Toshiba majors on "desktop" notebooks

TOSHIBA USED to be as close to Intel as hip hugging jeans are to a modern lass, so we're somewhat surprised that it's decided to sell as many notebooks using desktop CPUs as it possibly can.

In fact, we believe that customers wanting to buy a top end notebook are likely to be thoroughly confused by the choices now available.

As we've reported for a few moons now, the thermal characteristics of desktop Pentium 4s using the Northwood core are so good that vendors can bung them into a notebook chassis and they seem to be doing so in droves.

What's particularly confusing for people buying notebooks is that difference between a notebook and a desktop CPU are somewhat esoteric. The former has SpeedStep, intended to maximise battery life and perform subtle power management functions.

Toshiba is producing notebook machines using the Pentium 4M CPU, but they are pretty thin on the ground, at least here in Europe.

For example, a reader in Monaco tells us today that while there's a Sony GR3116G using a Pentium 4M running at 1.6GHz, and costing a hefty €3299, in a local store the Toshiba offering uses a desktop CPU, with a 1.6GHz speed rating, and that costs €3199 for the entry level machine.

If you were one of those rather sensible people who couldn't give a stuff about semiconductors, marched into a shop and saw two notebooks, one from Tosh and one from Sony, both labelled Pentium 4s but with one having a little M behind it, how could you expect to be able to tell the difference?

There's something wrong here - and we suspect that it's the cunning way Intel has managed to brand the Pentium 4 family, with only little letters of the alphabet telling you there's anything different.

Do sales people at retail shops know the difference, we wonder? Judging from the mass observation pieces we've published over the last 10 days, we'd rather suspect they don't, either.

Which puts the responsibility for this debacle fairly and squarely in Intel's court. µ