U7500
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Panasonic updates ultraportables with Core 2 Duos
The Panasonic laptop division is in high gear this week, first recalling some 6,000 batteries in Japan, and now revving its ultraportable line with dual-core 64-bit capable 1.06GHz U7500 Core 2 Duos across the board. The $2,109 W5a features a 12-inch screen, a gig of RAM, an 80GB HD, and that snazzy top-loading DVD writer, while the $1,898 T5a drops the optical drive in favor of longer battery life (13 hours vs. 10 for the W5a). If that's sounding good to you but for some reason you also need to drop your laptop up to 30 inches into a puddle, Panny's got you covered with the 2.1-pound R6a, a $1,772 10.4-inch machine with a 7.5 hour battery. All three machines are expected to drop in Japan on May 18th.
Intel rolls out first Core 2 Duo ULV processors
So those pokey UMPCs and super-duper ultraportables that we love to hate are about to get a little more peppy, thanks to a pair of ultra low voltage processors from Intel that just happen to sport that AMD-killin' Merom core. Without much fanfare (or any at all, really -- where's the OCC ULV chopper?), Santa Clara introduced the 1.06GHz U7500 and 1.2GHz U7600 CPUs today, the latest chips to join the powerful Core 2 Duo family. Headed straight for the smallest of the small PCs, the new models are compatible with both the Napa and upcoming Santa Rosa platforms, with a minor pinout change necessary to accommodate the latter when it's released. Pricing details were not immediately available when we wrote this, but you can probably expect these two low-enders to be some of the cheapest Merom parts yet.
