RSSToshiba's lastest Qosmios take aim at gamers, filmmakers
By Michael Hatamoto | Published June 18, 2008, 2:20 PM
To appease gamers, filmmakers and users who want a portable notebook, Toshiba introduced three new notebooks in its Digital Products Division (DPD) yesterday.
The Qosmio G55, using the Cell processor currently used in the Sony PlayStation 3, has been designed specifically for multimedia enthusiasts. The notebook is available with up to 500 GB of storage, and is the first Toshiba product to ship with an 18.4-in. screen.
Under the new "Quad Core HD Processor" name, Toshiba, Sony and IBM worked together to create the Cell processor used in the PS3 and several supercomputers.
The Qosmio X305, a gaming notebook, is being promoted as a portable gaming notebook. It has an NVidia GeForce 9800 GTX, can support up to 1GB VRAM, up to 400 GB of storage, and has a red-flamed paint exterior with Toshiba's Fusion finish.
Meanwhile, the Qosmio F55 is a little more cost-conservatie, with NVidia's GeForce 9700 GTS notebook with the 15.4-in. screen, an NVidia GeForce 9700 GTS video card, and most notably integrated GPS and Garmin software. Owners will be able to use the Garmin software and have access to points of interest without the need of an Internet connection.
All three notebooks will have an HDMI port, eSATA port, and integrated multimedia buttons. Toshiba did not mention if the notebooks will ship with Blu-ray players, now that its own HD DVD optical drive was discontinued earlier in the year.
Pricing and additional hardware specifications will be available later this summer. Previously, Toshiba's Qosmio laptop line had just one model, the G45 notebook, which was designed for users interested in multimedia.
"The Qosmio X305, a gaming notebook, is being promoted as a portable gaming notebook" and will be sold as a notebook that is portable for gaming.
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...so people can carry thema round...and play games on them? ;)
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Funny, Toshiba worked on the Cell processor that went into the PS3, but also worked on the HD-DVD player which was competing against the blu-ray player which was in the PS3. If HD-DVD won what would have happened to the PS3, would have it put in a HD-DVD player? Does Toshiba make more money with the demise of the HD-DVD player or the popularity of the PS3 and cell processor?
Now on topic about the laptop. I can't wait to see the benchmarks for this laptop and to see the price. Also I wonder since their using a Cell processer how long it'll take for someone to make a PS3 emulator on it.
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What OS?
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Vista most likely...The real question here is how much?
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Probably Windows Vista. Why would someone want anything else in a non business laptop?
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Vista. I mean its a gaming laptop, their not going to put Linux on it thats for sure. Vista and XP are the only OS' that you can really play games on and XP is on its way out.
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How'd they get Vista to run on a Cell CPU?
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I'm pretty sure it's Vista and I'm pretty sure that once again the CELL CPU in this is *not* the primary CPU, despite what the marketing and Betanews' own story would indicate. Take a look at Toshiba's own page about these new Qosmios: http://explore.toshiba.com/laptops/qosmio/G50 In particular look at the picture next to "Toshiba Quad–Core HD Processor" and I do believe it's showing a CPU, GPU, *and* the "Toshiba Quad-Core HD Processor" all in the same system, suggesting that this is a "mere" co-processor. So once again not really all that exciting (IMO). It's also over 10lb!
People really seem to want to see CELL tech being used as the primary CPU, but think about how that would work - it would have to run Linux, and as a result would necessarily have a limited market.
Oh and for the record as far as I know a 9800GTX is a desktop board, not available in a laptop. Toshiba lists the 9600M GT as the default config.
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It's my understanding that the Cell processor in the Toshiba laptop is actually a coprocessor dedicated to video and graphics, not the main CPU that runs the operating system.
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