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If you really want to go overboard on "dubiously suitable for laptop use", you can get one of these.

Dual UltraSPARCs, up to 16 gigs of RAM, full sized 64 bit PCI slot, 3GbE ports. Of course, it's 22 pounds, and they don't even say what it costs.

Try here - http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/Products.asp

Any laptop that claims "up to 16GB of RAM" can't be half bad.

I think you need something like this

Sure, there were some SparcBooks but IIRC, they never worked out well.

Well, Tadpole still make a business from selling SPARC based portables. Even Sun rebadges them and sells them.

Actually Sparc laptops have been around for years: http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/html/

From what I can gather they had horrible battery life and probably ran quite hot, since the Sparc chip has never been a mobile processor.

You mean like this?

Tadpole Bullfrog Dual Processor http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/html/products/mobil e/bullfrog-dual/:

- Dual 1.2 GHz UltraSPARC® IIIi processors
- Up to 16GB DRAM
- Large 17.1" SXGA TFT LCD Display
- Full Length, 66 MHz, 64 -bit PCI Expansion Slot
- Dual 2.5" High Performance Disk Drives
- Integrated DVD/CD-RW Drive

I'd change the operating system for a GPL one though.

I thought that's what this laptop was for!

Too bad you're implying that a PC company did it first. See here.

There are a lot of other factors to "system performance", like memory, video, and disk subsystem speed. How much of a gain will a dual core CPU buy if the system is waiting for a (relatively) slow disk? If you want to put in a 7200 rpm 2 1/2", or a pair of 'em (or here), well ok. But then power consumption and it's cousin heat go up. Bigger batteries, Ok. Now you've got weight. I guess it's all about trade-offs, and what do you really want.

low power requirements != low enough for a laptop.

I don't think they care.

http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/html/products/mobil e/comet/

As was mentioned in the article, laptops can be difficult to use for a full 8 hour day. The keyboard is all wrong, and the screen is always too low. Docking stations take care of that problem (expensive!), but that still doesn't solve a company-wide problem of laptop support. For example, laptops introduce a problem with keeping all files on a shared server (though folder caching can help somewhat), and laptops are prone to breakage which both increases costs and may result in lost data.

One of the more interesting ideas in recent years has been the Sun Ray Station. Tying into the previous article, the idea is that each employee is given a secure SmartCard that contains both his secret login key as well as information on how to make the Ray Station connect with the server. The advantage this has over traditional thin clients is that the user is allowed to roam to any available computer and simply "plug in". As soon as the card is inserted, your desktop is brought up EXACTLY where you left it!

This technology gets even more exciting when you realize that it can be used from remote locations. i.e. If I have a Ray Station at home (quite fesible given their cost), I can simply insert my card into my home station. The station looks at the info on the card, finds the remote server, and logs me in. Zero configuration, instant satisfaction.

Of course, the idea of Ray Stations doesn't help if you need to work from a coffee shop, hotel, or on the plane. (Many planes are adding wireless data points.) For those situations, Tadpole has developed a laptop-like product known as the Comet. It's a complete portable unit, with a large screen, wifi, and exceedingly long battery life. (Up to 8 hours!) Simply plug your card into the laptop when you're near a Wifi point, and BAM, you've got access to your desktop!

Sadly, the Sun Ray Station concept still leaves you high and dry in many different situations. (e.g. On the bus or train.) But the concept is there, and further research and development by Sun combined with more and more Wifi points popping up may very well lead to the perfect solution that both centralizes your data yet gives employees the mobility they need.

Yes, Tadpole, and they weren't technically made by Sun, but by a "Sun Partner".

Actually, these laptops are probably also made by Tadpole, and just rebranded by Sun.

Tadpole Computer

Well, sun didn't design the laptops they offer. They are just reselling existing products from naturetech and Tadpole, both of which have offered SPARC based notebooks for years (more than a decade in case of Tadpole). While their CPUs may not be fast compared to currtent x86 Laptops, the hardware is pretty solid and size an weight are comparable to common x86 notebooks.

Additionally, SUN has actually built a portable system back in the days of the microSPARC II CPUs, which probably wasn't too bad, and nowhere near the size and weight of a E450 - probably more like a SparcStation 5 with a LCD strapped on the top.

Every other laptop out there is x86 or Apple.

I can't find any evidence of this being a Sun branded computer.

The info page shows a Tadpole and a Naturetech notebook.

So these still seem to be SPARC notebooks.

Tadpole makes a Dual CPU SPARC notebook, BTW

I can't find any evidence of this being a Sun branded computer.

The info page shows a Tadpole and a Naturetech notebook.

So these still seem to be SPARC notebooks.

Tadpole makes a Dual CPU SPARC notebook, BTW

A SPARC laptop runing Solaris is not new, neither would running Solaris on an x86 laptop be new. Both http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/ and http://www.naturetech.com.tw/_page/index.html have been offering SPARC based laptops for quite a while and any x86 laptop on Sun's hardware compatibility list http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/ can run Solaris x86. What's news is this is the first time I have seen Sun offer a first party solution for laptops that get the same service and support offerings Sun provides for their servers and workstations.

You think $3,400 is bad? You obviously haven't shopped for a Sparc laptop from Tadpole!

Tadpole is still around. Lots of goodies here:

http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/html/products/mobil e/

No prices listed, but they have SPARC laptops!

