Panasonic focuses on battery life for Toughbooks
Panasonic Canada introduced the Toughbook CF-W5 and Toughbook CF-Y5 notebooks – both featuring a full magnesium alloy case with shock-mounted hard drives to take a beating on the road.
Using a formula of battery life (hours) divided by eight (kg), the CF-W5 has a weight-to-battery-life ratio of 8.9 using BatteryMark Version 4.0.1 (LCD brightness: Minimum) when Economy Mode (ECO) is turned off. The CF-W5, weighs 1,240 grams (2.4 lbs.), and it utilizes an Intel ultra-low voltage processor U1400 (1.2GHz) for efficiency. The notebook also features an Intel945GMS chip set. Its battery life is rated at 11 hours and it has an integrated DVD Multi Drive and a 60GB hard drive.
The alloy casing of both units has 20 times the strength of ABS plastic casing, Panasonic said. The casing protects the computer from shock, vibration, and drops. In addition to the magnesium alloy case and shock-mounted hard drives, the CF-Y5 also features Panasonic’s “spill-through”/”spill-resistant” keyboard, designed to reduce the risks of damage if liquid is spilled on the unit.
The CF-Y5 model also features a ruggedized large 14.1-inch anti-glare screen, eight hours of battery life, and an Intel Core Duo Processor. The processor is a low voltage L2400 (1.66 GHz). It has an Intel945GMS chip set and weighs 1,530 grams (3.4 lbs) with a 60GB HDD and integrated DVD Multi Drive. It contains a 512 MB SDRAM and is expandable to 1,536 MB (PC2 4200/144pin micro DIMM).
The suggested retail price of the CF-W5 is $2,695.00, while the CF-Y5 has a suggested retail price of $2,895.00.
Apricorn puts more space in Mac drives
Apricorn announced further expansion of its EZ Bus Desktop Storage and Backup line with Apricorn’s Data Protection Suite for Mac. Providing backup, synchronization and encryption tools, Apricorn’s Data Protection Suite contains ShirtPocket SuperDuper!, Qdea Synchronize! X, and Apricorn’s Encryption Utility.
The EZ Bus Desktop FireWire/USB 2.0 Combo (EZ Bus DTC), featuring a combination FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 interface is an hard drive for backing up data or adding extra storage to any notebook or desktop Mac. With up to 500GB of additional storage in a 7200RPM drive, users can backup their entire systems and store large files including digital photographs, emails, music and video files. To ensure optimal operating temperature and to protect stored data, the EZ Bus DTC was designed with an ultra-cool fan and aluminum enclosure to dissipate heat.
Apricorn’s EZ Bus DTC hard drive models are available in 80GB-500GB sizes and come with a vertical stand. Additional features for the EZ Bus DTC include a 7200RPM drive with FireWire/USB 2.0 interface, 6 to 6 pin FireWire/1394 cable, 4 to 6 pin FireWire/1394 cable, USB cable and AC adapter.
Cisco offers VSAN capability with swtich
Cisco announced the availability of the Cisco MDS 9124 Multilayer Fabric Switch, which allow virtual Storage Area Networks (VSANs), security and availability, all powered by the Cisco SAN operating system. The switch also offers “pay as you grow” on-demand ports and an point-and-click wizard for SAN setup and management.
The Cisco MDS 9124 Multilayer Fabric Switch provides up to 24 4-Gigabits-per-second Fibre Channel ports in a one rack unit form factor with line-rate performance on each port. Customers can select eight, 16 or 24 ports and can add ports as needed. Ports are added “on demand” through a port-activation license.
The Cisco MDS 9124 Multilayer Fabric Switch is part of Cisco Data Center networking solutions, an integrated set of products, best practices and services that allow IT architects and data center professionals to take a phased approach to building and operating a future-proof network platform for their next-generation data centres. The Cisco MDS 9124 Multilayer Fabric Switch is expected to be generally available through Cisco storage partners next month.
