Mumbai: IBM India has unveiled the first models of its redesigned PC line, the new ThinkCentre desktop offering innovative new ThinkVantage Technologies designed to reduce costs and increase productivity.

The ThinkCentre S50, M50 and A50p are ideal for all enterprises that want to drive down IT support costs, increase security, protect data and decrease the complexity of their IT infrastructure. These are robust desktops, which are designed for large enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses, small office/home office (SOHO), education and government customers as well.

All IBM NetVista desktops will now be available as ThinkCentre desktops. With this launch, IBM is finalising its move to bring all PC products and services under one name — Think. IBM''s Think offerings provide a fully integrated family of innovative offerings, capabilities, technologies and solutions that enhance productivity. IBM''s Think family of offerings now includes notebooks (ThinkPad), desktops (ThinkCentre), visuals (ThinkVision) and options and services (Think Accessories and Services).

All models of ThinkCentre come with an easy access tool-free chassis design — which means that components inside the machine, such as the hard disk and memory, can easily be removed by the customer, making the PC easily serviceable and upgradeable, helping to limit the downtime and cost associated with onsite support. Some of the new models are smaller than the average IBM desktop and there are others, which are provided with enhanced Linux support.

ThinkCentre desktops feature an innovative ''caddy'' that surrounds the hard disk drive, locking it into place without the use of tools or screws. Rubber bumpers on the caddy decrease vibration and deliver quieter operation. Other mechanical improvements have been made to the overall design of the new ThinkCentre PCs, including improved airflow and reduced noise.

Says Alok Ohrie, vice-president (personal computing division) IBM India: "Key to the Think strategy that we had announced last year, was to leverage innovative and cutting-edge technologies to make PCs more secure and easier to manage. And we are responding to customers with Think and more specifically with ThinkVantage Technologies — a set of unique software tools that are available today only with IBM PCs.

"In addition to helping customers save money and time by reducing the end customer''s dependence on IT support staff, ThinkVantage Technologies increase end user productivity by increased uptime (quick recovery from an OS crash), easy deployment of wireless networks and making PCs more secure. Security is a big threat in today''s business and is addressed well by IBM''s ThinkVantage Technology through the Embedded Security Chip."

Adds Neeraj Sharma, general manager (brand, marketing and sales operations, personal computing division), IBM India: "ThinkCentre models feature IBM ThinkVantage Technologies that improve security and simplify PC ''fleet management'' (management of PCs in an organisation) for IT organisations, including the enhanced Rapid Restore Ultra, which provides a one-button backup and recovery solution that can easily restore previously saved data, settings and applications in case of an operating system crash."

Three new ways of thinking The ThinkCentre S50 is a feature-rich global enterprise PC offering image and platform stability in an extremely small form factor. Featuring a space-saving design with dimensions of just 12.2 inches wide by 14.1 inches deep by 3.3 inches high, the ThinkCentre S50 is 62 percent smaller than a standard IBM desktop and allows for flexible placement, either horizontally or vertically.

Responding to customer feedback, IBM designed the ThinkCentre S50 to feature an internal power supply, two full-size PCI slots, three bays, and an industry-standard desktop optical drive. These features allow customization and easy upgrading, which is uncommon for a small form factor PC.

IBM also today introduced the ThinkCentre M50, with enhanced support for Red Hat and SuSE Linux. The M50 provides stability and manageability for the enterprise and is available with three improved mechanical designs. Each of these models shares a common system board and software image (per operating system), giving flexibility and image compatibility to organizations purchasing various models of the M50. Both the S50 and M50 offer global models available in 68 countries and workhorse models that feature 12 months of planned hardware stability.

IBM also announced the ThinkCentre A50p, a multimedia-centric machine offering a wide range of optical drives and video graphics adapters with up to 128MB DDR memory.