Under the theme of accessing information anywhere and anytime, Compaq today launched a series of new products including thin-client products, wireless LANs and new laptop computers.
Compaq's new thin clients are designed to lower the cost of maintenance and to provide added security, says Kaspar Rorsted, vice president of the commercial PC group and electronic commerce for Compaq in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
The T1000 thin client runs on Windows CE, has a 233MHz processor and comes with 8M bytes of flash memory and 32M bytes of RAM. The T1500 runs on the Linux operating system, has a 233MHz processor and comes with 32M bytes of flash memory and 72M bytes of RAM. The T1500 has the Netscape 4.5 browser and therefore needs more memory than the T1000, which does not include a browser.
E-commerce providers could use these products to input data or for other tasks that are not very demanding, Rorsted says. Because customer data could be stored on the server, rather than on the client, these products would also increase security. The T1000 will be available in November and will be priced at $626. The T1500 will ship in December, but the price is not yet announced, Compaq says.
Compaq also announced a new wireless LAN product that would allow employees to roam around inside their offices with their computers and still be connected to the office LAN and the Internet. The WL Series is comprised of wireless LAN cards and access points, offering an 11M-bit/sec-transmission speed. Each access point provides coverage for 300 feet in all directions, and any number of the points could be installed in order to cover an entire building. The PC cards and access points will be available in December. Prices start at $199 for the cards and $999 for the access points.
The WL Series complies with IEEE 802.11b High Rate standard. Compaq officials say that the company will make some announcements about wireless home networking products in the next few months that also will use this standard.
Compaq also announced the completion of its Armada laptop computer line, with the addition of two models, the V300 and the E500. The V300 is its lowest priced Armada PC, starting at $1,749. The Intel Mobile Celeron-based computer can be purchased with either 466MHz processor or 400MHz processor. It can have either 32M bytes or 64M bytes of memory and a 12.1-inch or 14.1-inch display.
The top-of-the-line E500 Armada includes a 450MHz Intel Mobile Pentium III processor and can provide up to nine hours of battery life by taking advantage of its dual bay and 3-battery configuration support. Prices start at $2,499.
Any Armada computer can use the Armada docking station, making mobility easier, Rorsted says.
In addition, Compaq announced two new professional workstations, the AP550 and the SP750 for technical and graphics-intensive applications.
Compaq, in Houston, can be reached at 281-370-0670 or at http://www.compaq.com.
RELATED LINKS
Apply for your free subscription to Network World. Click here. Or get Network World delivered in PDF each week.
Request a reprint or permission to use this article.
