Networks '97: Citrix blasts NC architecture

Vice-president of marketing Mark Templeton said the NC will not keep computing costs down because it is "highly dependent on one fat communications pipe" and "a need to upgrade legacy servers and client machines."

Talking at the Networks '97 show in Birmingham, Templeton outlined Citrix's plans for its thin client/server computing architecture, code named Picasso, while launching WinFrame 1.7. He said there was too much hype surrounding the client side of the network, when more attention should be paid to the server.

"The NC is a non-Windows Net PC," he said. "The NC architecture's native application is Java and that is still a future thing for corporates, although we do have a Java client for our ICA technology. The thin client server architecture is different. It can work with all types of applications. It is Windows-based, can work on any network and makes use of any PC up from a 286 machine running DOS."

Templeton also dismissed the idea that NCs will replace PCs. "If a user needs to run personal applications for 80 per cent of the time, give them a PC. If you have users running transactions in a corporation for most of the time, give them a Windows terminal. The Net PC and NC territory is somewhere between the two. They have a role to play but they are not the sole answer to reducing total cost of ownership."