Yesterday I sat down with the guys from NComputing to talk about their latest virtual workstation package, the X550. The thing that struck me was something very simple – this technology could change the face of the PC Market worldwide. It has the potential to save people a huge wad of cash, bring technology into the classrooms like never before, and reduce the environmental impact of PCs with everything from manufacturing to power usage and even a reduction in e-waste.
The NComputing solution works by using the CPU of one PC to power up to five extra workstations. The X550 package comes with 5 workstations, a PCI card for the main PC and the necessary software to make the system work. Once the PCI card is installed in the main PC and the software is up and running, the workstations are connected to the PCI card via Cat5 or Cat6 cables. (cat 5 for distances under 5m and Cat6 for 5-10m). Also, if your PC has multiple PCI ports you can use a second package to expand the number of workstations to 10 from the one main PC.
Each of the workstation boxes has a ps2 mouse and keyboard connector, a DSub monitor port and a speaker port. Obviously the first thing I asked was about the Ps2 ports, since Ps2 is a rapidly aging technology and most keyboards/mice are USB these days. The reason the workstations use Ps2 is because they don’t have their own power supply so they can’t power USB devices.
Once a monitor, mouse and keyboard are connected to the workstation box it acts like a standalone PC with its own desktop and runs independent of the other workstations. The box has no moving parts, and runs silently while only consuming one watt of electricity per workstation. They can be mounted to the back of most monitors to save desktop space, although they are extremely small so they don’t take up much space anyway.
The custom software that comes with the package runs on the main Pc and controls the access privileges of the other PCs. Even though the boxes don’t have USB, you can run USB hubs from the main PC to each one if you wish. The software allows you to allocated specific USB ports to each workstation or makes all the ports available to all users. It is easy to set up and configure.
For office productivity activities and things like multimedia, web surfing and whatnot, the PCs we use today are way too powerful for what we need. According to John Robinson, VP & Country Manager of NComputing, most PCs only use about 5% of the CPU at any given time. The NComputing solution works by utilising the unused CPU power to drive the exterior workstations. Obviously, the technology has its limitations. Any programs that require heavy CPU usage like 3D Gaming and Video Editing won’t run well.
The most obvious advantage of using the X550 system is the associated money you will save. Rather than buying six PCs at around $1500 each, all you need to do is buy one PC and the X550 package which costs $719 for five workstations (there is also a cheaper package with only three workstations). When you factor in the monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers the cost of setting up an office with multiple computers in it drops dramatically. The more PCs you set up, the more money you will save. These savings aren’t just attractive to the business sector though. Think about the current Government plans to provide notebooks to schools in Australia. The country could potentially save a lot of money if classrooms were set up with NComputing rigs instead.
It’s not just the cost of each PC that you are saving money on either. For every six workstations you have running you only need to pay maintence costs on the main PC, the exterior work stations don’t need maintenance at all. Also, when you need to upgrade the PCs, only the main PC needs to be upgraded as the workstations will run on the specs of the main unit.
Software costs also come into play as well when thinking about savings. Technically, each unit is classified as a PC under software licence policies (particularly Microsofts Windows licencing) so you will legally be required to purchase a copy of all software running for each workstation. However, if you are the type that tends to bend or break these rules, there is a potential saving to be had there as well.
Considering the financial state of the world at the moment, saving money is very important. However, the more exciting potential this system offers is the way it helps reduce the environmental impact that PCs create. Considering how many PCs are in the world, the reduction of greenhouse gases as well as lowering e-waste are massive things to think about. This also feeds into saving money as well as the less PCs you use, the less you have to pay in electricity. Think about it this way. According to NComputing, the average PC uses between 150-250 watts of electricity to run. Each virtual workstation only uses one watt. Each PC that gets thrown out when it reaches the end of its life is filled with dangerous metals and chemicals that are hazardous to the environment. The Ncomputing workstations don’t need to be thrown out since they evolve as the main PC evolves and even if they do break down and need to be replaced, they don’t have any hazardous materials in them anyway.
The X550 system is perfect for the SMB crowd and in the education sector but there is also a potential to use it in the home as well. There are some restrictions as to where you can place each workstation since the maximum distance that they can be from the main PC is 10 metres. However, if you set up a computer room in your home, you can have a PC for each of your kids so they can all do their homework at the same time and what better way to keep an eye on how they surf the net than to have them all in a central location?
PC manufacturers could potentially be the only real loser when it comes to this system (and software creators too to a certain extent). Without the need to buy a PC for each user, the loss in sales could be astronomic. However, the savings to the environment and peoples wallets are worth a little sweat on the brow of the big PC manufacturers. In the end, we should be trying to find ways to make peoples lives easier, help them save money and make this planet we live on last long enough for future generations to actually exist.
Currently, the system only runs on Windows XP and its preceding operating systems but there is an update to the software in the works to make it work with Windows Vista and Windows 7 which should be available in the next month or so. Also, NComputing will soon announce a joint venture with an, as yet undisclosed, monitor manufacturer to have their workstation technology integrated into the monitor itself. When this deal goes forward, each monitor will be a workstation unto itself. This has a massive potential for whichever monitor manufacturer it is since their market share will increase dramatically as people buy multiple monitor workstations. There will be a cost for the PCI card and software.
The workstations I was shown ran from a simple dual core PC and they worked perfectly. They were able to stream the same video file to each workstation at the same time without any slow down while running productivity packages and web browsers on other workstations. NComputing recommends that the main PC have at least a dual core processor and as much RAM as possible. The system will work fine on 1GB of RAM but the more you install, the better the workstations will run. They are also working on future generations of the package with the hope of improving their capabilities to include things like a DVI port and USB ports but they were unable to give any timelines on the progress of future development.
If you are setting up a business, looking for way to save money on a multiple PC set up or even want to reduce costs in your current network you should definitely look into NComputing. As long as your PCs are used for generall office work and nothing as intensive as video editing or gaming, the X550 should work perfectly for you.
