NEC has produced what it claims is the next generation of thin clients.The US100 comes with advanced IP telephony and video processing, thanks to the company’s NetClient system-on-a-chip. It comes with VMware’s Virtual Desktop preinstalled.The idea is that users will get a complete Windows XP environment unlike conventional thin client products, which provide a restricted view. NEC claims its VirtualPC Center (VPC) provides much better graphics and IP telephony than conventional thin clients at 40 percent of the price.NEC has worked with VMware and uses its virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to host up to 20 complete Windows XP sessions in virtual machines on its SV5800 server. The client comprises a standard screen, keyboard and mouse plugged into the US100 box, which is about the size of a video cassette. It contains NEC-developed graphics and sound decompression chips. Conventional thin client products, such as Citrix, receive uncompressed video and sound. Video playback can also be interrupted because the network and hosting server aren’t powerful enough. By offloading the server CPU with thin client accelerator chips, NEC claims it can provide uninterrupted video playback.Conventional thin client products also provide a restricted emulation of Windows, and not all applications run. Provision of a full Windows XP session per thin client, through VDI, means that a user can be switched from a PC desktop to a US100-based thin client and perceive no difference at all, applications running exactly as before. The US100 has no hard drive or fan; it runs silently and uses a fraction of the energy of a desktop PC. NEC has integrated its own management suite into VMware providing a management console for thin client administration. It has also integrated voice over IP (VoIP) so calls between clients are of high audio quality. A Phillips SV7000 server is an option for VoIP calls outside the local thin client network.NEC is also providing the first diskless, wireless-connected TM160 mobile thin client. But if it loses connectivity, it cannot work. This product is for “corridor warriors,” according to Jean-Claude Tagger, head of NEC Europe. He said the VPC product line is intended for call centers and health care, among others.NEC claims to have a nine-to-12-month lead on other thin clients. IBM has a VMware-based thin client system, but it does not have the multimedia acceleration features of the NEC product, nor does it have the cost advantages, according to NEC staff. Wyse also has a thin client product integrated into VDI, again without graphics acceleration and VoIP. There are many other companies in VMware’s VDI alliance development program.-Chris Mellor, Techworld.com (London)Related Links: NEC to Ship HD DVD, Blu-ray Dual Format Chip NEC to Sell Water-Cooled PC With Blu-ray DriveCheck out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content opinion Website spoofing: risks, threats, and mitigation strategies for CIOs In this article, we take a look at how CIOs can tackle website spoofing attacks and the best ways to prevent them. By Yash Mehta Dec 01, 2023 5 mins CIO Cyberattacks Security brandpost Sponsored by Catchpoint Systems Inc. Gain full visibility across the Internet Stack with IPM (Internet Performance Monitoring) Today’s IT systems have more points of failure than ever before. Internet Performance Monitoring provides visibility over external networks and services to mitigate outages. By Neal Weinberg Dec 01, 2023 3 mins IT Operations brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers can save money during periods of economic uncertainty Now is the time to overcome the challenges of perimeter-based architectures and reduce costs with zero trust. By Zscaler Dec 01, 2023 4 mins Security feature LexisNexis rises to the generative AI challenge With generative AI, the legal information services giant faces its most formidable disruptor yet. That’s why CTO Jeff Reihl is embracing and enhancing the technology swiftly to keep in front of the competition. By Paula Rooney Dec 01, 2023 6 mins Generative AI Digital Transformation Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe