Hewlett-Packard Co. on Monday announced its third generation of blade PCs, which it says solves the “Achilles’ heel” of most thin-client infrastructures: performance.
One downside to blades is that the distance between the actual hardware and the user’s monitor creates the potential for network-based delays as the PC tries to send down data and ‘paint the screen.’
For instance, the conventional Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) used by most existing blade PCs (including HP’s own) to transmit data sees its bandwidth requirements jump from 10Kbit to 15Kbit/sec. during normal usage to 100Kbit to 150Kbit/sec. when users are watching a YouTube video, according to Tate Davis, a product marketing manager in HP’s personal systems group.
By contrast, HP’s new Remote Graphics Software (RGS) uses better compression to let users watch streamed video while using only about 65 kilobits per second. That change, he says, could help remove one of the barriers to corporate adoption of blade PCs: employees demanding desktop-like performance.
The company’s new bc2000 and bc2500 blade PCs, successors to it bc1500, are also energy-efficient, using low-voltage AMD Athlon 64 2100+ and X2 3000+ processors, and consuming only 25 watts altogether per blade. The machines will run Windows Vista and cost about US$1,000 per bc2000, and US$1,500 per bc2500.
Users will also need to buy a thin-client device, which sits on the user’s desktop in lieu of the actual blade. The thin clients cost about US$300 each for the Windows CE version, and about US$500 for Windows XP embedded, Davis said.
The rp5700, which comes with a three-year warranty for parts, labor and on-site service, is also ‘hardened’, such that a 280-pound man can stand on its steel case with no problems, according to Leslie Fagg, product marketing manager for retail POS systems at HP.
The approximately US$1,000 PC as is aimed at retailers, health care companies, and other organizations who tend to use PCs longer than the three- to five-year life cycle of machines in most offices.
