Dell Wyse unveils cloud clients for desktop virtualisation

Following its takeover by Dell earlier this year, thin client maker Wyse has unveiled its first major new products since the acquisition, comprising mid-range terminals running Windows Embedded and Linux, plus a new Cloud PC that boots its operating system remotely.

Now known as Dell Wyse, the firm said that its new D class cloud client devices have been designed to reflect the changing needs of virtual desktop environments and deliver a combination of performance, multimedia capabilities and energy efficiency in a compact format.

The first device available is the Dell Wyse D90D7 thin client, based on the Windows Embedded Standard 7 platform and including built-in browser support for accessing web-based enterprise applications, terminal emulation and the ability to serve as the console for virtual desktops based on Citrix, Microsoft or VMware infrastructure.

The Dell Wyse D90D7 is available immediately and costs £360.

Other models to follow in the near future include the Dell Wyse D90DW, which runs the slightly older Windows Embedded Standard 2009 based on Windows XP technology, and the Dell Wyse D50D, which runs a customised version of Suse Linux Enterprise.

The final model, the Dell Wyse D00D, is classed by the firm as a Cloud PC. Unlike the other models, it has no built-in operating system and is designed to have this and any applications streamed to it at start-up via tools such as Wyse's own Wyse Streaming Manager (WSM) provisioning server.

Because the D00D runs applications locally, it is essentially a diskless PC, although it is largely similar in hardware specifications to the other D class devices.

All the models are described by Dell Wyse as new mid-range products, and so sit between the entry-level T class and the high-end Z class

The D class is in fact based on the same technology as Wyse's Z class cloud client family, powered by a dual-core 1.4GHz AMD G Series Fusion processor and up to 4GB memory.

With the built-in GPU capabilities of the AMD processor, Dell Wyse claims that the D class devices outperform rival thin clients by up to 43 per cent in 2D graphics and up to 76 per cent for 3G graphics.

Each device consumes less than 9W of energy, and sports Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi for connectivity.