Yes they are still around. http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/html/products/mobil e/sparcbook/

http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/ make laptops, and claim to make them in the US. Although, as far as I'm concerned, they're more interesting because they're SPARC laptops, not intel/amd... Probably not what you're looking for, but cool nonetheless.
-ReK

Bah, if I wanted a laptop for upgradability, I'd go buy This.

Dual processors, 16GB Ram, RAID, full length 64 bit PCI slot, all wrapped up in a mammoth laptop case with a 17" screen.

Here and here are some Ultra portables. (I think there are more of them than PowerPC portables, actually.)

Hope this helps. Have a nice day.

Tadpool also sells a dual ultraspac III 1.2ghz laptop. kinda heavy weighing 20.5 pounds but supports two hard drives, up to 8Gb per processer, full size 64bit pci card, and scsi. Its sounds good , but I wouldn't want to lug that think around with me.

http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/html/products/mobil e/bullfrog-dual/

-Qua

Just FYI- while it doesn't have nearly the mass market appeal of AMD's offerings there has been the 64bit SparcBook out for a few years now.
SparcBook

Solaris on a laptop? No.

Actually, the correct answer is yes. Tadpole makes quite a few of them.

There has been a good SuSE (actually in this case Java Desktop System) Linux business laptop that "just works" out for 9 months now. The Tadpole Talin 15". The also now have the 12 inch screen model available.

Not as big a brand name as HP ... but then again HP's brandname hasn't been that great for awhile now anyway.

The Tadpole machines may be more expensive (no way for me to know, I got my Talin 15 as a demo box and their website doesn't say) so I'm not saying you should definitely get this one over the HP box if that is a concern ... just pointing out some other alternatives.

Things in this respect are definitely improving.

There has been a good SuSE (actually in this case Java Desktop System) Linux business laptop that "just works" out for 9 months now. The Tadpole Talin 15". The also now have the 12 inch screen model available.

Not as big a brand name as HP ... but then again HP's brandname hasn't been that great for awhile now anyway.

The Tadpole machines may be more expensive (no way for me to know, I got my Talin 15 as a demo box and their website doesn't say) so I'm not saying you should definitely get this one over the HP box if that is a concern ... just pointing out some other alternatives.

Things in this respect are definitely improving.

I guess you guys were asleep earlier this year.

http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/html/products/mobil e/talin15/

If you actually look at pricing between the Sun Ray's vs someone like Dell, with required software like Antivirus and Ghost (for a larger networking environment) and add them all together, you'll see that you're wrong. Don't believe me? Price 40 machines at the small to mid level business pricing bracket at Dell, Gateway, Compaq/HP, IBM, etc with Enterprise licenses of Ghost and Antivirus and you'll find that you actually save money by buying the Sun Building blocks.

As for portability - sun also has a laptop version of these things with wireless capability. Oh yea, they have batteries that actually last 6-8 hours compared to your normal laptops...

Just another AC thats shooting their mouth off on something they know nothing about...

Oh, you mean this?
Yes, already on the market. I saw one on display at a technology show a few weeks ago. Shares the same chasis as one of their normal Sun laptops, though without all the peripherals built in. Only kink is that the wireless is 802.11b, not 802.11g. (FYI, I think the retail price is around $1500, which actually isn't more than some of the fully-integrated desktop models Sun makes) Also, it supposedly has 6-8 hour battery life.

I used to work in a place that was primarily running on Sun hardware for a few years. In February 2003, we had some major problems, and they had to bring in a whole string of folks from Sun Professional Services to work around the clock to get us back up and running.

Of the 6 folks who brought portables with them, 3 of them were Powerbooks. [I got confused on the first day one of them was in, as I thought he was mucking with my personal laptop] One of the folks said he was working with some other folks on getting his powerbook to work as a JumpStart server, so he could configure and load new sun systems from it.

Our company had some sparc notebooks (Tadpole), but not a single one of the guys from Sun used one -- they were all macs or wintel.

I haven't been in a Sun shop for almost a year now, but their push before was towards the whole 'smart terminal' concept, not really at true workstations.

I wonder why there is no ferrari-like niche in the laptop world -- ultimate performance that makes a lot of sacrifices that most people wouldn't make. How hard would it be to slap this dual processor motherboard onto a 20" LCD screen, and add a few SCSI 2.5" drives in a raid? There are people who'd go for it, even though it would weigh 20 pounds.

(related link tadpole sparcbook)

It was a back-in-the-day fully loaded dell inspirion 7000. It had a 15" screen (when they were new), PII 366 MHz, windows 98, and 256MB of ram. The ram alone was $800, and was more than any other machine in the office (even more than our sun workstations, which weren't the newest). Still a useful computer today.

I also had an old company-owned tadpole sparcbook... the newer ones are easily $8k, so a friend bought an old small sun for $150 off of ebay instead and ran it display-less (telnetting into that with his regular laptop)

"I think I'll just be sticking with Apple powerbooks from now on as they make the most durable and stable laptops on the market."

You want durability and stability? Try Tadpole. Used by the US military. Runs Solaris and Linux. I've found Thinkpads pretty solid as well. YMMV.

Not only does Tadpole make Sparc based laptops, but they are a lot cheaper than they used to be. Starting price $2,995.

Soon?

Now (64bit sparc laptop)

2. Steve wants to be the first to ship a 64 bit portable. (No one is closer than Apple now).