Praim Adds Thin Clients to Product Mix
Praim (Portsmouth, N.H.), a longstanding player in printing and connectivity solutions, has entered the thin-client computing market with the release of PRIMO NTT300, an Ethernet terminal for IBM host environments and PRIMO WBT100, an enterprise Windows-based terminal for multi-user environments.
“We saw ourselves positioned to meet the needs of the thin-client market because of our experience in connectivity and printing,” says Yves Blanchette, VP of Praim.
Of particular importance to the AS/400 market is NTT300. Designed specifically for AS/400 and mainframe network environments, NTT300 can be used to access transaction-based applications and also for companies that need a desktop application that fits seamlessly into their IT infrastructure.
In an effort to differentiate themselves from other products on the market, Praim has designed NTT300 to be able to evolve beyond a fixed-function terminal. Besides acting as a basic Ethernet terminal, NTT300 also has built in Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Citrix Architecture Protocol (ICA) capabilities. By adding ICA/RDP support, NTT300 allows users to provide multi-session and multi-protocol access to a Microsoft Windows NT server environment running Windows Terminal Server (TSE) or Citrix MetaFrame. “We took the technology we had and re-deployed it in a Windows-based terminal environment,” says Blanchette.
According to Blanchette, there were a few main reasons why Praim decided to add the ICA/RDP capabilities to NTT300. Among them is the investment protection the product contains. “Customers might not need a Windows-based terminal right now, but they might in the future,” he says. “A year from now, they might move into a client/server environment and instead of having to buy a new product, NTT300 already has those capabilities.”
Initially, the user might use NTT300 only for its Ethernet capabilities. But, with the market continuing to change, however, Blanchette says more and more companies are thinking of running a client/server environment in the future. “It reduces TOC when you run Windows-based applications, so we see the market moving to the Windows terminal server in the future,” he says. “And NTT300 can evolve at a customer’s pace as they move into that market.”
With built-in TN5250E and a 122-key keyboard, NTT300 uses industry standard 10/100Base-T Ethernet cabling and TCP/IP protocol for terminal connectivity to the IBM host.
“NTT300 powers up with a sign-on screen just like a legacy terminal,” says Blanchette. “In the real world, a familiar terminal-like user interface coupled with a terminal-style keyboard means users are up and running quickly.”
NTT300 also incorporates a high-speed Wintel-compatible architecture, a 10/100Mb Ethernet port, TN5250E support, two serial ports, one parallel port, and two Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports. Up to four concurrent sessions, in any mix of display and printer sessions are available.
PRIMO NTT300 is immediately available, with the suggested U.S. retail price starting at $645.
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