Hewlett Packard Co has gone to Wyse Technology Inc as the source for its new range of Windows-based terminals, announced yesterday, making it the first of the major vendors to enter the market. The terminals, currently known only as HP’s WBT range, are based on Wyse’s modular hardware, and are thought to be using Intel x86-compatible chips from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Wyse and HP have collaborated for some time at exhibitions to show off the terminal server edition of Microsoft Corp’s NT 4.0, but the relationship really took off after the two worked together on Federal Express Corp’s giant Windows terminal project. HP hopes to attract those of its customers looking to replace dumb terminals and old PCs being used as terminals. It sees task-based environments such as retail, banking and insurance as the most suitable for the new hardware. With a price tag of $700, the terminals give access to mainframe and legacy systems and currently support Citrix Systems Inc’s MetaFrame or WinFrame software. Microsoft’s RDP remote desktop protocol will be supported once it’s available. Using a PC emulator loaded on the server, the HP WBT can also talk to Unix systems. The terminals include 10Base-T Ethernet network interface card, two serial and one parallel port, two PS/2 and one PCMCIA port, 16Mb RAM, keyboard, mouse, 16-bit stereo sound and support for peripherals such as a bar code reader, printer and magnetic stripe reader. HP will rebadge the systems. It currently also has NetVectra Net PCs and NetStation X terminals on its product list, but never launched a Network Computer conforming to the specifications endorsed by Oracle Corp and Sun Microsystems Inc.
