Dell announces mobile workstation

MOBILE WORKSTATIONS might not be the most exciting things, but Dell has announced one that promises to be pretty powerful.

Pitched at 3D designers, animators, engineers, oil explorers, defence professionals and by the sounds of it, that bloke out of the Da Vinci Code, the Dell Precision M6500 is the first workstation of its kind to feature the Intel Core 17 processor. The M6500's components include optional Nvidia Quadro FX 3800M graphics and Dell boasts about its hardware certifications for over 95 workstation applications such as those from Adobe and Dassault Systemes.

Other options include the choice between 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, XP, and Red Hat Linux 5.3 64-bit versions.

The M6500 can scale up to 16GB with four DIMM slots and supports DDR3 1600MHz memory. Dell claims it includes more internal storage devices than workstations from the competition, including HP and Apple.

Purchasers can also elect to have the Intel Core i7-920XM quad-core Extreme Edition processor running at 1.6GHz with 1066MHz, 1333MHz or 1600MHz memory, and can choose between Nvidia's Quadro FX 2800M and ATI's FireProM7740 graphics systems.

Security options include a fingerprint scanner, strong authentication tools, and for the defence market, we hope, some sort of self-destruct button.

"The Dell Precision M6500 establishes a new class of mobile workstation for the most demanding computing environments," said Greg Weir, senior manager, Dell Precision workstations. "This system is truly a desktop replacement without compromise. In addition, we're leveraging our robust 'ecosystem' of partners to deliver the performance users require running applications in key vertical markets such as 3D animation, Computer Aided Design (CAD), engineering, and scientific exploration, defence visualisation and other computationally intensive applications."

The M6500 measures 15.4 by 11 by 1.35 inches. Prices start at a power user friendly £1,279. µ