Sony, Fujitsu and Toshiba launch Brazos netbooks

Fujitsu and Sony has joined the growing group of notebook makers with Brazos powered machines, as both companies have announced 11.6-inch models in Japan.



Fujitsu’s model is called the LifeBook PH50/C and will be available in red, blue and black. The APU of choice is the E-350 and the standard configuration will include 2GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. We’re sure some kind of Wi-Fi option will also be included and judging by the picture there’s at least two USB 2.0 ports and an Ethernet port, but we’d expect there to be an HDMI port and a D-sub connector somewhere as well. The PH50/C is said to be weighing in at about 1.5kg (3.3lbs) and have a battery life of about 7.3 hours.



Sony’s new model is the VAIO YB which will be available in ever jollier colors, namely silver, pink and green. Sony has gone for the same base hardware as Fujitsu, in other words and E-350 APU and 2GB of memory but fit a smaller 320GB hard drive as standard. The VAIO YB sports three USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port, a D-sub connector, and twin memory card readers, Gigabit Ethernet and a pair of audio jacks. You’ll also find a 1.3 Megapixel webcam, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR as part of the spec.



The VAIO YB weighs in at 1.46kg (3.22lbs) with the standard battery which is said to be good for up to 6h of usage, although Sony offers two high capacity models which gives you either 7.5 or 11h worth of battery life, although at a currently unknown extra weight addition. No word on pricing as yet, but we’d expect the VAIO YB to be a lot more affordable than the Lifebook PH50/C.

Meanwhile, Toshiba’s NB550D went on sale in Taiwan today and it’s yet another consumer coloured notebook which comes in four different choices of randomly picked colours which includes gold (looks kind of brown to us), green, orange and a blue, although there appears to be a black version as well that is currently not available. This is a smaller 10.1-inch system which shares the same design as Toshiba’s NB520 netbook, but of course with different bits inside.



Feature wise we have an AMD C-50 dual core APU at 1GHz, 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive. Toshiba has fitted three USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port, a D-sub connector, a card reader, an Ethernet port and a pair of audio jacks. You also get 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, surprisingly Bluetooth 3.0, a webcam and a pair of very large Harman Kardon branded speakers for this size machine. Sadly the screen resolution is that of a netbook at 1024x600, but the NB550D weighs in at a light 1.32kg (2.9lbs) with a 6-cell 48Whr battery pack although we don’t have any details in terms of how long it’s meant to last. The NB550D retail for NT$13,900 in Taiwan, or $479, which is about $100 cheaper than the Atom N550 powered NB520 netbook.

What is an APU

Check out this video which gives a visual representation of the APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) design model.



AMD officially introduced its Zacate and Ontario Accelerated Processing Units, saying notebooks and netbooks based on them are "now available." AMD says it expects PC vendors including Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba to "announce plans to deliver AMD Fusion APU- based systems at very compelling value and mainstream price points." Even tablets based on the new silicon are on the way, although those aren't due out until later this quarter.

Zacate and Ontario combine AMD's brand-new Bobcat microarchitecture, DirectX 11-class integrated graphics, and the new UVD3 video decoding block in a single piece of silicon manufactured using TSMC's 40-nm fab process. Both Zacate and Ontario are available in dual- and single-core flavors, with the former having an 18W thermal envelope and the latter fitting into a 9W TDP. Benchmarks showed that the quickest, dual-core Zacate model can keep up with Intel's entry-level CULV processors and deliver far better graphics performance.