Apart from the major hardware vendors such as Digital Equipment Corp, NCR Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co and IBM Corp that are offering their own X-terminals, Network Computing Devices Inc, Mountain View, California believes that one, or possibly two other runners have the staying power to live alongside it in the X-terminal marketplace of the future. At the last count, the full list ran to 30 hopefuls. Although Network Computing Devices lost out in the recent US Army contract award to Boeing Co, which bid Human Designed Systems Inc X-terminals, Network Computing Devices says it is currently negotiating on a couple of very large commercial contracts, at least one of which is thought to be in Europe. Network Computing Devices is also hopeful that the European Commission may decide to go the whole hog and standardise on X-terminals, which it has been evaluating. Further Motorola Inc 88000-based RISC additions are expected to be added to Network Computing Devices’ product line, and the second quarter of next year will see a software release which will make the terminals easier to configure and plug and play.
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