Panasonic ToughBook 31 Gets Ivy Bridge

Japanese company Panasonic has been building ToughBooks since back in 1996 and these systems have some very interesting features and capabilities as they can operate in sub-zero environments and are water, mud and sock resistant.

The ToughBook 31 houses the HDD in a specially designed shock-resistant cage, which also has a special heater that will keep the system working in freezing environments.

The newer CPU technology also brings increased battery life due to the more modest power consumption of the new 22nm Ivy Bridge processors.

The top of the line CPU available is the Core i5-3360M that Intel likes to call “up to 3.5 GHz.”

Buyers should be warned that this CPU is a 2800 MHz chip and only when a single core and Turbo mode is activated, does it reach 3.5 GHz.

Turbo can also run with both computing cores active, but the maximum frequency is 3.3 GHz.

The new processor is able to handle four threads at one time by using Intel’s HT technology to simulate duplicate cores in the operating system.

It benefits from 3 MB of level 3 cache and also packs the considerably improved HD4000 integrated graphics processing unit (iGPU).

The graphics chip normally works at 650 MHz, but it can reach a high 1200 MHz in Turbo mode while the total maximum TDP is a modest and impressive 35 watts.

Another important addition is USB 3.0 connectivity that we find absolutely indispensable, especially in such an exclusive mobile system.

The 13.1-inch XGA LED touchscreen comes with Panasonic CircuLumin technology that will allow the user to view it properly no matter if the location is in bright sunlight or inside a bark mine.