When is a network computer not a network computer? When its a Winterm from Wyse Technology Inc. Since the US launch of its terminals at Comdex last year the San Jose, California company said it has received orders for 5,000 units, making it the fastest-selling piece of kit in its product range. Winterm terminals are clients of a Windows NT-based server, which run WinFrame for Networks, the multi-user version of NT from Coral Springs, Florida-based Citrix Systems Inc. WinFrame incorporates version 3.0 of Citrix’s Intelligent Console Architecture with an embedded central processing unit, similar, but according to Wyse, considerably faster than the X Window protocol. Windows applications run on the server, with display output sent over serial cables to the terminals, so what users effectively have their on desk is a dumb terminal. Recent trials commissioned by Wyse based on comparisons made between 15 Winterms with a WinFrame server and 15 Gateway 2000 Inc Pentium personal computers and an NT server suggest savings of 53% could be made over a five-year period using Winterms, says the company. With no software stored in the terminal itself, long- term savings are made from lower servicing and management costs, it says, and claimed the technology is the cheapest method for bringing Windows applications to the desktop. Although Wyse disputes that the technology could be labeled as a Network Computer, preferring the title of a Windows- centric device, it says the recent Network Computer hype has done the company no harm in educating its potential clients. Wyse is in the process of selling the concept of the technology to resellers and discussions are already under way with Internet providers interested in using the terminals as Internet access devices, bringing the Wyse Winterm a step closer to the Network Computer ideology.
