There are no letters available.

RuggedNotebooks.com, a provider of combat-ready computers to the U.S. military, today announced availability of the Rough Rider III, the first upgradeable mobile computer engineered for use in war, law enforcement, oil and gas exploration, and other harsh environments.

The Rough Rider III complies fully with the 810-E MIL-SPECS standard, which requires survival of a three-foot drop on concrete, impermeability in a four-inch-per-hour rainfall, and resistance to dust and desert sand. It is available with the Pentium III processor at speeds of 600 to 750 megahertz currently and 850Mhz by the fourth quarter. Any current or future processor in the same Pentium III family can be used to easily upgrade the motherboard through an external hatch in the bottom of the computer case. SDRAM can also be upgraded from the standard 128 megabytes to 256 megabytes through a similar sealed hatch.

The ruggedness of the Rough Rider III does not come at the expense of portability. A removable briefcase-style handle is attached to the magnesium chassis, making the 12-pound device easier to carry and often more convenient to use than clamshell-type laptop computers. There is no need for an additional protective carrying case.

Exterior rubber bumpers protect the case against shock. The screen and main chassis fold together against water- and dust-proof seals. The removable hard disk is protected from shock and damped against vibration by a gel housing. The bright, 12.1-inch, TFT SVGA screen is separately sealed against water and dust and is rubber mounted to resist shock. An optional bright sunlight display is available on both 12.1-inch SVGA and 13.3-inch XGA screens. The keyboard and touch pad are shower- and dust-proof. The rear panel of I/O ports is protected by a sealed door. The wide range of optional components to fit the two well-sealed device bays of the Rough Rider III include 10- 20- and 30-gigabyte Ultra DMA removable hard disks, supplementary Li-Ion 44-watt battery pack, two additional PCMCA slots, SCSI II module, removable CD ROM, DVD and CDRW drives, 100 Base-T Ethernet adapter/56K modem, and RS-232, RS-422, or RS-485 ports.

Similar models in the Rough Rider series are used in the field by the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Marines, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard. "With the Rough Rider I, we were able to collect the flood data we needed from a boat while bouncing off of three-foot waves, in currents of eight feet per second, and in heavy rainfall," said John M. Shelton, a hydrologist with the Geological Survey. "The Rough Rider weathered the storm and the turbulent conditions and was a great asset in our data collection effort."

"The Rough Rider III is ideal for harsh, dirty environments and climatic extremes such as those endured by oil and gas exploration teams," said Alan Shad, director of sales and marketing for RuggedNotebooks.com. "Though it is designed expressly to meet military standards for toughness, the Rough Rider III makes economical sense for industrial uses where computer breakage leads to costly downtime. If you need to get to work in a helicopter or a heavy-duty truck, you need a Rough Rider when you get there."

Adding to the reliability of the Rough Rider line is the 10,000 hours mean time between failure, double the industry standard, and a failure rate of less than five percent. In addition to the standard one-year warranty, extended warranties are also available to cover all components, including the LCD screen, for an additional one or two years. About RuggedNotebooks.com

RuggedNotebooks.com is a provider of combat-ready mobile computers to the U.S. military and resilient notebook computers for heavy-duty use in harsh industrial environments. The company provides extended warranties and rapid repair turnarounds to further protect against downtime in the field. For more information, please visit www.ruggednotebooks.com or telephone 866.2.Rugged or 866-Rugged-PC