NComputing Enters Chip Market, Targets Disruptive, Low-Cost Clients

NComputing is moving beyond the virtual desktop business and into the chip
business with the release of its Numo family of chips that gives any device
access to the Internet or a PC.

NComputing told Channel Insider that the chips can be used to power enterprise
applications such as Windows-based virtual desktops and can also be used for
consumer applications such as accessing Google from a smart TV.

The dynamics of low-cost devices such as the ones NComputing is enabling with
Numo is enough to strike terror into the heart of some in the industry,
including some channel partners, NComputing Chairman and CEO
Stephen Dukker told Channel Insider.

“The message under the message is that this is about to go mainstream and this
is going to be one of most disruptive technologies with regard to economics of
the industry that we’ve ever seen,” he said.

Dukker noted that while the economics of thin clients and virtual desktops
doesn’t seem to make immediate sense for channel partners, when partners look
at the broader opportunity, it is made for the channel.

“A channel partner would say, why on earth would we sell a $150 client versus a
$500 PC?” Dukker told Channel Insider. “We are used to making no money at all
selling computers. This is very unhealthy.”

But such low-cost devices give customers more money to spend on services, which
provide channel partners with much higher margins.

“If your customer is a school and you save the school 75 percent, they spend
that on something else,” Dukker said. “They don’t write a check and send it
back to their governor.”

Devices based on Numo can hit a sub-$100 threshold, getting to the point where
service providers may give them away in exchange for signing a service
contract, much like mobile phone carriers do with cell phones and smartphones.

NComputing said that Numo combined with NComputing vSpace virtualization
software supports Windows, Linux and Android user experiences with multimedia
and wireless support. Devices powered by Numo can connect directly to the Web
and access Internet-based cloud services, eliminating the need for local
servers, and can take advantage of the growing field of Android applications.

NComputing said that enterprise devices powered by Numo include ultra-low-cost
virtual desktop thin clients, cloud-based workstations, network monitors and
mobile devices such as netbooks, notebooks, smartbooks and tablets. NComputing
has struck an initial deal with LG Electronics that will place the devices in
its displays to enable them to be used as access devices.

As a case in point, NComputing’s partnership with LG Electronics puts the Numo
chips directly in the monitors of up to 24 inches in size, turning them into
Internet access devices.

NComputing said it will announce additional partners this summer, including
industry-leading PC, monitor and TV manufacturers.

Dukker told Channel Insider that the PC maker is among the top four in market
share.

Numo is a system on chip (SoC) that features a dual-core ARM
CPU; embedded media processors supporting dynamic bandwidth management,
multiple protocols and codecs including UXP
and H.264; a Windows-compliant graphics subsystem; and a complete complement of
device interfaces for graphics, serial, parallel, USB,
SD, I2S, I2C and more for integration with
enterprise and consumer devices, according to NComputing. The chips will also
support Microsoft’s recently announced RemoteFX technology, when available.