Network computer
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Network computer (abbreviated NC) is a trademark of Oracle Corporation. It was used (c. 1996 - c. 2000) by Oracle, and an alliance of businesses including Sun and Acorn, to mean a diskless desktop computer - or in some cases a set top box[1] - meeting a particular minimum specification (see Network Computer Reference Profile). It was also employed as a marketing term to try to popularise this design of computer within businesses and among consumers (even though the essentials of the concept were not novel).
Due to the buzz created around the term, and the fact that diskless nodes can be used as thin clients, it has also been used more informally to mean simply a diskless desktop computer or a thin client.
Because many NCs did not use Intel CPUs or Microsoft software, Microsoft and Intel developed a competing standard called NetPC for the same market, in order to try not to lose too much of their enormous desktop computer market shares to the NC upstarts.[2]
The NC brand was mainly intended to denote a range of desktop computers from various suppliers that - by virtue of their diskless design and use of inexpensive components and software - were supposed to be significantly cheaper and easier to manage than standard fat client PCs. However, due to the PC coming down in price, and due to the increasing availability and popularity of various options for using PCs as diskless nodes, thin clients and hybrid clients, the NC brand never achieved the popularity hoped for by Oracle's CEO Larry Ellison, and was eventually mothballed.
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[edit] History
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The failure of the NC to impact on the scale predicted by Larry Ellison may have been caused by a number of factors. Firstly, the idea could simply have been ahead of its time. At the NC's launch in 1996, the typical home Internet user was using only a dialup connection via a modem. The common 28.8 kbit/s speeds would simply not be sufficient for the delivery of executable content.
The world wide web itself was not considered mainstream until its breakout year in 1998. Prior to this, very few Internet service providers advertised in mainstream press (at least outside of the USA), and knowledge of the Internet and the web was limited. This could have held back uptake of what would be seen as a very niche device with no (then) obvious appeal.
Ironically, these devices end up being used as the very 'dumb terminals' they were intended to replace, as the proprietary backend infrastructure is not readily available. 1990s era NCs are often network-booted into a minimal Unix with X, to serve as X terminal. While NC purists may consider this to be a suboptimal use of NC hardware, the NCs work well as terminals, and are considerably cheaper than purpose-built terminal hardware.
[edit] NC standards and drafts
[edit] Reference Profile
The initial Network Computing standard, the Network Computer Reference Profile, required that all 'NC' appliances supported HTML, Java, HTTP, JPEG, and other key standards.
- For more details on this topic, see Network Computer Reference Profile.
[edit] NC extensions
This list may be incomplete.
- Enterprise Network Computer Product Standard (January 1999)
- Mobile Network Computing Reference Specification - This document is a working draft, not a standard (March 1999)
[edit] NC implementations
[edit] Acorn Network Computer
The Acorn Network Computer was Oracle's initial reference implementation of the NC. Its development was subcontracted to British company Acorn Computers.
[edit] Applied Data Systems Single Board Computers
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Applied Data Systems embedded single board computers are pre-loaded with Windows CE+CF or Linux 2.6, Full Debian. Special OS Builds are available to OEMs. The Bitsy series has been used for years in a variety of Network Computers.
[edit] NetProducts NetStation
The first generation NetStation design and the NetStation trademark was licensed to NChannel, which provided the consumer equipment and Internet service (with associated infrastructure) for the UK market. After a few months, NChannel split into two entities: NetChannel (which provided the Internet service) and NetProducts which provided the consumer hardware.
NetProducts started working with Acorn to develop a next-generation product, NetStation II and started developing an email-only set-top-box (the TVemail). NetProducts went into voluntary liquidation in 1998 before either project was completed.
[edit] Sun Microsystems JavaStation
Sun Microsystems developed the JavaStation, a JavaOS-based NC based on SPARC hardware, initially similar to Sun's range of Unix workstations.
[edit] IBM Network Station
IBM also created a number of NC appliances. As with the later reference design, the Network Station used a NetBSD-based NCOS booted over a LAN from an AS/400 or IBM PC server. The Network Station supported local execution of basic applications, such as a web browser and console. In addition, X capability was also implemented to allow both locally and remotely run applications to be used on the same machine. In practice, the lack of real applications meant that this was little more than a hardware X terminal.
The IBM Network Station was originally based on the PowerPC architecture, but the final few models used Intel Pentium processors.
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