WYSE SAYS WINTERM 5000 IS FIRST BROWSER-CENTRIC NC.

Wyse Technology Inc claims to have the first browser-based network terminal, the Winterm 5000. Using Santa Cruz Operation Inc's Tarantella application broker software, Citrix Systems Inc's ICA protocol, local email and server-based Java, it says the result is both cheaper and easier to manage than current NCs or networked PCs doing the same job. Other protocols supported include HTML 3.2, ASCII/ANSI, IBM terminal and X Windows. Wyse admits the network infrastructure for implementing NCs has not been well understood, and has turned out to be more complex and more expensive than originally expected. Consequently, NC market adoption has fallen far short of original expectations, and mainly been limited to non-Windows NT computing environments. It hopes its new products will reverse the trend. The price range should be between $650 and $900 when the systems start shipping later this month.