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Digital first to get 150-MHz notebook

Digital is the first to market notebooks with 150-MHz mobile Pentiums.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
2 min read
Digital Equipment is the first vendor to begin marketing notebook PCs based on the 150-MHz mobile Pentium processor, which Intel will announce in the next few weeks.

Digital is jumping the gun a bit with its new ultra-slim, 4-pound HiNote Ultra II notebook, given that Intel has not yet announced the 150-MHz mobile Pentium processor. That announcement is expected sometime in the first half of August, said a source close to Intel. Officially, the fastest mobile Pentium chip in notebooks today is the 133-MHz version.

At least two major mail-order firms have been marketing the HiNote Ultra II. One of the firms, however, pulled its advertisement because Intel indicated that it had not yet introduced the chip, according to a source at the mail-order house.

In addition to its 150-MHz Mobile Pentium, the HiNote includes 16MB of EDO RAM, a 1.35GB hard disk drive, 256K level-2 cache, an 11.3-inch SVGA active-matrix screen, and 16-bit integrated sound.

Depending on the model, the HiNote Ultra II comes with Windows 95 or Windows NT installed, according to one Massachusetts-based reseller which has been marketing the new notebook. The Windows 95 model is priced at $4,799 while the Windows NT model is priced at $4,999, according to prices set by the reseller.

Users shouldn't expect to be able to purchase many of these super-fast notebooks right away. "These [HiNotes] won't be available until August, and then you'll still have to wait at least a month," said a sales representative at one of the resellers.

Moreover, Digital is back-ordered at least a month on all of its Ultra II models, according to a number of resellers.

However, one reseller said it was getting some 150-MHz HiNotes in on August 2.