This Monitor just needs an Ethernet Cable | Hacker News Reader

This Monitor just needs an Ethernet Cable

i4u.com

24 pointsluigionline20 comments

It's funny how we're slowly heading back toward mainframe computing. Granted, they're dynamically virtualized across 48 cores and 192 GB RAM, but still.

I would love to have mainframe quality virtualisation on my desktop. I expect it will come one day soon.

I think within 10 years we'll either be using dumb terminals using cloud servers for processing (streaming video ala OnLive), or we'll be using dumb terminals using our phones as the CPU (and using cloud storage).

Either way, lots of dumb terminals where you can just sit down anywhere and have access to your entire computing environment instantly.

Does this essentially work like a remote desktop? Are mouse and keyboard commands sent over the network to the server, the server does the processing and sends images back back to the monitor to display. (which might not even by how RD works, but it's how it works in my mind).

Looks like it. Would think you'd need a hefty server to run alot of theese monitors.. It's like, not even a wyse..

My computer lab in high school had a nice beefy terminal server, but when you turned on 20 clients, it could take about 20 seconds to type a sentence in Word. That was back in 2000 though, so the same amount of money now will get you about 10x more processing power and network bandwidth.

So, now it will take 2 seconds to type a sentence ;-)

Actually, it's more likely they will run 200 clients per box...

Yes and no. RDP does most of the processing on the server, but still uses a local processor on the workstation for rendering graphics, communicating with the server, and so on.

This looks like a custom protocol for VMWare systems (see also http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/learningresources/mobilec...); it's too early to tell if it will see wide adoption or not. A clear downside is the extra horsepower that will be needed on the server; the upside is that you won't have to mess about with PxE booting or the like.

It's definitely the right time for this stuff, though. We've been working on a project in this space, too; we just demoed something (sorta kinda) similar to our largest client a week ago, to see if they'd like to be our pre-alpha tester. Still waiting to hear back. If we can get traction, we'll be able to have a pretty big impact in IT for SMEs.

Looks like we'd better hurry. :-)

> This looks like a custom protocol for VMWare systems

VMWare had something that resembled VNC a lot.

> A clear downside is the extra horsepower that will be needed on the server

Some of the work could be done inside the network interface. I suspect Cisco has (or will have, shortly) a chipset for that.

this is not quite what it makes out to be. of course at one level you only need an ethernet cord, but at some level you need to supply power to the cord itself. That power requires a power cable + PoE box if done close to the monitor, or you can buy a rack PoE unit and do it further away, which will have a limit on how far away from the unit you can be.

PoE units are useful when having only one cable enter the housing for waterproofing issues. otherwise, why go to all the hassle?

If you wanted to be able to mount one monitor or several on a flexible arms so you can drag it around a room, it would be good to reduce cable clutter. This is a project I've been thinking for my space.

In environments like hospitals, needing only one cable and one jack, I think this is a major advantage. Techs only need to unplug/plug one cable, there is less cable to get cluttered up, you only need half the amount of different types of cables in stock (no more different power and comms cables), ...

When renovating a section of a building, you only need to put in one new jack; that's half the cost saved, because you only need one guy running cable, not two (often different companies run electricity and network cables). So it's a major saving in installation costs.

Samsung also has a monitor that works with just a USB cable.

Not quite the same; that's a monitor with an integrated graphics chipset, it still requires external power from a separate power cord.

My point was that Samsung generally tries the new stuff.

Except when Samsung copies Apple Design

While I agree their Android phones are very Apple-ish, Apple doesn't have anything like these.

Except if you count an iMac as a monitor - it needs only a power cable to work.

OT, but you could argue that Apple is copying Samsung design if you wanted: Samsung has had Kies for ages. The next version of iOS will have something very similar.

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