This week three computer manufacturers have announced new workstation-class notebook computers, the first to support PCI Express video. But "announced" and "shipping" are not the same in the computer industry. A little digging reveals varying shiping dates for the three new computers.
Alienware rushed to be the first to announce on Monday, introducing the MJ-12m 700 Mobile Workstation. But in rushing, Alienware is compromising by initally shipping a video processor that is only PCI Express plug-compatible (the older NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800); an option to purchase the newer, fully PCI Express compatible NVIDIA Quadro FX Go 1400 will be available "soon."
On Tuesday Dell announced the Precision M70, running the NVIDIA Quadro FX Go 1400 with 256mb on-board video memory, and the Precision M20 running the ATI Mobility Radeon X600 card. Working through the Dell online store revealed a shipping date of March 3, 2005 for the Precision M70.
Also on Tuesday HP announced the HP Compaq nc8230 notebook PC, using the ATI card mentioned above. The HP small business online store shows a shipping date of February 23, 2005 for the nc8230.
Right now Dell has the technical edge, offering a 256mb video card when HP's best is only 64mb. We doubt the gap will exist for long.
Intel calls PCI Express "third generation I/O." It was designed to be a high-bandwidth replacement for the common PCI bus used in PCs for years. It is now standard in desktop workstations from Dell, HP, IBM, and others.