NextComputing
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NextComputing wants you to take your desktop for a stroll, preferably a short one
After watching NextComputing dance around the definition of mobile computing for so long, we're not all that surprised to see the firm tease its first suitcase-desktop sporting an internal battery. The headlining promise of two to four hours of battery life, however? We'll take the whole salt shaker, thanks. NextComputing's half-minute demo shows an unnamed workstation disconnected, unplugged, and lugged off. We're not really sure where it's going, or why it needs to be left on for the trip, but hey -- a desktop with a battery still beats a laptop without one.
NextComputing's Radius 'portable' workstation infused with Sandy Bridge
Not news: NextComputing's Radius portable workstation is still stretching destroying the bounds of what's actually considered mobile. News: But now, the Radius is a lot more powerful than the prior iterations. The newfangled Radius is now available with Intel's Sandy Bridge processors, with the latest model of the all-in-one workstation offering multiple full-length / full-height PCI Express slots, multiple terabytes of storage and an integrated display. As for applications? It's still aimed at those who need serious oomph in the field, and frankly, editing political commercials or crunching SETI data in the Amazon sounds far more enjoyable than doing so in [insert your city here]. No offense of anything.
NextComputing Vigor Evo rugged PC shipping with three displays, 11TB storage
NextComputing has a line on the types of PCs we will always lust over, yet we'll never ever be able to justify purchasing. Case in point: the Vigor Evo Plus is a thirty-five-plus pound behemoth, featuring a rugged mil-anodized external chassis, shock-mounted internal chassis, and options including a single or dual Xeon, up to 16GB ECC RAM, up to 11TB storage, up to six full-length, full-height PCI Express and PCI-X slots, and up to three integrated 17-inch displays. Call the company for a price quote if you're curious -- we weren't up to the task, but we're sure that it's either this bad boy or our rent for the better part of a year. PR after the break.
NextDimension RVE portable video editing machine packs an LCD on a tower
Apparently that whole "slap an LCD on the side of a tower" thing is going alright for NextComputing. The NextDimension RVE is a bit more humble than the CinematographHD, though it should be able to handle even the most strenuous video editing tasks. Aside from the 17-inch 1,920 x 1,200 resolution panel plastered on the side, the "portable" tower houses single or dual 2.5GHz quad-core Intel processors, up to 4GB of RAM, up to 1.28TB of RAID storage, NVIDIA GeForce / Quadro FX graphics, a leather handle for portability and an extensive array of input / output sockets. The entire package measures in at 5.69- x 11.44- x 16.8-inches and weighs "just" 22-pounds -- too bad it'll take $6,380 to get one to your door.
NextComputing adds Blu-ray option to portable workstation line
Just because you need a PC that can withstand an impromptu war doesn't mean that you aren't interested in watching a Blu-ray flick once the fighting has subsided. NextComputing, best known for its, um, uniquely rugged machines, has just announced that a Panasonic recordable Blu-ray drive is now available on its entire line of mobile workstations. Just for clarification, that includes the NextDimension Pro and Pro HD, NextDimension Evo and Evo HD, Vigor Pro SD, and the Vigor Evo HD. Meanwhile, we think Rock is still trying to unload all that excess HD DVD inventory...
NextComputing's rugged Vigor Evo HD flextop has an LCD on its side
Under most circumstances, we too would take one glance at the monolith pictured above and scream in horror. But of course, we're entirely sure you're familiar with the wacky machines emerging from NextComputing. The ultra-tough Vigor Evo HD is hailed as the company's "highest performance rugged workstation," and besides offering up a floating chassis which absorbs all sorts of bumps and shocks, it also comes with a 17-inch LCD plastered right on the side. Said panel is covered with a hard-coated protective screen, and sitting just beneath that is your choice of AMD / Intel processors, up to four PCIe or PCI-X 64-bit slots, a dual-layer DVD writer, up to 3TB of internal HDD space and most everything else you'd find in a pre-fab desktop. Of course, it loses the vast majority of its intimidation factor when equipped with the optional wheels / telescoping handle package, but we won't tell anyone if you're not man / woman enough to lug it over your shoulder.
8-core NextDimension PC stretches the definition of portable
No, the laptop industry hasn't bypassed the idea of quad-core laptops in favour of octo-core machines, since NextComputing's 8-core flextops are machines you wouldn't want anywhere near your lap. Based as they are around the Intel Xeon 5300 processor, the NextDimension Pro and Evo can take advantage of the relatively low power requirements of 100W for two quad-core CPUs (down from 160 Watts for its power hungrier desktop equivalent). For a sense of just how expandable the NextDimension machines are, consider that they can hold up to twelve 160GB 2.5-inch 7200RPM hard disk drives. They also manage to pack in four PCI / PCI-e slots in the Evo model, and Firewire, Gigabit Ethernet, and support for 24GB of memory through four DMA channels on both models. These 20-pound desktop machines with a handle will be shown off at Interop Las Vegas later this month, but beyond that we're not sure when or for how much you'll be able to lug one away.
