ICL Plc aims to bridge the gap between personal computers and dumb terminals with its new network terminal, ErgoClient, for client-server computing, which acts as a half-way house and is claimed to be the only product capable of filling a gap in the market by combining the price-performance of a terminal with the flexibility of a personal computer. As a result, users have the best of both worlds and ICL claims ErgoClient reduces the hidden costs of owning a personal computer by 75%. ErgoClient is a more advanced version of the ErgoView terminals, launched in April (CI No 2,141), which enable users to access different environments from the same terminal by adding personality modules. The ErgoClient takes on the characteristics of a personal computer by means of a similar personality module, which incorporates an Intel Corp 80486 processor and simply slots into the machine. The module provides up to 16Mb of memory and will boot from LAN Manager, NetWare and Unix environments. It also connects into Ethernet networks, and Token Ring will be available by the end of the year. Moreover a PCMCIA slot enables the user to upgrade his terminal to a personal computer running under MS-DOS or Windows by inserting a hard disk or Flash memory card. ErgoClient is aimed at large networked enterprises that intend to migrate from one computing environment to another. This includes customers downsizing their mainframe applications to a distributed Unix or client-server environment. Available from June, the new ErgoClient starts at UKP1,000.
