Forwarded From: William Knowles <erehwon@kizmiaz.dis.org>
[News.com] (11.8.98) Wang Global has introduced a new portable computer,
but it's not going to be winning any svelteness contests.
Wang's Tempest Mobile Workstation, 3 inches thick and weighting 14.5
pounds, is designed for government officials who need spy-proof computers
that don't leak any telltale signals to electronic eavesdroppers.
The boxes are designed to meet the U.S. government's "Tempest"
specification, which requires a computer to release extremely low amounts
of electromagnetic emissions that could reveal what information the
computer is processing.
To protect against such emissions, Tempest-compliant machines must be
encased in a lot of metal. Wang's portable looks like a thick laptop, said
Wang spokeswoman Loretta Day, "but it's really so heavy, you can't really
call it a laptop" --all that metal would make it quite a burden for your
lap.
As an added bonus, all that metal shields the computer from the
electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generated by an exploding nuclear bomb that
wreaks havoc with anything electronic.
When it's running, the machine can withstand a shock of five Gs--that's
five times the acceleration caused by the Earth's gravity. But when it's
switched off, it can take a 60-G shock.
Aside from being spy-proof, the new Wang system has some features that are
familiar to ordinary buyers: a 15.1-inch LCD screen, a 233-MHz or 266-MHz
Pentium II processor, a CD-ROM drive, and your choice of a 4GB, 6GB, or
8GB removable hard disk.
Wang also makes Tempest-compliant desktop computers, printers, routers,
switches, and servers. It's one of a handful of such companies that supply
the equipment to the government. Day said the chief customers are the
State Department and intelligence agencies. Wang also makes computer
equipment that complies with the Zone standard, similar to but less
stringent than the Tempest standard.
Pricing on the Wang portable wasn't available, but a competitor's Tempest
portable computer with more lesser features was listed at one government
Web site as costing more than $10,000.
-o-
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Received on Mon Nov 9 08:35:35 1998