Wyse Technology Inc had released a laptop thin client that has no disk drive or fan, a relatively long battery life and a full-size keyboard. The device also supports multimedia and runs silently. It's intended for business use, but analysts said it's the type of device that may be a forerunner of future notebook computers, BBC TV reported.
The Wyse x90e looks like an ultra-light notebook. But it has been designed to work with 3G (third-generation) high-speed cellular networks and Wi-Fi and to deliver applications via the browser available in the embedded version of Microsoft Windows XPe.
The Wyse notebook can also be plugged into Ethernet networks. It weighs less than four pounds and includes 512MB of flash memory, which holds the operating system and any applications that may be added, and an equal amount of RAM. This seems like a small amount of memory, but Wyse officials insist that it's more than enough to do the job. The RAM is expandable to 2GB. With no spinning parts, fan or disk, battery life can range from five to seven hours.
The notebook thin-client market is new, and vendors are focusing on selling to organisations that already deliver applications from servers to terminals, such as healthcare, public safety, schools, retail and financial services -environments where many workers are using similar applications. The thin-client notebooks have a lot of advantages in terms of security and durability.