Olivetti to launch PC notebooks

The Italian computer giant Olivetti may be struggling to find a buyer for its beleaguered PC business, but the division is carrying on regardless. It will launch a line of notebook PCs at Comdex later this month - the Echos Pro range will ship before the end of the year.

The systems weigh in at about 7lb, and the family comes in three configurations.

The 150S runs on the 150MHz Pentium processor with 16Mb of Ram, expandable to 128Mb, and 2Mb of video memory.

Other features include the PCI bus, 256Kb of level two cache, a 12.1-inch TFT colour display, eight-speed CD-ROM drive and 2.1Gb hard disk as standard.

The other two models, the 133S and 133D, run on 133MHz Pentiums. The 133S has the same specification as its faster cousin, while the 133D is a low-end model, featuring dual scan display, 1MB of video RAM and a 1.3Gb hard drive.

There is also an optional docking station with a 5.25-inch drive bay, and a multifunction bay which can take any of the drives from the notebook. The docking station has two stereo speakers.