San Francisco (CA) – Intel’s Atom processor is making its way into ruggedized notebooks and at the Intel Developer Forum Panasonic was showing off its upcoming handheld Toughbook using the power-saving processor.  The Toughbook CF-U1 has a 5.6-inch screen, 1024 MB of DDR2 RAM and a 16/32 GB solid state drive.  Like all Toughbooks, this magnesium-alloyed unit is rugged and can withstand a 4-foot drop and tremendous abuse.  Oh and if you’re ever caught in the dark, it even has a built-in flashlight.

Two very bright leds are mounted on the back of the case and a Panasonic rep told us that these are mainly used for sewer workers trudging through dark tunnels.  In addition to the light, the unit has a fingerprint scanner, 2 megapixel camera, GPS and a barcode reader.

The Toughbook can be purchased with either Windows Vista or XP and will be available in September starting at $2800.

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