Wyse showed off thin-client devices with snappy designs and high
performance.
The San Jose, Calif.-based vendor of thin-client hardware and software
unveiled its next generation of product designs on Monday.
The S and V classes of Winterm thin clients have a stylish look, offering
optimized processing capabilities and a variety of input/outputs, or I/Os.
Thin-client devices access applications that run remotely on a server.
Mike DeNeffe, senior director of the Wyse Winterm line, cites statistics from
IT research firm IDC that state only 50 percent
of the workforce in a large enterprise needs a full-blown PC. Moving them to
server-centric computing can save on hardware costs while improving control
and management.
DeNeffe also said that employees using thin clients lower “doodling costs,”
the productivity lost to fooling around on the Internet or doing tasks that
aren’t work-related.
The Winterm line promises few moving parts and rapid deployment.
Management costs are reduced because they can easily be updated en masse and
“hot-fixed” when necessary. “There’s inherent security, and they’re
virus-free,” DeNeffe said.
The Wyse Winterm S class thin-client devices, which will be available in
November, are about the size of a VHS cassette. Using AMD Geode GX
processors with a fast, integrated video chipset, they were designed to deliver
excellent video performance and reduce eyestrain. They offer lower power
usage and cooler fan-less operation with a tiny footprint.
The Wyse Winterm V class is designed for demanding enterprise
deployments. They run on Transmeta’s Crusoe processor and have low-power consumption and fan-less
cooling. The V class runs on a variety of operating systems and is expected
by the end of 2004.
Wyse also released two new classic versions of thin-client devices. The
Wyse Winterm 3150SE runs on the Microsoft Windows CE platform, while the
entry-level Wyse Winterm 9150SE uses a Wyse-enhanced version of the Windows
XP Embedded operating system. These lack the sharp styling of the S and V
class devices, but they are designed to offer an agreeable combination of
performance, I/O connectivity and price. DeNeffe calls them “the Swiss Army
Knife of thin clients.”
The company also released Rapport 4.4, the latest version of its device
management software. It manages the S and V classes, as well as the
classic models and a mix of other fixed and mobile devices.
In August, Wyse announced
Wyse Winterm 5150SE, an enterprise-class device powered by its own Linux
V6 operating system, running on the AMD Geode GX 533 processor.
