New HP Omnibook

["John H. Kim" <jokim@mit.edu>]

I just spotted the announcement for this and thought it was
interesting how the TP560 stacks up (or doesn't) against it.

http://www.hp.com:80/mcd/models/800index.html
http://hpcc998.external.hp.com:80/pressrel/sep96/09sep96b.htm

HP Omnibook 800

3.75 pounds 
7.27 x 11.12 x 1.57 inches (18.49 x 28.2 x 3.96 cm)  
Intel Pentium 100- or 133-MHz processor
PCI bus architecture
256-KB SRAM L2 cache 
10.4-inch TFT SVGA or 10-inch DSTN SVGA display (800x600)
16 Mbytes of EDO DRAM, expandable to 40 or 48 Mbytes 
810-million- or 1.35 billion-byte Enhanced-IDE PCI hard drive
Touch-type, full-sized keyboard 
Accelerated 128-bit PCI UVGA video controller, supports MPEG
Sound Blaster Pro-compatible stereo sound with two speakers and a
     built in microphone
Optional external quad-speed CD-ROM drive
Lithium-ion battery with battery life up to 3 hours,
   recharges in 2.5 hours
Built-in, self-calibrating, pop-up mouse
Three-year, worldwide limited warranty
2 Type II or 1 Type III PCMCIA slots, CardBus ready
9-pin RS-232 port (16550 UART)
25-pin bidirectional ECP/EPP (parallel port)
SVGA-out (up to 1024x768x256 colors)
4-Mbps IRDA-2 ifrared port
Stereo-in, stereo-out, mic-in
SCSI-2 port (requires cable)
                                       list   est. street
800CT 133MHz 1.44GB/16MB  10.4" TFT  US$5215    $4850
800CS 100MHz 1.44GB/16MB  10.0" DSTN   $3645    $3390
docking system                          $450     $420
4x CD-ROM drive                         $450     $420

The info sheet mentions "Operating-system-independent setup utility"
which makes me think it's APM features are a lot like the 701's.
The CD-ROM drive comes with the SCSI-2 converter cable, and plugs into
the same AC adapter as the computer.  Another thing they (apparently)
did right is include a "Product Recovery CD-ROM Support Utility disk."
My guess is that has all the original preinstalled software on it in
case you want to repartition your hard drive.

About the only bad things I can see are
- stupid pop-out mouse
- can't do 65,536 colors in 800x600 mode (it can do it in 640x480)
- no PS/2 keyboard/mouse port without the dock
- LCD *may* be limited to only 256 colors (from a 262k color palette)

What is CardBus?
The press release says the video chipset is by NeoMagic.  Anybody ever
heard of them?

Sorry if this sounds like an ad for HP.
--
John H. Kim
jokim@mit.edu