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HP Introduces Transmeta Thin Clients

Posted by Hemos on from the getting-the-new-machines-on dept.

prostoalex writes "HP will announce the T5500 and T5300 thin clients on Monday at the TechEX show in New York City, which use the 733-MHz and 533-MHz versions of Transmeta's TM5800 CPU. Prices range from $599 to $629."

12 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When are we going to see the Transmeta chips' unique code morphing technology used for something OTHER than just making unexceptional x86 clones with questionable benefit over just a normal intel/amd chip?

    It's nice to see Transmeta doing SOMETHING, but it still looks like they've been running themselves in circles since the day they first used a product.

    Never mind the PC world for a minute. Is Transmeta having ANY luck selling their chips for use in embedded systems?

  2. Wrong pricing by TrentC · · Score: 5, Informative

    The submitter misread the article; those prices are for the TM5700, which HP already sells.

    It says right at the bottom of the article that the prices for the new units have not been announced.

    Jay (=

  3. When will they give up? by jbellis · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It's nice to see transmeta getting some press but how many times do we have to try thin clients before realizing they peaked in the early 90s and probably aren't coming back?

    Most recently, the sun ray is about half the price, has cool take-your-session-anywhere technology, and last I heard isn't selling like hotcakes. So either HP knows something I don't or this is just more evidence of clueless management...

    1. Re:When will they give up? by Lxy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I am by no means an industry analyst, but here's my observations.

      We started off here at work with a System 36 and dumb terminals at everyone's desk. Everyone got their work done, and aside from hardware problems, there was no need to get up and walk to somone's desk. If anyone had problems, it was all centralized. All my work was done from my desk.

      We then moved off dumb terminals and replaced everything with PCs. Trips to people's desk are frequent (probably 20 a day) and the rest of the time is spent building replacement PCs. Users store their own data, and if their drive crashes without a backup, they're SOL. How do you get a user to backup their data on a regular basis? Got me.

      Now we start looking at server based solutions like Citrix and $300 Wyse terminals on the desk. Hmm.. minimized trips to the desk, all management centralized, hey, didn't we used to have that?

      It looks to me like we have a trend. We got off the diskless/helpless workstations in favor of robust, useful boxes. Now we're heading back that helpless box stage and centralize our configuration, installation, and data. I predict that diskless will always be, and in fact will be favorable in reduced admin costs. because of that I welcome a market that is competitive at the thin client level.

      --

      There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
      :wq
  4. Re:Uh by cgranade · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Clockrates of different processors don't directly compare. I mean, the Dreamcast had a 200MHz processor, and went faster than PCs for several years. My Athlon XP 1.8GHz is faster than my P4 2GHz. The P3 1GHz was faster than the P4 1.4GHz. So, 733MHz may be a lot more than you think. Besides, the only reason that seems underpowered is due to bloatware. If it were Linux installed...

    --

    #define DRM chmod 000

  5. Price is incorrect by Llurien · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article actually says that the 5700 model which was allready sold by HP for some time has a price range of $599 to $629. The 5700 model uses the 1GHz version of the TM5800. The new thing is that models based on the lower speed processors are introduced, but no prices are known about those yet. I may be kicking in open doors here, but they probably will be lower.

  6. Re:Uh by smatt-man · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For a thin client 733 MHz is almost over powered. Remember, all it has to do is run Win CE or embeded Linux. The keyword being thin which means the server does the processing.

    --

    ---
    Lousy rotten karmic retribution.
  7. Pictures of T5500 and T5300 by ShadeARG · · Score: 5, Informative

    Pictures of the T5500 and T5300. (German text)

  8. Larry Ellison failed twice. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Larry Ellison has tried to sell thin clients and failed. TWICE. Why does Carly think this will work?

    1: Take a failed business model.
    2: ???
    3: Profit

  9. Re:$600 for a thin client? by JanneM · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Basically, you shouldn't buy it.

    A company might, however. These units cost about the same, or a little more, than a standard PC. Unlike a standard PC, however, they are geared from start to be slave units to a server. The user can mess up far less on one of these than they can on a PC, and any software updates and other administration happens on the server and not on the individual desktop units. A user can use any client anywhere; nobody's locked to one particular machine (and replacing a faulty unit is done in minutes, with no need to mess around with backup restoration). And, of course, if you need more capacity, you only need to upgrade the server backend, so these have a lifespan that is a good deal longer than a standard PC.

    The decrease in administration hassles, the improved security, the decreased power consumption and the interchangeability all add up to a pretty compelling advantage compared to putting a full-blown PC on every desk - for a medium to large organization.

    --
    Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
  10. Hey, Mini-ITX fanboys by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Funny

    For everyone complaining and bragging about how they built a mini-itx box for much cheaper, it's time for a whack from the clue by four.

    These are terminals, not stupid little computers shoved up an ET dolls ass.

    Terminals generally include monitor, keyboard and mouse, ready to plug and play.

    Thank you, that is all.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  11. Re:$600 for a thin client? by tashanna · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is Slashdot.Why would anyone look at the HP Website and check prices.

    The 533 MHz = $349
    The 733 MHz = $369