Better late than never, Siemens Nixdorf AG has joined in the Network Computer debate, and is hedging its bets with the Scenic Pro Net 2, a network device that starts thin and gets fatter. The minimum configuration has a Pentium processor with 16Mb memory, but even at this level it comes nowhere near Larry Ellison’s $500 price, starting currently closer to $800. It can then be equipped with a hard drive or an expansion box containing either a CD-ROM or a diskette drive. The Scenic Net 2 will operate with Microsoft Corp’s Strictly Remote Management, or with Siemens’ Transview management products. By adding a telephone or video adapter voice and video communication can be integrated, and it will even take a Smartcard reader to perform security functions. Siemens application software and system strategy board member Dr Peter Page said the company has no doubt there will be a need for both thin and fat clients in the future, and it sees the configurable device as the only way way to go to enable users to modify their requirements as they go. The Scenic Pro 2 Net will be officially launched at the CeBIT trade show in Hannover this March.
