Straight From The Horses Mouth

Some of you might know that I was trying to load W7 64 bit on my CF30/MK3. I was having problems with the Gobi to install. A Tech Support manager called me today and we spoke in great length about alot of great stuff.

Basically none of Toughbooks will run 64 because of the lack of ram. He said 4Gb is not enough.

He mentioned the new models will be able to run 64 Bit though. So, I started asking questions! The new 19, 30 and 52 models will be out in 6 months he said. They are testing them now and getting ready for the production operation. So, if anybody is ready to buy a new one, I would hold off for a awhile.

 

Oooh, great stuff! So 8GB of memory will be possible, I guess?
I would also like USB 3.0 in my next Toughbook, though. I hope the next generation already has this, otherwise I'll wait for the Mk 5.

 

Whaa? 4GB is not enough?! I think he's mixing it up with Vista! W7 has system requirements closer to XP than Vista.

 

He said 8Gb for sure. I can't imagine it wont be 3.0 hardware. He said that 4Gbs is not enough to run 64 properly, that's why they do not support it.

 

BULL!!! Says I!

Sounds to me more like they have a HCL shortcoming; I'm writing this on a W7/64 machine using 1 GB RAM & AMD64 Processor. Runs better than my XP Pro/64 install on the other RAID Volume, which up til now has been my most stable build on this old warhorse...

See attached SysInfo.

mnem
Take THAT, McNuggett!

 

A have to agree with you cat

The spokesman has run out of HCl (Hydrochloric acid) and is now just making stuff up lol

Alex

 

what can we expect?

1. Faster CPU - definatly
2. better integrated graphics chip set - does intell have something ready?
3. USB 3.0 ?
4. 4 GB of ram?

this is good news

 

Win7 is supposed to support up to 192GB RAM in Enterprise versions; see here:

Though don't expect to see any improvement over the 8GB limit in 32-bit versions as seen in Vista.

mnem
Would you like hot wings with that?

 

HCL = Hardware Compatability Layer? What sort of shortcomings?

 

You're confusing two completely different things as if they were the same;

HCL = Hardware Compatibility List :
The list of stuff that an OS is designed to support; if it ain't on the list, Micro$haft ain't gonna help you make it work, and they ain't gonna give a dang when you b!tch about it not working. You'd best git to writing your own drivers...



HAL = Hardware Abstraction Layer :
Modern OSes operate in what is called "Protected Mode"; this means that the OS takes control of ALL system resources, both hardware and logical, and IT hands out access to the hardware and software resources to the software running at any given time. This means that programs are no longer allowed to access the hardware directly (called "Real Mode"); they HAVE to request access from the OS.

The Hardware Abstraction Layer is where Windows assigns addresses and handles those requests; it is a core process operating "under" the OS, between the OS and the actual hardware. This permits protection from a whole host of memory and resource allocation faults which plagued "Real-Mode" OSes.

*NIX based OSes use a HAL as well but it is implemented differently due to the modular nature of the OS design; they organise ALL resources in the same hierarchical structure; be it logical or physical.


When I say Panasonic had an "HCL shortcoming" I mean they designed their hardware as they saw fit, using hardware from whatever vendors they felt like; not how M$ told them they needed to in order to be able to run their latest & greatest OS. Now they have the latest batch of "Legacy Hardware" on the market; if you want to be able to use all the capacity of Win7, you want to wait until you see a Toughbook advertised as "Enterprise Ready" or whatever new buzzword they come up with that means the same thing...

mnem
"Open the DVD drive door, HAL." " I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave..."

 

I stand by what I said before in regards to the tech, just making stuff up
There will not be enough demand for 64bit o/s for Panasonic to consider putting resources into supporting it

One positive note is that they have improved the ram capacity on the current models by getting rid of the onboard ram and having two removable memory slots



Alex

 

So, yall are saying the 30 runs just fine on 4 Gigs with 64Bit? Then it must be the Gobi they do not have figured out. If the MK4 is in the pipeline, you know it's going to be Gobi, they better get to workin! I am going to install W7 64Bit on my 30 MK2 and see what happens. I want to see how it runs on 4 Gigs.

Dr. Steve will report back soon.

 

Toyo -

What Alex is saying is he doesn't believe there will be enough demand in the ToughBook market for an Enterprise-class machine; and there is some merit in that argument. Most Toughbook users can't tax the 8GB they can already use with the 32-bit OSes already out there. Therefore, why should they completely redesign a tried & trusted model to support a 64-bit OS?

Remember, Toughbooks have NEVER been the bleeding edge; they leave that to Dell & HP & Lenovo, etc. Toughbooks are aimed at the "warhorse" market; NOT the highest performance, but the highest reliability and highest abuse-resistance.

mnem
Time for some percussive maintenance...

 

If I can just run 32bit windows 7 I will be happy.

 

I'm running Windows 7 32-bit on a MK4 CF-29 here just fine, working like breeze.

 

mnementh, I agree 100%. The manager I spoke with said word for word that there customers pretty much dictate the technology they develop. With him stating that, and along with the statement that 64 Bit is in the pipeline, there must be a certain percentage of demand for 64 Bit. Unless of course he was bullting me! By the feel of our conversation I didn't get the feeling he was doing that.

I actually could care less if they ever do have 64 capability. My 32 runs W7 perfectly. It's just that when I am told something and it doesn't hold true I question it. Example being I was told that I could run 64 Bit, and I couldn't.