Chicago - Despite Microsoft's efforts to relegate the Windows Terminal Server Edition (TSE) to simply being a replacement for Unix or mainframe terminals, vendors at last week's Comdex show proved they had other ideas.
TSE thin-client software is based on a stripped down version of Windows CE, which is compact, Windows-compatible systems software designed originally for such things as handheld computers. Microsoft this week will release the next beta of TSE.
At Comdex, Data General Corp. demonstrated its TermServer-in-a-Box. The package bundles TSE software, Citrix Systems, Inc.'s MetaFrame (formerly pICAsso), and DG's management software in a rackmount system of multiple DG servers and RAID disk arrays.
The package is aimed at big corporate users that want to run mission-critical applications or transaction applications such as hotel reservation systems.
Cruise Technologies, Inc. demonstrated a prototype of an improved version of its CruisePad mobile Windows terminal. The new device, code-named Wilke, will have a 800x600 SuperVGA LCD touchscreen and a PC card radio interface with a special plug at the bottom of the device, users link the device to a portable keyboard or a docking station.
Thin-client vendor Network Computing Devices, Inc. showed off a new management application, still under development, for Windows terminals. The software will let administrators group terminal users together, and then automatically transmit new software, including new versions of the CE operating system, into the terminal's local memory. Today, new software often has to be manually loaded into each device.
And while Microsoft officials were telling reporters at Comdex that all desktop users who need audio and video will only be able to get cost-effective performance from a true Windows PC, Tektronix was showing its new line of Windows terminals running full-motion video, and Boundless Technologies, Inc. demonstrated its new Windows terminals with 16-bit sound.
