Re: Thinkpad 701c/cs DSP?

[Steve Rodrigues <steverod@CS.Berkeley.EDU>]

John H. Kim wrote:
> On Thu, 2 Nov 1995, Randy Whittle wrote:

> >         Do you know if the [TP701] video is "true" acceleration, or
> > just local bus of some sort (or both)?
> 
> It's the Chips and Technologies 65545 chipset.  Same as in the
> Toshiba 4900CT, Zeos Meridian 850, Dell LX4100D, Gateway Liberty,
> and NEC Versa M and P75.  I think it's also in the Toshiba 610CT.
> This chipset has a pretty bad rep among Linux users because (rumor)
> the exact hardware implementation can be varied by the notebook
> manufacturer, making it difficult to write drivers for.

I believe that it's 'just' an accelerator, not local bus.
One annoying thing is that it appears to only support 60Hz refresh external,
and even worse, the drivers it comes with do 1024x768 interlaced. It looks
*hideous*. (I am, however, rather sensitive to this stuff.)

> >         So you're say that the 701's video is better than the 755?
> > Does it by chance do 800x600 like the newer 755's do also?

On the LCD, no. It's still 640x480.
(It's amazing how cramped that feels now....)

> >       And I don't suppose you know about the battery life issue, do you?

> No.  I'm considering a 701 and the battery life is my chief concern.
> I've heard 1h45m on comp.sys.laptops.  That's a pretty big drop from
> the 3.5-5 hours I get on my 750 mono.

Was this the NiCd or NiMH battery? I got a NiMH with mine (I got the top
of the line DX4/75,8M720M,TFT) and bought a second battery, also NiMH.
The battery gauge (which is quite cool-looking :) claims that a full charge is
good for 3:28 or so. Floppy usage kills it, unsurprisingly. 

It ostensibly hot-swaps. Mine, as shipped, did so very unreliably, and as
a result, it is now sitting somewhere in Memphis awaiting a new 
motherboard. :( (The modem jack also didn't make a connection with the phone
line.)

The AC adapter is a two-prong, handles 120-240V. You can also get a "worldwide"
AC adapter (about $49 list) which supposedly works elsewhere. We'll see.


I like mine, feature-wise. But I'm rather perturbed that it shipped with
two immediately obvious flaws (the modem jack and the unreliable hot swap).
I've also heard unkind things about the mic.

If it works, you should have a nice machine. And the size and weight is
just wonderful.

Steve

-- 
Steve Rodrigues            | Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and 
Expatriate Texan           | sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty
UC Berkeley, Dept. of EECS | diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they
steverod@cs.berkeley.edu   | are gone forever. -- Horace Mann