Lenovo, HP Unveil Dual-Core PCs, Workstations

Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard on Thursday were among the first system vendors to introduce PCs and workstations based on Intel's new Pentium D 840 dual-core processor.

The Pentium D 840 has two physical processors, each with its own level-2 cache, allowing the running of multi-threaded applications or the simultaneous running of multiple applications.

Lenovo's new ThinkCentre M52 and ThinkCentre A52 desktop PCs not only represent its first move into the dual-core PC business, they are the company's first new products to be released since Lenovo acquired IBM's PC division earlier this year, said Dilip Bhatia, program director and manager of Lenovo's worldwide ThinkCentre brand.

The M52, intended for commercial users, is what Bhatia called an 18-month platform, meaning customers can load the same system image into any units they purchase for the next 18 months. The A52 is aimed at high-end users or small and midsize businesses with high-end DVD, graphics and other components that are eventually updated, he said.

Both models include such Intel technology as the 945G chipset, HyperThreading, High Definition Audio and the Graphics Media Accelerator 950, said Bhatia.

The M52 and A52 are scheduled to start shipping by the end of June. Starting prices for the A52 are expected to be in the $700 to $749 range, Bhatia said. In August Lenovo will introduce models that are 40 percent smaller. Units in the second half of 2005 will incorporate Intel Active Management Technology and LANDesk Software's management console, he said.

HP on Thursday introduced the HP xw4300 workstation and the HP Compaq dc7600 business desktop PC with dual-core Intel processors, said Jeff Wood, director of product marketing for the company's personal workstation business.

The xw4300 workstation will work with any applications that take advantage of dual processors, as well as with the multiple applications that engineers like to run simultaneously, Wood said. It is aimed at engineering, as well as at small businesses that develop graphics-intensive content, such as wedding photographers who need video timing and 3D video rendering, he said.

The xw4300 gives solution providers to work with higher-end graphics applications, to create turnkey digital content and CAD solutions, Wood said.

The xw4300 is scheduled to ship next week. A single-core 3.6GHz Pentium 4 version with an NVidia Quadro FX3400 graphics card, a 74-Gbyte, 10,000-rpm SATA hard drive, 2 Gbytes of memory, and a 48x Combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive will list for just under $4,000.

The dual-core Pentium D version of the xw4300 with 4 Gbytes of memory, a 160-Gbyte SATA hard drive, and a DVD+/-RW drive is priced at about $4,850.

The xw4300 replaces the xw4200 1-way Pentium 4-based workstation, which Wood said will be phased out by the end of the year.

On the desktop side, HP's dc7600 supports Celeron, Pentium 4, and Pentium D processors, and is expected to replace the dc7100, said Wood.

Both the Lenovo M52 and A52 and the HP dc7600 include an embedded security chip built to the Trusted Computing Group's Trusted Platform Module 1.2 specification.