The networkstation IBM Corp has been talking about since last fall is finally ready for the market. And it’s not a personal computer with an eating disorder, as some industry pundits suggested. It’s an X-terminal with ambition. The product had not been officially christened late last month, when IBM told a teleconference audience of consultants to get ready for an announcement this month. But the hint of last-minute confusion did nothing to alter the fundamental question facing customers: How much power and how much flexibility should corporations put on the desktops of end users? The correct answer to this question is it depends, and IBM wants to have its logo on the desktop equipment that every customer selects after considering all the particulars. At the low end, IBM currently offers 3270-type non-programmable terminals to S/390 customers, 5250-type terminals to AS/400 shops and ASCII terminals to RS/6000 and Intel server customers. At the high end, it provides a range of iAP X-86-based personal computers and, above those, workstations that use PowerPC RISC chips; these devices can be used with any of IBM’s various servers. In the middle, IBM sells only one kind of workstation, and it is aimed at the RS/6000 base: the X- terminal, based on public concepts developed at the Masschusetts Institute of Technology. An X-terminal has some local computing power but, usually, no local storage. It depends on a server for all data and all but its most basic software.
Embedded PowerPC
However, X-terminals generally include more powerful communications and graphics capability than dumb tubes, and, in the Unix world, they often come with very snazzy screens. IBM used to design and build its own X-stations, but on March 4 announced it was dropping out of that business and that it would market products from Network Computing Devices Inc. The entry Network Computing product, called Explora, is based on an embedded PowerPC called the 403 that costs around $50. (Embedded processor s differ from their general-purpose cousins primarily in their lack of hardware to manage virtual memory and other features required by stand-alone computers.) While IBM has not made public the details of its networkstation, the initial unit will be derived from the Network Computing Explora. The current Explora consists of a 7 by 10 by 2 control box, a 15 1,024 by 768 color display, a keyboard, a mouse and an external power transformer that drops line voltage to the 18 volts the controlle r’s internal power supply accepts. The box comes with a minimal 4 megabytes of RAM in one of its two 72-pin SIMM slots. It has ports for a 10Base-T local net, a printer and a modem. The video circuit in the Explora is an S3 Inc 868 that drives an AT &T Corp digital to analog converter and comes with at least 1Mb of video RAM. The entry price, including monitor, is $1,000. The Explora provides support for various protocols including TCP/IP, but when it is used in dial-up mode it provides a Serial Line Interface Protocol connection rather than the Point-to-Point Protocol that has now become dominant. Once integrated into a TCP/IP network, an Explora, like any other client, can interact with multiple hosts. The Explora can be beefed up. In a ddition to extra main and video memory, users can get a sound chip and small internal speaker as well as a stereo jack for external speakers. The video memory can be increased to provide 256 colors at 1,280 by 1,024 or 24-bit color at lower resoluti ons. In upgraded configurations, the X-terminal has a 33MHz clock rather than the 28MHz clock in the base model. In addition to supporting X functions, Network Computing provides software that enables the Explora to run Java applets.
And with server side programs, the Explora can run Windows NT applications when it is attached to an NT server. In essence, this software translates screen painting output from Windows NT into X-terminal display commands and, going the other way, ma ssages user input so that it will be acceptable to Windows NT. IBM would like to offer a basic networkstation right away and ship enhanced models during the first half of 1997. After that, the future of the product line will depend on market reaction to both the concept and the implementation. IBM’s initial base networkstation will include a minimum of 8Mb memory and initially accept a maximum of 64Mb. (Users will have to plan carefully as some memory upgrades will require one or both SIMMs to be replaced.) It could have a somewhat faster processor clock speed than the base Explora. IBM regularly increases the range of chips in its PowerPC 403 family. By next spring, when more evolved models become available to customers, the networkstation will have coax and twinax ports, more PCMCIA peripherals and, we expect, a library of Java applets aimed at improving end user productivity. IBM will sell the base box without a display for $700 in single unit quantities. With a basic monitor, the price will be about $1,000. IBM will sell the boxes directly and through resellers and distributors. We expect most initial applications to require 16Mb to 32Mb, but more complex Java programs could well require more main storage. However, the ne tworkstation uses standard SIMMs, so users can shop for extra RAM on the open market. IBM executives have said that the networkstation’s architecture will permit it to be offered with more memory in the future, but there is obviously a point at whic h the price of a heavily configured networkstation will make it less attractive than a personal computer. IBM suggests it expects the networkstations to support some large programs (such as Web browsers) by downloading software from servers as requi red. IBM has not yet provided details of the server-based networkstation support software it will offer to users of its various hosts, nor the impact of this on system processor capacity, input-output bandwidth and storage capacity. But it indicated it will soon provide guidance to customers. IBM will at first confine its networkstation marketing to AS/400 and mainframe users who support end users via iAPX-86- or PowerPC-based local network servers. This is because some of the capabilities IBM wants to offer its networkstation customers are provided by Network Computing through its extensions to Windows NT. It will not be difficult for Network Computing to create code that emulates a 5250 or 3270 in a box capable of running X Window, but the creation of a true Windows client for the Explora or any of its derivatives is almost certainly both impractical and beyond the capability of either Network Computing or IBM. So, too would be the OS/2 for PowerPC that IBM killed before it was ready for the market. The AS/400 is an excellent host for the networkstation. IBM offers not only 5250 support but software to give personal computers a 5250 profile while giving users a graphical interface. This software – Client Access – has been IBM’s strategic offering for AS/400 customers and prospects who might otherwise install Windows NT or Unix servers and personal computer clients. Tying the networkstation to the AS/400 would give IBM a broader offering in the mid-range, put it ahead of Unix vendors who will eventually provide similar offerings and possibly enable the AS/400 to beat NT servers at some sites. Today, the AS/400 can be configured with a network support card called the FSIOP, based on a 66MHz 80486 that could in th eory run a special version of Network Computing’s terminal support software. The FSIOP can run LAN Server, NetWare or Lotus Notes. But we doubt that the Network Computing package, which today requires Windows NT, would provide acceptable performance running on the current IBM AS/400 FSIOP. Further, while IBM is believed to be developing a more capable version of the FSIOP based on a 166MHz Pentium, IBM has had difficulties negotiating a Windows NT license for it from Microsoft Corp. Nor do we believe that IBM would like to use Microsoft’s Windows Explorer as the basis of the Web browser the networkstation will support. On the networkstation, Navigator, which remains the market leader, would give prospective users a familiar browser and reinforce Navigator presence among corporate personal computer users. By contrast, if IBM favors Explorer for its networkstation, user organizations seeking uniformity would ultimately want to use the Microsoft browser for all Internet-intranet terminals. Our expectation is that IBM’s plan for the networkstation will be Explora, si; Explorer, no.
By Hesh Wiener
From the September 1996 edition of Infoperspectives, (C) 1996 Technology News of America Co Inc.
