Companies in the X Window terminal business are finding that the market is simply not big enough for them to make a comfortable living out of simply selling standard X terminals, and they are having to come up with more and more ingenious extensions to make the things interesting to a jaded market. Wilsonville, Oregon-based Tektronix Inc has decided to address the problem that many users want to run Windows applications on their X terminals as well as looking at native X applications, and they don’t want to have to suffer the Windows emulation overhead. Its answer is Windows distributed desktop software called WinDD. The first release of WinDD enables the TekXpress family of X terminals to access shrinkwrapped Windows, Windows NT or character-based MS-DOS and OS/2 applications. WinDD is based on Microsoft Corp’s Windows NT Server 3.5 with enhancements that include multi-user network support, network transparency and the display of a full Windows desktop within a window on the Tektronix X terminal. Tektronix claims that WinDD enables a single 80486 or Pentium personal computer to provide Windows applications for 15 to 20 concurrent users. WinDD consists of two components, the server software and a local client program that resides in the X terminal. Windows applications run on the application server with only compressed screen images and input commands transferred between the server and the terminal using a light protocol that is treated as data by the TCP/IP stack. Display processing software is resident in the X terminal rather than the server to reduce traffic on the network. Keyboard and mouse data is passed back to WinDD for processing, making it possible for the NT session to appear within an X terminal window as a complete personal computer display with Windows functionality. WinDD software can be loaded on a standard 80486 or Pentium class server and connected to the network via Ethernet or Token Ring connection running TCP/IP and also provides transparent access to existing local networks running NetWare or Vines. A standard Windows NT interface appears in a movable window on the TekXpress desktop at one of four specified resolutions and since the applications run on the trusty Windows NT server, Windows or NT applications run without modification. WinnDD was developed with the help of Citrix Systems Inc, Coral Springs, Florida, which provides WinView software for personal computer remote access. WinDD uses Citrix’s ICA 3.0 protocol for high speed communication between the application server and the X terminal. WinDD ships are set for the first quarter 1995. Base packaging will include WinDD application server software, bundled with WinDD/Xpress local client software for use with TekXpress X terminals and 10 floating user licences, for $1,500 with further user licence packs at about $90 per user, depending on quantity.
