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Winterm 2930 And The Latest Dynamic Duo

By Dave Molta Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. A burger and fries. A hug and a kiss. They're all natural combinations that fit together so well that it's hard to imagine one without the other. Could the same be true for wireless LA Ns and thin clients? Wyse Technology thinks so. Its newly released Winterm 2930 demonstrates that you can have full-featured Windows application functionality and mobility in a single package, with plenty of way-cool appeal.

The Winterm 2930 is the latest member of Wyse's popular Winterm line of thin-client computers that operate in conjunction with Citrix's WinFrame 1.6 multiuser Windows application server. The WinFrame server handles application processing, while the client is optimized to handle the tasks of screen display and user input. Citrix's Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocol, which is implemented in memory on the 2930, provides a highly optimized logical communication channel between the client and the server.

I was impresse d with the unit's operation. I would have felt right at home on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise with the 2930 in one hand and my tricorder and phaser strapped to my belt. Performance for typical office applications, including Microsoft Word and Excel, was excellent, as would be expected in our single-user configuration. You'll still need to pay close attention to Citrix's WinFrame configuration guidelines as you scale to large numbers of users to ensure adequate performance.

The Winterm 2930 is noteworthy in two respects. First, the form factor is akin to a data tablet with a touch-screen interface. The Winterm 2930 is sleek, measuring 10x11x2 inches. It weighs in at 3.4 pounds, with a lithium ion battery that can power the unit up to eight hours between charges. You simply point and click on the 8.5-inch dual-scan color screen using a plastic pen or your fingertips (my fingers proved a tad too meaty for the task). Nine soft keys are vertically aligned along the left side of the screen, which handle tasks such as powering the unit on and off, adjusting screen brightness and contrast, and activating the on-screen keyboard, which is the primary data input mechanism.

The second unique aspect of the 2930 is its reliance on Proxim's RangeLAN2 wireless LAN technology. RangeLAN2 is based on frequency-hopping spread-spectrum wireless technology originally developed for military applications, so security is fairly robust. It operates at a speed of 1.6 Mbps, which is enough for numerous Winterms operating concurrently in the same radio frequency channel space. If congestion proves to be a problem, Proxim's products support up to 16 channels.

Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock I installed Wyse's licensed version of WinFrame on a Micron Electronics Millennia P-200 server. I needed to apply the latest service pack, which is required to support the Wyse-supplied extensions that let you use the on-screen "virtual keyboard." The early-release device I reviewed had some notable limitations, including the dep endence on IPX for network connectivity and a 16-color display. Support for TCP/IP and a 256-color display, implemented via a Flash ROM update, should be available by press time. Also, because the display-brightness soft key did not function, there were occasional glitches with repeating characters when I used the on-screen keyboard. Wyse claims these problems have been resolved in the latest firmware revision, but we weren't able to test it before deadline.

Dave Molta is director of network and system services at Syracuse University. He can be reached at dmolta@nwc.com.