Data General Corp.

Comdex - Data General Previews Pair Of Thin Servers

Source: Newsbytes

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1996 NOV 21 (NB) via Individual Inc. -- By Jacqueline Emigh.
Thin clients are on display here and there throughout Fall Comdex, but Data General is debuting working models of technology still quite rare: a pair of "thin servers," consisting of a "Web site-in-a-box" and a pint-sized wireless application server.

In the large Data General booth in the Internet Pavilion at the Hilton Convention Center, DG has surrounded its first two Thiin Line servers with new-fangled thin clients from Diba, HDS, Wyse, and NCD, along with legacy systems that range through time from an old IBM mainframe to an early Digital Equipment Corp. VAX; an Altair 300 server; an Apple II; an early IBM PC; and one of today's top-end desktop PCs from Compaq.

"To appreciate the future, people need to see the past," remarked David Dale, senior technical consultant in Data General's Advanced Development group, during a tour of DG's Thiin Line "Internet appliance" booth for Newsbytes.

Advanced Development is the same group that created DG's Aviion family of "open systems" servers and Clariion line-up of redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) storage systems, widely credited as the chief tickets for DG's recent return to prosperity.

Dale told Newsbytes that, as DG sees it, the history of computing is marked by a recurring pattern in which server technologies develop to the point of becoming extremely complex, and are then followed by smaller and simpler alternatives.

While some people might view the newer server technology as replacing its predecessor, the two technologies actually tend to coexist, according to the senior technical consultant.

Likewise, the emergence of the new "thin" model does not mean that earlier "thick" approaches to computing will fade away, he reasoned.

The thin model does, however, represent one major departure from tradition, acknowledged Dale. Although clients and servers alike will still be deployed for information processing, the primary goal of computing will now become information access.

DG's two new slimmed down servers are both geared to simplified administration, Newsbytes was told. The Thiin Line wireless server, small enough to hold in one hand, will be connected to the Internet via ISDN (integrated services digital networks), enabling remote administration on an outsourced basis by a phone company or ISP (Internet service provider).

In conjunction with multiple wireless thin clients, he continued, DG's thin wireless server will be suited to use in settings that include schools, offices, and even the home.

In situations calling for wide area campus networking, a single server device will fill the role of central hub/router.

In its Internet Appliances booth at Comdex, DG has set up a working model of the thin wireless local area network (LAN), using a Toshiba notebook PC outfitted with a wireless Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) card for demo purposes.

Nearby in the booth are thin clients from a variety of other vendors, designed for a variety of dedicated purposes. Visitors can see the Diba Financial Assistant, for organizing home finances, and the Diba Tour Director, for home access to travel information, to cite a couple of concrete examples.

Elsewhere at Comdex, vendors are showing actual working models of some of these network computers (NCs), Dale pointed out.

DG's planned "Web site-in-a-box," also receiving its public debut at Comdex, consists of a nightstand-sized rackmount container, holding up to six drawers.

Each drawer is designed to provide all the functionality needed for one either one large Web server or multiple smaller Web servers, Newsbytes was told.

DG has assigned codenames to the various capabilities of the server-in-a-box. WebMan and SearchMan are self-explanatory. SiteVault is the working name for nearline storage of Web content.

ISPs and organizations deploying the Web server-in-a-box might outsource remote network management to either a company like DG or a telecommunications service provider, suggested Dale.

But DG's first two Internet server appliances represent only the tip of a future wave of thin servers, according to the technical consultant.

To convey this concept to Comdex-goers in a visual sense, DG is also showing the very first crystal radio set. "That's just to keep us humble," Newsbytes was told. More information about DG's new Internet server appliances is available on a new home page on the Web, located at http://www.thiinline.com .

(19961121/Reader Contact: Data General, 508-366-8911; Press Contacts: A. Ray Thomas, Data General, 508-898-4003; Gina Rezendes, Brodeur & Partners for Data General, 617-587-2839)