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November 11, 2006

New Thin Clients from NEC with VMware

NEC has come out with some new thin clients which offer an interesting twist to the paradigm. Using it's own NetClient system-on-a-chip solution one of the interesting features it can offer is IP Telephony.
The solution uses VMware's virtualisation software to create a virtual Windows PC environment for each user on the server, rather than more traditional shared user space found in other thin client solutions.

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As usual, the processing is done on the server with only the screen handled at the client end. The virtualisation technology gives the user a full Windows environment feel to their client, says the company.

Apart from offering a high level of video processing quality at the client end, the new systems offer IP telephone in a comparatively small footprint. The server load for VoIP is not carried by the computing server but is off-load to a dedicated telephony server which even allows voice and video to be transmitted directly between clients.

NEC has had to ensure a higher level of audio and voice quality to get this to work, but is pretty up front about its expectations for the new system. It's planning on selling the equivalent of US$1.25B worth of the thin client solutions over the next three years.

Using the US100 clients instead of a regular desktop should also yield a significant reduction in power usage with a 20 user system expected to use less than 40% of the power an equivalent client/server system would.

The clients are just palm-sized devices (15.5x10.4x3.4cm) which can even be mounted behind the LCD.

A version of the thin client hardware, to be made available only in Japan (at this stage) is in a notebook form factor.

NEC release



Another writeup from CIO
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NEC Hails Next Generation of Thin Clients

NOV 08, 2006 10:24:56 AM | Add Comment (0) | Permalink

NEC has produced what it claims is the next generation of thin clients.

The US100 comes with advanced IP telephony and video processing, thanks to the company’s NetClient system-on-a-chip. It comes with VMware’s Virtual Desktop preinstalled.

The idea is that users will get a complete Windows XP environment unlike conventional thin client products, which provide a restricted view. NEC claims its VirtualPC Center (VPC) provides much better graphics and IP telephony than conventional thin clients at 40 percent of the price.

NEC has worked with VMware and uses its virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to host up to 20 complete Windows XP sessions in virtual machines on its SV5800 server. The client comprises a standard screen, keyboard and mouse plugged into the US100 box, which is about the size of a video cassette. It contains NEC-developed graphics and sound decompression chips.

Conventional thin client products, such as Citrix, receive uncompressed video and sound. Video playback can also be interrupted because the network and hosting server aren’t powerful enough. By offloading the server CPU with thin client accelerator chips, NEC claims it can provide uninterrupted video playback.

Conventional thin client products also provide a restricted emulation of Windows, and not all applications run. Provision of a full Windows XP session per thin client, through VDI, means that a user can be switched from a PC desktop to a US100-based thin client and perceive no difference at all, applications running exactly as before.

The US100 has no hard drive or fan; it runs silently and uses a fraction of the energy of a desktop PC. NEC has integrated its own management suite into VMware providing a management console for thin client administration. It has also integrated voice over IP (VoIP) so calls between clients are of high audio quality. A Phillips SV7000 server is an option for VoIP calls outside the local thin client network.

NEC is also providing the first diskless, wireless-connected TM160 mobile thin client. But if it loses connectivity, it cannot work. This product is for "corridor warriors," according to Jean-Claude Tagger, head of NEC Europe. He said the VPC product line is intended for call centers and health care, among others.

NEC claims to have a nine-to-12-month lead on other thin clients. IBM has a VMware-based thin client system, but it does not have the multimedia acceleration features of the NEC product, nor does it have the cost advantages, according to NEC staff. Wyse also has a thin client product integrated into VDI, again without graphics acceleration and VoIP. There are many other companies in VMware’s VDI alliance development program.

-Chris Mellor, Techworld.com (London)

Posted by staff at November 11, 2006 03:03 PM