A virtually unknown French research and development start-up with a pedigree a mile long has put together a cross between Oracle Corp’s Network Computer and Microsoft Corp’s NetPC, which also runs NT, reports our sister paper ClieNT Server News. If it performs as advertised, the design may be Wintel’s desperately sought answer to the network computer. The year-old French concern, Advanced PC Technologies Inc, calls its box the Network Multimedia PC 97 or NPC 97, an acronym designed to evoke images of both a personal computer and a network computer. It runs a stripped down version of NT built for it by NT embedded controls software specialist VenturCom Inc (CI No 3,053). France’s Dassault SA, an investor in the company, has already signed up to be NPC 97’s first manufacturer. The new Venturcom software, unveiled last week, runs NT and 80386-compatible executables off a compact disc or other ROM device. Its NT kernel can be anything between 8Mb and 20Mb and only contains the NT functionality needed. NT programmers in Redmond last week confirmed the technique will work.
By Maureen O’Gara
It means an NPC doesn’t need a bandwidth-hungry network connection to boot, software doesn’t have to be downloaded off a server, and no hard drive is needed as with a NetPC. All the NPC needs is a built-in CD drive, and at some point DVD support, when that technology becomes robust. Though a hard drive could be added, in the APCT concept user files and an individual user’s state information will be stored on a network server like Microsoft’s NetPC design and Zero Administration Initiative specifications. APCT estimates the cost of manufacturing a basic NPC is about $200, not including the NT license. It doesn’t estimate what retail prices might be but says the purpose of its architecture is to create a cost-conscious pay-per-play medium. APCT, like Oracle’s secretive Network Computer Inc subsidiary, is only in the design business and has no plans to make the machines itself other than the few samples it will be showing to vendors. The prototype NPC reference design it has put together to show potential OEM customers includes a 75MHz- 200MHz Pentium, 16MB RAM, CD, EEPROM for configuration storage, flash ROM for local storage of user data, a ROM for BIOS extensions, an S3 VGA chipset, a 33.6 Kbps modem and a SmartCard reader housed in a diminutive L-shaped box. The SmartCard can be used for all- important network security as well as for user profiles. The design is generic and can be customized for different markets and systems. APCT believes it has got two markets: intelligent workstations and cheap Internet access. The French say the reference design can be implemented on an add-in board or motherboard that would give standard NT-based personal computers NPC capabilities such as booting from the CD and use of its SmartCard features. APCT deliverables include the NT software needed to author the CDs and put both the operating kernel and applications on them. The machines won’t run off-the-shelf Windows programs. They have to be on the CD and modified by the code that’s on there. APCT will be selling both the hardware design and the CD authoring technology so licensees will pay either per NPC or per CD. The company also envisions having software to implement NPC-compliant servers that can take advantage of the SmartCard security and a specification for third-party servers. APCT says the NPC meets all of what it calls the Group of Five’s Network Computer Reference Profile specifications (CI No 2,917). The five being IBM Corp, Apple Computer Inc, Oracle, Netscape Communications Corp and Sun Microsystems Inc. It just doesn’t use JavaOS, though it does run Java applets by way of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The company insists that the way it uses mass storage solves the Network Computer’s current problem – the network’s bandwidth. Even in intranet applications, it says, one cannot afford to transfer all real-life applications over the Net. Furthermore, it is a pure waste of resources given the slow evolution of most ap
plicative data and the low-cost of CD-ROM media – well below $5 in modest quantities of over 600MB of data. The NPC’s inventor is Andre Thi Truong, who in 1973 developed the first non-kit microcomputer, the Intel 8008-based Micral, now enshrined in the Boston Computer Museum. By 1975 the Micral had graduated to the Intel 8080 and a 20-year-old computer whiz named Bill Gates told Truong how to make it run Basic in just 8Kb of memory. Truong now appears to be returning the favour with an 8Mb NT. Besides Dassault, APCT is also being funded by France Telecom, and Dassault has been secretly pitching the NPC as a replacement for the famous Minitel smart phone terminals, made by Alcatel NV and others, that France Telecom rents to subscribers. For the past two weeks, APCT has been pitching to vendors including IBM Corp, Texas Instruments Inc, Tatung Co Ltd and Toshiba Corp, though negotiations are very preliminary.
Modern twist
APCT’s sales pitch claims the NPC has the potential to penetrate both the corporate and home markets almost immediately. On the corporate side it does duty as a network terminal with a modern twist. A user’s identity is on the SmartCard. A user could plug into any NPC and see his own personal configuration. The concept is identical to what Microsoft is pitching as part of its new NetPC specification and Zero Administration program, but Truong says he’s been working on it for over six months and never talked to Microsoft about it. The NPC is also touted as a possible home device, not only for surfing but as an NT-based take-off on Sony’s PlayStation one minute, a serious personal computer the next. It envisions kids using a game CD, while later Daddy can drop in his CD and balance the family books, with the data perhaps stored for a fee by an Internet service provider, a distinctly NC-like concept. One unresolved issue is NT licensing. Both APCT and VenturCom say that since the technology wasn’t finished until three weeks ago, they haven’t got around to negotiating with Microsoft on whether each NPC CD will require an NT license, since each will contain a bootable copy of NT. However, NT program managers said the NPC may not have a problem since NT is licensed by the machine, not by the copy. APCT also plans to put a key piece of NT in the ROM of each NPC, a tactic that could avoid any per-copy license problems. The NPC’s specifications call for it to be operating system-independent, theoretically able to run Windows 95, MS-DOS and any operating system that can boot on a Pentium. The NPC project manager Jean- Christophe Ferry said making Windows 95 bootable from ROM is proving to be very tricky so APCT is putting all its efforts into NT for now.
