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Sharp Systems of America is shipping its first notebook, powered by Intel's 850-MHz Pentium III processor.

Sharp is positioning the PC-AR50 notebook for use by corporate customers. The product is available immediately and is priced at $2499.

It comes with 128MB of memory, upgradeable to 256MB. It has a 20GB removable hard drive and a video controller with 8MB of video RAM, according to Sharp.

The notebook has a hot-swappable multi-bay. This allows a CD-RW, floppy drive, DVD drive, and extended battery to each fit into the same drive bay, company representatives say. The PC-AR50 weighs 5.7 pounds with the CD-RW drive installed.

The notebook also features a 14.1-inch SVGA display with a color range of 16 million colors. It uses Sharp's antiglare, low-reflection technology.

More Notebooks in the Wings

The PC-AR50 is the first notebook to ship from Sharp Systems of America, a division of Sharp Electronics. The parent company recently announced several systems that will ship first in Japan and release in the United States this year. Sharp claims its Mebius PC-MT1-H1, shipping in Japan in June, is the thinnest notebook yet. The $1667 unit is 0.7 inches in height and weighs 2.9 pounds.

Also expected soon is the Mebius PC-SX1-H1, Sharp's first Transmeta-powered notebook. The system uses a 600-MHz Crusoe TM5600 processor; pricing will be announced when the notebook ships in Japan in June.

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