.
Agree with Justin. I’ll I’ll never buy anything from these loosers.
Especially not this overhyped gadget with which they are trying to fool the ignorant consumers (guess they will come with a “upscaler” that make a lossless 7.1 soundtrack out.of a standard DVD one soon, ha ha).
I whish decent sites like this had somewhat higher standards and would stop giving these bastards free publicity.
@Jonsson –
Its not really free publicity when you get paid to do it.
Jokes aside, 90% of people that come to this site will probably know something about this technology. Toshiba is touting this laptops as the CELL laptop more so then the Upconverter laptop.
News is News, you can’t really pick and choose right, if we reported only one side we would be called fan boys. Other then this tech, there really isn’t much that could be reported on aside from Blu Ray.
jonssons comments on here are always ignorant
Bigmeldt12,
Mehar’s reply was a intelligent and balanced one. One that I, and I dare say just about everyone else here, can respect.
Your reply however was simply stupid and false. I think you just demonstrated which one of us is the ignorant one.
hmmm… I wonder if a computer company may make cell as a replacement of intel/amd processor instead of just making it for graphic support upscaler. preferably HP or sony computers. For optical disc, I will stay with BD drive now.
but hey, it’s a new technology. I have no intention to buy it, but at least I should try it at store.
@Felix –
They could, Sony did with the PS3.
But if they did that the industry would “rip them apart”, why would programs code for CELL, Intel, and AMD? It’s better if CELL just compliments the main CPU and GPU like Toshiba is currently doing.
Just thinking about the compatibility nightmare that would follow…
@jonsson
hey, I apologize for the earlier comment lol, I misread your comment with my beer goggles on and overreacted. I enjoy hearing your input and all others on here. Again I aplogize
@Bigmelt12,
Thanks and no problem Bigmelt, I sometimes overreact myself. Guess almost everyone do from time to time
The technology will prove itself. Blu-Ray Fanboys will jump over this like a $20 bill in a laptop dancers belt. Toshiba has created a useful tool, and time will tell how strong Blu-Ray adoption actually is. Why do Blu-Ray PS3 users bash this technology, Don’t you guys realize that’s chip scales your DVD’s?
Alright so according to Toshiba.com the X305 (Which isn’t listed in the PR for some reason) has been delayed to September 2008, the other units are still scheduled for a mid July 08 release.
@PZAP –
Not likely. The Blu-ray “fan boys” wants high quality material INCLUDING sound. Do we not realize that this chip scales our DVD’s? Wake up man, there’s a lot of stuff that scales our DVD’s.
Again, scaling can not create the information that is missing and it certanly can not create a lossless sound track out of a lossy one.
Granted, a lot of people can not make out the difference, or rather, do not care, but these people can not make the difference between the upscaler in the TV or the upscaler in the DVD player so…this “technology” is just another scam to fool said people.
Upscailing is one thing, I don’t think we can really give a verdict on how well it works for what it is without seeing it hands on. What do you guys think about the CELL integration?
Speaking my mind…
I’m not sure the article (while not flawed) is within the subject of Blu-Ray, HD-DVD or other particular format. It uses a standard DVD drive, nothing more or less that what came with my $700 ThinkPad.
Having worked with Toshiba notebooks – I’d never buy one for my own use. One of the worst keyboards I had the displeasure of working on.
Cell? Its more of a marketing “thingy” and an excuse to add $100~500 to the notebook – I don’t know. What I DO know is that the specs of the notebooks do LOOK GOOD – but its the pricing that matters. I know my GPUs, and this mobile varient of the G92 (GeForce9600) with “Next gen C2D CPU” is the upcoming new cores from Intel that are quite a bit faster combined will make a power computer. Considering that PCs with current technology can “upscale” video just fine for their 1920×1080 screen…. what is the Cell used for? But spreading the workload – the use of the CELL tech CPU could introduce latency into the system – making the performance boost invalid.
The Gefore 8000 and 9000 series HAVE HiDef Video decoding built-in… the cell is not going to be helping much.
These things are super cheap, the price point was unveiled recently, less then $2K for the high end models!
http://explore.toshiba.com/laptops/qosmio