Thin-client vendor Wyse Technology Inc. is looking to extend its portfolio with server-centric computing devices powered by Transmeta Corp.s processors, including its new Efficeon chip.
Officials with Wyse, of San Jose, Calif., said Transmetas energy-efficient technology—which also includes its Crusoe processors—opens the doors to a number of possibilities for alternatives to desktops.
“With the new low-power consumption [chips], we can extend our server-centric and client computing products,” said Mike DeNeffe, director of Wyses Winterm thin-client business line and former director of marketing for Transmeta. “In collaboration with Transmeta, were working on future products, looking at thin clients and other avenues to extend the line with products like blade PCs.”
Its part of a trend toward computers that are alternatives to traditional PCs, including thin clients, handheld devices and smart phones, officials said.
DeNeffe and David Rand, director of marketing for Wyse, said they have no timetable set for when Transmeta-based products will start appearing.
PC blades are gaining some attention in the industry. Like thin clients, the architecture offloads crucial data and applications from the desktop computer to back-end, centrally located servers, with the goals being better manageability and security and lower costs. The key difference is that in the thin-client environment, multiple desktop devices access a single server. In a PC blade environment, each desktop device is connected to a dedicated blade.
Hewlett-Packard Co., which has its own line of thin-client devices, on Thursday announced that it is getting into the PC blade field with its Consolidated Client Infrastructure offering, which is due in March. HPs system also will use the Efficeon chip from Transmeta, of Santa Clara, Calif., running at more than 1GHz, said officials with HP, of Palo Alto, Calif.
The current leader in the field is ClearCube Technology Inc., of Austin, Texas, which is expanding its portfolio by enabling multiple users on a single blade via Ethernet connection, rather than the usual analog or fiber-optic connection. The expansion will help cut the cost of its PC blades, which are powered by Intel Corp.s Pentium 4 chips.