What's next for the T series of Thinkpads?

[sharpie]

I recently read about the MXM standard for mobile graphics. I am wondering how soon that will be and what is on the horizon for the next several generations of T series models.. Is there any public roadmap or educated speculation?

[Steve007]

We will be doing a minor refresh in October but you can expect to see a major refresh in Q1 2005 (inc all new 'P' models).

The T41/T41p will finally go EoL in December - making way for the refreshed T42/42p models as I mentioned.

[dash7540]

Steve007 can you elaborate on what you mean by a "minor" and "major" refresh?

[Steve007]

Steve007 can you elaborate on what you mean by a "minor" and "major" refresh?

The minor refreshes in October will just be a basic update of components such as the CPU. I've no idea if these models will still be branded T42's or if they'll be branded T43's.

The major update will probably see the end of PCMCIA ports on T series ThinkPad's, replaced by the new standard, ExpressCard. This is forced by Intel adopting the new BUS standard (PCI Express) which Intel will be pushing heavily next year. I've no details on what components these TP's will include yet, but I'd like to think the new 100GB drive will be included in high-end units. One thing's for sure, the 60GB 7200RPM drives will not be standard just yet - cost issues.

Personally, I'd love to see FireWire included on future T series models. It's been a massive oversight IMO to have excluded it on T4x models.

[dash7540]

Thanks for the fast response Steve007!

I don't want to sound picky, but should I just assume the minor updates are faster CPUs, more RAM, larger hard drives, and maybe even better video cards (Mobility Radeon 9700/9800) perhaps? I'm asking because I just bought a new T42 (although I still can return it for a refund) and October is only a few weeks away so I just want to know if these updates are really worth it.

Oh one more question, do you know if these ExpressCards will support upgradable video cards for notebooks?

[sharpie]

I don't believe the new pcmcia slot thingy will support new video upgrades, that would be the MXM proposal from NVidia which would make use of PCI express and support multivendor GPU support.

I bought my T41p back in March, and I'm happy with it. I won't buy a new one until I can get it with the MXM cards, an gpu that supports vs 3.0, and a cpu ~2.0ghz, and a 100GB 7200 rpm drive (is that even on the table?)..

[awolfe63]

There are no announced 100GM 7200RPM 2.5" models from Hitachi/Toshiba/Fujitsu/Seagate

[mouse@cheese.storage]

This is very useful to know, thanks Steve007 !!

Concerning your MXM, I would assume that the Expresscards will be based on PCI-express as that is the whole idea of the Sonoma architecture and the new chipset intel is going to launch for mobile plaftorms. I thinks that is also what Steve007 means with the new things intel wants to launch, as otherwise I would not knot what othe things they have ready for us . Hence that would mean that your MXM might get there

[Steve007]

There are no announced 100GM 7200RPM 2.5" models from Hitachi/Toshiba/Fujitsu/Seagate

http://news.com.com/Hitachi+unleashes+1 ... 66017.html

5400RPM versions though.....

[flake]

I hope everyone hasn't lost sight that MXM isn't the only interface designed for upgrading graphics in Laptops. There is also miniAGP e.g. http://www.commell.com.tw/Product/Perip ... MA-ATI.HTM

I imagine that with the new PCI-express initiative there will be some kind of 16x miniPCIE or some such thing in the near future. It is my understanding that one of the advantages of PCI Express is that, being a serialized bus, it has a lower pin count then PCI 2.x or AGP with equivelent bandwidth. That certainly has to make it much more attractive for designers of smaller, high performance things like the Thinkpad T series.

Cheers,

~Jason

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