SAN MATEO (02/28/2000) - Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. last week became the latest vendor aiming to provide corporate environments with smaller, user-serviceable PCs that share interchangeable parts and break away from the traditional beige chassis design.
The company unveiled its Toshiba Equium 7350 Corporate PC, which is available in two different innovative chassis designs and four monitor options.
The Equium 7350 line shares one platform and one common motherboard that can be replaced by the operator in 30 seconds without the use of tools, Toshiba officials claimed. The operator can also perform swappable, tool-less memory upgrades in about 10 seconds after shutting the system down and removing the chassis, Toshiba officials said.
Reminiscent of the Dell PC business model, the Equium 7350 line will be built to order, according to Toshiba, with a lead-time of approximately five days after purchase.
The Toshiba Equium PC family follows the likes of the Compaq iPaq and the IBM EON in bringing aesthetic change to Toshiba's PC image.
Both CPU and monitor can be wall-mounted, and two of the monitor offerings provide landscape-to-portrait viewing after rotating the image output 90 degrees with the touch of a button. Those familiar with the technology claim vertical viewing is more adept to the visual layouts most commonly associated with Internet content.
The Equium 7350 line is available immediately through Toshiba's Web site and select re-sellers.
Options include a 533-MHz Intel Celeron or either a 667-MHz or 733-MHz Intel Pentium III processor, with prices ranging from $1100 to $1700 depending on configuration.
Tekbright monitor options include a 15" analog ($1449) and 15" digital ($1299) as well as a 17" CRT ($299) and a 15" CRT ($179).
Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., based in New York, is at http://www.toshiba.com.
Dan Neel is an InfoWorld reporter.